I should say that once I received the N800 I immediately found that the lack of a hard case was somehow limiting its uses (i.e. I do not bring the N800 when out with my bike anymore, I used to trace my bike routes with maemo mapper - tough my new bike has a pouch where the N800 can fit without problem)

In many ways, the N800 reminds me of my beloved, old HandEra 330. Both feature a large, high resolution display; a pop-up input area; dual expansion slots; a microphone; WiFi capabilities*; no vibration, but a blinking LED; and a fairly useless, low-res camera*.

Both devices also use the same silver front, black back, retro-ugly design. (See: Flickr photoset) I don't like it, but in neither case is that design going to stop me from loving the device and carrying it with me everywhere.

I'd still be using my 330 today, if it hadn't been struck down by the same display failure that claimed so many other 330s as they aged. To my mind, it's the best Palm OS device ever made. In the same way, I expect to hold onto my N800 long past the day the world moves on and forgets it.


* Okay, these require additional hardware on the HandEra 330 side. I have that hardware though.

The HandEra 330 just looks...cheesy. Like something from a 1960s SciFi flick.

Yep. It was bad when HandEra did it years ago, so I was surprised and amused when Nokia made the N800 look so similar. But then, like most of the world, they probably had never heard of the 330, so they didn't have the opportunity to learn from the mistake.

I don't think the N800 looks even close to similar. The N800 design utilizes solid industrial engineering concepts. To me it's simple and elegant. That HandEra device... ack. Sorry, I don't see ANY similarities.

It's REALLY not similar.

Well, okay, they both have buttons and punched holes for the speakers. But that's it.

Well, to me one handheld, touchscreen device with a cheesy silver face, black back, and goofy little holes even where the speakers aren't has some further similarities to another handheld, touchscreen device with a cheesy silver face, black back, and goofy little holes even where the speakers aren't.

It's probably just me though. My sense of design is by no means refined, and I lump almost all silver A/V and computing devices into the "cheap and cheesy" category. Since other folks pay extra for silver stereo components, I'm a least a bit out of touch.

I have the 770 (recent buyer), wanted the extra features of the N800 - but the design put me off.

I like the screen cover on the 770 for protection in my bag and the immediate sleep function.

I like black not silver.

I like square not round.

Here's hoping the 900 will look more like the 700 and come with a screen cover.

Man, I hope nokia doesn't go back to that 770 brick shape. The 770 without the cover is just plain cheap and ugly looking. The slide off case added a nice touch, and definitely a good amount of protection.

As a designer, the n800 isn't that bad. It adds a slicker look and slightly more modern satin silver rather than a cheap overly chromed and silver flake paint job on some new products I've seen. Just be glad Nokia doesn't use the same industrial designers as Targus, Belkin, or Dell.

One of the best examples of going from cheap plastic to slick was the first 3M palm I bought compared to the (then) new Handspring Edge. Talk about nice design. It was thin, slick, had a removable metal cover, and came in 4 metallic colors. It did everything the current palms did and more with the handspring module technology. Not to mention matched perfectly with my (then) newly released brushed metal Mac Powerbook. I used my Edge for years after it was offically discontinued because of it's form and function, even when most PDAs at the time surpassed it in every respect except form.

But I can almost (and as a designer, I really mean almost) deal with the Nokia design path, just give us a cam that is useful, a screen that can be used in the daytime, and bluetooth headset support (nokia has it standard in most of it's phones for heavens sake!!!!!!)