Introduction
Nokia 770
Manufacturer: Nokia (product page)
Price: $359
It's been a long quest, the search for the perfect handheld device has. It dates back to the late 1990s for me and has seen a progression of PDAs, smartphones, and Pocket PCs through my housemuch to the consternation of my wife. At one time, my Palm V served me well. But that was before the days of wireless connectivity. The Palm Vx came out and changed all that, and so the search continued.
Earlier this year, my quest led me to the Audiovox XV6600. The bright 320x240 color screen, Windows Mobile OS, and Verizon EV-DO high-speed data network were attractive. However, the lower-resolution screen feels constrained to me sometimes, and the bundled version of Internet Explorer chokes on any number of websites. And when my travels led me out of reach of Verizon's high-speed network, I was forced to rely on the old standby of a laptop and WiFi for 'Net access.
Given the nature of my quest, when Nokia announced its new Nokia 770 "Internet Tablet" last Spring, I was intrigued to say the least. It sounded impressive: a bright, high-resolution color display, built-in 802.11b/g connectivity, a web browser and e-mail application, all in a relatively small package. When they became available in the US, I got my hands on one to see if it could be the holy grail of handhelds.
The Nokia 770 Internet Tablet on its stand
So what exactly is an Internet Tablet?
The Nokia 770 measures 5.5in. x 3.1in x 0.7in and weighs in at a hair over 8 ounces. It also has a 4.13in. LCD display, and what a display it is: 16-bit color at 800x480. It runs something called "Internet Tablet 2005 Software Edition" which is actually a tweaked version of Debian. It comes with a fair amount of bundled applications including a web browser (Opera), e-mail client, audio and video players, image viewer, RSS reader, Internet radio player, and more.
Hardware-wise, the specs seemed a bit light for what it promised. It has 128MB of flash RAM, of which half is available to the user. An additional 64MB of RAM is available via a reduced-size MultiMediaCard. The CPU is the ARM-based TI 1710 OMAP, running at 250MHz. Is that enough for the functionality the 770 aims to provide? More on that later.
Tech specs
|
Display
|
800x480 touch screen, 16-bit color |
|---|---|
|
CPU
|
250MHz TI 1710 OMAP (ARM-based) |
|
Memory
|
128MB internal flash (64MB available to the user), 64MB via includedRS-MMC card |
|
Operating system
|
Internet Tablet 2005 Software Edition |
|
Connectivity
|
802.11b/g, Bluetooth, USB, memory card expansion (RS-MMC), audio out, AC power adapter |
| Size | 5.5in x 3.1in x 0.7in |
| Battery | 1500 mAh Li-ion battery, 3 hours browsing time, 7 hours standby |
| Language support | English (US and UK), French, German, Italian, Spanish |
| Supported file formats |
• Audio: MP3, MPEG4, AAC, WAV, AMR, MP2 |
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