What are the features that are REQUIRED for you to be interested in a Maemo TABLET?

I'd like to see:

1) a healthy amount of storage (expandable - don't care if it is SD or Micro-SD)

2) High resolution screen (4'' - 5'') Big enough to use comfortable small enough to be pocketable (I only got to pairs of pants where I can't pocket my N800 and one of those doesn't even have pockets.....)

3) Good batterylife

4) WiFi (3G OPTIONAL)

5) good speakers (I use my N80 for audio books)

6) better screen than my N800 (transflexive)

7) depending on UI - D-Pad

8) hardware scrollbuttons (I know.. D-pad again...)

9) Usable Cam

Regards,
Glasswalker

an now... off to work.... *baaahhhhhh*

4" screen or slightly larger
more ram than n810
faster processor than n810
unlocked ( assuming 3g+ )
physical keyboard = n810
better vid/media processing
wifi ( n would be cool - )
bluetooth 2.1+
usb host + charging
reasonable ( n810-ish) price.

You know, what we all thought we were getting!

Not another could-be-good but locked to and crippled by wireless provider POS.

For a Maemo tablet, it has to be large (4 inch), have a good keyboard, usb host, and video out. It should be able to replace a laptop in most situations.

For me to buy it, it would have to:
1) be able to read & annotate pdfs (like Xournal allows, note that in the case of Xournal, this requires a dpad to scroll the page, while screen touches with a stylus writes)
2) have a proper PIM suite (better than GPE/GPE summary + working alarms
3) not make me pay a monthy bill to a phone company.
That would interest me enough to make me buy a replacement for my N800.

I was about to start a thread that comes from the other direction, called "What would you realistically be willing to sacrifice for the N820?" I may still start a thread like that tomorrow or soon.

My notion is that Nokia should come out with a relatively inexpensive and svelte tablet that meets certain requirements, and is intended as a complement to a cellphone.

I'd be satisfied with, in essence, an N800, with the camera removed and updated components. As for the camera, my feeling is: apart from the minimally used video-VOIP, you can simply have it in your cellphone or have a standalone camera. Updated electronics means a processor and RAM on par with the rumored N900, and a better graphics processor or at least no bottleneck. I'm assuming bluetooth as a necessity, especially if there's no internal gps and no keyboard. My guess is that bluetooth is cheap and small, anyway. I'm also assuming microphone input (for VOIP), a D-Pad, and SD (or microSD) slot or slots.

I'm imagining such a device would use the same size screen as an N8x0, but if it doesn't cost much more, then a transreflective screen like the N810. I'd skip the keyboard in the interests of cost, svelteness, and weight.

Such a device should be (a little) smaller than the N800 or N810 (since no camera or keyboard). And it would be capable of doing pretty much anything a computer can do. It would be a great computer, web browser, portable video viewer, ebook reader, document editor, etc.

I'd consider eliminating the front-facing stereo speakers in order to cut cost and size (even though I personally like and use the speakers, and would miss them), but I'd keep it at least alarm-capable and voice-capable. (I think a slight improvement in the audio electronics for headphone listening, on par with Cowon's offerings, might be a good and not-too-costly enhancement.)

Whether gps is included or not to me would be a matter of its cost and marketing. Since this cheaper device would lack the internal capability to be always connected, then I think it's hard to market it as a GPS Navigator. So I think, unless adding GPS is dirt cheap and takes almost no space, it should be omitted. (I'm satisfied with not-always-wifi-connected Maemo Mapper, which can't do things like change course en route, but I don't think most consumers would be; those of us who are would have to supplement with a bluetooth gps device.)

I'd keep the stylus, personally, but that doesn't seem to fit with the new Maemo 5 -- I can't imagine the Tablet can be used for all computer-like functions without a stylus, but I'm willing for the N900 to prove me wrong.

Contrary to the price/size concerns above, I'd be happy to see a slight increase in the screen size (to about 5") if the unit could still be no larger than the N800; but that's not a requirement, just a thought for an alternative approach.

I'm thinking that my stripped-down, but component-updated, model could have a street-price in the range of $230-280. (I see the price coming down to that range as a result of the elimination of the camera and keyboard and maybe speakers, and the general decrease in electronics costs over time.)

If it had a keyboard and camera would I still buy it? If the price were low enough, or if got low enough over time, yes.

I didn't include the first two of those because those are really software issues (well, "being able to run Xournal" is a software issue; the hardware counterpart to that is "has a screen comfortable enough for doing that", which I addressed with the screen question). I was really trying to focus on the device, and not the software.

The point of the questions about 3G data and non-VOIP voice (specifically, the requirement to NOT have them) were geared around your requirement to not have a monthly bill.

To be a tablet that I would consider as an upgrade to my current n810 I would need the following:

-The really big issue for me is the screen size. 800x480 and 4 inches seems to be a sweet spot for usability. peter@maemo has been pointing out maemo5 is designed for fingers and the screen shrink won't be noticeable thanks to software improvements. I foresee some problems with that. 1st the only screen elements I find even remotely finger challenging currently are web page components. Drawing them at the same resolution on a physically smaller screen only compounds the problem. 2nd finger friendly generally means large. If you shrink the physical size of the pixels you have to use more of them just to achieve the same touchable area. If your goal is to make things more touchable not the same you need more pixels again. That means each widget's size has to be increased quite a bit which robs screen real estate.
-full hardware keyboard. Ideally it would have 4+ rows and allow the use of unix commands easily as I ssh from my tablet very often
-a d-pad
-expandable storage
-user accessible battery
-usb charging
-easy screen rotation
-xvid/h.264 video playback even for sizable res/bitrate files

nice to have but not deal breakers:

-gps
-optional 3g. I'd rather not have it then be forced to have it. Both from an initial cost and monthly fee standpoint it's money I just can't justify spending
-camera. Mostly for video chat
-usb host mode
*edit -video out would be nice

If nokia's idea of an n900 is the leaked specs then I suppose what I am hoping to be able to buy would be more like an n850. Same chassis as the n810 just with omap3 rather then 2. Like n810 wimax there would be a wwan version (though nokia is right to be looking at hspa). Add an accelerometer for rotation and as an added bonus move the d-pad to the face and use the space for dedicated numbers. That would be my perfect device.

I bought a tablet because I have neither want nor need for a cellphone of any stripe be it smart or dumb. My decision wasn't between tablet and smartphone but between ipod touch and n810. I chose the n810 because it is a much more flexible device and doesn't have apple's silly restrictions. In fact I find my n810 so flexible I don't even bother carrying my laptop most of the time any more. The kinds of compromises the leaked n900 had make sense for a lot of use cases but not mine. I wanted more keys not less and roughly the same screen.

I have no problem with nokia producing a maemo smartphone. I just want to be able to buy an upgrade to my n810 and a smartphone isn't it. If they produce 2 (or more) devices, great. More people will have the device that fits their needs

That pretty much says it all. And that's what all devices so far (770 included) were able to do. Except that some people keep telling us this cannot be because in theory it's not supposed to work....

Having compared the Nokia and Archos devices, what I'd really like is a 6 inch screen with 1024x600 resolution, able to play a 720x480 H-264 video.