Ok this is another ipod to N8XX comparison. I know there has been a plethora of "i like the X better because..." posts on the board over the last year, but as an unbiased tablet and gadget enthusiast I feel compelled to share a few of my thoughts.

I recently decided to consolidate my gadgets. I grew tired of grabbing my ipod, phone and tablet as I ran out the door. Once I added my keys and wallet, I started to look like a clown. Even though I swore off buying another ipod, I decided to make a bold move ...sell my tablet and ipod and get the touch. So, I dropped a serious $400 on the the new touch 32gb.
Before I get into my impressions I want to preface this with the fact that Iam not done with Nokia tablets, I eagerly await the the next generation n900. The primary reason for the change up was that I couldn't justify spending $$$ on a number of mini and micro sd's to house my music collection so that I had a complete gadget.

Form Factor:
The touch is incredibly thin and light weight. Its shape is gorgeous, but like some of apples products, it almost feels over simplified in form. Very thin, it actually feels better in the hands now that I bought a form fitting case. Where it wins with me is that it is half the weight of the 810. It is so light that I can slip it into my top pocket without any problem. In comparison the 810 (in my opinion) is borderline too heavy to slide into the pocket and forget about it. I much preferred the weight of the 800.

The screen:
Immediately you notice the difference in the the screen size and quality. The touch has a very attractive bright screen but the smaller 3.5" size and lower resolution doesn't quite win the overall experience and web surfing. The n810 feels richer and more detailed.

Speed/Performance:
I was never really unhappy with the speed of the 810. It had been a little inconsistent for me depending on what apps I had running. Although, the more recent os updates have made big improvements with is overall stability. I was only ever really disappointed with the performance when playing videos locally or streaming. But the touch has been REALLY smooth so far. Quick, never laging or stuttering.

GUI/Software:
Diablo is very nice, but this is where the touch moves into the next level for me. It quickly makes up for the lower res. and screen size by offering quick and effective scrolling and zooming. I mean it is flawless. After a year of scrolling of on the tablets, it comes off feeling incredibly polished. The music player is beautiful, artwork looks very sharp and its layout works very well. The map widget via google is really nice. The web browser lets it down a bit with its capabilities though. No flash support or copy paste features obviously slows productivity and restricts the webs you can visit. But pages load very quickly and I have found Iam in and out of a quick web browse (say for a movie showtime) quicker than the 810

Conclusion:
I really miss the ITT community. Its support and development of incredible programs for the n8xx's is like no other and apple and others (like archos) should take note. I spent the time to write this little blurb so that I can share my perspective, not as a developer/programmer but a consumer that can see room for improvement in a winning device.

So clearly these are two very different devices. The n8xx are capable of doing so much more but for an end user the touch is doing what it does extremely well.

What is your impression of the screen keyboard? That alone pushed me toward the N810 compared to the touch.

The ipod excels in the shorter time period. But over the longer time period..... the tablet rules.

I've been meaning to write up a similar storyl. I've been a 770 owner for over a year and decided to upgrade to the n800 right as the US stock dried up. I tried to make a purchase 5-10 times with all my orders canceled (which is annoying when you order an accessory with the device and they still send it to you when they cancel the main order). I have a strong dislike for the hype behind the iPod line and more especially a dislike towards the stereotypical iPod users, an army of iPod wielding zombies who don't notice the world outside their earbuds.

Its been over 5 months without a n800, lack of interest in the n810 (and its price for what I get that I'd actually use) and it sounded like an n900 would be a while longer. I've been getting impatient. A friend bought a laptop that came with a free iPod Touch 8GB 1Gen. I made the plunge and got it at a discount.

Note, this is of a non-jailbroken iPod Touch 1st Gen with the 2.0 software.

Form Factor: One major plus for the Touch is the hard screen (and my hate towards it) made me feel like I dont need any protection for it, which helps on the size. I hardly notice it in my pants pocket unlike my 3 Palms and my 770 and their cases. I was surprised I didn't have more issues with reading on the screen, but I would definitely prefer a 4inch high res screen.

