Hello from Adam from NYC.

Quick repair: Scratched N800 display.

Here is my way to minumize the scratches and minor cracks on the display of the N800. For some reason, the surface of the panel scratches easier on the N800 than on the 700. My display came with a minor crack and several assembly flaws like the markings of the pressing wheel on the lower part of the screen.

Items needed from autoshop or from your car:

TurtleWax polishing compound (the green one not the red one)
TurtleWax Liquid Wax

Clean your display first. Shut down the unit. Get two or three polishing cloth or fine paper towels.

Moist applicator: Apply polishing compound and buff using very fine circles. Clean off, inspect, repeat until the small scratches are gone. Wash and clean.

Same with the wax. Damp applicator, rub into surface, breath or blow dry. Rub it in. Inspect. If not happy, add another layer.

The wax will protect the panel and as a side effect, the feel of the stylus will slightly improve; it will be softer.

Later.

Aren't there also ready made products designed to remove scratches from glass/plastic screens.

Not sure I'd want to be putting wax on my display, but thanks for the tip! I might try that on my other devices (older/non touch screen)

Why are you keeping it, if it has a crack? For the amount of money this thing cost, I'd expect a flawless unit out of the box.

The crack only shows when the unit is off, in the nine
o'clock position. I was more dismayed at the
manufacturing artifacts on the display than the crack
but the same techniques used for scratch removal on my old Palms also
worked on the N800.
ts not a flaw but something that gives it character. When you got a LandRover, then you understand. Nothing's ever perfect.

Later.

My trick is to use Brasso (the brass polisher - the one with the cotton wadding in the can). What you do is use a piece of clean cloth and dip it into the Brasso wadding, and not use the wadding itself. Then you polish in small circles as mentioned above. It can take a while, but the Brasso polish is very fine, so it will buff out any scratches with a little elbow grease. Also works with iPods and mobile phones!

What do you think is that overpriced stuff you are using? Same crap, some mild water-downed abrasive to help level the plastic.

Now you finished buffing down a few mils of plastic-glass. How do you protect it without ruining the optical clarity?

You protect it with a wax. Ruin your display without protection and see how it looks.

Dont bother. Protect your 'investment'.

I would like to caution people against using any polishing products on their touchscreens without knowing exactly what the screen is made of!

Many touchscreens have a special layer on top that makes using a stylus more comfortable, sometimes even mimicking the feel of paper (like the Newtons of yore). Polishing away scratches effectively means taking that coating off your screen.

Even worse, some touchscreens have the digitiser very close to the surface and it is not unthinkable to polish it away.

Which would turn your touchscreen into -- well, a "screen".

There is plenty of thickness (3 mil) on the Nokia N800. I examined the panel some days back. You can do with the products I recommended without issue.

If you replace the wax at 6 month intervals, you will see no further scratches and any fluid will not dry on the screen to boot.

Been doing this for awhile, fellas. ,

Well, if you think so...

I'm still mightily reluctant to start polishing a non-active touchscreen; there has to be a pressure-sensitive layer somewhere pretty close to the surface. But it's your Nokia's funeral...

Yeah, come to think of it, I'd actually not prefer to put anything on the screen of my N800.

Since I got it for free, I haven't got insurance on it (like I normally would on purchased devices) so I can't really risk doing that. I'm sure on all electronic screens, you're really not meant to put any sort of polish on them, albeit wiping them with water moistened, soft 'lens' cloth .