When Nokia announced the Nokia Booklet 3G, I’ll admit, I was very skeptical about it.
I mean, come on how could a Mobile Phone manufacturer possibly pull off a decent Netbook, right ?
Well, then WomWorld lent us the Nokia Booklet 3G and proved us wrong. The Nokia Booklet 3G is actually a very very nice little netbook.
Even if Nokia insists on calling it a “Mini-Laptop“, we’re going to look at it, through netbook eyes…. uhh… whatever that means.
Let’s take a look at some of the Nokia Booklet 3G ‘s specs, shall we ?
The Nokia Booklet 3G features hardware like :
That’s quite a bunch of features, eh ? You can check out more specs over on the Nokia Booklet 3G Official Specs page.
Portability is a word we associated with the Nokia Booklet 3G. At just 264 x 185 (with hinge) x 19.9 mm it’s really quite small and weighing just 1250 g means it’s easy to carry around too. We’ve compared it to a couple ‘Real Laptops’ and it’s definitely the smaller option. It made our Dell XPS M1530 look ancient, and feel clunky, which is definitely saying something.
Build Quality is something we were really surprised about (in a good way). For Nokia’s First Laptop/Netbook the Nokia Booklet 3G is VERY well built. No creaks, no strange noises anywhere, and the fact that it’s a “fan-less design” means it’s also very very silent. It definitely feels premium, and it should at the price it’s selling at.
First Impressions :
We’d also like to recommend reading our First Impressions of the Nokia Booklet 3G, so that you know how or if our opinions changed from then to now.
On with the pictures !
Front View (Open) :
The Nokia Booklet looks like, well, a normal laptop would, when opened up. The Glass screen is really nice and clear, but does get smudged very easily (by fingerprints, etc) thanks to the Anti-Glare layer that they seem to have put on it.
At the top of the screen is the front facing 1.3 Megapixel Camera. There doesnt seem to be any onboard application to make use of the front facing camera though. Here you’ll also see the “Nokia Booklet 3G” proudly printed on.
Below the screen are LED indicators to let you know what ‘feature’ has been switched on. Doesnt seem to be a GPS-on-indicator though.
And then there’s the keyboard.
The keyboard is something we really liked.
Infact, everyone who let allowed to check out the Nokia Booklet 3G, really loved the keyboard.
The keys are nice and springy, and have great feedback to them.
Below the keyboard, is the trackpad, which is about average.
The trackpad supports some kind of “Multi-touch” features like pinch to zoom-in, though we didnt really do much with it. It feels a little rough at first, but you get used to it eventually.
The Buttons below the trackpad are a bit hard to press, and a little loud for our liking though. Not a big fan of buttons that have a audible ‘click‘ sound to them.
And below that, you have the Intel Atom and Windows 7 sticker to remind you, what the Booklet 3G is running on.
Left View :
One thing that we sort of really liked about the Nokia Booklet 3G, is that it’s screen can go all the way back. Almost a 180 degree angle.
On the left side, you’ll find the HDMI-out slot, along with 2 USB 2.0 ports, and the Audio-out Headphone Jack. The Booklet 3G pretty okay, although you’ll have a couple problems getting High Def Videos to play back smoothly.
You’ll also find one of the stereo speakers on this side.
The speakers arnt too loud though. Not at all. So if you’re going to buy the Booklet 3G, you might want to carry around the Headphones that come with it.
Back View :
On the back you basically have the ‘NOKIA’ branding on the top of the lid, and the led indicators at the bottom.
The ‘lid’ though, is really glossy, and is quite the fingerprint magnet. Good thing Nokia supplied a cleaning cloth with the retail package.
The LED indicators are really useful, and appear both inside the laptop (when open) and outside (as shown here). There are indicators for Charging, Battery, Sleep mode, 3G, Wifi and Bluetooth respectively.
Right View :
On the right side of the Nokia Booklet 3G, you have the power inlet, and one of the USB 2.0 ports.
You also have the SIM card slot, and SD slot here, along with the power button.
Also on this side, is the other stereo speaker button.
