5. Conclusions

• 770 Internet Tablet...
• • BuyDr
  • $179.99
• • BuyItNow
  • $199.99

slide show: Nokia 770

It's impossible to fit the Nokia 770 into a neat category; think of it as a shrunken Linux notebook with a touch screen instead of a keyboard and you'll see the potential and the drawbacks of this innovative device. Even with the new Internet Tablet OS 2006 there are bugs and glitches, and the spec is underpowered for the price. But the excellent screen, good battery life and new VOIP speakerphone features make the 770 a handy tool, if the software to do what you want is available. It's still a gadget for geeks, but it's worth watching as it matures for mainstream users.

Most handheld devices start out with a fairly clear purpose (although there's more and more overlap in terms of features). Smartphones, MP3 players, portable video players, handheld gaming consoles, GPS navigators, PDAs; they're familiar categories and you know what to expect. The Nokia 770 doesn't fit any of these categories neatly.

It's not a phone, it's doesn't come with much in the way of PIM software and has no built-in PC synchronization. The email and RSS clients are somewhat basic. It can be picky about the video files it plays and there are plenty of rough edges and dropped connections. At $359 it's priced like a high-end PDA, but the hardware specs are on the low end. However, the 770 is the smallest, lightest and simplest way you'll find to browse Web pages - and it's much more than a Web tablet with good battery life.

Use it as a speakerphone to make VOIP calls. Download a copy of Freader and it's an ebook reader. Install Maemo Mapper and you can use it to browse Google Maps or navigate with a Bluetooth GPS. Few other devices use the RS-MMC card format so it's not a handy viewer for photos from your digital camera - but you can browse your Flickr photos with NFlick. Think of it as a shrunken Linux laptop and you'll have a better idea of what the 770 can be with the right software.

That's the strength and weakness of the 770. UMPCs like the Samsung Q1 can run any Windows program. Apps for the 770 need porting to the Maemo platform, and limited performance and storage restrict the number of programs you can install and run. Having to cope with the occasional glitches in the system and work out how to install packages mean this is still a gadget for geeks rather than a mainstream device.

There are still features we'd like to see that aren't in Internet Tablet OS 2006 but releasing a new version of the operating system shows Nokia's commitment to the 770. If further releases can iron out more of the bugs and the open source community keeps developing useful tools, the Nokia 770 could easily earn a place in your pocket or on the arm of your couch.

In addition to the links provided on these pages, you can find the 770 at nokiausa.com.

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