I've been comparing BB 8800, Treo 750, Cingular 8535, in part to stay connected to email on an upcoming business/vacation visit to Ireland. And nothing was quite clicking as my main interests are reading and sending email, reading websites... and GPS would be nice. Those tiny little keys are just something that I can't abide. (Have an older and quite usable Nokia phone to talk with people.)

Then I discovered almost by accident the "Internet tablet" and soon after the Nokia 800. No tech knowledge here... I know what Linux is but nothing about how it works and don't want to learn.

Any reason I shouldn't go ahead with the N800 based on operational frustrations I'm not adept enough to see coming down the road?

Also thinking of adding the Navigation Kit to the tool bag? Is that the same as the "Navicor" system I was reading about here?

Thanks for any help for an almost new user.

This is going to be the best thing in life for you for atleast teh next 4 months....

Damn... I was hoping for about 12 months... freedom from the data charges to access the Internet from a mobile phone device just might do that for me.

Does your older nokia phone support bluetooth?

Everyday i am more and more impressed with my n800. Mostly because the developer community and this forum unlock more and more of its potential everyday.

I can simultaneously play mp3, surf a few web sites, check email and remote desktop into a windows xp if i need to... all at the same time... just task switching. I know this because i did it today on break in my car over bluetooth cell connection... the music never hitched.

I also have about 10 movies on my 8gig sd card which provide pretty excellent movie experience if i need it.

Maemo Mapper is also excellent and i would recommend just getting a cheap bluetooth gps unit recommended by others on this forum and using it with maemo mapper. Its not only a nav system but also like google earth.

I picked up a nokia770 over a year ago and have seen the developer community grow... the apps they created (in addition to nokia themselves) have really matured so i'd say its a great time to get in... most everything is already there.

One word of caution, my newer n800 has beautiful brightscreen but it seems to scratch easier from stylus under normal to light usage. Add to that the flimsy pouch and you will need to be careful with it. If you prefer to treat your electronics in a more rugged way, get an older 770 and forego some newer apps.

No bluetooth on my present phone... so useful things that come from connecting from a phone to the N800 are not in the picture right now.

Primary initial interest came from the ability to "just" connect by the wifi to the Internet and from that to read and respond to my Yahoo personal and business email. Much of that email will have my presentations attached (as very large Powerpoint files) but it isn't critical that I be able to read those.

A point that I waver on is this... most of my frequent trips require the laptop come along with me for the presentation and the N800 won't remove that need. Unless... I can just put the present on a memory stick and use another laptop at destination... then leave the whole laptop case behind me and just bring the tidy N800 along to stay in email contact at hotel, airport club and such... almost every place I go as wifi access. And, I'm told and read, wifi will be fairly easy in Ireland in August.

Overseas I've found that the Nokia N95 + N800 combo to be about the best one can get.

Pipeline!...i just pulled the trigger on the n800...but can u tell us which memory card you are using?? 8gb?...i'm concerned because of the whole latest firmware issues with the SDHC cards....do u keep your 8gb card in the internal slot??...i heard the external one seems to be the one where cards are getting messed up.

Thanx!

I see... yes you will probably still need your laptop for presentations... even if there was a powerpoint there is currently no video out.

What i would do is what you're thinking-- use the n800 everywhere else. The mobility and usability is outstanding. I own a umpc which i would say is twice as mobile as a typical notebook and i would think twice about lugging it around to airport/hotels, favoring the n800 which i can slip into a pocket and no one even knows (most importantly me since I am able to forget I am carrying it!)

I have only had it for a few weeks but i got an 8 gig OCZ class 6 from newegg. I keep it in my internal slot and use another spare 2 gig sd in external. After another few weeks i will likely purchase another 8 gig card.

So far my movies werent very 'write' intensive i just copied them and subsequently read them.

I do use that card to hold a 128meg swap file and lately i've been caching some maemo mapper maps which do alot of disk writes.

So far no problems. I am -hoping- any problems people are encountering are either from mixing with (previous?) experimental kernel patches (before official support came out), alternative filesystem format structures (i never formatted the card i just used default format), or usage with hardware like sd card readers which may not correctly support the new sdhc standard.

To be safer (from what i dont know) you could use the internal slot for mass storage of media which the n800 will just read from and put a smaller sd card in external for write intensive apps. I am guessing no card was ever trashed from reading a movie or mp3. I also do all transfers (to sdhc card) connecting n800 directly to host pc via usb (this method i figure has had the most qa testing put into it)

You should absolutely upgrade to the newest firmware (which added sdhc support) before putting an sdhc card into the device though.

From everything I've read, the N95 trumps every phone available now... not really needed for 2 weeks in Ireland in August, but definitely something to plan for in the future. Not, at the moment, available from AT&T (my present phone service) but then there's no real need to stay with AT&T either.

Very favorable point about N800... freedom from phone services in the U.S. Not to mention the very nice screen for web viewing and email reading... much better than a smart phone for my eyes. I can actually see the numbers to dial on my present Nokia... not something I can easily do on a BB or the Treo 750.

And thanks for the earlier tip on the fragility of the N800 screen... will definitely plan on one of the cases reviewed here if the purchase happens.