With the announcement of the N770, Nokia created the new “Internet Tablet” class – small tablet-like devices, intended mainly for Internet usage. This idea evolved, and now we are reviewing the third model of this family, the N810. It upgrades the N800 to increase its functionality, and the Tablet now has integrated QWERTY hardware keyboard for messaging, GPS receiver, for using it also as navigator.
Included in the box you will find:
Nokia N810 Internet Tablet RX-44
Nokia Battery BP-4L
Nokia Stereo Headset HS-48
Nokia Travel Charger AC-4
Nokia Car Holder CR-89
Pouch CP-223
Nokia Connectivity Cable CA-101
Get started guide
Safety, warranty, and other product information booklet
Design:
Although it has the typical form-factor for such device (landscape oriented, with large display), the design language is very different from the one of the N800. The polished metal front and battery cover help for the stylish look.
When compared to its predecessor, the N810’s dimensions have been decreased in every aspect, but it still manages to pack the same 4.13” touch screen with 800x480 pixels resolution. The image reproduced by the display is slightly different from the one of the N800, but this can be noticed only in a direct A-B comparison. What is important is that it has excellent quality and previewing websites, images, or watching videos is a great experience.
As expected, everything comes at a price. The pop-up, swiveling camera is replaced with immobile one. There are Home and Back keys on the front, but the D-pad is missing. It is relocated on a slider that opens from the bottom. Here also is the 4-row QWERTY keyboard, which although a fast method for text input is not the best. There are a few drawbacks: it is flat, the keys are rather hard to press, and the top row is very close to the upper slider. If you input numbers often, the fact that there is no separate row for digits would be another drawback. We preferred to use the on-screen keyboard for short texts, but opened the slider when there was more text input.
On the top are situated the light indicator, and a few keys, including fullscreen, zoom out/in rocker and the power button in the middle. Added is a switch that locks the display, which acts similarly to the one of the N81 8GB we reviewed earlier, but doesn’t produce the same unpleasant sound. At the end is the stylus, which is now more comfortable to get in and out.
The stereo speakers are symmetrically located on the left and right sides, and on the latter, there also are the 3.5mm jack and the charger input. When the stand integrated in the bottom is extended, the microUSB on this side is revealed, as well as the SD slot and the lock for the battery cover on the bottom. Unlike the N800, the N810 has only one slot for a full-sized SD.
Interface:
Home screen
As the Nokia 770 and N800, the N810 runs on Maemo OS (Linux) but has the latest 2008 edition, unlike the N800, which has 2007, and 770 with 2006. Current N800 owners would be happy that they can upgrade to the new version for free. It improves both the functionality and the look, with more modern translucent menus.
The standby screen can be personalized with applications, visualized directly on it. For example, we added our RSS feeds, a shortcut to the site, Internet radio, and an internet search. On the top is the service line with shortcuts to the sound, display brightness, network, battery and other settings, while on the left is the “main menu” bar.
It consists of three links: to the internet browser, Contacts/Email/Chat, and the real menu where all the functions are at the same place. The latter is well organized, but now the menus are not “stylus friendly” – they are designed to be used mainly with fingers, having large fields. This is rather inconvenient, as the stylus is needed often in the overall usage of the device. Another missing feature (compared to the previous OS version) is the on-screen small QWERTY keyboard that appears in the bottom part of the display. It was an easy way to input short text with the stylus, while still seeing the selected field.
Although the position of the applications can be changed, we will preview the functionality in the order it is organized in the menu. We’ve installed Skype and Gizmo on it, through the direct links that are preloaded straight out of the box.
Internet:
In this section, you will find the Web browser, its bookmarks and RSS feed reader. The browser is now “Powered by Mozilla” and is a very good one, but not excellent. Visualization is brilliant, just as on a computer, but we only had troubles when the page was larger than 800 pixels (the width of the display). Then you have two options: to “fit the page to width” or to zoom out. The first one breaks the visualization, and we don’t think anyone would use it. The second option is better (although text may become too small), but is not always enough. The minimum zoom level is 80% (of the original size), which still requires scrolling for pages 1024 pixels wide. It would have been nice if a panning option (zooming out so the whole width can be shown and then zooming on selected area) was included, as in contemporary phone browsers. Symbian S60 phone browsers also have a nice feature, which makes the text columns fit the page - then, even though you have to scroll to see the whole content, you don't have to do so, when reading the text.
Complicated pages such as YouTube (with its animations and even embedded flash!), Gmail, Facebook, and all other, show just as you would expect, as on a computer. The functionality is full and you not only preview the pages, but use them – post on forums, community sites, or even upload content. Unfortunately the system resources are probably not enough, and flash videos (as of YouTube) don’t play smooth, and sometimes the browser also acts slowly.
RSS reader
The RSS reader is very handy for following the news for example. It visualizes the feeds with images and link to the whole page. The settings allow to set the cache size in MB and considering it requires Internet connection, options allow you to limit it to WLAN only or to any connection available. If data traffic is not a problem, you can set it to refresh automatically, through an optional interval. The feeds can also be shown in the standby screen, for fast access.
Communication:
Saving your contacts is definitely not the job that the Tablet will do best. It is not designed to replace your PDA, smartphone, or even ordinary phone and the contacts application is just a way to store basic information (email, nickname, names, web page, and phone) of persons you will contact via the N810 itself.
