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I didn’t mention I had one of these, but a few weeks ago WOMworld decided ever so kindly to send me a brand spanking Nokia N810 internet Tablet. Here’s my views on this newly launched device.

I’m going to begin by saying this; I’m reviewing this as a standard, run of the mill consumer. I’m not a massively technical person when it comes to this kind of product, so I am in effect the Joe Bloggs in the street who see’s on in Comet and thinks about picking one up. I remember reading a while ago that Nokia wanted this to be a more ‘consumer driven’ device, rather than one for the tech-heads, so let’s see if they managed it.

We’ll start off with a little background info shall we? The N810 is the sucessor to the N800 which I’ve reviewed previously and found good, if slightly frustrating. The N810 is not intended to replace the N800 at the current time, as both as still being made, it seems to just be a slightly improved model. The device runs an operating system called OS2008, which is also available to users of the N800. If you’ve got one, upgrade. It’s well worth it.

There’s a few crucial differences between the N800 and The N810 which I’ve listed below. I’ll go into these in more detail later on.
* Sliding, backlit keyboard
* Front-facing webcam
* Ambient Light Sensor
* Integrated GPS
* 2GB integrated internal storage and one MiniSDHC card slot
* Sunlight readable transflective display.

Right, now lets break down some things and look at them closer.

Hey there good looking…

For me, a fundamental point of a device is how it looks. No one wants to carry around something that physically repulses them and causes embarassment whenever it’s pulled out in the pub! I know that saying this is a fundamental point will strike some as strange, so let me clarify. I’m not saying it’s more important than the functionality, I’m saying it’s important in it’s own right. To me (as I have a humongous ego) the tech I carry around has to look impressive.

The N810 does not fall down in this respect at all. It’s a gorgeously made piece of kit, and one I was proud to be seen with. The huge screen is so bright it could burn retinas at 30 paces and the clarity is something that has to be seen to be believed. Once you take your eyes off the screen, you’ll notice how beautifully made it is.

The material that surounds the screen is a gorgeous bluey/grey brushed metal. It gives the device a great finish and it feels incredibily classy. You’ll notice a couple of things on left hand side there. On the far edge are two buttons on a rocker switch. Above that is a camera. Don’t get too excited about the camera, it’s pretty poor quality.

In this image you can see the little flip down stand. The is 3 upright positions you can place it into, depending on how you find comfortable. Moving the flip reveals the micro-USB slot for use with the data cable (provided in the box). On the other side we can see the charging port (small pin) and the 3.5mm socket for your headphones. To the right of that is one of the stereo speakers. There’s another on the other side.

Here you can see the top end of the device. On the left hand side is a slider key for locking or unlocking the device. Don’t ask me why, but I love slider keys. Seriously. In the middle is an on/off switch and next to that the volume keys. On the far right is a key which main function seems to be switching whichever app you’re in into full screen mode. I like this a lot, that bit extra real estate makes the difference sometimes.

GPS

It’s pretty official, Nokia is in love with integrating GPS into their top end devices now, and why not? Makes a lot of sense to carry round one device that has multiple functions rather than 3 or 4 seperate ones. The Nokia Maps that comes integrated on the N-Series phones is in my opinion pretty passable for a GPS system. It’s pretty accurate, A-GPS has sped up lock times hugely and best of all… IT’S FREE. Ish. But you get my point.

Oddly, Nokia have totally bypassed their own system and plumped for one provided by Wayfinder. Good news is, it’s quite cracking. Instead of typing about it, I did a short video today while driving so check below for it.

There’s a few bad points though. One the speedometer is well out. I’m talking, 15 miles an hour out. Why include something that obviously doesn’t work right? Also, will the price of the navigation put people off? 99 Euros (about £74) for 3 years doesn’t sounds bad, but how many people will keep the N810 for 3 years? Is the licence transferrable? The type of person who’ll buy an N810, aren’t they the really the type of person who probably own a dedicated Sat Nav anyway? The answer to these isn’t easy to find, and I suspect that’ll put enough people off splashing the cash.

