Nokia 770

[MadDog]

Has anyone seen the Nokia 770? I've seen peaple asking why the gp2x has no wifi, blue tooth or a touch screen. I think we've all thought, would be cool if we had one or all of these + other misc additions. But i've always then thought, wow, would drive up the cost. Well the nokia 770 is an under powered gp2x from what I can see but with all the 'wish list' addtions and its £245!!! Guess thats why the gp2x does not have these.

Looks good, and nice to see the mainstream companies dumping winCE.

linuxdevices/Nokia 770

 

[Epicenter]

Ah yes, I think I saw this in a magazine not too long ago. It's a neat little machine, very similar to the GP2X indeed .. but there are some differences that would hinder me using one / developing for one. First of all the buttons are all on the left side of the unit with the navigation pad (probably makes a poor d-pad anyway, most PDA navigation pads do.. too clicky), there is probably no blitter so 2D performance might suffer a good bit (not that ARM9s are slow at software blitting, no, they're very fast.. but it's still limiting.) And yuck-- RS-MMC? While not a bad technology, it's pretty damn nonstandard. One of my favorite things about the GP2X is that I can copy files to/from its SD cards from my laptop's internal SD card reader or my digital camera's SD card slot without anything in the middle.

 

[torpor]

My GP2X can do everything the 770 can do .. wireless USB WLAN (no sweat), mouse+keyboard, external hard disk .. in fact, my gp2x's are a veritable little cluster of small, affordable, portable workstations ..

 

[Magnulus]

Most mobile phones today are overfeatured, I think.
All I want is a phone that has a long-lasting battery and that isn't a total pain to write text messages with (I HATE text messaging. GRAAAALGH!) My current phone is the Nokia 3510, which is B/W and doesn't even have WAP. The most advanced thing about it are the polyphonic ringtones (which work very well for the Star Wars ringtone that blares out every time I'm called. ^_^) and I wouldn't want it any other way.

I'm worried I might have to get a new phone soon, though as this one likes to shut itself off when people call me. I appreciate its concern for my privacy, but I think I can reject calls on my own. ^_^

 

[Larch]

there is probably no blitter so 2D performance might suffer a good bit (not that ARM9s are slow at software blitting, no, they're very fast.. but it's still limiting.)

It's supposedly based on the OMAP 1710, which has a "2D accelerator", and also hardware video encode and decode features.

 

[oqnet]

Most mobile phones today are overfeatured, I think.
All I want is a phone that has a long-lasting battery and that isn't a total pain to write text messages with (I HATE text messaging. GRAAAALGH!) My current phone is the Nokia 3510, which is B/W and doesn't even have WAP. The most advanced thing about it are the polyphonic ringtones (which work very well for the Star Wars ringtone that blares out every time I'm called. ^_^) and I wouldn't want it any other way.

I'm worried I might have to get a new phone soon, though as this one likes to shut itself off when people call me. I appreciate its concern for my privacy, but I think I can reject calls on my own. ^_^

At least people call you

 

[MadDog]

there is probably no blitter so 2D performance might suffer a good bit (not that ARM9s are slow at software blitting, no, they're very fast.. but it's still limiting.)

It's supposedly based on the OMAP 1710, which has a "2D accelerator", and also hardware video encode and decode features.

Yer, looking at it its just an underpowered gp2x. Its aimed at a different market, I think they used that chip because its got built in wireless stuff.

Search the web you find peaple asking why its not XScale, these peaple are expecting it to be more like a PDA , as I was, than a media center. Just goes to show how much of a bargan the gp2x is.

Nice to see its using Linux and it being very developer friendly. I dream of a day when I can reprogram / add to all my HW at home, my really TV needs some better software on it, can't find a serial port though.

 

[johnapf]

I have a GP2X and 2 Nokia 770's

They are entirely different machines. Here's a quick comparison:

Physical:
They are almost exactly the same Height and Width, but the Nokia 770 is about 1/3 the thickness. It is even thinner than a GP2X would be without the battery buldge.

Connectivity:
The Nokia 770 has Bluetooth and WiFi without installing/carrying USB dongles, hubs, cards, drivers, etc. I should note that currently, the Bluetooth implementation is, IMHO, at least partially broken. Most kinds of BT transfers (OBEX) don't work. Like the GP2X, the '770 functions (natively) as a USB storage device but it is only USB 1.1. They both do networking over USB.

Storage:
The 770 uses only RS-MMC's. These are currently limited to 1MB. 2MB cards are supported with a patched kernel. RS-MMC's cost about 2x as much as a SD card of the same capacity.

Battery:
The '770 includes a 1300mA Li-Poly battery that is recharged inside the '770. Battery life is about the same as the GP2X with a good set of NiMH's. This assumes NO use of the 770's WiFi, and NO use of the GP2X's video out.

Screen:
The '770 has an 800x480 touchscreen. The touchscreen is also pressure sensitive. This is a BIG difference over the GP2x's 320×240. Because of the aspect ratio of the screens, a 16:9 movie looks twice as big on the '770 than on a GP2x. The '770 has no video out, and there is no way I can see that it could ever be added. There is the potential to display presentations (basically screen shots) on a Bluetooth projector, but that is it.

