Nokia 770 Internet Tablet Reviewed

phaedo00 writes "Ars Technica has reviewed the Nokia 770 Internet Tablet which is powered by a variant of Debian Linux. Eric Bangeman praises the device for its "wow" factor and has high hopes for its potential, but nagging issues with the implementation, relatively weak specs, and small software library lower the device's chances of becoming a hot item. From the review: 'The 770 could also use some beefier hardware. One of the attractive things about the 770 for me is the price--US$359. In order to hit that price point, I imagine Nokia had to make some hardware trade offs. Unfortunately, those make themselves glaringly apparent at times. 128MB of shared memory isn't enough; neither is a 250MHz ARM processor.'"

Comments

Debian...w00t!

[Orrin Bloquy]

I'm APT to GET something like this.

Agree on wanting something beefier

[gbulmash]

I liked TFA's author's point that he was conflicted, wanting to love it for certain elements, but being seriously disappointed by the slow processor and limited RAM, which he says are probably a function of the low price point ($359). This is in contrast with something like OQO which looks to be very cool, but costs $1299 (MSRP).

Honestly, I'd like to see something OQO'ish in the $599 price point range that can run Linux. That would probably be the best of both worlds.

- Greg

Re:Agree on wanting something beefier

[NeuralAbyss]

Take a look at the Sharp Zaurus SL-C3100. I've got a friend with the C3000, and I'm strongly tempted to get one of the C3100s at the end of the year.

Re:Agree on wanting something beefier

[knipknap]

Well, pretty much the same, which is the reason why I would not buy a Windows PC from Walmart. Also, considering that Windows is far from being the default OS in the mobile domain, I think it's a fair complaint if the vendor is trying to force you into buying the OS with the device.
In addition, it's a lot harder to install Linux on the OQO than it is on a normal desktop, if you read the instructions in the parent's URL. All this makes the device a lot less attractive.

Re:Agree on wanting something beefier

[Saanvik]

The three hour battery life is only if you are using WiFi constantly. Most users report 10+ hours of usage before needing to recharge.

Re:Agree on wanting something beefier

[fm6]

What use is an "Internet Tablet" if it's not connected to the Internet?

Dasher developer agrees

[lawpoop]

I'm very keen on a true tablet PC system ( I hate Palms and other similiar devices -- they don't really seem designed to fully utilize a stylus input), but I don't have $1800-$2500 to spend. I have a 770 on backorder.

I was emailing Chris Ball, one of the developers of dasher, which is a very novel and efficient method for character and word input. Unfortenately, I was dismayed to learn that:

We finished the port. Problems:

• It runs too slowly. We did some basic optimisation, but it's still too slow to feel good.
• The hildon-input-method dynamic library is closed-source, so we can't get it working as an input method. This pretty much removes any further motivation we had for spending our time on it; if you care, I suggest complaining to Nokia.

So I don't think we're planning a release.

What a shame. I thought that with the maemo platform being open-source, this would be a killer device.

Re:Dasher developer agrees

[lawpoop]

From what I got from the conversation, it wasn't the graphics that was the problem. It was the extensive word and phrase prediction that drive dasher:

> [Me] Do you think the slowness problem comes from the smooth animation
> of the letters scrolling?

[Chris] No, I think it comes directly for the probability calculations needed to determine the size for each Dasher node. The CPU on the 770 really isn't that high-spec.

Here's a paper that Chris directed me to.

Re:Dasher developer agrees

[WouldIPutMYRealNameO]

I agree. I've seen Dasher running really quite nicely on a 200 & 400 Mhz PXA255 Linux system. I believe that the TI chip should be somewhat comparable.
Also, if it is the FP in Dasher causing a problem, you can link to software FP libraries, which ought to be lots faster than the kernel method (the CPU executes an FP instruction, which causes an unknown instruction abort. The kernel traps the abort and synthesises the FP in software. Yes, it is as slow as it sounds :)

Re:Dasher developer agrees

[ArsEric]

I agree. From my experience with my old eMate, Newtons, and even my Audiovox XV6600, the 770 had the weakest handwriting recognition.

Re:Dasher developer agrees

[mjg59]

It runs too slowly.

