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Nokia Booklet 3G Review

Nokia’s debut on the netbook market was met with a lot of excitement. Being the number one mobile handset maker in the world, it’s pretty interesting how they’d implement their very own netbook with the Nokia Booklet 3G.

The Nokia Booklet 3G is the Finnish company’s answer to the growing netbook market and to separate themselves from the rest, they’ve included some signature Nokia touches into the product.

Yugatech 728x90 Reno7 Series

There are four major aspects that this unit scored very high marks in my book:

Solid Design and Form Factor. The Booklet 3G is compact and solid with aluminum mostly used in the chassis construction. Obviously, Nokia took a lot of time and effort to make this device. The lid has glossy-black finish surrounded by a silver bezel. It’s sleek and slim design makes it one of the thinnest netbooks around (just 20mm).

And for the 10.1-inch size, it’s actually also very light at only 2.76lbs. Having that Nokia logo on the lid surely does attract a lot attention and surprise — yes, Nokia now makes laptops too.

The display screen is glossy and prone to fingerprints but offers better resolution (1280×720 pixels) than most other netbooks in its category.

Very Long Battery Life. The Booklet 3G has a 56,800mAh battery and the low-power Atom Z530 running at 1.6GHz offers a nice performance to save up on battery life. Even when running Bluetooth, 3G and WiFi altogether, the Booklet 3G still registers at least 6.5 hours of battery life.

With WiFi on and Bluetooth and 3G off, the notebook can handle up to 9.5 hours. Hands-down, it’s got a pretty impressive battery life (without sacrificing the design with a protruding battery compartment at the bottom).

Built-in 3G/HSDPA Modem. There’s a SIM slot on the right side of the unit. All you need to do is insert the SIM card, input the APN (access point name) of the 3G provider then click on connect to start.

There’s an indicator whether the connection is on GPRS or HSDPA so you’ll know if you’re on a fast connection or not. I’ve tried it both on Globe and Smart networks and works perfectly.

Built-in GPS with aGPS feature. Another great feature is the built-in GPS and aGPS function of the Booklet 3G. Just load up the Ovi Maps on the Windows 7 Gadgets panel.

The other specs of the Nokia Booklet 3G are pretty standard in its category. You get a 120GB HDD, 1GB of RAM, Intel GMA 500 graphics chip, WiFi 802.11n, 1.3MP webcam, 3 USB ports and even an HDMI port. The SD card reader is hidden inside a compartment slot together with the SIM card.

What’s missing is a LAN port and the back panel of the laptop is completely sealed, except for the battery pack. The only thing that bugs me with the unit is the keyboard layout (the Enter key is too small so I kept on hitting the # key beside it).

Nokia Booklet 3G is not yet officially released in the Philippines and I have this gut feeling it might not hit the country at all (I hope I am wrong). Besides, we’re not really sure how much it will cost if ever it arrives in the country. Best Buy is selling it for $199 in the US with a 3G contract and $599 without one (Php39,000 according to our source).

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Avatar for Abe Olandres

Abe is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of YugaTech with over 20 years of experience in the technology industry. He is one of the pioneers of blogging in the country and considered by many as the Father of Tech Blogging in the Philippines. He is also a technology consultant, a tech columnist with several national publications, resource speaker and mentor/advisor to several start-up companies.

25 Responses

  1. Avatar for Frank Frank says:

    Nice review but its quite expensive for a netbook.

    Pros:
    -Long battery life
    -strong 3G and wireless connection
    -Attractive design
    -Sim slot(very convenient)
    Cons:
    -Slow performance (Atom based tech)
    -No LAN (not really a problem because you can buy a USB-LAN connector as a solution)
    -Slow HD (as some comments on other countries)
    -Too expensive if, as you say, would be priced at 39K
    -Only 1GB RAM for running windows 7?(the OS would just eat its memory if its windows 7 home premium)

    Well, lets hope its worth the releasing here in the Philippine coz in my opinion, its more of a luxury than an ideal netbook.

  2. Avatar for ocean16 ocean16 says:

    aluminum? heat conductor? hmm..

  3. Avatar for Calvin Calvin says:

    hmmm, doesn’t look slim with its boxy design. love the resolution though.