Included Software:
Unfortunately, the '770 software sceen is not nearly as mature as the GP2X. This is the GP2X's main winning point. Great hardware is useless without good software, and unfourtunately, this comes across very plainly on the '770. Like the GP2X, There is a recent 2.0 firmware for the Nokia 770. Unfortunately, the '770 2.0 firmware broke all existing apps, and only about 20 apps currently exist (not counting command line apps/commands). There are no emulators (except ScummVM). Also, while speed has improved in the 2.0 firmware, the 770 does not appear nearly as responsive as the GP2x. Realize of course that the 770 apps are more sophisticated than the ones on the GP2X, and thus larger, but the user just cares about the appearance of responsiveness, and that is better on the GP2X.

Media Playback:
As I mentioned, the '770's screen is much better than the GP2X's. The included media player, however, is not as good as the GP2X's. There is no hardware decoding/scaling. There is no resume feature. In the old (2005) firmware, the 770 could only handle mpegs of certain resolutions, and the framerate was limited. This caused noticable skipping on anything I have played on my 770. This is supposed to have been improved in the 2.0 firmware, but I have not had time to re-encode my videos to give this a good test. Any file that will play on the '770 will play on the GP2X, but certainally NOT the other way around.

Price:
The '770 has been available at CompUSA for $299. Given that the 770 includes a Li-Poly battery, WiFi, Bluetooth and a better screen, I feel that it is a better /hardware/ value than the GP2X. The PSP and the Nitendo DS include rechargeable batteries and wireless. Also concider a Nokia N-Gage. These too have emulators available and include Bluetooth, a Li-Poly battery, and currently sell for $99. I feel that the GP2X asking price is too high for what you get. I am not at all unhappy with mine, I just think that to be competitive, the GP2X must reduce the price, and/or include at least 1 form of wireless and rechargeable batteries.

In short, the Nokia 770 does a lot more than the GP2X, but the GP2X is better at what it does.

If there is interest, I'll post a comparison of the GP2X and the N-Gage QD.

 

[MadDog]

Nice comparison, shame the 770 is not as quick, maybe its got slow ram.

Now if only Nintendo or Sony shipped a Linux OS for thier kit WOW! ( Sony did it for the ps2 )

 

[nubie]

I feel that the GP2X asking price is too high for what you get. I am not at all unhappy with mine, I just think that to be competitive, the GP2X must reduce the price, and/or include at least 1 form of wireless and rechargeable batteries.

Interesting, I didn't find $256.60 an awful amount of money for total outlay with a TV cable and a 2GB 150x SD card (this is including $30 of shipping)

But then again maybe you know something I don't, like how to port all of the programs of the GP2X over to your 770.

Play-Asia sells the GP2X for $169 US, that is cheap enough.

The inclusion of wireless isn't necessary, we will have an internal wireless option somewhere down the road.

The rechargeable battery issue is not a good point. For $25 I can get 4 sets of name-brand 2500NiMH and a charger, show me that deal for a PSP or a 770.

Included Software:
Unfortunately, the '770 software sceen is not nearly as mature as the GP2X. This is the GP2X's main winning point. Great hardware is useless without good software, and unfourtunately, this comes across very plainly on the '770. Like the GP2X, There is a recent 2.0 firmware for the Nokia 770. Unfortunately, the '770 2.0 firmware broke all existing apps, and only about 20 apps currently exist (not counting command line apps/commands). There are no emulators (except ScummVM). Also, while speed has improved in the 2.0 firmware, the 770 does not appear nearly as responsive as the GP2x. Realize of course that the 770 apps are more sophisticated than the ones on the GP2X, and thus larger, but the user just cares about the appearance of responsiveness, and that is better on the GP2X.

Nice, the question here is whether any games or applications or homebrew of note will be developed for the 770. I guess you have to include the software (whether or not you pay for it, and whether or not GPH is writing any of it), and have the GP2X come out ahead.

 

[Digitalrat]

Most mobile phones today are overfeatured, I think.
All I want is a phone that has a long-lasting battery and that isn't a total pain to write text messages with (I HATE text messaging. GRAAAALGH!) My current phone is the Nokia 3510, which is B/W and doesn't even have WAP. The most advanced thing about it are the polyphonic ringtones (which work very well for the Star Wars ringtone that blares out every time I'm called. ^_^) and I wouldn't want it any other way.

I'm worried I might have to get a new phone soon, though as this one likes to shut itself off when people call me. I appreciate its concern for my privacy, but I think I can reject calls on my own. ^_^

Did you ever look at the Nokia 770? It is not meant as a phone at all, although it includes skype in the new OS. :>

 

[Epicenter]

Search the web you find peaple asking why its not XScale, these peaple are expecting it to be more like a PDA , as I was, than a media center. Just goes to show how much of a bargan the gp2x is.

Haha, especially funny since an XScale at 200 MHz is about the performance level of a real ARM9 at 100 MHz. Performance would be underwhelming to say the least, and we all know Intel .. an SoC based on the XScale would tack a lot more onto the price.