If you grab Dasher CVS right now and build it for a Maemo target (./configure --with-maemo), you'll get something that runs at a just-about usable speed. The floating point has all been removed from Dasher itself, which helps things a great deal (I got about an 8-times speedup from removing a small amount of floating point code - integer maths is pretty much good enough in this case)

The hildon-input-method dynamic library is closed-source

More of a problem. There's currently no API documentation for producing an input application in Maemo, which makes it difficult - ideally, Dasher would be integrated in the same way as the keyboard or handwriting recognition. The other issue is that Dasher makes much better use of vertical screen real-estate than horizontal. On a device like the 770, Dasher would work much better at the side of the screen than at the bottom - and that's something that the libraries just don't support at the moment.

On the plus side, porting Dasher and making it look and feel like a native Maemo application took about 3 hours, including setting up the Scratchbox build environment. Compared to developing for the Zaurus, the 770 is an absolute dream. I'd actually put it ahead of developing for PocketPC, too, despite the lack of a specialised IDE. It's a really nice device for developers, and (despite the occasional obvious lack of performance) it's a much better integrated device than any other small, portable ARM based machine that I've ever used.

So, there's certainly hope for Dasher on the 770 - it's just something that I don't have time to work on at the moment (I'm doing a PhD in genetics right now, so don't have anywhere near as much time to hack on stuff as I'd like to), and Chris has left for the US and h0t chixx0rs (well, possibly only the one). The current performance issues are primarily down to the amount of time taken to draw all the anti-aliased letters, and the simple optimisation of disabling anti-aliasing for them or using Xft directly rather than going through Pango would probably help greatly. Then somebody just has to spend enough time working with Nokia to deal with the input API, convince them to add support for vertical input widgets, rebuild it and things would work beautifully.

If anyone's interested in hacking on it, then check out http://www.inference.phy.cam.ac.uk/dasher/Develop. html and get on the mailing list (Yahoogroups, I'm afraid. Yes, I'm sorry). Someone with enough time could probably get it into a useful state in well under a week.

Some drawbacks.

[Sheetrock]

• It's difficult to use like a laptop -- even plugging keyboard and mouse into the USB, I doubt there's enough room on most laps to hold a keyboard and this device. You can prop it up against a wall, however, if you want to use this like a desktop with an LCD monitor.
• The device does not contain a cellphone, which is a little confusing.
• For the price, it would be nice to have Windows XP on the device. Even if it had to be in a dual-boot configuration, it'd make gaming easier.

Re:Some drawbacks.

[cygnus]

It's difficult to use like a laptop

it's difficult to use like a hammer, either. it isn't long enough to generate enough leverage, and i'd be happier if the weight were distributed more to one end.

The device does not contain a cellphone, which is a little confusing.

it doesn't have a can opener, either. what if i get stranded out in the woods? i'm stymied.

For the price, it would be nice to have Windows XP on the device. Even if it had to be in a dual-boot configuration, it'd make gaming easier.

i'd also like a port of OS/390, in case i want to convert my international banking corporation over to these.

Another Review..

[Dynamoo]

Also reviewed here but the review unit didn't want to talk WiFi. Looks like Nokia's customer service is dreadful and probably best avoided.

But does it run...

[J0nne]

long enough with a full battery to take it along?

you thought I was going to say 'Linux', didn't you ;).

One-handed browsing

[BushCheney08]

The stand is designed so that you can prop the 770 up on your desk, coffee table, or any other flat surface so you can use it with a single hand.

Ummm...

Re:no way...

[rootedgimp]

although that particular commerical doesn't really piss me off that bad, i must say, i am glad to see another person with uncommon views on commercials. i think these companies honestly think the more annoying a commerical is, the more likely it is to stick into my memory, and thereby i will recall their brand in the store and buy it. that is just retarded.

i really think there are some companies that are just so huge and well known already, that noone will be convinced to buy from them based on a commercial they saw. point in case: tampons. if tampon producing companys stopped all television advertising right now, i can guarentee none of them would see a loss of profit for the next quarter due to their lack of tv ads. women know what they use, no out of touch bullshit ad is going to change that.

tv is retarded.

