Review: Nokia Booklet 3G

A sturdy mini laptop with mobile broadband but a steep price tag

Nokia's entry into the Windows laptop market is a radical departure from the firm's phone handset business, but the Booklet 3G is more than just a me-too product, combining a decent build quality with built-in 3G network access and GPS, plus a long battery life.

Announced in August 2009, the Booklet 3G will be available in the UK from February 2010 and can be pre-ordered now. It is effectively a netbook, with its 10.1in display, Intel Atom processor, 1GB memory and Windows 7 as its operating system.

While Nokia is a latecomer to the netbook market, it has made an effort to have the Booklet 3G stand out from the crowd. With its aluminium chassis, the system feels like one of the sturdiest laptops we have ever looked at, and its styling also makes the system pleasing to the eye.

However, unless you are prepared to pay for a 3G data connection as well, the Booklet is just that - a netbook, albeit a very well constructed one with a high price tag.

With Nokia's phone heritage, the inclusion of 3G/HSPA as well as 802.11b/g/n Wi-Fi was to be expected, but sadly the Booklet only supports data on its cellular connection and does not provide the ability to make voice calls. Bluetooth is also available.

We evaluated the Booklet with a test 3G SIM provided by Vodafone, and we found that we could get reasonable access for web browsing from most places we tried, although obviously not as fast as when connected to a Wi-Fi hotspot.

Thanks to Windows 7, which features built-in support for mobile broadband, getting connected was simply a matter of popping the SIM into the Booklet before powering it on, after which Vodafone's network appeared in the connection list on the taskbar. With earlier versions of Windows, users needed a software client, usually provided by and specific to the carrier, to manage the mobile broadband connection.

The built-in GPS hardware of the Booklet also only works when the 3G connection is active, and relies on this to download information from Nokia for Assisted GPS position calculations.

In our tests, the Booklet took a long time to establish our exact position, and did not seem capable of doing this at all when we tried it from our central London offices. Nokia does warn that GPS reception may be poor indoors or in built-up areas, but many smartphones with GPS that we have tested have performed much better.

One neat feature is a Windows desktop widget supplied by Nokia that shows your location, and this lets you click through to the web-based Ovi Maps for notable places and route finding, although it does not support turn-by-turn navigation.

Despite the aluminium chassis, the Booklet's weight is in line with many other netbooks, at about 1.25kg. It has styling that could be described as minimalist, with few features to detract from the brushed aluminium casing, save for a glossy coloured lid bearing Nokia's logo, in a choice of black, white and blue colours.

Review: Nokia Booklet 3G

A sturdy mini laptop with mobile broadband but a steep price tag

When opened up, the Booklet's keyboard takes up only about half the available space between the screen hinge and the front of the case, yet it does not feel cramped and is a pleasure to use. The keys are flat and set apart from each other, a style known as 'chiclet' in the US.

In front of the keyboard is the trackpad, which is a generous size for such a small system, with equally large mouse buttons that match the aluminium case.

Nokia's 1280x720 widescreen 10.1in display likewise does not use all the available area inside the lid, leaving a good centimetre or two of space on all sides. The screen itself is also set behind a glass window, presumably for protection, but we found this lent a slightly fuzzy quality to the screen image.

The I/O ports are restricted to the sides of the case, and consist of an HDMI video output in place of the usual VGA connector, three USB ports and a headphone jack socket. There is also a fold-down flap protecting an SD Card slot for Flash storage and the Booklet's SIM card slot, plus there are stereo speakers at the front left and right edges of the case.

In performance terms, the Booklet is no speed demon, which is only to be expected for an Atom-based portable. Although this is the first netbook we have seen with Windows 7, its performance seemed comparable with Windows XP netbooks we have seen and is ample for web browsing and basic office tasks, although it struggles noticeably when running more than one application.

The Booklet also runs Windows 7 Starter, which is the most basic edition of Microsoft's new platform. This lacks the Aero graphics and some other features, such as the ability to create a network Home Group or join a corporate domain, but this is largely in line with the limitations of XP on earlier netbooks and most consumers are unlikely to notice the difference.

Nokia quotes the Booklet 3G as having up to 12 hours battery life, and claims like this need to be taken with a hefty pinch of salt. Nevertheless, in our tests using the Battery Eater Pro tool, the system lasted for six hours and 16 minutes, even with Wi-Fi and 3G enabled, which suggests that users could even see a full day of use from its 57W lithium ion battery located in the base.

Our review unit included some Nokia tools, including Ovi Suite, which allows owners of Nokia phones to sync the handset with the Booklet, and a Nokia Booklet software updater, which is said to update all Nokia applications installed on the device. The latter simply said there were no updates when we tried it.

Nokia's Social Hub enables users to send and receive updates from social network sites such as Twitter and Facebook, and also text messages using the 3G connection.

Other software supplied with the Booklet includes the standard 60-day trial version of Microsoft Office, along with a 30-day trial of F-Secure Internet Security 2010.