Nokia first announced their Netbook 3G, expectations were mixed. After all, Nokia defined the mobile phone space but they’ve hardly been good at expanding out of the handset market.
Mobile phone maker Nokia is jumping into the Netbook pool with its recently announced Booklet 3G laptop, offering a premium-feeling system for a rock-bottom price, as long as you agree to a two-year AT&T mobile data contract.
The last computers made by Nokia were in the 1980s, but the Booklet 3G isn’t actually made by Nokia. Nobody will tell us who the manufacturer is, but we aren’t that bothered because the design is 100 per cent Nokia.
The Booklet 3G is easily one of the most upscale-looking Netbooks we've seen. It feels solid and well-built in your hands, without being too heavy. Also a good sign: the AT&T mobile broadband service connects automatically, and the process was wonderfully transparent, especially compared with the software setup and manual log-ins required by other mobile broadband laptops. On the down side, the slower Intel Atom Z530 CPU shaves just enough performance off of the already pokey Netbook experience to be frustrating.
This is an exciting move. Let’s go through the announced features:
- 12 hour battery life. Impressive.- 1.25kg (Lighter than a MacBook Air’s 1.36kg)
- A-GPS
- 10.1″ screen
- 2cm thick when closed (”19.9mm”)
- WiFi (b/g)
- Integrated 3G mobile broadband
- Microsoft Windows
- Ovi services
- HDMI out
- USB ports & SD card slot
- Bluetooth
- Front-facing webcam
- Rumour: Hot-swappable SIM slot