Speed/Performance: Horrible, I rate it around the level of my 770 with OS2007HE. Most of the performance is a lie, you can only run one app at a time and they pull tricks and do more state saving to make it feel like you didn't close the app. This is nice and creates a great experience till you want to have your chat open while you listen to music while you read a book. So if they tune it so well, how can even the perceived performance be bad? I tried to treat it like a NIT and do things like download apps while doing other things.

GUI/Software Overall the apps are very smooth and do a good job of taking advantage of the touch screen, but when trying to treat it like a NIT/MID/whatever, it completely fails. No copy and paste, no downloading of files from the web browser, dependence on a PC for loading some media, and no (user) multitasking hurts it a lot. Why would I need to go to a PC to download and save a song? a movie? Oh and I use Linux at home, so no iTunes. I have to load music and movies at work. I have found two somewhat decent ebook readers. One requires the book to be in a proprietary format but embeds Safari so I can browse to my books to load them (which excludes getting them from my compuer), while the other uses open formats but you have to hand enter the URL (yay no copy and paste and the URLs aren't always simple). No direct access to the files? Well, that means I have to use the (thankfully) included feature of emailing notes to myself.

Overall I think I can hobble along on it till I can get the next tablet. Overall I'm surprised that people buy into this stuff. My best guess is hype and lack of awareness of alternatives. Besides this assessment, I think we can definitely stand to learn some things. Some of the things I've liked:
* It definitely feels smooth and "fast" (usability wise) in getting to my notes and reading or typing a new one
* "Fast" getting to a web page
* Simplicity of adding certain app-like web pages to the launcher and even how simple launcher / app removal is.
* (From a 770 user) I don't even think about whether I am connected or not, it seems to connect quick and I don't worry about the battery. This could annoy me though when traveling and battery life is more important and in finding where I turn off wifi for when flying.

In using the Touch, it has made me look forward even more to freemantle and especially tracker. I think tracker can provide some great end-user improvements and usability speed improvements like what the Touch or Palms provide with apps like Notes while still allowing us to access the file system underneath and do advanced things when we want to.

I'll probably later remember more, for and against each, later.

For me, usually my typing is in notes, reminders, todos, etc. I have never cared about precision then and I have found the autocorrection has usually been correct. I cannot imagine using ssh, programming, or anything out of a limited scope with it though. The way to the manipulate the cursor position is pretty slick though sometimes I have to fight it and wish I could just left arrow one. Also you can't select text to delete blocks at once, so enjoy holding down backspace for a while. There are probably more times with the Touch where I am frustrated with which keyboard it puts keys on than the 770. Typing in a password and you have to change keyboards between numbers and letters? Thats fun when you randomly have to enter your password when installing apps or for all of those websites you visit since you're taking advantage of the fact that it has internet.

Sorry for hijacking this thread, but I am keeping my 770. My current plans are to use it with Gizmo and DialCentral as a home VOIP Phone. I wanted to use it also as a digital picture frame but the battery is required for operation, I didn't want to track when to charge it, and I didn't want to kill the battery leaving it always charging.

That is exactly why I traded up to the n810 from the n800. The reality is a tactile keyboard is a better way to go for typing anything more than a quick line or two.

The software behind the touch keyboard does a great job of speeding things along (compared to the 800) The 800 has a larger footprint, but the "confirming" flash of the key you just depressed allows you to have confidence in what you are typing. In other words if you mistype, you know it immediately.

I have been thinking about this for some time. They both have plus and minus. I will be comparing the iPhone 3G. The touch lacks way too many features... (Note: I have used a n810 a lot more than my friends iPhone)

Screen:

The only thing I like about the iPhone screen is that is flush with the device, making it easy to clean. The tablet screen is harder to clean, but is bigger, and clear.

