The Nokia Booklet 3G : First Impressions

So, we’ve had the Nokia Booklet 3G for about 2 days now here at ZCJ.

Here’s our first Impressions so far.

What we Liked :

• The Nokia Booklet 3G looks absolutely “Hawt”. Lotsa Shiny all around.
• Build Quality is great. Very premium, very impressive, especially considering this is Nokia’s first “Mini-Laptop”.
• The Trackpad (kind of) supports Multi-touch. That is, pinch to Zoom in, and Two-Finger-Scrolling. Feels a little rough to use though



• The Keyboard feels great, and has really nice feedback.
• The Nokia Booklet 3G Startup Time is pretty quick. Coming out of Hibernation is almost instantaneous (More on this in the video Below).
• Dedicated “Nokia” key (also functions as F11) to open up Nokia Social Hub. Cant seem to find a way to change it’s default function though.



• Weigh’s about a Kilogram (1250 g to be exact) which is actually quite light.
• The 10.1″ “HD-ready” Glass Screen is really nice to look at. It’s nice and bright, and the resolution’s at 1280 x 720 which means the screen doesnt look too cramped up. There’s also an Anti-Glare layer.



• The Screen also automatically dims if you’re not using it for a long period, to save battery. Eventually it turns off, just like other laptops/netbooks.
• The Fan-less design is great, and (of course) Quiet.
• Built-in 3G. We werent able to properly test this particular bit out, because there arnt many 3G Network providers here in India, but hey its in there !
• HDMI 1.2 out for HD video. Win ! Although we’ve yet to actually test this out.



• Three USB ports, and a 3.5mm Audio Jack.
• Built-in SD card reader, and SIM card slot.

• Pre-loaded Ovi Maps and built-in A-GPS. Very fun to use !
• Neat little LED Indicators to let you know if the 3G, Wifi, Bluetooth, Battery (or Charging) is on. Cleverly designed to be visible both when the laptop is closed, and when it’s open too.



• There’s a built-in Accelerometer, believe it or not.
• The Screen can tilt back almost 180 Degrees. If that’s important to you.



• We really liked the Long charger cable, that can be wrapped around part of the charger. Very cool.

We absolutely love the 16 cell Li-Ion Battery on this thing. We charged it up and set out at 8am yesterday to check it out. With continuous Internet (Wifi + Datacard) usage, Bluetooth turned on, Screen Brightness on Maximum and almost constant Keyboard and Trackpad Usage, we got about 8 Hours out of this thing (on the First day, with very very light usage, it managed 11 Hours). Which means it can go MUCH longer (Nokia says it can go upto 12 Hours) provided you compromise on the Screen Brightness. It’s almost become one of those “Charge it and Forget it” sort of devices to us.

What we weren’t too sure about :

• The Top part of the Booklet 3G (and also the Anti-Glare screen) is a fingerprint magnet. We’ve tried so hard to keep this thing sparkling clean but there’s just to way ! Still, looks nice and glossy (when it’s clean) though.



• Window 7 Starter ? Really Nokia ? Out of all the possible versions of Windows 7 to pre-load on the Nokia Booklet 3G, you went with Windows 7 Starter ? The one version of Windows 7 that does NOT include Aero Glass (Which means no Aero Peek or Taskbar Previews), no Personalization features for changing desktop backgrounds (or window colors, or sound schemes), no Multi-monitor support, no Windows Media Center, no Remote Media Streaming (to stream your music, videos, and recorded TV from your home computer), and lastly, no XP Mode (for those that want the ability to run older Windows XP programs on Windows 7). Minor but significant annoyances.
• The Speakers could have been better. Then again they could have been much worse.
• 1.3 megapixel Front facing camera for video calls. Meh.

• Comes with a couple applications pre-bundled but not too many. There’s an MS Office Small Business 60-day trial, which means you’ll have to buy the full version eventually. There’s also a “Nokia Social Hub” application which is pretty cool. More about the pre-loaded apps in the video below :

What we didnt like :

• Just 1 GB of DDR2 ram. And that’s Ram that’s soldered on, which means you cant even upgrade. Couple that with the Intel Atom Z530 1.6 GHz processor, means the Booklet 3G isnt really a workhorse. Good enough for a couple browser Tabs open, but dont expect to be playing the Latest Batman Arkham Asylum game on this thing.

===============================

Here’s a short video to give you a better idea of our First Impressions :

So yeah, that’s pretty much what we think of the Nokia Booklet 3G so far. I’m personally used to having real workhorse PCs/Laptops that can handle anything I throw at it, so I’m interested to see if I can use the Nokia Booklet 3G (and it’s low Ram) as my primary Laptop.

Have any questions about the Nokia Booklet 3G ? Something we didnt cover so far ? Let us know in the comments y’all !

Remember to keep a watch on our YouTube Channel for more Nokia Booklet 3G videos, and on our Flickr Album for more pictures.

Follow us on Facebook:

Author Description

Clinton Jeff

Clinton is currently based in New Delhi, India and is executive editor for UnleashThePhones. He is responsible for all editorial decisions, and covers all forms of Mobile things. Cj is addicted to caffeine, social media, and technology. Always up for a good conversation, you can reach him through the contact form, his website, on Google Plus or on Facebook or Twitter: Follow @clintonjeff

CONTACT THE AUTHOR: