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In the ever-expanding world of portables, the N800 is a curiosity. It's not a phone or a personal assistant or an entertainment device. It's not incredibly thin and it doesn't look like it belongs in Paris Hilton's clutch.

Instead, it's a communication device for Internet hounds who can't stand to be disconnected for a minute. It's hard to say whether or not it will find an audience, but it's got serious geek chic. Just ask the growing developer community.

The N800 is actually an update to an earlier product, the 770, Nokia's first stab at an Internet tablet. While we enjoyed the connectivity that the 770 offered, it had too many design flaws to make it a pleasure.

We're happy to say that some thoughtful consideration has gone into crafting the N800, and it's a much more successful product. Don't confuse it with a tablet PC; it's a Web tool, not a productivity tool. Still, it's a pleasant alternative for keeping in touch if you find smartphones too limited.

The N800 measures 3.0 x 5.7 x 0.5-inches and weighs 7.3 ounces, which makes it slightly smaller than the original model, but not by much. It's still not a pocketable device, but with its 800 x 480 pixel touch screen (65,536 colors) it really couldn't be.


Front View

That large and attractive screen is the N800's main selling point, since it not only gives you enough room to browse Web sites comfortably, but also offers a desktop where you can access multiple Internet applications at the same time.

The external controls have been simplified for this release, but they're labeled oddly so you should study the printed materials before you begin. The front holds a clickable direction pad, as well as buttons for undoing an action, calling up a menu, or returning to the home screen. The front controls are close to each other and not well-defined by touch, so we often found ourselves clicking the wrong button by accident.

You'll also find controls on the top left of the N800 for turning on or off the unit, zooming in or out of your on-screen application, or turning on a full-screen view so that your current app fills the screen. We'd like to see the top controls moved so that we don't need to shift our fingers from the front controls to use them.


Desktop Interface

You can pull a stylus from the right-hand side and pop out a clever Web cam from the left-hand side. The back holds a kick-stand which you can fold out to set the N800 at two different angles. This is a huge improvement to the separate two-piece stand that came with the 770.

When the kick-stand is out, you can access one of the N800's two SD card slots. To reach the other, remove the rear cover (you don't need to remove the battery, just the cover). That's right: the N800 has two card slots, which is definitely welcome. A 128MB miniSD card with an adapter comes with the package. You can add up to 2GB cards in each slot for at total of 4 Gigs of extra storage