Nokia N800: What comes with it, and how you can replace anything that's missing

To get the most out of this tutorial, watch the video above and then read the text below.

If you want to comment on this tutorial, please post in the comments section at the end. If you have any questions or problems regarding your tablet, please post about them on Internet Tablet Talk's Newbie Forum.

Nokia N800 Internet Tablet sales packages vary slightly from region to region, but all of them should contain the following. If you buy an N800 second hand, you may not get everything that the sales package contains, so I've provided some hints for how to replace each item just in case you have to.

- The N800 itself, including a battery cover and stylus (plastic pen) tucked into a compartment. I'm not going to tell you how to replace this. ;-)

- Nokia BP-5L battery, which is the same as the battery used in the Nokia E61 smartphone (but not the E61i). You can buy or order a replacement BP-5L from most phone shops or electronics stores.

- A standard Nokia 2mm charger, the same charger which has come with all their new phone models since 2006. If you have a new Nokia phone, you can use the same charger on your N800. There are different Nokia chargers for different parts of the world (Continental Europe, UK & Ireland, USA etc) but they all have the same 2mm prong on the end which plugs into your N800.

- A spare stylus. You don't actually NEED a stylus to use the N800, speaking personally I prefer to use my fingers, but if you prefer using a stylus then you can use any stylus from any touchscreen device. One drawback though: if you don't use an official N800 stylus, it won't fit into the N800's stylus compartment.

- An SD (Secure Digital) memory card, which is used for storing any kind of data such as music, videos, photos, documents, programs, games etc. The exact type of card will vary depending on when and where you buy your N800. SD cards are very cheap and easy to buy yourself, and if you intend to store a lot of stuff on your N800 then it would probably be a very good idea to replace the sales package card. You do NOT need to use a Nokia brand SD card, other brands (especially San Disk) are just as reliable and significantly cheaper. You can use any capacity card, including a brand new standard of SD card called SDHC which has a higher capacity than normal SD cards. You can use any physical size of SD card, including miniSD and microSD, as long as you use the SD adaptor that comes with the card (for example, the card in the video is a miniSD card within an SD adaptor). You can also use a slightly different kind of memory card called MMC, which is roughly the same shape and size as SD cards. The N800 has two memory card slots, one inside and one outside, and you can use two memory cards at once.

- A 3.5mm handsfree stereo headset, which is used for listening to things such as music, radio, video etc, and also allows you privacy when using the N800 as an internet phone through services like Skype and Google Talk. If you have to replace this, you have two options which depend on how you want to use the headset: if you just want to listen to things such as music, video, radio etc, then you can just use ordinary 3.5mm headphones (which are the most common kind of headphone, and used in practically all music gadgets such as Walkmans, iPods etc). If you want to use the N800's phone facilities in private, without everyone hearing your conversations through the speakers, then any replacement for the headset will have to be another headset. You can't just buy any old headset though, because most phone headsets have 2.5mm prongs instead of 3.5mm, so they won't fit in the N800. If you can get a 3.5mm phone headset (ask at your nearest phone or electronics shop), this should work fine in the N800.

- A cloth or leather case for the N800. The cases included with N800s seem to vary greatly depending on where you buy them, but all of them seem to be fairly soft and not the kind of thing that would protect the tablet from many knocks. However, there's a VERY cheap and easy way of buying a replacement case with proper padding: the N800 is very slightly smaller than the PlayStation Portable games console, and cases made for the PSP work just as well protecting the N800. You can buy PSP cases for extremely low prices on eBay, and they are also widely available at video game and electronics stores.

- A miniUSB cable. Apologies, but I forgot to include this in the video! The miniUSB cable that comes with the N800 has a miniUSB connector at one end which plugs into the N800, and a normal USB connector at the other which plugs into your PC. This cable is very very useful, it lets you transfer all kinds of information such as photos, music, videos, documents etc between your tablet and your computer. The cable also performs an extremely important function, it lets you update the firmware on your N800, but that's a huge topic of its own. The miniUSB cable is cheap and easy to replace, it's the same kind of cable that's used on many mobile phones and digital cameras. You can buy them in any electronics store, they're usually available at a low price, and they don't have to be Nokia branded. One thing to be careful of though, make sure you use a miniUSB cable and not a microUSB cable. MicroUSB cables look very similar to miniUSB but they have a slightly smaller connector so they can't be plugged into the N800.

If you have any questions at all about this topic, please click on the "comments" link below. All comments are moderated by me, so they won't appear immediately.