Hi I am new to this forum and I am considering purchasing an N810.
However, I would like to know if there are any major drawbacks I should know about before I buy it. It is a little expensive, so please inform me if the device will be outsourced by a newer Nokia (perhaps an N820 or N900). Also, I would like to know if there are a plethora of apps out there like the Ipod touch. And lastly does the N810 mave AIM? Thank you!

Hi:

I'll probably get flamed, but in my personal opinion the 810 OS and the available software are prone to agravating problems. Lots of them. Nokia has the hardware down solid. It is first rate, but they also admit that they are just exploring the potential of this market. They have left to others the creation of software. While there are many first rate applications and the OS is improving, I feel some reservations recommending it to someone who is to use it for getting work done rather than for
tinkering.

Considering the massive amounts of polished software available for the iPhone, and the fact that a suitable voice and all you can eat data plan will cost you $70 a month (the same as for the iPhone), and that a cell phone ($150) and an 810 ($3-400) will run lots more than the iPhone ($199 - $299), I would take a long hard look at the iPhone. It's one major disadvantage is that as yet you can't write software for it. I think this will change Steve willing or not.

In the end, you pays your money and takes your choice.

Good luck!

I forgot a big point. The 810 screen is massively better than the iPhone's.

Hmm... it doesn't look like the current hardware will be replaced before the end of this year at the very earliest, and possibly not until q1 of next year. We don't really know when the N900 is coming out :P

There's a decent number of apps and more coming every day. Not as many as for the iTouch though.

And yes, the N810 has AIM through a third-party application called "Pidgin"

You can also chat on aim with the built-in chat program if you install rtcomm beta.

I have been testing several types of mobile devices, including Psion way back in the past, Palm (from Palm), Palm (from Sony), Windows Mobile devices and Nokia Symbian based devices. My most stupid acquisition by far was an UMPC (Asus R2H) : battery life was miserable, system getting very hot, sluggish CPU, etc. One of my favorite acquisition is the N810 : solid hardware, beautiful machine, very manageable battery life (in fact, I barely turn my N810 off), and indeed a growing list of applications and very good support and hints from this forum.

I wouldn't try to compare with an iPhone. This is not the same market. iPhone looks very nice but the whole mentality behind (everything is locked down, can only be used with iTunes, extremely expensive accessories, ...) is just way too bad. Now, if you have a serious look in the iPhone AppStore, you won't find that many usefull applications. There are a lot of gadgets, really.

On the other hand, I'm really keeping a close eye on what's happening with Android. I'm convinced this is going to create a big "kaboom" on the mobile market, not only from a device (hardware) perspective, but definitely by the way we are going to use and leverage such cloud computing entry points. If you don't know too much about Android, try to find the July issue of Wired magazine, they have a pretty neat article about it. As Android is open source, I'm even quite sure there will be always someone somewhere being able to port it for the N810, provided Nokia can open up full docs etc on leveraging the N810 hardware.

So, should you go for a N810 ? I couldn't tell, because you haven't mentionned what you were looking for and what you intended to do with it. THAT is the main question.

The N810 is a very good device.
I use it every day, much much more convenient than my laptop to do some IM, quick web browsing and checking mail.

I'd say the main concern is its GPS time to first fix. It has improved a lot with A-GPS lately, but if you don't have this data available, it takes from minutes to forever to get the fix.
But once the fix is done, it works perfectly, we can even say it's very robust.

Thank You all for your prompt replies. I am almost sold on the N810, but I desperately need a new cell phone first (since I have just dropped it in a pool while lifeguarding). If the N810 was an unlocked phone, I would buy it today. However, I want to wait until it reaches under $400, then I'll buy it. Thanks for all the help! Cheers

The n810 costs like 360$ over at tigerdirect.com and buy.com, it's where i bought mine.

Sorry, I meant under $300. But perhaps I buy one at buy.com for $320. Thanks anyways.

Id also take a very hard look at the N800 for a choice, its not going to set you back as much it can pritty much do everything the N810 can and I have had no problem with mine at all it works great