I was skeptic, had no Idea what to think about it, but i wanted to get to know the Booklet. My very good Friends of WOM World Nokia have contacted me recently and gave me exactly that Opportunity – giving me some Time with the Nokia Booklet 3G and see what it’s all about. Keep in Mind, I’m far away from being a Computer Expert. I learned over the Years how to burn a CD, but please don’t ask me deep technical Details, i just don’t know. With that in Mind, i spent two Weeks with the Booklet (Thanks again to Nokia Austria for helping out with a Euro Charger Cable) and here’s what i have in Mind about it:

Hardware

Straight out of the Box the Booklet looked incredibly well. A shiny black Top Finish on the Display Part with a silver Nokia Sign on it starts off a very well-built Netbook, and the Build Quality continues to impress. The whole Body of the Booklet is made of Aluminium, it feels solid, durable and very high quality – i’m a big fan of that. With something around 1.25 kg (according to Nokia), the Booklet is not too heavy and can be easily carried around all day on the Road. I actually did that when i spent a Day in Vienna recently and never felt like my Shoulder was about to fall off. Measuring  264 x 185 x 19.9 mm it is also very suitable for Shoulderbags like i’m usually wearing .. oh, and the Size is very attractive to Girls lol.

Looking at the left Side of the Booklet, we have several Connectors for HDMI (which works okay if you do light work), 2 USB Plugs, 3,5mm Audio Jack and one of 2 built-in Loudspeakers. While the front Side remains empty, the right Side contains the Charger Plug, a third USB Plug, SD Card and SIM Card Slot (this is what the 3G stands for, you know), the On/Off Button and the 2nd Speaker. All in all, the Booklet’s Connectivity is pretty good, i never felt i miss something there. Of course, one can always wish more (a eSATA plug f.e.), but if you stay with the “on the road”-spirit of the Booklet, you certainly will NOT have an external HDD with you. 120 GB of internal HDD should be more than enough to have all your important Documents, Songs and Videos with you – wherever you go.

Opened up, the Booklet reveals a 10.1″ Screen with a 1280×720 Resolution. The Display is hidden behind a Glass Frame, so it’s hard to damage, another Sign of a well-done Build Quality. Above the Screen is a 1,3 MP Webcam, that has no Application to fire it up. I have no Idea why, but it is like it is. I tried and it gets recognized by Windows Live Messenger etc, but if you wanna snap a quick Picture, you’re lost. Since i don’t do it that often, i didn’t search for a 3rd party app, but i’m sure there are some out there.

Underneath the Screen is the black Keyboard. Very nice buttons in my humble opinion, typing on them was a lot of fun. The feedback was okay, the spacing was just right, even some of my friends with larger fingers were flying on it. The only Problem i had, which made me freak out literally, was the “Fn” Button, on the far left Side of the Keyboard. Get used to hit CTRL+C for the past 13 Years and then have a Keyboard that has the Buttons switched. You’ll know what i’m talking about. The Trackpad, underneath the Keyboard works nice, even having a slight touch of multitouch – like pinch for zooming in a website, worked well in both, IE and Google Chrome, my new favourite Browser.

Battery Life

I’d like to give this a separated Mention, as this was really important for me. Although the Booklet isn’t exactly a Powerhouse (more on that down below), the absolute best feature about the booklet is it’s Battery Life. Although it does not reach the promised 12 Hours in my Case, it worked well for about 8 1/2 Hours, connected to WLAN. Very impressive Score i must say, easy to get through your whole Day without any Needs for Power. Very well done Nokia!

Software/Performance

The Booklet 3G is “powered” by Windows 7, Starter Edition. Which is already the weakest Point of the whole Experience. While my first Try of 7 was a pretty nice one, and i can imagine using it on my Laptop/PC, it was a different Story combined with the Booklet’s internals. Looking through the Specs Sheet (Intel® Atom Z530 with 1.6 GHz and 1 GB RAM), this might already indicate that this is no Powerhouse by any means, and well, to make a long story short, the Booklet is HORRIBLY underpowered. The 1 gig RAM is NOT expandable, which means there is no Hope for a bit more Power, you’re stuck with the current Setup.

