I have written in the past about using the n800 as a business tool for travelling and I think I have got to a point where I have about 90% of my needs to covered. Things that really don't work with n800 as a business tool are: the email client, web browser incompatibilities (especially with my company's intranet) and the lack of vpn compatible with my company's network. That said these are things I can work around and the n800 has so many positives:

1. size, weight
2. battery life (compare to laptop or umpc)
3. single re-charger for phone and n800 (huge if you travel alot)
4. RDesktop (thank you everyone who helped get this working so well)
5. Quick Boot time
6. Great Bluetooth phone/network support

I suspect that I am in luckier position than most in that my laptop budget stretches! so the price of the n800 is nice but not that important which got me to thinking if money is no object is there a UMPC competitor for the business professional?

My attention was drawn to the OQO Model 2 which seems to be the first UMPC which seems able to deliver. OK first of price: it is at least 4 times more expensive than the n800! But let us agree that isn't important!

Well I know that many people hate the fact that it is a windows computer; but since every application in my company (and most others) is windows based that is a plus for the business user. It certainly addresses my three issues with the n800 above. The slip down keypad seems like a good idea; I know one of my personal issues with the n800 is reply to emails; whether to get out the stowaway keyboard and find somewhere to sit down so I can type OR to use the peck-and-go on screen keyboard. The latter because quite tedious, quite quicky!

But how does the OQO-2 compare on the things I think the n800 does well:

1. Size - seems to be ok, and weight while not as easy in the pocket as the n800 it certainly would be fine in hand luggage and not add to the great lug for a position traveller.
2. Battery Life - OK this sucks, easy win n800
3. Not sure what the power pack looks like or if it is compatible with my phone charge for example (I doubt it)
4. RDesktop and all the software..Well I will generously call this a draw BUT really having full windows is probably attractive for the business user.
5. Boot Time! n800 wins.
6. This is likely to be a draw.

So from my perspective I think the n800 has the edge while battery life on umpc still sucks (I am basing this on the fact that they claim 3 hours with standard battery and 6 hours with double size battery and my n800 out does this).

That said; I think Nokia needs to up its game and it could start with the web browser and email client. I love the platform and the concept but it is let down by the software nokia supply with it.

The size, weight, battery life, & 800x480 screen & mainly price of the Nokia N800 is simply unmatched at the moment. If Nokia put amazing software on it they could have sold it for $1000.

I agree nothing matches the n800 for physical characteristics. Pity about the core application software.

If all your company's core applications are Windows-based then they aren't thinking properly.
Where I work almost 90% of our applications are web-based so they can be used anywhere from any type of computing device.
The other 10% is Microsoft Office.

iball,

core applications such as order processing and customer information are web based on our private intranet. However! the internal web browser crashes when ever you try to log on (there are some reported problems with authenticated websites) and Minimo is at best flaky.

However my point was more that there are a lot of companies that use windows based business applications and therefore is it worth paying more money and giving up some of the physical benefits of the n800 in order for a business user to access them?

One point worth remembering is that core applications in a business are usually the hardest and last thing to change. One of our systems is still running on DOS and no-one wants to change it because it works!

Regards
Damian

I almost got my previous manager to buy an OQO for production line auditing. It seems to be a nice little device.

As for N800 vpn, there is hope. I can't say a lot about it but a certain device manufacturer (*cough*) has developed a vpn tool for the N800 that shows promise for internal use. It makes use of vpnc along with customization for SecurID cards. That development shows it's certainly possible, and given the success of others (described in other threads here) I think it's a matter of time before we see a robust, hildonized general-purpose vpn tool. Would be nice if it were soon...

In case some don't know....

PPTP VPN is available...check here

http://www.internettablettalk.com/fo...&highlight=vpn

I managed to connect to my school that's using MS VPN.

^ there you go, see?

The only thing that the N800 is missing is an i386 compatible processor. That is why e-mail and web access is sub-par (can't use Thunderbird and Firefox). I did not consider the AMD Geode a major plus before buying a Pepper Pad 3, but this makes the PP3 much more mainstream and usable than the Pepper Pad 2. Every single Fedora Core 4 RPM I have tried worked out of the box on the PP3. The Maemo development community on a i386 processor is going to be an unbeatable combination. This is exactly what the Intel Mobile Internet Devices are promising to be. They will be bigger and more power hungry than the N800 this year, but perhaps next year's low power i386 processors will be feasible in pocketable devices like the N800.

The OQC 2 is the first of a new batch of UMPCs and MIDs. I don't know if Linux (MID) can compete with Windows (UMPC), but MicroSoft does not have much of a clue about mobile devices so I would bet on the Open Source community. The only counter argument I know of is handwritting recognition. Open source versions seem to suck.

I used an n800 every day for several weeks, and have studied the OQO 02 and handled a pre-production model briefly at OQO's HQ.

The n800 wins over the OQO in terms of:
- battery life
- quiet (fanless, low-heat)
- hackability (Linux plus Nokia's excellent dev support)
- always-on 'suspend'
- price ($400 vs $1800)

The OQO 02 wins in terms of:
- physical design (including physical UI)
- keyboard
- RAM and HD
- Windows (for those of you who need it)

When you get down to this size, there is no perfect machine. Rather, each one is an exercise in trade-offs. The key is to find a company that makes intelligent trade-offs that happen to be aligned with what you want.

Now, if I were to design the perfect device for myself, I would want equal parts n800 (OS, Arm processor) and OQO (case, keyboard).