Announced on 25th May 2005 the N770 is regarded as the first Internet Tablet PC. It was – unsurprisingly – hardware and format derived from an earlier smart-phone – the Nokia 7710. There the similarity ends; the 7710 runs the closed-source Symbian Series 90 operating system, has a smaller, lower resolution, screen, and is of course totally incompatible at the applications level. Nokia has yet to launch a Linux based phone and – useful as they would be to developers – such open-source phones are currently as rare as the proverbial hen’s teeth. The N770 is of course not a phone!

The most obvious N770 feature is a rigid half-shell case designed to protect the screen from sit-upon accidents. This adds a bit to the size, but is nevertheless a worthwhile addition. What’s not immediately obvious is that this half-shell operates a hall-effect type magnetic switch in the device itself to signal to the operating system when it is fitted the screen-covering way around. In normal use it’s possible to leave the case off entirely or to fit the machine to the half-shell flipped horizontally, so fully exposing the screen. In this configuration it provides both something more substantial to hold onto, and extra shock protection on three sides ready to take an edge-on impact.

Touch Screen

The 800×480 resolution 4.5″ screen surface feels quite spongy to the stylus compared with later models. Regrettably it’s also the primary failure point of the device. Although I haven’t yet dissected one it feels like a quite thin sheet of plastic covering a flexible gel. Many people report a stock fault in at least one manufacturing batch resulting in a corrupted display. I’ve been lucky enough not to have experienced this problem first hand. The screen certainly works well enough, and is bright, sharp, and clear.

Consumables

The battery used is the large BP-5L 1500 mAh 3.7 V battery – exactly the same as the E61 “qwerty” keypad phone, E90 Communicator, and indeed the later N800 Tablet (though not the N810) – and is more than adequate for a day’s normal mobile use. The machine uses a reduced size MMC flash memory card (RS-MMC) for bulk data storage in common with Nokia phones of similar generation. It won’t accept the now much more common SD flash memory cards (of any size: Standard, Mini or Micro). This can be a bit of a pain at times as MMCs, particularly the RS ones, are now generally regarded as obsolescent. Nevertheless quality brands are still available at a reasonable price if you search the net and avoid chain-store mobile phone and camera shops where, if available at all, they are often grossly overpriced.

WiFi and Bluetooth

In common with all Nokia WiFi equipped devices it’s very sensitive; probably more so than your much larger notebook PC with its larger internal antenna(s). So, it makes an excellent and fully featured wireless hot-spot finder. If you’ve tried one of the many dedicated finder devices that disappoint you may conclude that owning an N770 is worth it for this usage alone! It has also acquired a bit of a reputation as.. ahem.. a wireless network hacker’s tool; this for the very same reason. Bluetooth is essential in a device like this, and that too is both sensitive and easy to configure.

Under-standing Difficulties

The real mystery behind the device is how to assemble the simple desk stand. But that’s only if you haven’t seen an assembled one before. It’s not immediately obvious that the two black plastic pieces pull apart, or that they slot into each other cross-wise to form an angled support cradle. Curiously there appears to be no illustration or photo of this in the accompanying manual!

The formal specification can be found here, so we’ll not dwell on info easily gleaned there, or indeed the features it has in common with later devices like the N800 and N810. The most recent production examples of the machine are shipped with the Gregale version of Maemo. Note that it isn’t possible to easily upgrade it to OS2008 (Chinook) chiefly due to memory limitations, though there have been some attempts at this with varying degrees of success. The 64MB of RAM memory is also the main reason you’d want to upgrade to one of the later marks.

Verdict: Given the well under £100 ($200) price of even brand new N770’s at the moment it’s still an excellent device to try out the Internet Tablet format for yourself before you commit more money to the concept. It’s certainly good enough to handle mobile e-mail; carry and view PDF documents; play audio tracks and amazingly good videos; act as a excellent GPS with a Bluetooth GPS head; and of course browse the Web whilst mobile. For the most part you will only run into memory limitations if you try to have several applications running concurrently. The 770 can still make a useful semi-dedicated device for cost critical applications like home control. And – as they are still sought-after – you should have no difficulty moving it on at nominal capital loss. ♦