Although the N800 does a lovely job for a small mobile device of accessing the Web and personal e-mail, and provides excellent playback of media stored on the device, it is missing or has incomplete implementations of some other capabilities. Perhaps the most glaring omission is the inability to sync personal information -- contacts, appointments and to-do lists -- with a desktop PC.

It does have a built-in application for contacts, but you'll have to enter those contacts directly onto the device. Most mobile users will still need to carry their contacts and other personal information on a separate device.

And while VOIP would be a killer app on the N800, it is available only via Google Talk and Jabber. Nokia has publicly said a Skype client is under development for the N800, but it isn't available yet, so most users will still need to tote their cell phones for making and receiving phone calls. The same shortcoming is true with instant messaging: There's no AOL Instant Messenger, Yahoo! Messenger or Windows Live Messenger support.

Battery life is fair but not exceptional. It's rated at 3.5 hours of continual Web browsing over a Wi-Fi connection. A small but curious omission is that, while the built-in Bluetooth capabilities support a variety of profiles, the N800 does not support the A2DP profile for Bluetooth stereo headphones.

Does it add up?