Nokia N800 with OS2008 is much better – but still bugs me
First Impression (4/5)
I was really excited about the release of the new Linux based OS2008 for Nokia Internet Tablets (N800 and N810) and after getting my hands on the tools to upgrade my old N800 to OS2008 I was both impressed by the improvements but also depressed by the missing polish of the user experience.
Reading about the release before trying it out raised my expectations even higher, as early bird discussion boards give you the impression that the OS2008 release was clearly faster than previous versions, even increasing the clock speed of the N800. Also, using your clumsy fingers instead of a stylus with the touch screen was highlighted as one of the many aims to make it much more user friendly. An expanded portfolio of cool and useful applications like maps and navigation was also on the shortlist of improvements. The Nokia team and open source community now had my very high expectations to manage.
Firing up the newly flashed Nokia N800 Internet Tablet went well and the new look and feel, showing off the now so trendy glassy UI made me feel like I had a new device in my hands. Playing around with the new, simplified menu structure optimized for fingertip usage reinforced the early discussion board comments about better usability. So the first impression was great, I give full credit to the development team for these great enhancements.
Unfortunately, this is where the much of the fun ended!
The RSS Reader (2/5)
Gradually, after configuring the new RSS feed reader applet on the desktop to fetch headers from a couple of news sources it was like hitting the emergency break. The N800 started to loose responsiveness and became even slower than with OS2007 that I thought was way to slow to start with (sorry guys but don’t save too much on the HW costs). The screen stopped responding normally.
Additionally, the layout of the applet was not configurable and there must have been triple line breaks between the fetched news headers. The auto scrolling feature made it a little bit better, but if you get 3-4 headers to fit on the whole screen it really does not do what it should optimally. Disappointed enough, I closed the RSS applet and removed it from my desktop to avoid any further issues. In practice, I was not able to use the most valuable feature on the N800 in addition to the internet browser any longer.
Proposed fixes:
1) Speed (any speed improvements are a plus, now it hangs!)
2) News header formatting
The New Mozilla Based Browser (3.5/5)
Re-energized with hope, I fired up the new Mozilla based internet browser. But, again, it was like running in deep sand. And I’m talking about the internet browser of an Internet Tablet device. Where did the priorities go wrong here? The browser technically did what it was supposed to do and the new browser has a better look and feel than any other available browser for the Maemo platform, but I really can’t say browsing was a pure pleasure any longer. Sure, I could look up something when I need some quick info, but the experience is yet not there to convince me this device will replace my laptop from browsing in front of the TV. For some reason, scrolling of the page was not possible by just dragging the page up and down. I actually has to use the scroll bars of the browser to move around. Distinguishing from the iPhone is great, but this is an area were mobile browsing need to learn something from the mobile user experience Apple created for the public.
On the other hand, to the defense of the new browser I have to say that almost being able to view YouTube videos at full speed, enjoyng Flash sites and AJAX powered services like Google docs was great. Unfortunately, the glitches I experienced with speed and browser navigation made it harder to actually browse around than I was expecting.
Proposed fixes:
1) Speed of browsing
2) Navigation/scrolling
3) Proper zooming of pages
Maps and navigation (1/5)
The built in GPS feature and navigation software of the N810 has been a key selling point in addition to the complete hardware keyboard. The same navigation software is included for the N800 with OS2008 and as I happen to have a separate GPS module that connects instantly via Bluetooth, this provides pretty much the same experience but in 2 pieces. Hooking up the GPS module was a piece of cake, connections to other devices and the network has always been one of the best experiences I’ve ever seen on any device I’ve come across.
Funny enough, it took me a while to realize the maps had to be separately downloaded before the application could do me any good. Fine, the 700+MB map package for US East Cost came over the WiFi in about 15 minutes and I was good to go. This is now when I was hit by reality. The software felt like it was a prototype release. Did someone actually try out the software before shipping?
There are 10s of great navigation devices out there. Personally, I’m actively using several of them including a couple of dedicated GPS devices (e.g. TomTom and Garmin) and I’m also running TomTom in my Nokia E61 phone and Nokia Maps on my N95. Google Maps Mobile is also part of the standard portfolio, both for Java and S60 phones so I could easily say I’ve tried a few benchmarks out there. I’m sorry to say but I believe this was the last time I use the navigation application on my N800. You can call me picky but the bar should be way higher than this before taking any pride.
Proposed fixes:
1) Try out some of the dedicated personal navigation devices (PND)
2) Redesign the whole user interface to match the experience, no shortcuts here
Media Player (3.5/5)
The media player is from a user standpoint pretty much the same as before. Same look and feel, it works but doesn’t do anything spectacular in addition to that. The one thing that really complements it is the new Windows based Video Converting Tool for Internet Tablet by Nokia that automatically optimizes any video or movie for the Internet Tablets. Simply drag and drop your file on your PC into the tool, wait for the conversion to complete, and copy them to your N800. High quality full lenght movies need less than 500 MB memory card space but you can go much lower than that if needed. Great complementary software that makes it simple to use your device in more ways!
Proposed fixes:
1) Add some “eye candy”, now it looks a bit like a proto
2) Work with e.g. the team that craeted Candela to create a more integrated media experience. If the internet browsing is the primary use case, then media should be the second and is does not show yet.
…and this is where I left the evaluation for this time…
UPDATE: After using it for a while is have 3 words for the N800 shortfalls: Speed, speed, and speed!!! It almost hurts to use it due to its slowness so today it is only functioning as my alarm clock…
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