Next problem, and the biggest and baddest is that the GPS chip ain’t all that good. I live up north, where there’s not many high buildings or built up areas. Still I had to park up for a full 20 minutes before I got a lock. Even then, putting the device on my lap while I try to record the video meant I constantly lost the lock. Now admittedly, not many people are going to drive around with the N810 in their crotch, but I’m more thinking does it lose signal all the time when you’re in built up areas?

One thing I love though, and I mentioned this in the video, is the inclusion of a decent car mount in the box. Brilliant move. Seriously, how many times have you bought something, and then realised you’ve got to spunk more cash on a decent holder for it? It bugs the arse off me EVERY time. Bravo Nokia, bravo. Do this more. I want handsfree kits, car chargers and mounts in every box that had GPS included from now on, or I’m coming over there to hold your product managers by the testicles until you do it.

Just watched the video back, and it’s not really that clear. I’m more than happy to answer any questions about the Navigation, and I’ll do more videos if you want too.

Media player

I thought I’d put a bit of media playing info in here because of a comparison my friend made to me the other day. He looked at the N810, then pulled an iPod Touch out his pocket and said, ‘Why’s that better than this?’ Now I’m sure a lot of tablet affictionados will think of 3 trillion reasons why, but you forget, we’re talking about the ‘every man’ here.

Media playing is one of those buzz things for devices right now. Everyone wants to take their music/video/pictures with them at all times. Lets face it, for the every day consumer, and iPod Touch is pretty much a great device for those things. Can the N810 do it to the same level of ease the Touch can?

That’s right kids, that was me annoyed. Why make the damn thing so ugly? You want to make it consumer friendly, and then you make it look like the dullest interface ever? With the installed application at least it looks vaguely pretty. Seriously Nokia, wake up. Sex sells. It sells everything. You can make your devices look as sexy as you want, but unless it works sexy, then how are you supposed to convince the mass market? How are you supposed to get shop salesmen to demo it?

Here’s something I’m raving about though. Media Streaming. I’m using TVersity at home for my streaming needs, and the N810 works with it no probs. Bit slow to start up, but after that it’s seamless. No slowdown, no out of sync, just brilliant. Hit the video to see how it works.

World without wires

Now the N810 is an Internet Tablet, and I’ve not talked about web browsing yet, so I’m going to squeeze it in here but there’s something more important to come yet.

See my favourite thing about the N810 is that I can use it anywhere I’ve got some form of wireless connection, be it my phone or Wi-Fi, and this is the big swinger that should be screamed off the rooftops when it’s compared to the Touch. here’s how the conversation when with my ipod Touch owning friends…

Friend : ‘And it’s great, I can go on the internet anywhere!’
Me : ‘Well, not really.’
Friend : ‘Ok, anywhere with Wi-Fi.’
Me : ‘We live in the back end of nowhere. Exactly how many places have Wi-Fi around here?’
Friend : ‘…Uncomfortable silence… Well that’s all you can do.’
Me : ‘No, i can use my phone as a Bluetooth modem. If I’ve got signal on my phone, I can use the browser. If I’ve got Wi-fi, I can use that. The Touch can’t do that.’
Other friend : ‘Seriously? That’s cool. Would it work with my phone? Or does it have to be a certain phone?’

So I showed him with his SonyEricsson. There were 8 people round a table, totally blown away. And the iPod Touch owner was totally converted. He could see the limitations of what he owned.

Here’s why I think the connectiveity options are so great on the N810. I’ve got various hotspots saved on there and I’ve also got my phones 3G connection too. The N810 scans for connections at regular intervals. If I leave my house and go to my local for example, which is about a 5 minute drive, by the time I’ve ordered a pint and sat down it will have shifted onto the pubs Wi-Fi connection. If it decides to scan while I’m on the drive it’ll realise there’s no Wi-Fi and uses my phones 3G connection. The phone auto accepts this connection so I’m straight back linked onto the world! I’m all over that like a fat kid on cake, seriously.

I know I said this is an ‘everyman’ review but I’ve included the part above because it’s so easy to do. The N810 really spells out what you need to do. It should be that easy to do everything on here.

