NOKIA BOOKLET 3G REVIEW

The Nokia Booklet 3G hit the market with a great deal of hype. It is the first netbook from Nokia, a company well known for its cell phones. Needless to say the Booklet 3G was one of the most awaited netbooks of the year.

Build quality
Build quality is good. Nokia has encased the laptop in a thick aluminum chassis. The machine weighs just 1kg and measures 2cm in thickness.

Screen
The Booklet 3G has a 10 inch display. According to people who reviewed the netbook, the glossy display is nice with good color and contrast.

Keyboard and touchpad
The keyboard looks somewhat cramped. The touchpad buttons are hard to press which doesn’t improve the situation either. The machine also feels sluggish due to its weak Z530 processor.

Battery life
The battery is good for 10 or more hours of uptime, thanks in no small measure to the slow, low power processor inside the machine.

Conclusion
In many aspects the Booklet 3G is better than conventional netbooks. It comes with an integrated 3G modem for connecting to AT&T’s wireless broadband network. Other notable features include Bluetooth and assisted GPS. There is an HDMI output port for transferring video to an external monitor. The device has a 10 inch display with 1280x720 pixels. You have got to agree that not many netbooks out there come with such premium features.

On the flip side, the Booklet 3G has many drawbacks too. The weakest part of this device is its processor. The Booklet 3G has a 1.6GHz Intel Atom Z530 processor which is slower than the N270/N280 processors found on most netbooks. While the N270/N280 can handle multitasking and web surfing the Z530 just isn’t up to the task. As a result of this, web pages take longer to load on Booklet 3G. Applications load slowly. It also takes longer to close a window.

Another drawback is the high price tag. The Booklet 3G costs around $599 without a wireless service contract. If you sign up for a 2-year plan with AT&T you will get it for $299. Plenty of netbooks are now available in the market for $300 without a contract, so subsidies can’t be an incentive for buying this netbook.