Top View :
The Retail Package :
The Nokia booklet 3G comes with pretty much what you’d expect a netbook to come with. A Power Adaptor, a cleaning cloth. There’s also a headset included in the package, as well as a pretty useful usb-charing-multi-cable to help you charge your other Nokia devices.
This means you can use the Nokia Booklet 3G as an expensive, power charger for your devices, too !
The Charging cable is also nice, and long which is a good thing. And it wraps around nicely, which adds to the “no mess of wires” feel of the Nokia Booklet 3G.
You can check out our Nokia Booklet 3G Unboxing for a Detailed look at what you get with the Retail Package.
GPS :
We didnt really get to use the GPS on the Nokia Booklet 3G, because we didnt have a 3G enabled Sim Card. More details on our GPS on the Nokia Booklet 3G post.
Speed :
The Nokia booklet 3G isnt the fastest laptop around. Mostly due to it’s very limited specs. But it does manage to startup pretty fast, and comes out of hibernation almost instantaneously.
Here’s a video to give you a better idea of the Startup Time on the Nokia Booklet 3G :
The Software :
The Nokia Booklet 3G runs Windows 7 Starter Edition, which isnt honestly the best version of Windows 7. There are a number of limitations, such as, not including 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.
There’s a version of MS Office Small Business but it’s just a 60-day trial. There’s also F-Secure Internet Security 2010 pre-installed, but again, it’s just a 30-day trial. Meh.
There’s not much ‘Nokia‘ software pre-installed. Atleast on our Nokia Booklet, we had to manually install Ovi Suite.
There is a Nokia Social Hub Application though (which we’ve covered in a previous post) that allows you to stay connected to your Twitter, Flickr and Facebook social networks, as well as send text messages from your Booklet.
Here’s a short video on the Out-of-the-Box apps on the Nokia Booklet 3G :
Conclusion :
[rating:3]
So at the end of the day, what do we think of the Nokia Booklet 3G ?
Well Nokia definitely got the build quality down.
The battery life is freakkin amazing, and means you wont have to lug around a charger half the time. This also means you wont have to search around for a power outlet if you’re using the Booklet 3G as a Coffee House Netbook. We still stand by the fact that the Nokia Booklet 3G is the perfect Coffee House Netbook, and a Blogger’s best friend thanks to all the battery life.
But apart from that, we didnt really find the built-in GPS to be much use. It’s nice that’s there and all, but there simply arnt any apps on Windows 7 that make use of it. There’s not even a proper Ovi Maps desktop version, just a Widget for Windows 7.
The 3G capabilities, by theory, is genius. Ofcourse in a country like India where 3G hasnt really had the chance to take off yet, means this feature is pretty useless. If you have an unlimited 3G plan, the Nokia Booklet 3G will allow you to be connected all the time, no doubt about that.
The screen’s nice and bright and all that.
But all the positives dont justify the crazy high price-tag of the Nokia Booklet 3G right now. At 575 Euros (Indian Rs 36,000; US $ 780) it’s just simply not worth it.
Not with the 1GB of soldered Ram (that you’re pretty much stuck with), and Windows 7 Starter Edition. The Nokia Booklet 3G isnt anywhere near a Workhorse, which means it’s really only best for Casual Blogging and Internet surfing. And even then it does struggle with too many Tabs open in the Firefox or Chrome Browsers.
I’m hoping for a cheaper version of the Nokia Booklet 3G that doesnt have GPS or 3G built in. Because i really really want to buy the Nokia Booklet 3G. The build quality, portability and battery life has me sold. But I dont want to pay for the Built-in GPS and 3G features right now, since they’re pretty useless to me at the moment.
It’s with that, that we conclude our review. Nokia’s done a great job with the Booklet 3G but they did make one or two mistakes which we think are deal-breakers.
Here’s a video of our Final Verdict on the Nokia Booklet 3G :
Remember if you’d like we also have a Full Nokia Booklet 3G Review Playlist on our YouTube Channel, and various pictures from our Review on our Nokia Booklet 3G Review Flickr Album.
What do you think ? Is the Nokia Booklet 3G worth the price ? Have a question about it ? Something we missed ? Do let us know in the comments section below y’all !
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 
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