Nokia shows off three devices

NOKIA HAD THREE devices on display at CES, the N800 Web Pad, the N93i and the N76 Raz^h^h^h phone. All were nicely done and had that special 'wow' factor that permeates interesting products.

The first one is the N800 web pad, a $399 small browsing tablet. It runs Debian, Opera for browsing and has a host of other features. Since it is quite open, you should have little problem finding apps that work with it. Out of the box, it plays many media formats, from MP3 to MPEG-4, and will display a raft of picture formats.

The hardware is a little more interesting, it starts out with a TI OMAP running at 330MHz, 128MB RAM and 256MB of Flash, but has 2 SD card slots for easy expansion. The display is a rather usable 800*480 so horizontal scrolling should be minimal. The N800 is a freshened version of it's predecessor that didn't sell very well.

The next one is the N93i, a video camera masquerading as a phone. Even a casual glance at it shows that it does not place phone functionality as it's top priority. The first thing that popped into my mind was "hey, this is a Sanyo HD1 clone", but it is honestly much more than that.

The N93i is a triband GSM phone with EDGE and WCDMA, and runs the S60 3rd Edition OS. It has a 3.2Mp still camera, can capture 640*480 at 30fps for video, and has editing software on the phone itself. It can play most audio formats too, has an FM radio, and comes with CD ripping software.

It is basically a mini multimedia computer with wifi, bluetooth and the capabilities to use it. Calling it a phone is missing the point, it is much more than that. Average phones don't have flip and twist out screens like this, nor do they cost about $600

Last up we get the Nokia Razr, I mean the Nokia N76. Out of all the phones I saw, this is probably my phone of choice. It will play most multimedia formats, browse the web with rudimentary features, and show some standard doc formats. There is also a 2Mp camera for those so inclined.

Other than that, there is not much here, it is fairly simple. I like simple in my phones though, I just want one to talk to people on and store numbers. If I had to replace my old beat up 6820, this would be on the short list. The longevity of that phone, coupled with the solidity of the N76 I was playing with is a good sign. It will cost about $399

The things Nokia was showing were all over the map. All had at least some media player functionality, and none had any glaring defects or functionality missing. The proof is in the using, but so far, they are worth a long look. µ