Nokia N800 vs. Sony PSP

[kim-chee-san]

I'm interested in picking up a small, portable machine to do some light internet surfing and play back media. I've narrowed it down to the Nokia N800 internet tablet and the Sony PSP. They both have almost the exact same screen size, built in wi-fi, and media playback capability. They even go for about the same price.

For my needs, is one better than the other? I don't have any experience at all with either of these so input from people who have used one or both of these machines would be really appreciated. Thanks!

[aaa]

My preference would be the N800, simply because it would probably be easier to do the things you want on that, and it probably does them better (browser choices, for example).

[qviri]

I'm of course biased here as an owner of an N800, but it seems to be the better browsing device.

The screen on the PSP is 480*272 pixels, while on the N800 it's 800*480. While it means that text will be smaller, many more websites will render correctly in 800 px. There's always zoom, too. N800's browser is also more advanced, and supports Flash 9 on newest firmware - PSP only has Flash 6.

It's also worth pointing out that the N800 has a touch screen that works both with your fingers and a provided stylus. Scrolling through a webpage with your thumbs is rather addicting.

I haven't used a PSP, so I can't comment how it is for media playback. In my experience, the N800 can be quite picky about the type of video it will display, but there are converters. Music playback is pretty unproblematic unless you happen to have Oggs, and there are multiple alternatives to the default media player that comes with the device. Some come reasonably close to the iPhone/iPod touch experience (finger scrolling, etc). That's another beauty of the N800 - it runs Linux so you get more non-Nokia applications that let you do more.

Battery life seems to be comparable for comparable for comparable tasks.

[mikey pizano]

As a PSP owner I say get the Nokia. The browser on PSP is really crappy and you can not input much text so posting here would be hard if not impossible.

[Andersonjoe711]

As a PSP owner I say get the Nokia. The browser on PSP is really crappy and you can not input much text so posting here would be hard if not impossible.

Agreed. The Text imput on the PSP has to be the most cumbersome system ever. I would rather imput text on my Razor than my PSP, less hand cramping too.

[qviri]

I feel compelled to note that I'm not terribly impressed with Nokia's warranty and customer service. I can offer more details once my situation gets resolved one way or the other, but so far I've been without my tablet for three weeks and Nokia seems to be unable to provide an estimate of when I can get it back.

Of course, I don't know how this compares to Sony's service, but it may be something to note.