Personal Technology columnist Walt Mossberg reviews the Nokia 770 Internet Tablet in the Wall Street Journal, Not Yet the Holy Grail: Nokia’s Tiny Computer Is Crisp, but So Slow.

The review doesn’t say anything that hasn’t been written before, giving the 770 its due on the compact size of the device, the marvelous screen and the spendid web-browsing and faulting its other apps and its choice of memory card and CPU. It is in fact so un-new, not even mentioning VoIP using Google Talk, for instance, that I thought it was a review written last December and inadvertently re-posted on the occasion of OS 2006 showing up. But Mossberg advised me by email that he got a review 770 only two weeks ago, so the comments are all current.

Mossberg falls into the camp of those who wish the 770 were more like other devices — faster CPU, built-in keyboard — and who don’t give Nokia any credit for releasing a product a third the price of the UMPC and more than a year in advance of all but Sanyo’s device. So he can say with a straight face, “If you … just want to surf the Web on a small device with a great screen, the 770 might be for you. But for most mainstream users, the 770 is a disappointment.” Perhaps next year when all those clunky, heavy, expensive UMPCs start showing up, he’ll appreciate what we have now.