I have now owned my N770 for over a year. It is showing it's age and now it is relegated to my nightstand. I find it useful only for browsing "last minute" issues before sleep--if I see something on TV or something comes to me that I want to research while I am getting ready for bed. The device has been something of a disappointment to me and I blame Nokia. They should have opened it up long ago, but too much was kept obscured so it failed to garner the attention of those who would have made it close to an iPhone.

I doubt the N800 is much better, my caution to those who may think so.

What's so great about an iPhone? It sucks in my opinion. The screen resolution is much smaller, it's a phone and it doesn't have nifty opensource apps.

The 770/800 on the other hand are made to browse the web (Minimo! ), chat (MSN, Gtalk for me), listen to Internet radio, read books and all that on a nice screen of a device that fits in your pocket. I'd say speed, or lack thereof is the main annoyance of the 770 (can't comment on the 800, but I'm sure it's not *that* much faster).

It isn't so much as "what's so great" about an iPhone than it is what opportunities were lost and mistakes were made by Nokia. Yes, the speed is a major deficit and Apple has the advantage of later technology, but some of that could have been mitigated via software--there is a lot of overhead and wasted process in the 770. The 770 (and 800) were intended to be phones, albeit that was not their primary function. They have failed miserably in that role and do not do much better in their primary role, which is browsing. Don't even get started on the media handling capabilities.

I wager if you spent a week with an iPhone and were then given the choice between the two (go ahead, make it an N800), you would take the apple.

Really? Can you provide a reputable link to back up that statement?

R.
==

I am 100% sure that I would not choose to spend $40 a month for an iPhone (assuming I was given one for free) over spending $0 a month for my N800. Of course, I've only been using my N800 for approaching 9 months, so you have a giant 3-month lead in experience.

So, I'm willing to take your wager. Or are you postulating a world in which money doesn't matter?

$40 a month? Its $20 a month, and if you want to nitpick, it can be unlocked now and you won't need a contract.

Most sites that completely cripple the N800 run perfectly on the iphone. Jellyfish Smack Shopping is a good example.

Not only that, on the N800 I find myself having to scroll horizontally on heavy CSS sites like Ars Technica. If you use fit to width, it breaks all the formating and makes navigating the site more difficult. Even though the iPhone is 480x320, I can flip it horizontally and view the entire site in its _proper formatting_ without horizontal scrolling. So regardless of the 800x480 resolution, Nokia did not do a good job of using it, and don't get me started on the wasted space around scroll bars etc...

While I did have to hack my iphone to add games and a terminal. Hacking my phone was an easier process than installing an application on the N800.

YouTube downloads beautiful h.264 versions of the vids, the media management is infinitely superior. 640x480 1.5mbps h.264 movie rips, an email client that doesn't crash, and calendar/contacts that sync.

Currently, I think the best thing on the N800 is Skype. Everything else is pretty poor in comparison.

I've had my 770 for about a year and a half now. And while there is somewhat of a love/hate relationship, I still use it on a weekly if not a daily basis. There are shortcomings, but when I'm laying on the couch or in bed and don't feel like having my lap being burned by my laptop, or craning my neck to surf the web, its perfect. Could it be a little faster, less buggy, etc.? sure, but its still head and shoulders above what's being offered out there. I don't like the watered down internet, and this works for the time being.

So you can get a two-year phone contract from at&t for $20 a month? Wow,that sounds great! You don't have to sign up for voice calls, or they are free, which?

Where can I see the $20 a month contract? I'm not an at$t customer now, of course.

When I said $40 a month, I think I was quoting the NY Times...

I missinderstood, you're correct about needing $39 phone plan.

Since I used to be a blackberry and n800 user, I actually ended up saving about $15 a month due to the less expensive iPhone data plans. If you aren't a cellphone user I suppose the iPhone isn't the best alternative, but you're really missing out on a fine piece of hardware and software.

Most sites on the web are designed for 800 pix width.

Thus you have to scroll the iPhone horizontally. The iPhone does not have a "fit-to-width" mode and therefore it is only usable for some sites, many sites do not render well. Horizontal scrolling is a pain in the @ss, not usable for longer browsing sessions.

I would only consider buying the iphone, when it gets a proper resolution. With my N800 I can perfectly render 99% of all sites.