As a long-time 770 and N800 user, I finally bought a N810. There have been various reviews of the N810, so I will concentrate on the points which I did not see anywhere else, or on the points where I do not agree with the previous reviews.

First: the GPS. I read a lot of comments about poor GPS performance. I did a few tests over 2 days, and I can't confirm these reports. GPS performance seems quite comparable to other devices to me. FIrst cold start in about 10 minutes. Restart after half a day is a few minutes, depending on sky visibility. Warm start is under a minute. The times seem comparable to other devices I have: Holux GPSSlim 240 (bluetooth, SIRF III) and my old Garmin iQue. Sensitivity inside buildings is closer to the one of the Holux (good: SIRF III), than the one of the Garmin (poor: older chipset).


Second: the screen. The N800 could be almost impossible to read in sunlight (e.g. driving in a car... bad for GPS applications). The N810 has a transflexive screen. The good news: it is readable in a car in a sunny day. The bad news: but only with the light full on. The "transflexive" part is noticeably less efficient than on older devices (e.g. the Garmin iQue, or a Nintendo DS), I suspect because of the high screen resolution (smaller pixels mean less light will get in). Colors are also washed out in the sun. Still: it is a noticeable and welcomed improvement.
A small note: I notice fingerprints more on the new screen, I am not sure why. I tend to clean the screen more often.

Third: the keyboard. For me, this changes completely the way I use the device. Not having the keyboard pop up on the screen leaves much more screen real estate. On the minus side: to use the keyboard it is much more convenient to put the device on a table. It is not so convenient to use it freehand. About other keys (on top and on the side): the "lock" switch is a welcomed addition, I am still not very sure that the keys on the front are well chosen (I would have loved a menu key on the front, for example).
The keyboard is lit. Very nice.

Stylus: much smaller (like a palm stylus) and less comfortable to use.

Sound: the N800 had great sound with surprisingly good stereo separation. The N810 is much worse. Still OK for a device that size, though. On a side note: neither the N800 nor the N810 are loud enough for me to hear driving instructions on the motorway. My car is a bit loud, but still...

Case and pouch: the N810 looks much nicer than the N800, in my opinion. I think that the pictures do not do it justice, it looks much nicer in reality. The N810 in its (thin) pouch is also much smaller than the N800 in its (thick) pouch, which is important for a small device, IMO. OTOH, the case scratches much more easily on the N810 than on the N800 and the new pouch gives even less protection. The new built-in stand is flimsy.

Camera performance appears unchanged.

At least for completeness sake, see tgis thread here:

http://www.internettablettalk.com/fo...ad.php?t=12004

I have just tested the GPS a couple of times but I have also not observed extremely bad performance with regard to getting a fix. Maybe not as good as my BT-338 but OK.

I have not managed to figure out how you should use the buttons on the front. You can select and application to switch to but it seems you have to press the screen to activate it so why do you not use the the screen to select it also? And what is the use of the other button? And what is the thing in the mddle of the button?

Thanks, I should have linked to this thread. As I said, this was not a full review, I only wanted to cite out a few points on which my experience was different than the common one.

Which one of these cases is supposed to be the n810?

I find the two buttons very useful. When mixing full-screen applications with others, the buttons are the only way to switch between and closing windows. (Long press of the "back arrow" key closes a window, short press goes back in history when browsing.) What I don't like about them is the squishy feeling when pressed.

Application menu is useful a lot less often, IMHO, so I don't mind it being on the slide-out keyboard.

A few (~3) minutes after half a day _is_ the poor performance that others have reported. Modern GPS devices (including your Holux) get reliable cold fixes in about 30 seconds.

I also have an iQue 3600 and I find that it is significantly faster at cold fixes.

The second one. Original post corrected.

My Holux and my iQue 3600 do not get cold fixes in 30s. I find their performances similar to the one of the N810.


In the end, it depends on what we are testing. If you leave a GPS on for days, so that it has the almanach data of all satellites, and re-start it in a wide open space, 30s is probably what you will get. If you switch a GPS on for half an hour so that it gets 4-8 satellites, than switch it on again after half a day (different satellites will be up) in a city where only part of the sky is visible, a few minutes is what you will get.

good review! the details i really wanted to know well done!