Recently I've started to want more versatility out of my 5th gen ipod. The screen is too small to watch movies and the last time i tried to put movies on it the encoding process seemed a lot more difficult then it does now. Web browsing would be nice. Instant messaging would be nice. Basically i want a device that keeps me connected and isnt a smartphone.

I was wondering if, with a little work, could the n800 replace my ipod? Or would I be better off with an Archos 605 wifi.

Also, I dont mind only have 16gb's of memory possible. I dont mind doing a little prep work for certain things and I also have a linux media server I could stream stuff from.

N800 with a nice program like UKMP or Canola would go far beyond what an iPod could do, I think it'd work perfectly for you

Thanks! I am never against fiddling around a little bit to get things to work the way I want, especially if its linux.

So to me it seems the only drawback to the N800 is that it doesnt too video as well as the Archos, but from what I read the re-encoded videos look pretty good. Could someone link a video?

Im ok with a little loss in video quality for the better battery life.

Thinking about it, hell, I would even be happy if it did music well. The video is just a pretty sweet bonus.

I haven't had much trouble with videos on my N800--90% of the time they worked without any re-encoding (I use MPlayer on the tablet). And videos on that screen are just so nice I'm pretty sure Archos can't beat that

It does music great, and has many, many super-powers, as you would expect from having a computer in your pocket.

"Also, I dont mind only have 16gb"

16gb hell, you can probably get 32 gb from the two sdhc slots, and you may be able to get 64 gb if you can afford it. Of course, you have to buy the cards.

Stay away from the Archos if audio quality is important to you. Every user review I've read says that it is very poor. I'm very happy with the quality on my N800.

I am curious about battery life on the N800 versus the iPod's.

Can anyone comment on this as I do NOT own an iPOD, just an N800 but have gotten into argumentations as if the N800 battery is "as good as iPod's" in terms of charge duration.


Commenta? Thanks in advance.

Well I have listened to the FM Radio for an 6 hour shift at work and my battery dropped maybe 50%. I was also to get about 2 hours of web browsing out of it after that before having to recharge. This was on my n800 is the OS2008 beta

ANYTHING is better than an Ipod to me. I've had my music in MP3 since 1999, and haven't used anything besides PDAs, SD-slot decks, streamers, and PCs since. Ipods lock you into DRM which is anti-opensource. I'll get off the soapbox now

Oh yeah! Forgot to mention... Ipods have non-replaceable batteries. I know it can be done, but really... it's so much easier to just open a battery door and swap out the uber-cheap BP-5L when it runs out of oomph. Look up the battery model online, you can find it for a song! Plus desktop chargers are available too....