It has been a while since I was looking to buy the Nokia Booklet 3G mostly because I needed something with long battery life and small size, so the Booklet was perfect for me. So I pulled the trigger when I saw it at Best Buy for $599 free from any carrier. I know, a bit expensive for something that could fall under the netbook category and something I could get for the half of the price with ‘almost the same specs’
Built Quality, the outer side of the Booklet
We know that netbooks are small, cheap computers, whose principal utility is to navigate the internet and have some office works done on the go. But we also know that most netbooks are made of plastic, and most of times, the manufacturer forgets about elegance. This is something that pulls the Booklet apart from the other common netbooks. While most netbooks have a plastic carcass prone to scratches, the Netbook has a aluminum unibody carcass that is a pleasure to touch, mostly on the mornings when the aluminum is cold to the hand. The design spells “elegance” at every angle you look at it, there is zero creaks. The top lid has a glossy panel that comes in three different colors: black, white and blue. This is Nokia sin, because the glossy top lid is a smudge magnet, but Nokia’s penitence comes in the form of a special cloth to clean it.
The dimensions are something worth mentioning. The whole thicknes of the netbook doesnt even reach the 2cm, it stays at 19.9 as you can see compared to the old and good N95 which is known to have 21mm of thickness. The display has 10.1 inches and over it you have a glass window. The booklet weights 1.250 kg making it really portatible. The hinge can open almost at 180 degrees, something that some people may find usefull. Maybe the hinge should be a bit more tight, because it can open fully by just picking up the booklet fast.
The keyboard has slightly smaller keys than my previous HP mini 110, making it hard to type at first, but after a few days I was typing fast without problems, just like I’m doing right now! The track pad is really big, sometimes too big, and the left and right mouse buttons are also big,, the travel and the clicks feel right. Something that I didnt like is that there isnt something tactible that separates the buttons from the pad, making it hard to tell sometimes if your finger is over the button or the pad. The trackpad has multitouch, meaning that you can zoom in and out by using your both fingers ala iPhone. Have found it useful a few times.
There are 3 USB ports, one on the right hand and 2 on the left, a 3.5mm jack, the HDMI out, charger plug, SD port and a SIM card port. There is no VGA out, so connecting the booklet to a projector will require some adapters. Also on the top of the display there is a 1,3MPX front facing camera, with a mic on top of it. On the front corners there are two stereo speakers which are kind of loud.
The Inner of the Booklet
The booklet comes with Windows 7 starter, but have read that there are some booklets running home premium, so it makes me ask myself, why are some computers running a basic OS while others have the complete one? Is it something based on the price? Who knows! Anyways, the inner of the booklet is basically the spec sheet of any netbook. It has wifi, bluetooth, the not-so-powerfull-to-run-cool-games graphic card, atom processor, and 1GB of RAM. The only things that makes the booklet stand over the other netbooks in this area is the GPS, the 3G, and the long battery life.
The experience
Carrying the booklet around is pretty confortable, it is elegant, it is made of high quality materials, it’s slim and lightweigh. Also, because the battery life is long, you dont have to bring the charger to every place, unless you know you are going to have a very long day. Surfing the web with the booklet is the same experience you get like on any other netbook. Netbooks aren’t too powerfull, they shouldnt be used to make too many stuff at the same, they can hang or crash, something that sadly happens with the booklet from time to time. Watching youtube videos in 720p is not possible, too much lag, but any other quality is beareable.
Gaming is something you don’t do on any netbook. I tried endlessly to install and run my favorite games which are Age of Empires II and III. At the end I had to install a custom driver for the video card and succesfully ran my games on my booklet, a dream, I know! They don’t look 100% perfect but I can’t complain.
Using microsoft office is a good experience, I can do my ppt slides and my word documents with no problems, too bad that the booklet doesn’t have a VGA out port, so I will have to get adapters to get it to connect to a projector. The Nokia booklet comes with an internal GPS which can be used to know your location, but only that, maybe Nokia will release updates that make the use of the GPS a little more usefull. The other feature is the 3G, there is a SIM card port on one of the sides, so you may just pop in the card and connect the 3G. This computer offers a great wireless experience, no charger, no internet cable, not dependant of wifi. Talking about this, the Booklet claims to offer 12 hours of battery life, but in my tests, I have only found from 6 to 8 hours, just enough for a work shift.
But…I always knew that windows 7 was not the perfect choice for the Booklet so I recently installed Ubunt 9.1 on it. Ubuntu is an OS based off linux, very similar to what Maemo is. So far, ubuntu is making a better use of the small resources the Booklet has, less hangs, less crashes, no lag. Out of the box, the booklet works with the ubuntu drivers, except for the display, so if you ever do this, you will have to download a driver for the Booklet to get a bigger resolution.
The best of Ubunt is that it can play my games without problems! There are stuff to take in consideration, like windows emulators, but if you are a geek and know what you are doing, then you dont have to worry. Now I have 2 OS in my Booklet, one is windows 7 starter and the other one is Ubuntu. I can use windows 7 to get the work done and Ubuntu to have some games, or net surfing.
As conclusion
I can say I am very pleased with my Booklet. It is elegant and have a really long battery life. But I cannot justify the high price of it. For 600 USD you can get a very powerfull laptop with double or triple specs, or for the half of the price, you get a netbook with (almost) the same specs. I should add that Ubuntu is the OS of choice of the booklet, too bad that isnt as popular as windows, but if you have a booklet and know what you are doing, I would recomend you to install it on your computer. Better perfomance!
At the end you are paying for design and battery. This computer is directly aimed to the people who do not like the cheapness of plastic netbooks and that need a long battery life to get the work done, while conserving the mobility the Booklet offers.
David Castro