My normal Application Setup when i use a PC/Laptop is: Tweetdeck (Twitter), Thunderbird (Mails) and Google Chrome (Internet browsing). I know Tweetdeck is not exactly a RAM-saving Application, but i just love to use it, and lets be honest – What is the Point of a Netbook, when you can’t use your favourite Applications on the Go!? As if this wasn’t enough, Things get a lot worse if you wanna do Stuff additional to the above mentioned Programs. Try listening to Music, Windows Live Messenger and maybe watch a Youtube Video besides. At least one of those Things will horribly lag, and you will also notice that the Apps take a really long Time to open and be ready to work on. Speaking of my favourite Video Service, Youtube HD (720p) does not work fluently, it stucks a lot and eventually, you want to throw the Booklet on the Wall get frustrated. So much for HD Video Playback. I didn’t try with .mkv-Files but something tells me that it won’t work well either.

Another bad Point is the Starter Edition of Windows 7. Would we ask too much if we want Home Premium? Hell, we can’t even change a frickin Wallpaper on the Starter Edition. Aero is  missing, which is a feature i really like on Vista, and now i have to miss it on the Booklet. Maybe it hasn’t enough Power to run the Taskswitch smoothly? Who knows..

To continue with Things that are missing, where exactly is Nokia on the Booklet? I mean, we have the Nokia Sign on several Spots, but software-wise, i missed the Nokia Touch. I’m not sure if my Booklet was maybe used already – I read on Mark Guim’s The Nokia Blog, that he had Ovi Suite installed already – no matter where i looked, all i found was the Nokia Social Hub Application. Nokia Social Hub collects all your Data and puts it into one Place for you. Flickr, Facebook, Twitter, and even your SMS messages are collected. The Idea itself is pretty good, but very basic for now. Since i use all the Services myself i actually like the Idea, i just think it needs a few more Features to be good enough to get me away from Tweetdeck.

What do i get and what does it cost me?

• Nokia Booklet 3G
• Nokia Computer Battery BC-1S
• AC/DC power adapter
• Quick setup guide
• Nokia Headset WH-205
• Nokia USB charging multi-cable CA-126
• Cleaning cloth

Another major Downside of the Booklet 3G is the insane price tag. I just had a look at Amazon.de and the Booklet still costs around € 750,– here, which in my Opinion is as much overpriced as it is underpowered. Nokia, my 16″ Acer Laptop (2 GHz dual-core, 4GB RAM, ATI HD 4570, 320 GB HDD) has cost € 699,– a year ago. And it works. fast. powerful. fluently. 50 euro cheaper. I mean, yes the Hardware is extremely well-built, but from the User Experience you get , 750 euro is waaaayyyy too much. The only Operator that already sells the Booklet is A1 (Vodafone) and they still charge € 399,– for it PLUS a 24 months contract! The pricing is ridiculous and is FOR SURE one of the main reasons why a lot of people will turn away from the Booklet. Let’s face it, there are better Netbooks out there, for less Money. I hate to say this, but that’s exactly how i feel and the People i talked to about the Booklet.

