You may recall the great fanfare with which I welcomed Skype on the Nokia N800 Internet Tablet last summer. Well, now the N800 has a new sibling--the Nokia N810 Internet Tablet--and it also runs Skype. It's now shipping in the US and will be available very soon in Europe.

I think it's fair to call the N810 a sibling to the N800. The insides of both are nearly the same: they have the same processor, screen, connectivity through WiFi and bluetooth, amount of RAM and battery life. The main difference is that the N810 adds a slide-out keyboard and GPS receiver. The N810 also has a fixed camera on the front where the N800 has a pop-out camera that rotates, and the N810 has 2GB of memory built in (but only one SD slot where the N800 has two). Look here for a nice comparison.

The Nokia N810 runs OS2008, Nokia's Linux-based operating system for its Internet Tablets, and in mid-December (according to this page) a final version of OS2008 will be available for N800 users, bringing many new features to the older tablet (I love a good firmware update!).

Last week I was able to play around with a pre-release Nokia N810 and was quite impressed. I'm not prepared to give it a full review (as it was beta hardware), but I have a few observations...

###On the Hardware

The Nokia N810 is a good bit smaller than the N800, yet still manages to add a keyboard and GPS. Like many people, I almost always prefer a keyboard to a stylus for data entry; I found the sliding mechanism for getting the keyboard out very satisfying to use. The keyboard does take some getting used to--the feedback you get while using it is a bit softer than on other thumbboards I've used (like the Blackberry Curve or a Sidekick). Still it's comfortable and after a while I was typing quite easily with it. The GPS is neat, though currently it only has rather basic functionality--Wayfinder plans to release a full GPS navigation solution (with voice directions) in December. (I also hope the active Linux development community will hack something together so the GPS inside works with Google Maps.)

###The OS & Skype

OS2008 looks very slick--it now has transparent elements. It also felt more intuitive to me than OS2007--I found it easier to switch between applications and the menus were more logically laid out. Aside from looking nicer, OS2008 adds several improvements to Internet Tablet functionality, the most important of which (in my opinion) is support for bluetooth headsets. Now you can chat on Skype cord free (without it having to be on speakerphone).

Speaking of Skype (the most important part, of course): It runs as well on the Nokia N810 as it does on the Nokia N800 on OS2007. It was really easy to open up Skype and connect, and I was able to participate and respond in chat messages much more quickly using the keyboard than I could have with the stylus. It was great to use and yet again the hardware team had to pry the test unit from my tightly-clenched thumbs when it was time to give the N810 back.

Currently when you get a Nokia N810, there's a Skype icon pre-installed that downloads and sets up the latest released version. Soon it will also be available as a direct download here.