Update on my charger search. I picked up this solar charger from DealExtreme. It has a 2000 mAh battery, which should be enough to fully charge the 1500 mAh N810 once. One thing to know: it doesn't come with the new-style Nokia adapter that the N810 needs. Luckily, I had one from the other gadget that I mentioned in my first post and they seem to be compatible. Another note: the picture is wrong, it comes with the US AC adapter (which is luckily what I wanted).

The most important thing that I learned is probably obvious to all of you, so I'm going to be checking myself in to a rest-home for the terminally stupid tomorrow . I was at first very disappointed with my battery pack, since I switched off my N810 and began charging and it only gave a charge of 30% or so. Then I realized that when the N810 is charging, it doesn't ever turn the screen off! And the screen consumes a lot of juice. I tried charging the N810 while it was turned on but in offline mode and with the screen asleep, and it seemed to charge it up fully (or it at least came very close to fully charging it; I walked away after starting the charge and came back when the battery pack was dead; I never actually saw the LED glowing solid green, but battery-status gave me a 99.6% readout, so it probably did glow solid green at some point).

I think I've seen people allude vaguely to this before, but it didn't click, so I'm going to spell it out. This is the crucial point: if you're charging your N810 from a battery pack or solar charger or something, always charge it while it's switched on, or if it's dead completely, start charging it and then switch it on. Because, as you would naturally expect, the N810 is a device that uses far less power when it's switched on than when it's switched off .

See Control Panel - Display. You can choose whether it stays lit when charging or not.

Thanks. That might improve the charging performance even more. I'll give it a try.

Edit: I just checked the control panel, and there is a setting for "Display Stays Lit", but mine is already set to "Never" instead of "While Charging". Are you sure that this setting still applies when the N810 is switched off?

How about this one?

http://www.backcountryoutlet.com/out...TS_bcs_TRB0002

Sorry, I read your original message a bit hastily so I didn't realize you were charging it while turned off.

alaaji: That's a neat looking charger. Have you bought one and tried it out? Or just considering it? If you do buy one, let us know how well it works for tablets.

aot: No problem. It was a rather long post.