Thanks for the keys Nokia

Thank you for putting a keyboard on this. As much as I didn’t mind the virtual keyboard of the N800, having a slide down keyboard is a godsend. It’s pretty much prefect for everything you’re going to use it for. Chatting, blog posts, whatever. It’s small enough to be descrete but not uncomfortable to use. The punctionation characters and numbers are all easily accessible using a function key. Also good i that the N810 is weighted well, so when you’re holding it in two hands to use the keys it doesn’t feel like it’s going to be slipping out your hands and toppling over.

Brief bit about the of tonne of applications you can install.

I’m not going to in-depth into this but I will provide you a link later to somewhere where you can find all you would need to know about this. It’s the places I go for my info.

There’s a million and one things you can install on this for just about any purpose you could ever think of. media Streaming, E-mail, Chat clients, Games, blogging tools, emulators… I could go on, but seriously, there’s something for practically everything you need.

I’ll let you into a few I use..

Mauku - a Jaiku client for the N800 and N810. Anyone who knows me knows I love Jaiku. A lot of people use it for a lot of different reasons, but for me it’s beacuse everytime I log on, I can find an interesting conversation to jump in on. I’ve met some great people on there too, such as James Whatley (and you really need to read his posts, head over to his Vox blog here and be sure to read his Whatley Wednesday posts over at SMS Text News).

Gmail Notifier - very simple this. It adds a little mail icon to the top status bar on the N810s home screen. Whwn I get mail, it plays a little sound and lights up. For a man with as much mail as me, that’s damn handy.

Pidgin - Thisn’t everyones cup of tea, but it’s the one I use. It basically link sonto your chat accounts and keeps them all open in one place.

However, this isn’t really my forte, so I’ll direct you over to Internet Tablet Talk. It’s a great source of info, and the forums are very handy for when you have problems or questions.

In conclusion my dear Watson…

God this is hard to sum up. Do I love it? Oh yes. Would I buy one? Yeah, more than likely I will. Will the general consumer? Now that’s a tough one.

But the answer is probably not for a variety of reasons. I went into a certain retail outlet today and asked for something that can use the internet, play music and video etc. he told me ‘You’ve got to get the iPod Touch then. It’s the only thing that’ll really do all three.’ Despite the fact that so many phones can do those three things, he plumped for one device and left it there. When I mentioned the N810, he looked at me with that snotty face that only underpaid salespeople can do and said ‘Can’t do video on that mate.’

And there’s your fundamental problem. How on earth are the comsumers supposed to to understand what a product does when the people who sell it don’t understand either? Lets face it, Nokias marketing isn’t great at the best of times but for a device they wanted to be more ‘consumer friendly’ I feel they’ve really let themselves down. Let people know what it can do. Make sure the shops know what it can do and what possibilities it has. They’re the ones who should be pushing this device. Instead, they’re pushing people Apples way, and you don’t want that right now.

It will tempt new customers though. the tech-savvy, the ones who want the constant connection to their online life, people who want a portable PC may be swung by it’s charms too. It’s certainly not without it’s fans. People couldn’t stop touching it, where ever I took it. However everytime I explained what it did, that blank look appeared on their face!

Here’s the other side of the coin. Will people with the N800 upgrade to the N810? Well some will, some won’t. The ones who will are probably the die hard Nokia or Maemo fans. The ones who can see the limitless potential and can utilize it fully and the ones who just want the latest variant. The ones who won’t will probably not see it as a big enough upgrade over what they have. They’re the ones who don’t need the keyboard or the internal GPS. If the want to use the navigation, they’ll spend a few quid on a Bluetooth GPS module and they’ll be more than happy. At the end of the day OS2008 is available to them, so they get the majority of the benefits. They also get to keep something Nokia took away from the N810, two expanable memory card slots.

To sum up, I kind of feel this is a bit of a dropped ball for Nokia. They had a chance to create a goregous, consumer friendly device here. They tested the waters with the 770 and the N800, and here was the big chance. Instead, they shipped a gorgeous device and said ‘Go on. Now try and use it. We’re not telling you how though unless you’re pretty good on computers and you want to spend time hunting around.’ Big no Nokia.

Am I going to recomend it to you? Yes. Give it time. Hunt for what you want. Ask questions, because without that you won’t get your answers. Your patience will be rewarded and you’ll end up with a better device than the major competitor on the market.