Goodbye N800 - Hello Eee PC

You can't have it all.  Which sucks.  But sometimes you can have a little bit at a time.

Thanks to a random comment on an Engadget article - I am now trading "straight up" my Nokia N-Series Internet Tablet for a Modified Asus 4GB Eee PC 701 Model.  The Mods include BlueTooth, 2 GB of RAM, and an overclocked CPU.  Also it has Windows XP & MS Office, (although, I'm not sure that I will keep the OS - I know OS X has been ported to the Eee PC).  And an external 20GB HD, and a wireless mouse.

What I'm giving up is my N800, the sleeve and case I have for it, a BT fold out keyboard (with its own case), and an adapter that lets it serve as a USB host.  Also all the software needed to run it, and to accept a WiiMote as input.

Is it an even trade?  I dunno.  But we both seem pretty excited about it.  And as long as we are both happy - that's what matter, right?

I am really gonna miss my N800.  But - let me tell you why I was willing to let it go.  I plan on getting a Pandora as soon as it comes out - and the Pandora would have obsoleted my N800.

What's a Pandora?  I'm glad you asked.  Here's an un-official "press release" from the Pandora forums.

The latest handheld gaming/computing device is nearing completion. The spiritual successor to the GP2X, the Pandora is already capable of running Playstation 1 games at full speed and has the potential for more advanced console emulation in the future. The Pandora is a fully open computing platform which will run a custom Linux OS on TI's latest ARM SoC, the OMAP3530. Beta hardware is already being tested by well known handheld scene developers.

• ARM® Cortex™-A8 600Mhz+ CPU running Linux
• 430-MHz TMS320C64x+™ DSP Core
• PowerVR SGX OpenGL 2.0 ES compliant 3D hardware
• 800x480 4.3" 16.7 million colours touchscreen LCD
• WiFi 802.11b/g & High Speed USB Host
• Dual SDHC card slots & SVideo TV output
• Dual Analog and Digital gaming controls
• 43 button QWERTY and numeric keypad
• Approx. 10+ Hours battery life

For more information, visit the official web site http://openpandora.org or the Pandora Wiki at http://pandorawiki.org

Here's what I call it - it's a UMPC with a focus on gaming.  It is more powerful than even the N810 WiMax Edition - except without the BT or GPS.  It's the same architecture as the N8X0 series - so porting the open source version of Maemo (Tablet OS2008) shouldn't be a problem - and devs are already working on it.  (both BT and GPS could easily be added via USB.)

So, anyway, with the Pandora coming out in a couple of months - and this Eee PC deal on the table - and the N800 potentially loosing a lot of cash value with the impending release of the N810 WiMax Edition - I jumped at the opportunity.

I know the guy I'm trading with has read my blog (that's how he knew I had a N800 in the first place).  So, I hope he doesn't get upset with the trade after reading this.  :)  Bare in mind, Korey, the Pandora will cost about $330 - so it's not like you could have gotten the Pandora for your Eee PC.  Like I said in the beginning. I'm not sure that this is a fair trade.

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