Backordered

[YodaToo]

Unless you got your order in before Nov. 16th, grabbed one of the few at CompUSA, or want to pay a premium on eBay, don't plan on getting one any time soon. Nokia has been awful about meeting their ship dates. I think the date on their web site for new orders is now sometime in January.

A review from a Nokia 770 Owner

[skynetos]

I was a day 1 zaurus owner and this is exactly what the Zaurus should have been but was not. Out of the box, you pop in the included 64meg memory card, turn it on, and boom right in front of my face is my web browser, my RSS reader and e-mail. Best of all since its Linux they support all the secure e-mail connections (tls, ssl, imaps everything) so I don't have to compromise my security while using it. It has a huge library for something that has only been out for a short while. It's package management is 100x better than the zauruses! I jump on WIFI or Bluetooth to my phone to the internet, browse to the maemo.org site, click a package and it asks to open it in the package manager! It uses Opera 8 with Flash support. Plays full screen videos just fine, and let me tell you the screen is incredibly bright and detailed!

Its a 800x480 display, just beautiful! Not to mention the browser is a full one! No PDA versions of web pages, no side scrolling. You can zoom in, browse history and book marks it works!

I installed very easily mind you, GAIM for IM, Doom a bunch of other little games, an xterm, they have SSH for it, and the library is growing!

Drawbacks:
Occasionally, when using it not as intended, say using the not-ready or polished GAIM, or lets say loading up 20 web browsers, with your rss feeder in the background its going to run out of memory. This is an internet tablet, it has RSS feeder, web and e-mail and its all fully featured and ready to go out of the box. If you use it as intended it works and thats that!

Contrary to any reviews I have NEVER encountered any wifi flakyness or bluetooth crazyness. I have used it every day for about a week now, and it is just SOLID. Its design is slick as snot! check out the screen shots below, and check out nokias own site for the 770, its silver metal case and its included pouch is just awsome.

and of course, it runs linux! all my Ipaq and palm friends are very jealous!

check out http://maemo.org/ for more info.
For screenshots: http://maemo.org/screenshots.html
Third party applications you can install at the click of a button: http://maemo.org/maemowiki/ApplicationCatalog
Another Nokia 770 site: http://www.internettablettalk.com/

Biggest gotchas: flash slot and USB missing

[MDMurphy]

I'd be all over this as a remote tool using VNC to either my Mac or PC. The higher-rez screen than we usually see in something this small is the big appeal.

Additionally, I'd use it as a portable viewer of some sort. But what kills it for me is that it doesn't have a standard USB host port or a standard SD or CF slot. Either/Both of those would let me plug in a memory card or thumbdrive and view/transfer/share the contents. RS-MMC is not going to cut it if you'd like to pop in the card from your camera and see images on the screen, and without the standard USB host connector you can't even use a cheap card reader to view. (a hack will enable host mode, but the connector won't be right and can't supply power by itself )

Bluetooth and WiFi are great, but being able to read/write common external storage devices are important too. The lack of them is what killed it for me.

Handwriting Software

[Compholio]

Does anyone know if Nokia will be releasing the handwriting recognition software or does anyone know of any good programs for an on-screen keyboard with handwriting recognition for Linux that's free?

KHTML / Konqueror soon...

[billybob2]

Ars Technica is reporting that Nokia 770 Internet uses Opera, but I would think it's quite possible that Nokia will offer updates containing a KHTML-based browser (some version of Konqueror) soon.

Nokia has been collaborating with KDE developers to build a browser for some of their other embeded systems, such as the Series 60 Smartphone. Nokia engineers have stated that KHTML is more resourceful than Gecko, has a cleaner architecture, and starts up faster. Also, KHTML is free (LGPL), while Opera is proprietary and therefore probably requires them to pay licensing fees and royalties.

Re:KHTML / Konqueror soon...

[MrLizardo]

Someone has already contribted a beta build of gpe-mini-browser which is based on GTK-webcore, which IIRC is related to KHTML in some way. mini-browser has some issues right now, such as lack off HTTPS support, but renders well and is impressively fast on low power hardware. It runs great on my Zaurus C1000 (with an Xscale @ 416MHz). It would not suprise me to see a port of konqueror show up at some point. Firefox is also likely to be an easy port since it will compile and run on a Zaurus (both have ARM-archictecture CPUs), though IMHO Firefox is too heavy for a system like the 770.

