After using the N800 for a few weeks now, here are some follow-ups to my initial review.
Steven from UMPCPortal reports that his N800 broke after accidently dropping it from just a few centimeters of height. Ouch! So to reiterate: This is a fragile device.
It is just slightly too long. Unlike the Palmpilot, which was designed for a shirt pocket, the N800 cannot be carried comfortably. If Nokia could just cut a few centimeters off the case… (Does the N800 really need stereo speakers?)
Thanks to its size, it’s hard to find a good case for it. This is the ugly thing I use right now. It’s too big for my coat:
Siarhei Siamashka, the developer of mplayer for Maemo, made some benchmarks and found out that the graphics bus bandwidth to the video framebuffer is 3 times slower than on the Nokia 770. So despite its better CPU, the N800 will most likely never be able to display full-resolution video at 800×480 @ 30 fps. Daniel Stone confirmed this and explained in related discussions that the N800 uses a different hardware architecture. Since the TI OMAP CPU’s system-on-a-chip LCD controller was not suitable for the N800′s screen size, the device required the use of an external LCD controller.
Frankly, this looks like a design mistake on behalf of Nokia: They have chosen hardware with closed drivers and apparently it’s still not the best fit for the targeted screen of the device. This is a major disappointment, since video on the go is my personal killer application.
Disclaimer: This was a personal review of some small issues that bother me, not a general “Nokia’s hardware sucks!” complaint. Actually, I like the N800 quite a lot.
They have chosen hardware with closed drivers
Which? If you’re talking about the 3D core, there are no alternatives: there’s the 3DLabs processor, which I’m not sure exists anymore, and the ATI Imageon, which also requires closed drivers. Note that we don’t use the MBX anyway, so it’s not at all relevant …
Thanks for replying! I have to admit that I’m not even close to knowing as much about the hardware as you do. (Forgive me, I’m a developer of perl web applications, not a system hardware architect.)
Yes, I did think of the 3D driver: http://macslow.thepimp.net/?p=106
As far as I know, there is also no source for power saving, for development on the DSP or for the WLAN driver.
Please correct me where I’m wrong.
Other than the religious debate about how horrible closed drivers are, is there a technical reason a closed driver on a purpose built device like this is an issue? Would it get in the way of enjoying “killer apps” as noted above?
I am disappointed about the bus speed issue, but I can say that I’m thrilled about what the overall progress from the 770 to the 800 tells us about the next gen product. I hope Nokia is listening to all the feedback and refining the product roadmap so that the next device hits it completely out of the park.
As it is, this device is ideal for light field use for what we do in the telecom sector. I even firmware upgraded an outdoor wireless router from the unit today. I think the network configuration needs easier access to advanced settings (rather than having to go in to the control panel and walk through a wizard) and I think some much more powerful wifi stats/tools would be quite useful, but overall I’m very pleased.
-Jeff
there is also no source for power saving, for development on the DSP or for the WLAN driver.
Incorrect. power saving sources are in kernel. DSP can be programmed with dsp gateway (all current applications on the dsp are closed source). There is third party GPL wlan driver.
http://maemo.org/pipermail/maemo-developers/2006-April/003575.html
Funnily enough nobody out of the “OMG non-free code”-crowd has modified hacked, or even tested the GPL wlan driver.. So, if you are not going to modify the driver, why does it need to be open source?
Two more points:
1) it’s *still* a internet browser tablet, not a personal media player. If you are making a device for internet browsing, why would you select components according to personal media player requirements? The current display controller is sufficient for web browsing.
2) postings like yours is the reason most hardware manufacturers don’t communicate in public. “OMG NOKIA sayz it’s hardware suXXX”. Now that’s a great way to thank for coming out in open and explaining how the hardware works for the general public..
@Jeff: If a company designs a product and chooses the components, it will always have to make compromises. On a Linux device, most people readily accept closed-source drivers if the component is among the best on the market and/or its price can’t be beaten.
(There’s a reason people including myself buy Nvidia for Linux PCs, despite all the zealots’ complaining about their drivers.)
In case of the N800, the hardware design has some issues. The new hardware is less capable than its predecessor for one particular thing. That happens to be the thing this user is very interested in. So I am just disappointed that the hardware component is neither the obvious best choice nor “open enough”.
