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Nokia’s N800, a followup to the 770 Internet Tablet, is already available in the U.S. for $400 and in select European markets for 399 Euros. Nokia has brought the Internet Tablets under the umbrella of its N Series, which until now only included smartphones. (The cell phone giant likes to refer to all of these devices as multimedia computers because of their multi-functionality.)
As with the 770, the N800 eschews any sort of cellular-wireless connectivity for Wi-Fi 802.11b/g. This thing is definitely more PDA than smartphone. It is a handheld, however, that’s designed for messaging, Web access, and Voice Over Internet Protocol (VoIP) calling from a hotspot or a Wi-Fi connection in the home or office. You can also leverage a wireless hookup to a Bluetooth-enabled phone to connect to the Internet.
Nokia says the N800 is faster than its predecessor, adds a camera and full-screen finger QWERTY keyboard, and runs on an upgrade to the company’s Internet Tablet operating system, among other enhancements.
In addition to Google’s gTalk for VoIP calling (available with the previous model), Nokia has struck a deal to enable Skype service on the N800 as well.
Sleeker looking and thinner (0.5 inches) than the 770, the N800 has the same-size 4.1-inch, 800 x 480 pixel and 65,536 color resolution display.
Inside is a 320 MHz processor, 256 MB of Flash ROM, and 128 MB of RAM. There are two SD card slots for memory expansion, stereo speakers, a slot for the bundled stereo headset, and support for the UPnP (Universal Plug and Play) protocol to more easily connect to compatible TVs, audio systems and PCs.
The battery rates for only up to 3.5 hours browsing time and up to 12 days standby.
It also includes the Opera browser, Flash 7, a media player, an RSS reader, e-mail, instant messaging, handwriting recognition, Internet radio, a PDF viewer, file manager, notes and calculator, among other additional applications.
Anyone who buys an N800 in the United Kingdom can get free Internet access at any of the 7,500 hotspots run there by The Cloud, at least for one month — this goes for the first generation Nokia 770 tablet as well.
Also newly Wi-Fi-ed: The N93i, an update (rather than a full-on upgrade) to the N93 smartphone.
Nokia performed several tweaks to the overall form factor of the device to make the 93i a bit more attractive. For example, the 4.3 x 2.3 x 1.0 inch (108 x 58 x 25 millimeter) N93i is slightly smaller, including the length, which is down 10 millimeters, and the depth, which loses 3.2 millimeters. It also weighs less, due to this loss in bulk: 163 grams (5.7 ounces) as opposed to the N93’s 180 grams (6.34 ounces).
Unlike the N93’s keypad, which sticks up a little, the N93i’s typer has been flattened in a manner that’s similar to the etched keypads found in Motorola’s RAZR and KRZR lines.
Also, the mirrored finish on the front of the new model is much slicker than the N93’s, and it can hide the smartphone’s external 128 x 36 OLED display.
The device’s QVGA (320 x 240 pixel) internal display receives a color boost, going from 262k in the N93 to 16 million.
And the N93i still sports a Carl Zeiss 3.2 megapixel camera with 3x optical zoom and autofocus. It can capture and play back VGA (640 x 480 pixel) resolution video at 30 fps.
There’s Bluetooth (2.0), 50 MB of RAM, UPnP, a music player, FM radio, and a miniSD card slot. And, as with the N76, the Symbian/S60-run N93i is a GSM/EDGE smartphone (quad-band, in this case) that supports the 2100 MHz UMTS 3G band. And don’t forget the Wi-Fi.
Integrated into the Nokia N93i is a free new personal video and photo blogging service, Vox, from a company called Six Apart. With Vox, you can select video or photos in the gallery of your N93i and upload them directly, in their original size — in addition to text, of course.
Story adapted from PDAstreet.
