Nokia 770 vs. TabletKiosk eo UMPC round 2: The Coffee Shop

I went to an internet cafe in Phoenix to give them both the cafe test. I fully charged the TabletKiosk eo and locked the buttons before I left, ensuring a fully charged battery when I arrived. I ordered an iced mocha and went back to my favorite room. Limited seating, sadly, so I found a corner of a sofa no one was using.

First I'd give the Nokia 770 a shot at being a primary machine for a coffee shop. For this task, I paired the machines with a Stowaway Universal Bluetooth keyboard. Here are a few tasks and it's performace:
Comfort - (Raw specs: 5.55" x 3.11" x .75" (WxHxD) - 4" widescreen 800x480 LCD - 8.11 ounces.) Holding the tablet in my left hand and operating the keys was fine with my stylus in my right hand. The device is very light and "hand sized" and generates no heat so it's easy to use the device for extended periods of time. The device sits perfectly in the Stowaway keyboard's pop-up PDA holder and is stable enough to perform screen taps. Since the keyboard locks flat on one knee, I can use it as a very very small laptop.
Display: The native resolution on the display is identical to the TabletKiosk eo, but the 770's screen is much smaller. This leads to much sharper images on the screen but no ability to emulate higher resolution modes. The 770 compensates for that by putting two "zoom" hardware keys right at the user's left index finger. Still, due to the size, it's hard to read at arm's length or farther. There are two main advantages the 770 has in this category. First, applications are built specifically for the Nokia 770 tablet at it's resolution. Second: There is a hardware button for launching an application in "full screen" that is a TRUE fullscreen mode.
Web Browsing - Opera - Rendered pages beautifully. Ajax heavy sites (Gmail, etc.) were a little slow to render but showed up in place. Wholly different experience than browsing on PDAs, smartphones, etc. Flash 9 not supported so YouTube/Google Video is out of the question. However, Flash cartoons at HomestarRunner.com looked good (but not perfect.) I love the ability to just drag the web page vertically with the stylus. Using the arrow keys to select links was good too - that way I always know I am hitting the right one. There is no AdBlock extension for the N770, so all ads showed on screen slowing load times.
Instant Messaging - GAIM - Message windows appear full screen, so switching them from the application launcher is needed. However, it did a good job loading my buddy list and going back and forth in typing wasn't bad.
Streaming Video - Orb did a great job but still was limited to around 200Kbps before it choked on the stream. No Windows Media support and Flash videos were flaky (depending on the version of Flash required.)
Writing - AbiWord is not yet ported to Maemo 2. I could not write. However, the advantage of using the display and keyboard on one knee is something the eo does not have.

I switched the Nokia 770 to start Orb streaming video from home (I'm behind on my South Park episodes) and left it on, then fired up the TabletKiosk eo. I set the stopwatch on my iPod for the exact moment the power LED turned on and ran it until the battery drained. Same tests:
Comfort - (Raw specs: 8.98" x 5.75 " x 0.98 (WxHxD) - 7" widescreen 800x480 LCD - 31.68 ounces.) The TabletKiosk eo is made of a very smooth plastic. The back has ridges that I assume are there for added grip, but since the unit warms up so much, my hands sweat quickly and the reduced surface area (from the ridges) actually makes it MORE difficult to hold. There is no graceful way to hold it in one hand, operate buttons, and use the stylus.
Display:At the native resolution and with Windows' natural way of handling applications, there is very little screen real-estate for applications. The device can interpolate up to 1024x600, but the antialiasing problems at that resolution are very apparent when the device is placed at arm's length or farther.) The device is WAY too large for the Stowaway keyboard's stand so bring your own stand or risk the "stylus in the back" trick. That never felt stable to me as every tap moves it out a bit. Windows applications are often optimized for 1024x768 or higher (or at least 800x600) so running them on an 800x480 display makes them rather crunched.
Web browsing - Firefox with Adblock Plus - Having the best browser available with all the latest extensions is nice, but a lack of a convenient middle-click was readily apparent. There's no way to emulate middle-click with a touchpad either. For every operation that would normally use a middle/wheel click, I had to hold the stylus down on the item, wait for the menu, then choose the operation I wanted. Even so, it was a more powerful web browsing experience.
Instant Messaging - Trillian Pro works well, but without a way to map keys to ctrl-tab or alt-tab it got cumbersome. At high resolution, the tabs are hard to hit with the stylus. At low resolution, there's not enough screen area. Coupled with the comfort flaws above, I'd use the 770 first unless I wanted to exchange files or webcam chat.
Streaming video - It's Windows XP Tablet PC Edition inside. It supports everything, and it looks gorgeous on the bigger display. Clear winner here.
Writing - Wordpad - You don't want to write more than an Email or instant message with the on-screen keyboard and would want to bring your own keyboard AND the stand for the device if you were to write anything more lengthy. At that point, why not just bring a laptop? However, regular Word or OpenOfficeOrg can be installed on this machine, so there are clear advantages in power.

A note on battery life:
The TabletKiosk eo at half brightness doing only the chores above forced itself into suspend mode at exactly 1 hour, 58 minutes. While it was suspending, it hard-locked and stayed at "preparing to suspend" for an additional 5 minutes until the battery died. That's fine for an extended coffee-shop visit, but not good for a student writing a term paper or an executive drafting a proposal for a client. During that entire time, my Nokia 770 was streaming video from my home and when I next looked it was

Summary:

1. Comfort: Nokia 770 is the clear winner. The ability to hold it securely in one hand or set it on the keyboard's stand plus lack of heat sets the 770 far ahead.
2. Display: Tie. Both have limited screen real estate and both compensate for it in different ways. The eo's greater size and hardware resolution-switch button is offset by the fact that the 770 has a zoom button, a fullscreen button, and runs applications native to the 770's resolution.
3. Web browsing: The TabletKiosk eo is the winner here with full Firefox and up-to-date extensions, but the 770's greater comfort and battery power advantages should be noted for extended browsing sessions.
   
4. Instant Messaging: On one hand, the Nokia 770 wins on the comfort angle. If all I wanted to do was chat for hours on end, I could fit the 770 and the Stowaway keyboard in my pockets. Without a full QWERTY keyboard on either device, Instant Messages should be few and far between. On th other hand, rarely is messaging the only task of the computer user. The eo gets this prize for better multitasking around IMs.
   
5. Writing: This one goes to the eo. Short documents can be hammered out on powerful word processors on the eo, but a retail version of Word is over $200. If I wanted to write something on the run then hammer out the details later, I'd use the 770 with AbiWord. If I wanted to write something and have it ready to present when I was done, I'd use OpenOfficeOrg on the TabletKiosk eo. Since the latter is more important, the eo gets this one.

Final notes:
There is a lot of oooh and aaah in the coffee shop over both devices. Some people say they'd love a 770 for between classes without lugging around a laptop while others call it useless. I've been collecting opinions on both for an upcoming post. If you want to impress your friends.

Which would I rather take to a coffee shop?
I'd take the TabletKiosk eo with a bluetooth keyboard... unless I was to be away from an outlet for more than two hours.