I've been looking to get a PDA/Internet tablet/computer for awhile now, and I'm somewhat torn between the N800 of a PocketPC -- in particular, the Fujitsu LOOX N560 (http://www.expansys.com/p.aspx?i=134...pen#technical). Here's my comparison to date:

-- N800 has 800x480 screen, N560 has 640x480 screen; more resolution is always nice
-- N800 is somewhat larger
-- Both have integrated WiFi and Bluetooth
-- Both have USB host support in hardware, but N800's Kernel doesn't yet support it (whereas using USB keyboard with the N560 is common -- personally I prefer this over a Bluetooth keyboard since it's one less battery to have to keep charged)
-- Speaking of keyboard, with no external keyboard the N800 has an apparently quite usable "thumb keyboard" touchscreen mode. The N560 figures you'll be using a stylus.
-- N560 has a built-in GPS receiver! N800 could pair with a BT GPS receiver -- I have a GPSlim 236, which people report the N800 works with -- but more importantly, there's already a handful of high-quality, commercial mapping/navigation programs for PocketPCs. I use Mapopolis, whereas TomTom is probably the most popular. Nokia just announced some mapping software, but only for Europe... and I'm in the U.S.
-- N800 is perhaps a little more "hackable" being LINUX-based (a shell in Windows Mobile is not a common sight!), although I've read some of the boot code is locked and therefore it's not completely "open."
-- Things I know how to program in include C++, Python, and wxWidgets. Both support the first two, but I don't imagine wxWidgets will show up on the N800 any time soon, whereas it is somewhat usable on Windows Mobile (the N560). How difficult is programming the N800's native GUI API?
-- NNTP newsreaders for Windows Mobile aren't very good (the fullest featured one, Qusnetsoft, is quite buggy), whereas I'd suspect the one that comes on the N800 is quite usable?
-- Both seem to be OK at reading PDF files and running a remote desktop client if need be.
-- N560 has Pocket Excel/Word... N800 has... ???
-- The N800 is ~$380 street price, whereas the N560 is ~$620 in the U.S. Even accounting for the N560's GPS receiver, it's still not quite as good a value. (Although the N560's high-price seems to have to do primarily with Fujitsu not making any effort to distribute it in the U.S., so you only have a few specialized importers which drives up the cost.)
-- N800 has 2 SD slots, N560 has one.
-- N560 has IrDA, N800 doesn't. I've used IrDA in the past to print photos from my phone -- nice little feature, and printers with IrDA still seem a little more common than those with Bluetooth or WiFi.
-- N800 appears to have much better battery life?
-- N800 has a built-in FM radio.

Does anyone have some thoughts on this? I sort of really want the N800, but when I think about it objectively the N560 seems to come out on top, primarily due to the much better software support it currently enjoys, and the fact that I feel I could much more readily sit down and start writing software for a Windows Mobile device than for an N800.

Thanks for your input,
---Joel Kolstad

N800 is clear winner for me. If it comes out on top for you, you probably want Windows Mobile device. N800 is not such device so go for the other one :-)

It is same choice as on desktop. If you'd choose Linux on desktop then you are not afraid of anything and N800 is best for you. If you prefer boring and safe ride go for Windows. With N800 you can do more but with bigger effort on your part.

N800 is ultimately hackable. One such example was adding SDHC (i.e bigger SD cards) support. If windows mobile device has no such driver made by manufacturer, you cannot do anything. With N800 it was easy.

It depends what you want to do with the devices... if you want a good internet/web surfing experience, get the N800 as the extra pixels make a HUGE difference. Trust me on this - my VGA iPaq HX4700 now sits in a drawer once I came to the conclusion that surfing on a 640x480 screen is not enjoyable.

If you want to develop software, all of the N800 dev tools are free to download whereas on the Windows Platform you'll probably need Visual Studio .net or some other non-free dev environment. Python is well supported with bindings for the GUI - I can't honestly say how difficult it is to write GUI apps for the N800 as I've never attempted it, but there is a fair amount of documentation available in the Maemo Wiki (http://maemo.org/maemowiki/). You can chat directly with Nokia and community developers on irc (#maemo) or post in the developer newsgroup gmane.comp.handhelds.maemo.devel.

