I had been toying with the idea of getting an “internet tablet” for a while now. I decided to go with the Nokia N800 after reading some good reviews about it. I use the ” ” around internet tablet because its not so much an internet tablet as a large “phone” that does not work as a phone or have a network. By that I mean its not as large as I would like, I think tablet and think a little bigger, and before you say it, yes I did check the specs and dimensions before I made this purchase. So I did no what I was getting into.

I do like the Nokia N800, the screen size and quality is nice and the unit is comfortable in your hand and even has a little fold out stand to have it sit up. Just in case you were watching a video or having a video chat with the built in camera.

Overall the features it has are top notch, it is very easy to set up to a wireless access point and get online, it even picked out quite a few points in my area that my Powerbook has never seen before. A+ on wireless. Setting up my email account (Gmail) and GoogleTalk were as easy as can be. I even downloaded, installed and logged into my GizmoProject account. Again very simple and seemed to be reliable as well.

Keep in mind I have had this for about 6 hours now. So even though I have some good opinions and observations I have really not used this device for long, these are more first thoughts. Which are important to me.

The speed of web surfing was a lot slower than compared to my Powerbook over wifi but I did expect that. The general use of the tablet was fairly quick and responsive. Communicating over GTalk was about the same as on a regular laptop or cell phone.

Overall I do like the Nokia N800 and would recommend it to someone looking for a device like this. I do not think mine will get much use though. For me its to much like a phone without a network. The browser is much better than a phone but I also do not use my phone to surf, I want it mostly for email, chat and text.

Bottom line is this is a very nice toy and fun to have and play with, but I feel my Blackberry Pearl has much more use to me. For example if I am out and about I can always get my im’s, texts, and email on my BB Pearl, and if needed find some wifi for the Powerbook. If I have the Nokia I still need to find the wifi.

I may feel a bit different about this device if it had a network and I could actually use it to communicate without finding a wifi access point. Granted its not hard to find one that is open but its still not as easy as a smart phone or Blackberry.

So for someone like me who has a good reliable smart phone and laptop avoid the expense, unless you just want another cool tech toy to play with. Overall I think the Nokia N800 is a great product just not for me.

Check out some pics of my Nokia N800 unboxing.