About a month ago I was given a Nokia 770 Internet Tablet. I waited this long to post a review because I wanted to see how it would fit into my life before I passed judgment on it. Well, a month has passed and I can confidently say I am ready to review the 770. So, without further delay... Geek In Gear's review of the Nokia 770 Internet Tablet:

From Nokia's site:

Go ahead - move the Web! With the Nokia 770 Internet Tablet you can browse your favorite sites and catch up on your email - from right where you are. Whether you're relaxing on the sofa or enjoying the moment at your favorite café, if you have broadband access over WI-FI the Nokia 770 Internet Tablet gives you instant wireless access to the Web. You can also stream files, tune in to Internet radio, News Reader, or play your favorite videos and music.

Hardware:

Size-wise the 770 is about the size of the original Nintendo DS (just a little thinner) at 5.5" x 3.1" x .7" (the770.com has a nice size comparison shot here). Weighing in at just over 8 ounces the 770 is barely noticeable in my front jeans pocket. All of the buttons are easily accessible, at least to a right handed person, lefties may have some difficulty with the right-hand-centric controls. The stylus is not accessible with the slide cover in the "open" position (though when closed the stylus is easily accessible), requiring the cover to be slid up and down to access the stylus and return it to its home. This is a small annoyance that can be easily overlooked, but is something that should have been caught during design testing. Lefties may also have some problems as the stylus is located on the right hand side of the device. The stylus design is more than adequate, after all these years of pen driven devices you have to really try to screw up a stylus. I also like the fact that 2 styli are included in the box, which is great for people who often misplace small things. The access door for the memory card is also easily accessible and open-able, but not so easy to open that I would be afraid of losing my memory card.

The slide cover, in my opinion, is the best part of the 770's physical design (forgiving of course the issue with the slide cover blocking the stylus). The slide cover is made of aluminum and is quite sturdy. I feel perfectly safe placing the 770 in my pocket with the cover in place. Something that I would never dream of doing with most of my other portable devices because of my tendancy to destroy their screens (at least 3 PDAs and a bevey of other devices have met their end in my pcokets). When slid over the screen the 770 suspends its self, which is a nice feature (so nice in fact that I rarely, if ever, have to touch the power button). I do not recommend using the 770 without the slide cover because of both the loss of the easy suspend and the protection that the slide cover affords the device.

When you turn on the 770, one of the first things you notice is its brilliant 800x480 4.13" screen. To say the display is stunning would be an understatement. It has one of the nicest screens I have seen on a mobile device, though in direct sunlight the screen is very hard to read, even when set at the highest brightness level. The screen size is more than ample for surfing the web, viewing images and movies, or reading ebooks.

The 770's 250 MHz ARM based processor is more than adequate for running the device. While some people have criticized the processor's speed, I feel what they are looking for is a laptop replacement, which the 770 clearly is not and was not designed to be. There is plenty of memory available in the device for storing additional programs. However, media files though, should probably be stored on the external memory card. You will probably want to upgrade if you will be storing movies or many mp3s on the card (a 1Gb RS-MMC card should be available for as little $30-$50 on-line).

The battery in the 770 will last for about 3 hours of constant use (or more depending on what you are doing and your screen brightness setting). While in standby, according to Nokia's specs, the 770 should remain usable for up to 7 days. I never have tested this because I use my 770 throughout the day and inevitably wear the battery down to the point that it needs to be charged before the next days usage.

Connectivity:

The 770 includes both bluetooth and 802.11g wireless connectivity. Both perform well, as you would expect them to. The 802.11g connection supports most common wireless protection schemes and is easy to set up. The bluetooth connection is great and works well for transferring files to and from bluetooth enabled devices. The 770's bluetooth is especially useful for viewing photos you have just taken with your camera phone. Your success in connecting through your phone to the Internet via bluetooth may depend on your carrier and service plan.

Software:

Before I get into the 770's software let me say that I highly recommend upgrading the firmware (available from either Nokia or the Maemo site) as soon as you take the 770 out of the box. The original firmware/OS that shipped with the device was an utter piece of crap (which I think accounts for some of the bad reviews the 770 has received). It had many memory/stability issues that are fixed in the newer firmware revisions. If the thought of updating firmware gives you the shivers, don't worry. Nokia provides a nice graphical update tool for Windows and a simple command line tool with excellent instructions for OS X and Linux.

The Internet Tablet 2005 Software is a good software package and is easy enough to learn how to use. Other than the occasional browser crash, the only real complaint I have is the lack of any PIM (Personal Information Management) software. Nokia purposely left out PIM software on the 770 because they wanted to establish it as a Internet tablet and not a PDA. After listening to the 770's user base, Nokia has announced that PIM functionality will be included in the 2006 version of their Internet Tablet software that is due out later this quarter (which should be a free upgrade to existing 770 owners). This short coming is easily fixed though, since their are a few PIM packages (both free and commercial) currently available for the 770. My personal favorite PIM package is the GPE-PIM set of programs, though I recommend chacking out all of the available options to see which one suits your needs best. The only problem with the "aftermarket" PIM packages are that they do not integrate with the 770's built in email client. The email client seems more than adequate, though it suffers from the aforementioned PIM software shortage. I do not use the email client often because most of my email is routed through Google's Gmail. Gmail, coincidentally works perfectly in the 770's web browser.

The web browser in the 770 is based on the Opera web browser. It does an excellent job of displaying most web pages and has a nice zoom feature. Opera does a great job of scaling websites to fit the 770's screen. The browser is crippled though by the older version of Flash installed on the 770 (which affects some sites lile Google Video and YourTube). Also the browser has problems displaying some sites based on the newer AJAX technology, such as Google's new Google Calendar. One notable exception to this is Gmail, which as I have stated before works flawlessly with the 770. Hopefully the upcoming update to the 770's software will address these issues.

Other software included on the 770 is a news reader, a music player, a video player, a image viewer, a PDF reader, and a few games. The news reader is userfriendly and has all the basic features that you would expect from a RSS reader, though I prefer to read my news feeds through Bloglines, which works very well in the 770's browser. The rest of the included software performs their assigned tasks well. The best part about the 770 is the availability of free software for the platform and how easy it is to add new programs. Maemo.org has a full list of software for the 770 that is growing day by day.

Support:

The 770 has a great community supporting it (the most notable being Internet Tablet Talk's forums) that is friendly and willing to help new users explore their device. While I have not personally had to contact Nokia for support (because of the 770's quality hardware and intuitive user interface), those who have, say that they were friendly, courteous, and helpful.

Overall Impression:

I love my 770 despite its few short comings. It has replaced my PDA for everyday use. I have no major complaints about the hardware and the software issues the 770 has seem to be vanishing with each new software update. I would easily recommend the 770 to anyone who wants a extensible device that focuses mainly on Internet connectivity and portabillity. (Lefties may want to take the 770 for a testdrive though, to see if the control layout bothers them) Those looking for a laptop or desktop killer should pass over the 770 as it is not the device you are looking for and you will probably not be happy with your purchase.


Nokia's Official 770 Internet Tablet Site
Maemo.org
Internet Tablet Talk

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