  4. Avatar for Glenn | Glich Glenn | Glich's Life says:

    The battery life, sim card slot impressed me. No LAN? Big disappointment :(

  5. Avatar for lowell aguirre lowell aguirre says:

    wow, I want to have one!

    -Sent via YugaTech Mobile App

  6. Avatar for Abe Olandres Abe Olandres says:

    @sky – yes, true. the unit was shipped to me from the UK.

  7. Avatar for sky sky says:

    “The only thing that bugs me with the unit is the keyboard layout (the Enter key is too small so I kept on hitting the # key beside it).”

    This is because this is not the typical US keyboard layout (which Filipinos also use). Notice the smaller left Shift key and the special symbol between the left Shift key and the Z key. etc.

    This is what the keyboard should look like. http://reviews.cnet.com/laptops/nokia-booklet-3g-black/4505-3121_7-33777243.html?tag=mncol;lst

    This is most probably a European keyboard layout. Most definitely a British/UK keyboard layout (notice the UK Pound sign on the 3 key)

  8. Avatar for StrayArrow StrayArrow says:

    All the specs discussed are pretty much awesome especially the battery life… and the built in 3g/hsdpa modem… hopefully it will be available in the Philippines soon….

  9. Avatar for symbiandreamsdotcom symbiandreamsdotcom says:

    @francis

    it really dpends on ur needs, what you want wat you get. But still there are lots of products that we didnt expect that they exceeds on our expectations.

  10. Avatar for francis francis says:

    its $599.99 without contract and $199 with an at&t plan at bestbuy.com, but then again, iPad is coming out soon…… ang hirap talaga magdecide unless i buy them both haha

  11. Avatar for Justin Dibale Justin Dibale says:

    Price is a non-issue. Nokia should have already considered this during the designing process. For sure they don’t seem to be targeting the price conscious group but those looking for an unique unit that not being seen as falling into the main stream.

    Lots of people will carefully consider the pricing. But there are still a strong segment of elite. they look at the spec,if they like it, they buy it. When they see a better one after a few months, buy again.

  12. Avatar for Justin Dibale Justin Dibale says:

    the battery life is very impressive.

  13. Avatar for jab jab says:

    I was very lucky to have sat beside Abe during the Make Money Online Seminar… Abe even let me get my hands on it… feels like a very small macbook pro… i’m sure the aluminum chassis is the biggest reason for the price…

  14. Avatar for Jon Jon says:

    This would have been a great product only if it was priced a little bit on the cheaper side. Yes, it does have outstanding battery life, but I’m pretty sure not a lot of people would be attracted to it’s price. A Nokia branded netbook for me is not attractive compared to other brands, and it would likely be a novelty item instead.

  15. Avatar for MIKE MIKE says:

    We respect nokia for long cellphone history. Most of us grew up wl nokia user interface. However, their new booklet 3G is not that impressive (IMO). Wl the proliferation of netbooks, there is plethora already of great choices. Big players are very aggressive on pricings. In fact, latest models wl better pine trail processor are being sold below 20t pesos almost same price wl previous gen a year ago. So, there is nothing special wl nokia offerings. Nothing “out-of-the-box” so to speak.

  16. Avatar for Miguel Miguel says:

    Now this could use the MeeGo platform.

  17. Avatar for Jhay Jhay says:

    It would work well here in the Philippines thanks to the unlimited access promos being offered nowadays.

  18. Avatar for symbiandreamsdotcom symbiandreamsdotcom says:

    @choosypinoy
    ur ryt,the biggest point of NB3 is on the battery life but sadly, the price is no no.

  19. Avatar for choosypinony choosypinony says:

    very good battery life! LAN won’t be much of a necessity, however, you must have a 3g subscription or atleast always be in a wifi spot all the time. if this retails around 20k in the Philippines, this is a good choice. But the Enter Key, Asus and HP, and the rest of the netbook veterans has already corrected that. overall, not totally sold out. but good review abe.

  20. Avatar for symbiandreamsdotcom symbiandreamsdotcom says:

    The thing is? It is called Nokia Booklet 3G. So even people brags in some low points of NB3 still the booklet offers different approach to people. But this lesson will make the next Nokia laptop/netbook a more innovative device. =D

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