The Nokia Booklet 3G is an out of their line-up product. We all know Nokia well as a mobile phone manufacturer. The Nokia Booklet 3G is a netbook with the option to add your own Sim card with a data plan to have a 3G connection. Besides the possible 3G connection it also has Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n connectivity.

The Nokia Booklet arrives in a beautiful blue box with a raised impression of the Booklet 3G on the top. A sleeve slides out on one of the sides.

In this Sleeve is located:

• the Nokia Booklet 3G mobile device
• Nokia Headset WH-205
• Nokia Battery
• Nokia AC/DC power adaptor (I had to find a converter plug from UK to US to be able to charge the unit)
• Nokia USB Charging Multi Cable (allows you to charge a Nokia Phone and a Micro USB device at the same time using the power of the Booklet 3G)
• Cleaning Cloth
• Quick Set-up Guide

Specifications:

Operating system & Software

• Genuine Windows 7  Starter
• MS Office Small Business (60 days trail)
• Ovi Suite (separate download)
• Social Hub (separate download)
• F-Secure Internet Security 2010 (30-day trail)

Hardware

• Intel® Atom™ Z530, 1.6 GHz
• Intel® Poulsbo US15W
• RAM: 1 GB DDR2
• Hard drive: 120 GB
• Wi-Fi: 802.11 b/g/n
• Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR
• Built-in 3G modem (data calls only): WCDMA 850/1900/2100
• 1.3 megapixel FF camera
• HDMI port for HD video out
• Built-in stereo speakers, and microphone
• Analog audio output/headphone out (with OMTP headsets also functions as audio-in)
• 10.1-inch, 1,280 x 720 pixel display
• Glass window
• Frame keyboard
• HDMI 1.2 out for HD video
• 3 x USB 2.0
• 3.5 mm headphone out (OMTP: with OMTP headsets also functions as audio in)
• DC-in
• SD card reader
• SIM/USIM slot
• Battery is 56.8 watt hours
• Accelerometer (motion sensor)
• Integrated GPS and A-GPS
• Ovi Maps application

On the left side of the unit there are 2 USB ports, HDMI output, Headphone jack and a speaker.

On the right side of the unit there are the power port, USB port, Sim card slot, SD card slot, Power Button and a speaker.

Below I have illustrated what you will see when removing the flap that covers the Sim and SD Card slot.

User Experiences

The version we have for review comes from the UK and has a UK keyboard lay-out. The keys are nicely raised and have a great touch with enough spacing between them. This gives you a good feel for the keys without making mistakes of hitting the wrong keys.

The screen is good. It doesn’t compare though with vibrant colors on competitor models. However some competitor models screens are worse as well. The border around the screen is pretty wide. A lot more screen estate could have been used with still maintaining the integrated web cam.

In the US you can’t have two Sim cards on one account. This means I actually had to use a Sim card from my phone with a data service enabled on it. I inserted the card which uses a similar mechanism like a SD card. It is spring loaded. Push in all the way to have it inserted and just push it in again and it pops out.  With a  left clicking on the bottom right task bar (the Wireless connections icon) you will see the name of the Sim card provider and you can connect to it with ease. Wi-FI can be be turned off, but the bars will still show you the connection you have with the cell network. I do turn off the data connection while being in a strong Wi-Fi connection area. In my experiences I see the icon with less available bars in 3G while I have full bars with Wi-Fi. While disconnecting from the 3G data network the icon will show me the full bars of the Wi-Fi connection.

Unfortunately the Booklet 3G is installed with only the Windows 7 starter version. This netbook comes with an elegant design and a high price tag. A higher version of  Windows 7 is kind of expected. Especially when you want to use the netbook in a business environment.

The internal GPS antenna will only work when your 3G connection is active.  Kind a strange, because it would be nice to have the GPS with a 3G connection. The only function so far possible to use is the Ovi Maps Gadget on your desktop. Here it will show you just your location. To have more functions available you have to open the Online Ovi Maps. I guess here you really need your 3G connection to have a functional GPS application. I would have rather seen a pre-installed navigation system with maps on the Booklet 3G to use with the internal GPS without accessing your 3G connection. Especially since in the US the 3G with the sim operators don’t have enough coverage yet.

One of the thing I am really impressed by is the battery life. It has a 16 cell unit and is very small and it doesn’t add much weight to the unit. I came within 1 hour to the 12 hour Nokia claims it will have. The time I got was close to 11 hours which is still amazing. (WiFi and #G turned on) . There might be some issues with the battery notification within Windows 7 which can give you a wrong indication. I get a 98% with 7 hr and 28 minutes after a overnight charge, but after an hour I have 89% with over 15 hours left. When I start using the booklet intermittently I have the following results after 3.5 our after charging.  68% or 5 hr and 15 min remaining. So it is really hard to say how long it last by looking at the battery meter in Windows 7.

Final Thoughts

The Nokia Booklet 3G is a well and beautiful designed netbook. I am not sure if the added GPS and accelerometer is worth the extra $200 compared to the competitor netbooks with similar or better specifications.

The performance of the netbook is great. The battery life is similar to the competitor netbooks. But we always need more power.

The Nokia Booklet 3G is available for $599 at the Nokia website. The United States carriers do not offer dual Sim cards, in which case you need to have a separate account with a Sim card network operator (T-Mobile, AT&T, etc) for a data connection.