How does it compare to Dell?

[Eccles]

The x51V model (I think) has similar specs, and a faster Mhz processor (only 640x480 screen tho'); how do the two compare?

Phone Function

[deconvolution]

Nokia should integrate a mobile phone into this device. I could not understand why they are trying integrate everything such as contact list, calender, mp3 player, game console, even two digital cameras into one mobile phone whilst this is for nothing. Anyone who need 770 for serious purpose must realise each time he/she goes out for travel, he/she must carry one 770, one mobile phone, at least one charger and ear phone. She/he probably have to charge two devices every day. Every true mobile operation must take care two devices (770 and phone) in the same time....

I will wait to check their next release...

Re:Phone Function

[DaveBarr]

A good tablet is fundamentally incompatible with being a phone. A good tablet is flat, rectangular, and big enough to read a web page. A good phone is small, small, and small.

It was plain good design that they a) didn't even try to make it a phone but b) made it dead simple to allow it to bluetooth off the awesome phone you already have. (If you don't have one by now, get one, they're everywhere). I'm tired of otherwise great phones that try and horribly fail at trying to browse the web (and mediocre web enabled phones that horribly fail at being a good lightweight phone). Let me leave my sexy BT enabled phone on my hip where it belongs and let me have this nice sexy tablet in my hands.

With devices getting this small, manufacturers are beginning to make huge mistakes in attempting to merge two already-perfect devices together into a single device that fails at both. (Witness the Rokr flop, yet booming sales of the Razr and Nanos).

Re:Sheesh

[ch-chuck]

Can you say techno-blase?

35 years ago it was "Future Shock", when market demands of science and technology create such rapid changes that it leaves people incapable of adjusting fast enough, leaving them in a state of perpetual disorientation.

Now we have just the opposite, where the insatiable market demands for faster, cheaper and better technology based products cannot be adaquately met by scientific research quickly enough, leaving consumers in a perpetual state of disillusionment and disappointment. ;)

Maybe not if you like Java

[blueapples]

128MB of shared memory isn't enough; neither is a 250MHz ARM processor.

You have got to be kidding me. Considering the fact that the 68k mac was implemented using a 4 MHz processor with 4 MB of RAM and still somehow ran a GUI and was even capable of primitive multitasking with software add ons, I find this statement a bit hard to swallow.

Remember Wirth's Law: "Software gets slower faster than hardware gets faster." Maybe it'd help if the GUI toolkit was implemented in ROM instead of using GTK or whatever bloated "modern" system this is dependent on. Just to name one example of a poor implementation choice for a portable device.

Besides all that, Delphi for instance is capable of producing executables under a few hundred K. You could install several of those on half of 128MB. Honestly, with a device that is meant to be connected to the Internet and thus able to take advantage of lockers, streaming audio/video, etc., I just don't see why the provided hardware shouldn't be more than enough.

This thing is basically a powerful Apple Newton (as originally designed, not as it was released) with a disappointingly poorly implemented OS.

Quit living in the past

[Anonymous Coward]

For example: That Apple had something like 512x384 display, 1 bit per pixel. This has 800x480 with 16 bits per pixel. The ratio is 31.25. That would mean Apple with similar specs would require 125 MHz nowadays just to run the graphics on this thing. (And if you today try the good old Mac... Well, it really sucks.)

Oh, and did it have a web, browser? Or any of these:

  Audio: MP3, MPEG4, AAC, WAV, AMR, MP2
  Video: MPEG1, MPEG4, Real Video, H.263, AVI, 3GP
  Image: JPEG, GIF, BMP, TIFF, PNG, SVG-tiny, ICO

- WLAN?

I don't think they use "modern systems" to slow things down. In fact, it kind of helps to get software & applications _fast_ on the device. But I gotta agree, Windows would've been a better choice. Especially from the developers' point of view.

Comparison with zaurus

[Anonymous Coward]

I just picked up a Zaurus C1000 shipped from Japan for $380.
640x480, keyboard, 64MB RAM, 128MB ROM, CF, SD, 416Mhz ARM cpu, USB host capable

Your opinions will very depending on your use (note no built in networking on the Z), but I'd rather have the faster CPU than the slightly better screen and networking.

