Jaffa's Projects

Although the discount codes aren't working yet, I've managed to play with an N810 (which may well end up becoming my wife's). Here are some random thoughts:

• It's thin. Much thinner than I was expecting. Although you definitely notice the heavier weight compared with an N800. It's not too heavy, though.
• The brushed metal and styling generally is very nice. I love the look of this thing, and not having the d-pad on the front makes it that much neater.
• I keep hitting "Escape" when trying to hit the "Home" key on the side when switching between browser windows. Escape in the browser causes it to go back. Doh!
• The keyboard is nice, not as nice as an Eee's (of course), but much better than the thumb keyboard. Fortunately, I don't have fingers that are that fat, so the well-commented lack of space above the top row isn't too irksome.
• The GPS didn't take too long to acquire it's initial lock (I left it out in the garden for 5 minutes this morning). Acquiring a new lock takes a few seconds when it's just tucked (upright) in one of the compartments below the dashboard on my car. Very happy with that, what with all the worries about lock time acquisition.
• The car mount comes with no instructions whatsoever. I've worked out that you can pop the back off the N810-specific bit to bolt that on to the stand; but the stand itself has to be screwed into a dashboard. That ain't happening on my car. No sir. It looks like it should be possible to get a sucker-style or clip-style stand; but whether these are separately sold - and where - is unknown.
• I often get my nail between the keyboard and the screen, rather than the keyboard and the flip stand. Again, a little irritating.
• Media playback is better than ever. Although there's a nasty bug whereby it forgets it knows how to play a file: #2565.

• Talking of bugs, there're a few irritating ones:

  • #2564: No consistency on scrolling/scrollbars in bundled OS2008 applications
  • #2567: Maps should restart showing your previous location, not the country at a zoomed out level
  • #2568: Menu icons for newly installed software are not shown at correct size

Overall, very impressed. Get one if you haven't got an N800 already.