Email client
The email client can have a few accounts set at the same time, but unlike computer ones, cannot manage them all at once. We are disappointed that it doesn’t have a wizard for automatically setting popular email servers, requiring only a username and password. Setting an account is not a piece of cake, and requires a rather advanced knowledge, not suitable for the average Joe. The email is basic and doesn’t include options for tagging, searching or filtering, so don’t really rely on it for work. If you receive a few dozens of email a day, finding a specific one will not be easy at all. Some of the nice features are that HTML formatted emails visualize correctly on the large screen and the option for auto-update (even when the email client is closed).
The Internet call will allow you to talk with your Google contacts. It utilizes the VoIP protocol and when an account is set, you can dial any number. The Chat applications also uses Gmail contacts, but for text chat only.
Gizmo and Skype are two additional programs that can be used for VoIP calling, but only the first one allows video conference. When you are in a quiet environment, the microphone will be good enough, even if you leave the tablet on a table and talk from a small distance. The speakers on the other hand, deliver pretty low volume and if the other party has weak strength of the microphone, you will hardly hear them.
Hopefully, this can be easily fixed thanks to the support for Bluetooth headsets. Unlike the previous OS version, the 2008 one allows you to use the Bluetooth not only for data transfer from/to phone, but also for headset. Unfortunately, Stereo Sound transfer is still not supported.
Utilities:
In this menu are stored all basic organizer-type applications. As the ‘contacts’, don’t expect them to perform as a smartphone. The File manager has two visualization options, showing respectively larger or smaller fields. By the way of use, it reminds us of the Windows OS, found on most computers, so it is user friendly. Actions such as Cut/Copy/Delete are available by holding the pointer on a selected file/folder. The Calculator, (world) Clock, and Notes are just as simple as you would expect. Additionally here is the excellent PDF reader, which opens large files without a problem. Sketch is very basic and doesn’t offer enough options to be fun enough, Search may help you find a file, but what the heck is X Terminal? For the Linux guys out there, Nokia has loaded a console, nice huh? In Extras, there are a few games: Chess, Blocks, Mahjong, and Marbles, as well as the Getting started tutorial. Additional applications can be installed with a few clicks. The idea for open source device that can easily be upgraded with new applications works!
Multimedia:
Maybe you’ve noted that we haven’t covered anything about multimedia? That doesn’t mean the N810 is not suitable for such files. The default music player is nothing interesting, but does the job. However, one of the popular applications in the Maemo site is the Kagu Media Player – we installed it and ran the scanner, which went through the memory and added all suitable files. A cool option here is that it could automatically download (hi-res) album art cover images for the tracks. Everything sounds cool so far. The player itself is also good; it can filter the tracks by artist, album, genre, playlists, has very large fields with big images, text, etc. Unlike most other players it is designed to work with playlists, and when you select a track during playback it will add to the queue, instead of interrupt the play.
The sound through the speakers is pretty loud and of good quality for such device. Put next to the Nokia MD-5W, which is a dedicated audio speaker with larger dimensions, the N810 sound is thinner but clearer and with similar strength. Great success! For personal enjoyment, wired headphones should be used, however, we are disappointed that the volume level is low, and even additional Hi-Fi ‘phones didn’t produce high volume levels.
Video playback
What is the idea of a large 800x480 pixels display? Well, it's either text (internet, books, etc) or multimedia (video and images) rendering. Thanks to its high image quality, the screen of the N810 is absolutely suitable for video playback. The preloaded files on the Tablet show what it can do very well, but unfortunately all of them are in low resolution. We tried to use our own DivX but no luck. In fact, Nokia doesn’t list DivX-encoding as supported in its site, but the preloaded files are in exactly such format. Our question about the limitations (resolution, bitrate, framerate, encoding version, total size) remained with statement, mentioning NO DivX support and maximum listed resolution CIF and QVGA. However, the preloaded files are with 400x240 pixels (WQVGA), which is larger size than QVGA. Although not of a quality as high as we would have liked to see, they show that the Tablet will do the video playback very well!
GPS:
N810 is the first Internet Tablet to come with an integrated GPS receiver, as well as Maps software (Wayfinder Mobile). Nokia offered navigation kit for the N800, but the N810 comes with a vehicle holder in the box. However, it isn’t mounted to the windshield (with a suction cup for example) but it has to be bolted to the dashboard and so it isn’t really convenient to use.
The performance isn't great at all, either. It seems to be similar to the one we've used in the N95 when it was initially released (read this as a mediocre chip without Assistance, as no GSM is present). This results in a very sluggish, even slow, locking of position. A hot restart would require at least a couple of minutes but when doing a cold one, prepare yourself for 10-15 minutes or even more.
At least there is preloaded free software, however, the application is not full version and won’t allow for routing or real time turn-by-turn navigation. It shows your location and can be used to search a specific place or Point of Interest (POI) near it. Maps can be downloaded for free, and if you’ve loaded different regions, only one currently active must be selected. If you want to get the full version, it can be purchased directly through the device. 36 month Wayfinder Navigator license price depends on the region, but in our case, for Western Europe, it costs 99EUR (~$150), while Central and Eastern is a bit cheaper, 79EUR (~$120).
Conclusion:
For what itis, the N810 is great – internet browsing delivers computer-likeexperience (thought we would have liked some phone features such aspanning) and viewing pages is great. Multimedia is just as one wouldlike, once the correct application is installed and the QWERTY is justOK for messaging. The hardware is great, so it is the software thatmatters. There are lots of applications for the open-source system andtheir number is growing; check them out and if you like them, the N810will be a good device for you.
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