Just in case a Nokia marketing guy passes by, here is what I would love as a companion phone for my N800:
- GSM/GPRS/3G compliant
- Bluetooth
- Basic SIM / phone / SMS functions so the phone is usable stand alone.
- A HUGE battery life
- basic screen (even black & white)
- As small as possible
- Uses the same charger as the N800! It can even be sold without
- All functions accessible through the N800: making / receiving calls and SMS, managing contacts (sync with N800 contact list), and other configuration (i.e. network selection / configuration).

No camera, no music, no video, no games, no calendar, no PIM, no nothing. I have the N800 for that purpose.

More or less a 8310 with BT and 3G.

I would also consider a more expensive model that would integrate a GPS receiver (bundled with Navicore )

What would be yours?

Yes, yes, yes and yes! That exactly matches my own list of specs for the phone I need.
[Up to, but not including the gps/more expensive version]

Nokia 1100 + BT + 3G

As for the making/receiving calls, I would agree that the N800 should be able to initiate a call or answer a call but the call itself should be handed over to a bluetooth headset paired with the phone - I don't want to talk into the N800 or hold it to my ear!

I never watch video on my phone, although I do listen to audio as it supports A2DP - but I agree, if the N800 supported A2DP I'd use the N800 instead and the phone could ditch audio/video playback.

I think Nokia missed a *massive* trick by not allowing the GPS coordinates in the N95 to be utilised by an external device (as Nokia didn't provide the Bluetooth SPP profile). Any future Nokia phone with GPS should be usable with the N800 for sure.

I mentioned in the Palm thread that longer term, I see future smartphones having reduced screen and keyboard functionality as these features will be provided by companion (and even desktop) devices. The smartphone becomes the ultimate network device offering the compute, communication and storage services whilst screen and keyboard is provided by network clients (companion, desktop etc.). It could work!

I don't know if it would be possible to have the phone paired with the N800 for the control part, and the N800 or the phone paired with a A2DP headset for the audio part. Any Bluetooth expert around?

How spooky is this? I just came across this post on Ring Nokia (posted yesterday) where it mentions the IBM Metapad (circa 2002!) which seems to be exactly what I'm envisioning - a device with little or no screen/input capability (ie. the smartphone in my vision) which connects (wirelessly) to another device with screen and keyboard (ie. the companion or a desktop dock) whereupon you have a fully functioning computer - mobile or static. No need to sync your data between two or more devices, you only have the one device but use it in different ways!

Nokias solution (discussed in the aforementioned blog) is to run a webserver on the S60 smartphone and surface the phone functionality and data through the web server - could work, and may be more compatible than VNC in the short term. Longer term perhaps web services could be used to connect the companion to the phone so that the companion doesn't suffer the shortcoming of an entirely browser based GUI.

This is an interesting thread. I hadn't considered the idea of the ideal companion phone before, but the premise is sound. You don't need duplication of features, just broad and robust support for the N800's strengths. So... in the ideal companion phone, you don't sweat a small LCD, lack of multimedia, etc. You essentially need the fastest broadband, built-in GPS, bluetooth, etc. I would also suggest it allow easy creation of PANs for multiple N800s.

Hmmm. This idea needs to be elevated.

I couldn't agree more! Yes, the 'phone' needs to be little more than a device to allow connectivity and to make voice calls. No video, no games, just a simple device that gives my N800 the access to the net wherever I happen to be. Bring it on!

Not sure how much traction the idea can get, but elevation has begun...

howzabout a wrist watch with tri band hsdpa, bluetooth(all current profiles),voice recognition(for calling,and voice to text via b.t),and quad band.the n800 would seamlessly connect and could access all telophony functions from the n800(of course).