This post inspired by the Union Square Ventures guys: Fred who wrote about wanting a phone that was “free”, as in open, (hence fPhone), and Andrew with a suggestion that the Nokia N810 could be that phone, here amongst us already.
Anyone who knows me knows I feel that a good gadget is hard to find, and I secrete dopamine upon the rare union of myself and a killer gadget or piece of software that radically changes how I conduct my day-to-day life.
I’m here to say that the Nokia N810 Internet Tablet is such a device. “You complete meâ€â€¦
My dream for a long time has been to have the internet on me all the time, in a fast, eye-pleasing browsing experience. The AT&T 8525 was the first to make me feel that way, as well as its successor the Tilt (HTC-8900) which brought a few minor improvements. I rave how great the Tilt is, though I join a very lonely club in raving about a Microsoft product. I think that the irony today is that Windows Mobile is the most open of the mobile OS platforms, and I’m willing to defend that view in a different conversation. (We’ll see what happens with Google’s Android).
But the phone still has so many drawbacks to hinder a true browsing experience: the screen is small, the browser can’t render many pages correctly, AT&T forces an annoying MediaNet page condenser which I can’t seem to defeat, etc.
Some feel they have the web-browsing-to-go experience now with the iPhone. I HATE the iPhone in its current incarnation for reasons others have explained before: It is a “closed device in an open worldâ€. “A model-looking woman that you know has great looks and feel but flawed fundamentals, yet you date her because you can’t resist, can’t be surprised when it doesn’t work out ultimately.â€â€¦
I’ve also been using a Fujitsu Lifebook U810. It’s a very impressive device. A cute little yet fully-performing laptop running Windows XP (or Vista if you make the mistake of using that atrocity as of today). Battery life rocks, weighs about 2 pounds, so very easy to tote to a café or on a plane.
But you can’t have it *on you*. A bit too heavy and bulky to put on a belt clip. The keys are too small to touch-type, too big to thumb-type Blackberry style.
The N810 is amazing for what it is. Weighs nothing. A bit bigger than an iPhone. Great screen, great battery life. Everything really well thought-out from scratch. The key here is to expect everything browser-based. I run MS Exchange for my email (excellent host: http://sherweb.com), and access my email via webmail, also the built-in email client does a great job accessing via IMAP. The big show-stopper for most critics is that there’s no phone or SIM card (it does have Skype), but I don’t mind carrying a phone around in addition, and the combination of the 2 is magic. The N810 sniffs out a wi-fi signal or via Bluetooth using your phone. With my Tilt, I now have a 3G browsing experience (another advantage over the iPhone, as it’s not yet 3G). The keypad, while taking a bit of getting used to, is very solid and the keys bigger than a Blackberry.
So now I can keep the internet w/ me at all times. My new best friend. Highly recommend the product; hopefully it’s really just a prototype to make way for a new version coming w/ a phone on-board.