The multi-touch does make the iPhone more easy to use, but the tablet has zoom keys, which do the same (seroiusly, zooming in is the most used MultiTouch feature.) The iPhone screen cannot use fingernails or a pencil, which suck. But is is more responsive to fingers.

OS:

iPhone 2.0: There are a lot of apps, but some are not free. Only one app can reasonably run at a time. Takes a lot of shortcuts, but that is a good thing in a handheld device. Because of the SDK, and lack of other legit dev tools, all apps have a familiar look and feel, and have universal gestures, etc...

Diablo: There are a lot of free apps, but are mostly ports from desktop software, not much innovation (compared to iPhone). This leads to GUI that are hard to use with fingers and a touch screen. Almost everything is free, VERY customizable, and totally unrestricted. It has more standard computer things than a iPhone. It can cut and paste, alt-tab, USB host (kinda), a real browser (safari is nothing like a real browser), etc.. in a nutshell, a computer stuffed into a hand held, which has pros and cons.

Games: This is a big deal for a lot of people. These devices can both play games.

N810: Not many games specifically made for it. NumptyPhysics is the only one I can think of (and that is also on iPhone). But, it has a huge number of emulators. NES, SNES, MS, GB, GBA, DOS, CV, VB, MAC, a LOT more.... If you have a huge amount of ROMs or you like old games, the n810 is better. Also, it can play all those addicting flash games on the internet, and you can run them locally as well.

iPhone: Apple is actually pushing this as a games platform. Most games utilize the touch screen or accelerometer. They are much better looking (because of 3D graphics), and are tailored to the iPhone. Some are free, others are expensive.

And last but not least:

Hardware (that I have not covered):

GPS:

N810: GPS takes a long time to lock. APGS support has lessened this dramatically, but it is still long. It also does not work indoors. BUT, after it gets a lock, it almost never lets go. Very strong in keeping a signal, unless you go inside of course.

iPhone: It uses Cell towers, WiFi, and a GPS chip. Very fast lock times, like less than 5 seconds. BUT, I have seen that it looses GPS lock a lot more than the N810. Still, it does not loose the WiFi or Cell lock, so it quickly recovers.

Accelerometer: This is a neat feature, and it works well. I wish the tablet had one. It, combined with multitouch, allows a much more natural feel to the iPhone.

Camera:
The iPhone has a ok camera on the back. You can only take photos (and video?), w/e
The N810 has a camera on the front. Quality sucks, but you can take photo, video, and video chat. Also, it can be streamed over the web, and act as a security camera.

Keyboard: The N810 has a good thumb board. It is solid and works well. The only problem is the dpad is on it, so you have to slide it out every time you want to use the dpad. The iPhone only has a virtual keyboard. It works well, but takes more mental concentration to use. Also, it takes screen space

Light Sensor: Both have, N810 is more hackable

Temperature Sensor: N810 has one, not sure about iPhone. Its ok...

Prox Sensor: iPhone uses this for calls, W/E

Screen: N810 screen is bigger and hiRes, iPhone is multitouch and hard.

Speakers: Both have decent speakers

Microphone: Both have decent microphone

USB host: N810 has USB host.

Video Playback: Because of the more powerful processor, and the smaller screen, iPhone kicks N810's *** at video and multimedia. That is all I am going to say.

I probably forgot some stuff....

Remember, N810 is older and cheaper..... so......

it all boils down to what you really need:

movies, music, light surfing, light gaming - touch
programming, note taking, heavy surfing (cut+paste), palm, pdf reading - tablet

i never really treated the tablet as a music/movie/gaming gadget, and i never will. maybe that's why i've no interest in the touch. for me it's more of a serious productivity device. typing on my n800 has really grown on me, i can even type faster than my friend types on his eee pc

I've both and totally agree with you

Touch can be fascinating in a first contact but you should come back three or four months from now and tell us

with ITs you have a full feature browser even with flash
many apps running at the same time
bigger screen
SD card slot, GPS, bluetooth and so on

and you don't need iTunes with your IT