Wouldn't we all, friend...

[Kadin2048]

... wanting to love it for certain elements, but being seriously disappointed by the slow processor and limited RAM, which he says are probably a function of the low price point ($359). This is in contrast with something like OQO which looks to be very cool, but costs $1299 (MSRP). Honestly, I'd like to see something OQO'ish in the $599 price point range that can run Linux. That would probably be the best of both worlds.

In other news, I really wanted to like the Kia Rio, but was seriously disappointed by the 110-horsepower engine, which is probably a function of the low price point ($10,570). This is in contrast with something like the Ferarri F430 which looks to be very cool, but costs $174,585. Honestly, I'd like to see something Ferarri-ish in the $15,000 price point range that can do a 13-second quarter mile. That would probably be the best of both worlds.

Quit whining...

[mikiN]

..., start designing.

On all the forums I visit I hear people whining about mobile devices having weak specs like insufficient RAM and slow processors.

The answer that comes up eventually is this:
- RAM, CPU and video chips eat power, raw.
- People don't want bulky batteries in their mobile gadgets.

These two are at constant odds with each other, so unless someone comes up with more energy-efficient alternatives for all the above-mentioned, I'm afraid we'll be stuck with things the way they are for a while.

Quote from an interesting blog posting on MSDN (about the virtues of Persistent Storage on Pocket-PC's):

A typical battery holds 1000mAh of charge. 128M of RAM takes about 500mAh to stay resident for 72 hours. 64M takes about 250. This is why you never saw a 256M WM 2003 device. It would have run for a minute then decided its batteries were critically low.

So there you have it. If you don't trust the numbers (why should you, even if the article is quite recent?), look them up, then do the math.

wifi and ssh?

[twitter]

Bluetooth and WiFi are great, but being able to read/write common external storage devices are important too. The lack of them is what killed it for me.

It's supposed to work with ssh. If that's true, you should be able to drag and drop your files from any computer using Konqueror.

I've done similar with a Zaurus running OpenZaurus. Using GPE, you can even run stuff via X forwarding, which is kind of fun, but silly if you are really intersted in a laptop replacement that fits into your pocket.

Yes, having a CF and MMC/SD slot on the Zaurus was nice. I put in a 512MB SD and used the CF for wifi. The SD worked as a /usr and extra home space. This device has the wifi built in and you will be able to do the same thing with the compact SD as you can with an SD.

The world of Linux handhelds has been sweet for a while now, but things are getting much nicer all the time. It does not take much to run Debian as this wacko from my LUG demonstrates. If a 150 MHz P1 with 70MB of RAM can do it, handheld devices are not far off. 128 MB of RAM should be more than enough, if only they had a 4Gig hard drive on it for OS storage, you could run a full distro. Such machines are on the way and they will be running Debian or some other version of free software.

Re:The hardware's not the problem

[Raphael]

The problem isn't the memory or the processor; it's X Windows and a distro not optimised for a resource-limited mobile device.

I assume that you haven't tried the N770 yet. The applications are reasonably optimized for that device and from my point of view, the benefits of using X11 outweight the drawbacks. Opening a new application takes time (a few seconds) but once the application is loaded, it runs quite well. Most of the performance bottlenecks that I have hit seem to be related to the size and speed of the memory (and CPU) rather than X11.

I have developed and ported software for a large number of small devices using Windows CE, Symbian (UIQ) and now Maemo (Linux/X11/GTK+). Although Symbian is a nice OS from a conceptual point of view and is designed to perform well on resource-limited devices such as mobile phones, writing software for it is very painful. Writing for Windows CE seems to be much easier at first, but there are many gotchas: you think that you can use most of the Windows API, but then you discover that the function that you need is not supported or has some limitations forcing you to rewrite a lot of code from scratch. Writing for Maemo is a refreshing experience: of course there are some limitations, but once you have set up the Scratchbox environment, development and testing is relatively easy (compared to other mobile devices). So from a developer's point of view, the choice of the X Window System and an open distribution such as Debian is a good one.

I wouldn't mind having more memory or a more powerful CPU in this device. But as it stands now, the 770 is already a very nice gadget for web browsing, checking the news or previewing/uploading pictures taken from my mobile phone (SonyEricsson K750).