@Horst: You are exactly right, I am complaining about things that bother me, but not you or Nokia. They will never make everyone happy. (Added a disclaimer to the blog post to clarify.)
You are also right that the N800 isn’t designed as a media player, but it’s oh so disappointing to realize that a curious design compromise makes this otherwise wonderful Nokia product incapable of doing just that.
And point taken, I am not a driver-level developer and just parroted “OMG non-free code” complaints I read elsewhere. (Who am I to complain when my only contribution is a throbber?)
It’s just that this device has the best screen I’ve ever seen on a device of this size, the CPU ought to be fast enough to decode video and – damn – the hardware to access the screen appears to be crippled.
postings like yours is the reason most hardware manufacturers don’t communicate in public. [..] Now that’s a great way to thank for coming out in open and explaining [..]
Sorry about that.
The “It’s not a media player” crackpot argument:
Given that just about the first comment on the 770 was: “We want better video playback!”, should have given Nokia a clue that the users didn’t exactly agree with Nokia’s stance on what the tablets should be used for.
Comments like “horst lederhosen”‘s show such a disdain for user feedback that one starts to wonder what the nick really stands for.
If this is representative of the Nokia attitude towards users, then my next purchase will be from a truly open-minded company. The FIC NEO is looking better every minute now…
@Karel: You are a bit unfair. When the 770 came out, I remember that people asked for a lot more and diverse things. Better video playback was not the main improvement everybody asked for.
People complained about the lack of a camera, an integrated cell phone, a GPS receiver, a harddisk, a powered USB host, a slide-out keyboard. People wanted PIM applications, better email, better flash for Youtube playback. Some are even asking for NewtonOS
The FIC NEO is looking better every minute now…
The FIC NEO isn’t perfect hardware, either. It has no WLAN, only USB 1.0, no 3.5mm-headphone jacket…
@ Hanno: I know that people asked for everything and the kitchen sink for the 770 and its successor, but better video playback was so much needed that mplayer was almost immediately ported and is still one of the most popular applications. Actually, come to think of it, the powered usb-port was in the same league, and look how Nokia treated its user base on that one with the N800. Do you start seeing the pattern here?
As to the NEO, wLAN is promised for the consumer version later this year, its usb port is at least functional and I already have a 2.5 to 3.5mm adapter. And the NEO is completely open: hard- AND software; that might tempt me to take some featuritis flack.
Funny thing about video – it seems I am in the minority of people who do not care about it. Handheld, laptop, desktop – downloadable video is the least of my interests. I find podcasts and YouTube videos to be the slowest way to recieve information. Give me text and static images for 99% of what I need – especially on a small screen.
For me the N800 works well, as it properly renders most of the web content I need, especially corporate webmail applications. As more and more companies restrict remote message delivery to the web (no POP3, IMAP), having a portable that runs a decent browser has made the N800 worth the money. Far more than any Palm or PocketPC device I have owned.
I carry my N800 in my shirt pocket all the time and find it perfectly comfortable.
You must have a big shirt pocket.
As Horst pointed out, the power management code is all in the kernel. To my knowledge, the only code related to power which isn’t public is the battery regulator (modify it and you can literally make your battery explode), and DSME, which actually does surprisingly little.
The wireless firmware is closed source indeed, but this is an external chip.
The firmware released today (2007.10-6 or so) contains a hell of a lot of work on the video side, which boosts video performance like you wouldn’t believe (not so much for YouTube as that’s a Flash problem, just with the media player and Canola). Give that a try.
No hardware platform is perfect. Finding a platform which has power usage even in the same league as the N800 is next to impossible, especially when you combine this with the requirements for speed, availability (lots), price (cheap, we’re not selling UMPCs), heat dissipation, features, …
As for the DSP, I believe you can write your own DSP codecs using the dspgw stuff, but I honestly don’t know more about the DSP.
(As for the 3D driver, there are only really two chips in that space: the Imagination/PowerVR series, which is also contained in the Freescale i.MX31 and most ARM system-on-a-chip blocks, and the equally-closed ATI Imageon. So, unless someone wants to build an embedded, ultra-low-power, relatively capable, 3D core …)
I have dropped accidentally it twice from 1 metre, and about 1,5 metres and my N800 doesn’t have a dent. I find it hard to believe that a normal “few cm” drop would ruin it.