Printing from the N800 is an issue right now - it's not really possible. Not sure if that will ever change.

The N800 RSS news reader is just about usable, but it does have some quite serious bugs that have led to Nokia announcing in Bugzilla that it will be easier to rewrite it than try to fix the bugs. Hopefully a new version will appear sooner rather than later.

US maps should be available for the Nokia navigation app. There is also Maemo Mapper!

Software support is growing for the N800, however it's undeniable that the Windows Mobile platform enjoys more applications.

If you want a solid PDA get the Fujitsu. If you want a device to surf the web, watch movies, listen to mp3s and to hack/develop on then get the N800!

Basically it is GTK http://www.gtk.org/ with some extensions. Both python and c++ is possible. You can also do c# with Mono (http://www.mono-project.com/Maemo). Check the maemo site http://www.maemo.org/ for developer info (site is moving today, new version currently at http://test.maemo.org/, better check tomorrow)

Coming from an Dell x50v pocketpc, Id like to point out that I think its not just the fact the n800 has a wider, higher res screen. But also that the version of opera included on the n800 is on a completely different level than any of the browsers on pocketpcs.

When I was using the dell I was very excited at first to have a unit with BT and wifi to surf the web on, but I quickly found out that the entire process was slow and clumsy. Pages seem to load much slower than the n800 (even though it had a cpu that was twice as fast, and a 3d card in it) and pretty soon I only kept the browsers installed to show ppl when they asked about the pocketpc.

I guess what I'm trying to say is that there were some very big reasons why Im happier with my n800 than the x50v, that don't quite come across on the white papers and spec sheets on the internet, but are easy to notice if you get to spend some time with the units themselves. If you have the option, Id purchase them from a store with a lax return policy (in Canada, Future Shop, Best Buy, Walmart, etc) so that you can try the unit out for a bit and get a real feel for it.

My GPSlim 240 works fine with the N800 and Maemo Mapper, so your GPSlim 236 probably does also.

Thanks for all the information guys... I'm definitely still leaning towards the N800.

I did a little Googling, and it seems that wxWidgets has ...possibly... been ported to the N800, using the GTK+ bindings. I say "possibly" because you see claims that it's been done, but you also see posts where people couldn't get it working... hmm...

GTK+ itself just seems so... painful... to me these days :-), having used C++ for awhile. Does anyone know if gtkmm (the C++ wrapper for GTK+) works on an N800?

In general I take it ones compiles N800 code on a Linux box and then dumps the executables onto the N800, right? I.e., no compiling directly on the N800?

Thanks,
---Joel

Correct, although it doesn't have to be a "Linux box" as such since you can download a VMWare image of the Linux (Ubuntu) N800 development environment and using VMWare player you can then "boot" Linux (with a fully configured N800 dev env) as a regular application within your Windows XP OS!

Note that you can build, execute and debug apps on the x86 PC within the dev environment, then when you are ready you build the executable targetted for the ARM architecture within the N800 and copy it over (or build a deb - deployment package).

I had a Dell x51v and to back up other remarks, the bloated O.S. felt 'beta' I had random crashes with apps, and random OS hangs just after a reboot. The Wifi was very hit and miss, after restoring the device to it's default config the wifi would work well, after a few weeks it would again fade.

Eventually I ended up leaving the device in it's out-of-box state, and as long as in that state it was stable and did what it was advertised to do.

The browser selections were frustrating and slow ....painfully slow with minimo.

At the end of the experience I felt like I'd paid to be a bit of a beta tester. I was upgrading from a Palm and I expected the same 'instant on' snappy stable performance, that's what a PDA is all about right?

It was great for watching video when travelling (with memory cards), and it could serve as an OK browsing experience when in a pinch. I do have some good memories of that device, unfortunately I didn't have the time to invest to get it working to my satisfaction, or the patience to wait for revised firmware.

...at least the nokia tablet is still on the climbing side of the curve, and uses a more suitable OS (IMHO).

Neil

Yes, either don't hesitate to click that c++ link in my post above or use Google :-)