Earlier, I wrote about my search for the perfect mobile device, and why it seems like there might not be one. But what about a two-device solution? Palm seems to be taking a stab at that idea with their upcoming Foleo, and I’m looking forward to trying that. In the meantime, I’ve been playing with the Nokia 770, another interpretation of the “second device” concept.
The Nokia 770 is the first of two Nokia “Internet Tablets”. Its successor, the N800, is essentially the same device, but with improved hardware. The 770 has recently been appearing at various online vendors for under $150, while the N800 retails for $399, so I thought it would be an ideal way to try out Nokia’s concept without spending too much cash.
The Nokia 770 (and the N800, which shares the same basic design) is a horizontal form factor device with a large touch screen and connectivity through WiFi and Bluetooth. It runs a heavily customized version of Linux and a web browser based on Opera. In addition to the browser the software includes an e-mail client, Jabber and Google Talk instant messaging, and a streaming media player. Notably, the 770 and N800 do not come with PIM software — Nokia is positioning these products purely as Internet tools, not as PDAs. Of course, since the 770s OS is based on Linux, there is a lot of add-on software already available for it, and a convenient package management interface for downloading and installing it automatically.
But how does the 770 work as a “second device”? Better than I expected, although it still isn’t very close to perfect. The browser is far better than most phone browsers I’ve tried, at least in how well it renders the web as it is meant to be seen. It even supports Flash, although the 770 isn’t really fast enough for that, so I ended up turning it off. The e-mail and instant messaging support is seamless and automatic, although the e-mail client leaves a lot to be desired. (It’s no worse than the stock messaging app in Windows Mobile, I suppose.)
For my needs, one of the biggest things holding the 770 back from perfection is its lack of a truly usable input method. The only methods built in are a typical on-screen tappable keyboard (with word completion) and a decidedly sub-par handwriting recognizer that requires you to write in a fixed size box at the bottom of the screen. I haven’t been able to get the handwriting recognition to work well yet, and I doubt I ever will. So for a device with easy to set up email and IM, I find it hard to believe I could actually use it for either. The TyTns thumb keyboard is much more efficient, and the TyTn also has the Block Recognizer (a.k.a. Graffiti with the serial number filed off) which works well for me as a long-time Palm user. The Nokia tablets will work with a Bluetooth keyboard, but that’s yet another thing to carry around, not to mention being useless unless I’m seated.
So, in the end, the Nokia Internet Tablet is closer to what I need, but not quite close enough. I’m carrying it in my gear bag anyway, because it is occasionally useful for its browser. I’m guessing that the crispness of the display will make it a good e-book reader too, although I already have one of those which has been a permanent part of my kit for a while. The search continues… perhaps with a Foleo, next.
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