A month? How is that possible?
Sometimes being tight with a company is a double edged sword. Take the recent unveiling of the Nokia N800. I’d been using the device daily for a month but couldn’t post the images or do an unboxing because I am under NDA to the company; that’s the admission price I paid to have access to the N800 before anyone else in North America.
Bingo! Let’s pick out some of the negative aspects he mentions:
The 770 sported the very cool (and very practical) aluminum slide on cover which both turned the device off AND protected the large screen from all the stupid things that we accidentally do to our sexy toys. I immediately commented on what I felt was a serious reduction in the utility of the device and was told that the issue was manufacturing related. In essence Nokia couldn’t make the covers fast enough to keep up with the production of the new devices.
Bingo! I loved the 770’s metal case.
The only exception I’ve noticed is that the buttons on the top of the N800 are a tad bit cramped and thus aren’t quite as easy to use as those on the 770 but this is a trivial issue as you don’t really use those buttons all that much anyway.
It’s all about the small things Oliver, what about people who do use those buttons a lot?
One thing that I feel Nokia did poorly with respect to the 770 was the way in which it was marketed. The idea that this device is useful for browsing the Internet from my sofa strikes me as a little ridiculous. Most likely if I feel that way than other people do too. At home I have more computing power than some small countries, but when I’m out and about browsing the web-even just to check movie listings or pull up a map is a much better experience on the N800 than on even the best phone-based web browser.
The base software installation is a bit on the meager side but that’s easily remedied by paying a visit to Maemo.org the site that is the central enclave for developers and the repository for the software that is being developed for the platform at a near feverish pace.
That out of box experience must be stellar. People will always make have an impression of a device after using it for just a few minutes.
The company has also made a major commitment to future hardware development and while I have no specific knowledge of the nature of the improvements planned for the future, I am aware that the third generation device is already under development.
That just made my day 🙂
There is an entire section of the review called "So how would I improve the device?" I highly suggest you check that out.
I don’t know about you guys but when I read a review I always read the conclusion first so I know what sort of tone to expect from the author. Here are Oliver’s final thoughts:
All in all I love this device. I love the convenience, I love the size, I love the instant on/off capability. I think it does many things well and the excitement that I feel when engaged with the development community that has gravitated to this platform has convinced me that the best is certainly yet to come and dramatic innovations in software are on the horizon. Couple that with the knowledge that Nokia is already looking towards the future of this hardware platform and I am convinced that we “ain’t seen nothing yetâ€. Believe me though, I’ll be first in line to test the N-whatever when Nokia takes the wraps off some time early next year.