The Ultimate Linux Handheld

Last year’s winner in this category, the Nokia 770, has a younger sibling, and, as oft happens, the kid takes the cake. Nokia’s N800, the follow-up to the 770, is smaller, lighter, better-looking, faster and has a larger brain.

Although the N800 bears a high resemblance to its older sibling and retains the overall layout, excellent 802.11 and Bluetooth radios and razor-sharp 4.1″, 800×480, 225 pixel/inch color touchscreen of the 770, many things have changed, including:

• Built-in stereo speakers, instead of a single speaker.
• Better microphone positioning.
• The addition of a 640×480 Webcam.
• The addition of an FM receiver.
• An upgrade to USB 2.0 connectivity.
• Two full-size SD card slots with a supported capacity of 2GB each, (in testing, a 4GB card worked).
• Instead of the 770’s single RS-MMC slot, a faster CPU (TI OMAP 2420 at 330MHz vs. the 770’s OMAP 1710 at 220MHz), yielding about twice the performance of the 770.
• Twice the RAM (128MB).
• Four times the internal Flash (256MB).

Overall, the appearance of the N800 is fantastic. It looks like a finished product, while the 770 had a “prototype” look. This attention to detail is obvious-from the newly designed aluminum front cover down to the built-in stand that locks at both 45 and 90 degrees. It even includes the little touches of chrome and lettering on the slide-out stylus.

Read more at LinuxJournal