I was just playing with one of these units (disclaimer: I work for a company making add-on software for the unit, but we’re outside of Nokia’s sphere of influence), and I was pretty impressed with the quality of the device. It’s pretty light, and the screen is readable even at the default level, but zoom buttons on the top of the unit are helpful for looking at something close up. The speed of the unit is sluggish in places–mostly when opening/closing apps–but overall is more than acceptable. It’s not Palm or PocketPC speed, in other words
We tested the browser and were able to view HomestarRunner for Flash content as well as browse Google Maps, the latter of which would be extremely handy in many situations. It also includes an audio player, and I was about to go to Digitally Imported and stream their ShoutCast stations without trouble. The “loudspeaker” is a bit tinny at higher volumes as expected, but with headphones it would make for a very nice portable music player as long as your battery life and signal strength hold out.
My biggest beef just with my initial impression of playing with it for 30 minutes is that there isn’t a microphone built-in. If some sage programmer were to get Skype running on the device…that would make for a very multi-functional device. I suppose a USB microphone could be connected to the mini-USB port on the bottom, but built-in would be much more convenient. In short, my initial impressions were favorable. It’s much better for web browsing than a PocketPC, both in terms of the technology in the browser as well as the screen size. I think the real key that would ensure the success of this device is add-on software to extend the basic functionality.
Microphone is actually built in, No software support
at this time though…
There is a microphone on the device. It’s in the small hole next to the battery charger plug’s hole.
There s no driver for it yet, but it will be available in the next sw release (in 2006).
Comment by JussiP 11.17.05 @ 3:00 amAs for the microphone I don’t think you’ll se any USB products as this device AFAIK is a USB slave (if thats even the right term) but it can’t host any devices in other terms. How about the bluetooth headset route??
Comment by Clifroy Henry 11.17.05 @ 5:37 amIt is not a “slave” but it doesn’t give power so you can’t run a microphone from it
Comment by ano 11.17.05 @ 11:48 am