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There is a GoogleTalk client in the N800, it works really well. There is also a Notes application, a Caclulator, an imap/pop3 email client, RSS reader, file manager, image viewer, world clock, PDF reader an application manager, some games and more. Unfortunately, the Maemo 3.0 platform is not fully compatible with Maemo 2.0 and so most of the 300+ applications available for the N770 do not work in the N800. So far, there are only about 10-15 applications available for the N800. I installed the GizmoProject client, a VNC client, the GPE PIM and a game. I couldn't find a screenshot applet for it though in order to get native shots (it was reported that the older applet build was working but it was not present in the repository that was supposed to be, so I couldn't find it). Installation is a breeze in Maemo using Nokia's dpkg front-end, but if you want to add more "bora" repositories things get ugly with broken dependencies (e.g. GPE Calendar 2007) and it requires some understanding of what is what when setting up a new repository.

The Media Player can playback WMA, MP3, AVI, RAM, RA and 3GP files, but unfortunately, it would not playback OGG audio or standard MPEG-4 videos, similar to the ones captured by all modern cellphones (update: MP4 somewhat fixed in the new firmware). I surely hope that at least MP4-BASIC support is fixed in an update, because it is a must-have, as the Nokia N800 is meant to be used in many ways in a conjunction to a mobile phone. Currently, the Real Player-derived engine that drives the media player does not support the MP4-BASIC and MP4-IMPROVED formats (and it has the same limitation in Motorola's touchscreen Linux phones too). Personally, I would prefer Nokia to move away from Real Player (or just use it only for RA/RAM) and instead use mplayer and also port the mplayer-plugin for use with the Opera browser. This only only will allow for broader codec support (after licensing them of course) but for WMV/QT support inside web pages that currently is not possible. This is an internet tablet after all.

The on-screen keyboard is easy to use, and it allows more than one languages to be used. I was switching between Greek and English very easily, very fast. There is also handwriting support, but I never bother with it (I have lost all hope in handwrite, no matter the platform). A nice cool thing is that if you touch an editable widget with your finger, the N800 will recognize this and it will give you a big FingerPad to type instead of the smaller virtual keyboard. Very convenient and clever.

The overall interface is interesting, cute I would say. It is very responsive and pretty stable too (I did have a random reboot today though). But I see a lot of wasted pixels when in windowed mode that they could be used to offer more real screen estate to the apps. Other usability and UI problems are addressed pretty spot-on here.

The device is really nice to hold in the hand, it feels steady, well-manufactured. It looks sexy too with this modern metal that it's made of. However, there are two things I dislike in the design. First, the retractable/rotate-able video-call camera: It is so far away from the screen, that only 2/3s of myself appears in the picture when I hold the N800 directly in front of me. This is a problem if you are in a video chat session with someone because you have to constantly adjust yourself in an uncomfortable position so you are in the visible viewing field in your friend's screen. Instead, the camera should have been placed directly above the joypad, and be rotate-able the same way some cellphones have it (e.g. the LG U8500 and the Samsung D820). Additionally, the camera can only be used with other N800 GTalk users for video-conferencing and no other application can use it so far.

The second thing I don't lile is the right part of the device (currently housing only the right speaker) that makes it unnecessarily long. I much prefer the device to be a bit thicker instead of being longer as it would fit in more pockets this way. If the designers really needed the device to be that long, I would have much preferred to use that extra space (and possibly make the device a tiny bit taller) and make the screen 5.5" ultra-widescreen at 1024x600 because more and more sites today don't fit anymore in the current 800x480 screen (e.g. Digg, CNN, Y!, C|Net etc).

Overall, the N800 is a good evolutionary step over the N770, but not without its flaws. If you want to get one of these two babies, get the N800 if you can, and only opt for the N770 if you find it in a very low price. For the price, at $400, I think that the N800 is a good deal considering that you can browse the web in a respectable way without having to carry with you heavy laptops. Regardless, we will make sure to revisit the device in the near future after updates and patches have been released from Nokia or when Skype has released their software for it.

Pros:
* Two SD slots up to 8 or 16 GBs of storage
* Upgraded RAM capacity and CPU speed
* Always-ON responsiveness
* Crispy clear sound quality
* Amazing Wi-Fi reception
* Better quality screen
* Lovely kickstand
* Good battery life
* Cute software

Cons:
* Camera only captures 2/3s of the desired image
* Backwards incompatible with most older apps
* YouTube & GoogleVideo are unwatchable [update: somewhat fixed]
* No A2DP/AVRCP/HSP/HFP profiles
* A bit too wide for my own taste
* No hardware lock slider
* Bad MPEG-4 support [update: somewhat fixed]
* No USB recharge

Rating: 8/10

1. "Nokia N800, Page 1/2"
2. "Nokia N800, Page 2/2"