Nokia 770 Handheld

Let's face it, there are times when you're traveling light and the thought of bringing a big bulky (or even a not so bulky) laptop with it's associated accessories and inherent fragility is just too much of a hassle.

The 770's compact size, instant-on capability, built in Bluetooth and WiFi (802.11b), hard reversible slide on cover (protects the screen very well), decent 5-7 hour battery life (up to 7 days on standby) and small power adapter/charger seemed perfect for the minimalist traveller who still needed some internet connectivity. The WiFi reception and performance is excellent, it is often able to pick up WiFi routers that my laptop cannot see. Battery/power usage is increased when you're using bluetooth or WiFi, so the unit is best used occasionally if you want to maximize your battery life.

I was an early adopter, and truth be told, the original Linux OS and it's bundled/associated software (Opera Browser, E-mail client, RSS reader, music player, media player, various games and other software) had major issues with stability and performance. Much to their credit, Nokia has updated the 770's OS and applications several times and most of it's issues are resolved - the core OS is much more stable with an uptime that can go for weeks between reboots. An occasional spontaneous reboot does happen (likely due to the device's limited memory) from time to time, but reboots happen quickly (under 2 minutes) and are a marginal hassle.

Handwriting recognition is built in and trainable, but not very effective for me (perhaps my writing is too messy?). The pop up keyboard and thumb typing keyboard however are very effective; word completion is built in to make your hunting and pecking typing efforts easier. A decent PIM suite/address book/contact manager are still sorely missing (the very limited built in address book is just not up to snuff), but this can be addressed by using one of several Linux PIM suites that have been ported over to run on the 770.

The Opera web browser renders most web sites competently. There is an Optimized display mode that adapts web sites to the 770's 800 pixel width display width so that side to side scrolling is minimized (as most web sites nowadays are optimized for a 1024 or greater pixel with). There is also a rocker switch that changes text size up to 250% for readability. It's not perfect, but vastly improved over the miniscule displays found on most cellphones, smartphones and PDA's. Web applications like Gmail, Google Reader and Google Maps work well with Opera, but these applications demand more screen real estate than the 770 has. Though usable, you'll be using a smaller font size to get everything to fit on the screen even with the Optimized view setting turned on. While not perfect, it is surprising usable and certainly better than trusting a strange public terminal for sensitive browsing (ie. accessing your bank's web site, sending e-mail, etc).

The built in E-Mail client is frankly terrible, luckily, Claws (a Linux/OSS e-mail client) has been ported over to the 770 and offers most all of the functionality you'd find on a e-mail client like Outlook or Thunderbird.

The built in RSS reader is very usable and one of the 770's strong suites. It is basic but gets the job done. Just be careful you don't try to download too many feeds simultaneously lest you run out of memory and induce a freeze or a reboot. The latest version of the RSS reader allows for text zooming/increasing font size for easier reading. It's nice to be able to download your RSS feeds for viewing later on, even when you have no internet access (ie. on a plane). There is a setting for "Off-Line mode" that shuts down the built in Bluetooth and WiFi radios so you can use the 770 in places where wireless access is prohibited, with the added benefit of saving on power usage/battery life.

While it's multimedia capabilities are ultimately limited by the 770's modest CPU, you can play back music, internet streams and even video (re-encoding to a smaller resolution for skip free playback is needed, there is free software to do this painlessly) will play back well on this little marvel. It's nice to have a couple of 1-2 hour programs stored on your RS-MMC card to watch on a long flight to pass the time and the display looks great especially when you consider it is 4 x the pixels that you get with most portable DVD players or even the PSP.

As of the latest 2 releases of the 770's OS, you now also have the ability to text and audio chat/VOIP right on the unit. Though only G-Talk is officially supported, there are other open source/Linux chat and VOIP clients available.

One of the best uses of the 770 is as your portable e-Book reader, it's 800x480 screen size makes for much more pleasant reading than you'd get on a non-dedicated e-Book reader (like on your cellphone or PDA's tiny screen). It's screen has an excellent DPI resolution, renders text nicely.

There is a built in PDF reader that will work in a pinch but it is a little awkward to use and slow to render complex PDF's. A better solution is to use Opera to read your HTML formatted e-Books or install FBReader, a open source e-Book reader that will open/display many different common e-Book formats. There is also a port of EVince which is an improvement over the built in PDF reader and as a bonus, it will open image archives (CBZ's) that are often used for comic books/graphic novels/magnas that are found on the internet.

Though the 770 is now technically obsoleted/superseded by Nokia's newer Internet Tablet the Nokia 880 (faster CPU, more memory, newer Linux kernel, updated Opera browser, built in video camera for chatting, FM tuner) you'll still find active support for this device via it's thriving community of Linux hackers/enthusiasts who continue to port a wide variety of Linux software to run on the 770. Thereby giving the 770 a continued lease on life.

Check out www.maemo.org for an impressive list of ported software. Anything from games, VNC and other remote access clients, terminal applications, SSH, WiFi stumblers, alternative web browsers, text editors, word processors, spreadsheet programs, drawing programs, journaling programs, blogging clients, e-mail clients, media players/controllers, bluetooth utilities, network sniffers, the list goes on.

Make sure you check out the various games that have been ported to the 770. It's a great way to kill some time when you're stuck in some airport waiting for a flight. The built in Mahjong time game is very addicting, and yes, you can download and install classics like Minesweeper and Sodoku as well as more arcade/action type games. The 770's touch screen and limited button/keypad layout makes the 770 better suited for puzzle games than fast furious arcade/action type games. There is even a port of MAME so you can load up on your classic arcade favourites right on your Nokia. The high resolution color screen looks fantastic and the 770 is more useful being able to browse the web, email, and write notes than your PSP or dedicated handheld video game unit.


The strength of this device is in the fact that you are not just limited to the software that Nokia pre-installed with it, but you can effectively tap into a large library of ported Linux applications and a thriving community of Linux/770 enthusiasts for continued support and development. Installing new applications can be a bit daunting at first, but the new Application Manager in current software makes it fairly painless once you locate and configure the appropriate repositories of (free!) software that the 770 can draw from.

Will the Nokia 770 completely replace my need for a laptop? Honestly, no. There are time where you do need a full powered Windows/OS X/Linux computer to get the job done. But for a weekend jaunt where you're travelling light, it does the job well. I've used it in foreign with my unlocked RAZR phone (using a locally purchased pre-paid SIM card) to access the internet via WiFi and via GPRS and a bluetooth connection between my phone and the 770. I've even lent my 770 to a friend who was travelling/backpacking in Asia for a month and it was all he needed to browse the internet for information and check his e-mail. Personally, I like to travel light and though using the 770 entails some tradeoffs, it will get the job done admirably.