Ok, this is an absurd thread title. However, here's my situation....

For years I have been falling asleep by browsing the internet with my Dell Axim X5 (with CF wifi card). The internet experience on this thing is absurd, but it is better than nothing. I can access my gmail, gcal, gdocuments, espn, and some other mobile-friendly sites. However, the rest of the web is off limits.

Anyway, as soon as the iPhone came out, I told myself that if Apple releases a phone-less version of this device, I will get one. Of course, now the n800's price is coming down, and it's available at $230 vs. the touch's $300.

Here are some questions:
1) I need the brightness to be turned down as much as possible, so I don't wake the wife - or blind myself in the total darkness. Anyone know how the iPod Touch compares with the n800 concerning brightness adjustments?

2) What device renders flash-free web sites faster: n800 or iPod Touch?

3) What is the overall browsing experience like on both devices? Is there a winner? I mean, is zooming required on every site on both devices? If so, does the Touch's zoom functionality beat the n800's?

Thanks.

Mate dell axim is light years behind in web browsing. The n800 is much much more worth than the 200 odd dollars you are going to spend.

1. The brightness level is highly customizable.

2. The touch just leaves out the flash... so it should be a little faster on flash filled sites. But the n800 is on par or better than the touch.

3. IT most definitely is a winner. There are atlease a 100 uses of the n800 where the touch cannot be used. ONe major thing is internet radio.. which is frikin awesome...

The n800 for that prize is for sure the best buy of your life...... and with the new 0s 2008 coming up..... it just cant get better.

Buy the n800 and you will just change the way you live your life.... i am serious.

1. Although the brightness level is adjustable there are still many that have complained that it doesn't go low enough.

Check out ThoughtFix's TabletBlog comparison of the two, there's some video of web browsing on each

It's not so much that it can't be set low enough, it's the absurd situation that the user cannot set the brightness to the lowest setting possible with the device.

Try it: set the brightness as low as you can and watch the screen dim to an even lower setting before going black. How crazy is that, huh?

The brightness limitation is almost always in the software in these devices.. it's the same with Palm PDAs and other PDAs. There's a whole aftermarket of 3party applications which will dim the screen for you. It's unreal that something so simple couldn't be implemented correctly from the start: Let the user be able to set the light all the way down to zero. But somehow this doesn't seem to occur to developers.. as a developer myself I'm baffled. This is indeed crazy!

Seriously..... the lowest level is real real low.... what do you get if you can set it lower than that???

My current Dell Axim doesn't get dim enough, and I can live with that I suppose.

I'm really just interested in the browsing capabilities of the Touch vs. the n800. I don't care about 3rd party apps or Skype.
Ok, I lied. The *main* thing I want is the browser. Occasionally, I'd like the ability to watch videos (mostly podcasts).

One of the links posted showed a review in which the bbc website redered quicker on the Touch. Is this correct?

Thanks.

Set it... And then sit down and watch your IT set its brightness even lower than that, before dimming out alltogether. Why is that lower setting unavailable to me, the user?

BTW, Sean Luke was the first one to point this absurdity out.

So much for the "open platform", I guess: Brightness settings are part of the power management, which Nokia doesn't want the community to know about.

Yes, Apple is more evil. But it's an incremental evilness, not another level of evil.