Conclusion

The Nokia Booklet 3G is a mixed Bag of Nuts. Nokia did a very nice Job in choosing the Materials for the Chassis, the Booklet feels VERY solid, thanks to the Aluminium used on it all over. The Battery Life of more than 8 Hours also deserves a Praise, but from there, it goes downside unfortunately. The Specs are an enormous Funkiller, you can feel from the Moment you put first Apps on it, that it’s extremely underpowered. Having a few Apps opened already results in laggy Software, not even the Transitions in the Ovi Suite run smoothly. I gave the Booklet to some random People to try a bit and the Results were pretty much the same – it’s too slow. way too slow. 4 of 4 People would not buy the Booklet – and to be honest, while i love the Size, Build Quality and Battery, i wouldn’t buy the Booklet either – It’s just too expensive for the bad Performance. Still, i’m looking forward to future releases, let’s see if Nokia can do it better with upcoming Booklets, so that i can get one for myself too

Well well, i thought i’d never lay my hands on a booklet 3G. it’s something i don’t see using myself too often. It’s simple: I use my Phones (currently N82 and/or HTC Hero) for Mails/Tweets etc on the Road, while at Home i’m using my Acer Aspire 6930ZG, a 16″ Laptop with lots of power. I’ve already been reading some first Hands-on reviews, which were a mixed bag of nuts and so was i when i received the trial invitation by my good friends of WOM World Nokia! I wasn’t sure if i’m the right person to review a Netbook, since i’m not really a PC Expert, but what the heck, i love new challenges, so why not trial something different!?

It took a few Days to get this Thing started, cause unfortunately WOM World has sent the Device with the standard UK charging plug, which does not work here in Austria. Well, mistakes make us human i think, things like this happen. Cool Thing here is, that Nokia Austria has helped me out with a “Trial Euro Charging Plug” (Conclusion: it works! lol). i got the new plug on friday, which was the day when my lovely girlfriend Mona came over to stay here for the weekend…

…so why not let her introduce her first Impressions!? From what i’ve seen, she was VERY happy with it – form factor wise or was there more? Here’s what she had to say after 3 Days with the Nokia Booklet 3G – with some of my own Thoughts:

Pro Booklet 3G

• very good Battery life: i never owned a Netbook, so i can’t really comment on this one, but we got almost 7 1/2 Hours of the Booklet, which is amazing to me. My Laptop barely lasts 3 Hours! Very good Battery Life, unfortunately its that good for a reason, which will appear down below

• responsive Touchpad, reacts even on slightest Contact: ermmm .. yeah. the touchpad on my Acer Laptop is definitely not the Best, so i guess EVERY touchpad is pretty responsive. it worked good though on the Booklet, never had any Problems so far.

• Zooming via “multitouch”, like on the iPhone: Mona discovered this by Accident. Did you know that you can zoom into Webpages via 2 finger stretch on the Touchpad? Its a pretty nice Gimmick, but we haven’t found any more “multitouch” capabilities.

• The Size is a definitive Hit, fits in every Handbag: haha thats right. My Girlfriend is a Handbag fanatic and the Booklet fits pretty nice into it. But that’s not solely something for Women, i’ve also started to wear Shoulderbags recently, as they’re just great to carry around all my stuff. Yes, the Booklet also fits in my Eastpak Shoulderbag!

• Although the Booklet has a pretty small Keyboard, you can type very fast on it and without Typos. You get used to it in no Time! Definitely! In Fact i was very surprised of how quickly you get used to it. After a few Minutes i was typing very fast, almost no Typos. Size and Spacing of the Keyboard is very nice and i think the Feedback is pretty good too. Overall i must say i’m very impressed by the Quality of the Booklet 3G. The metal casing gives it a very VERY solid look (and good feeling at that) and, to be honest, it looks REALLY stylish!

Contra Booklet 3G

• The Screen looks blurry, but you just might have to get used to it: That’s right. I first thought i made some Fingerprints on the 10,1″ Screen and tried to clean it, but i realized that the Screen actually looks like it. I’m not sure if the Hardware may be faulty, and it’s not really something that you see immediately, but it looks a bit weird sometimes.

• The Booklet 3G is totally overpriced for the Specs given: i can’t agree more here. The Booklet 3G is currently available for about € 770,– via Amazon, or alternatively € 760,– via Price Search Machines, such as Idealo. If we look at the Specs, we have a Intel Atom Z530 1.6GHz Processor, 1GB (of NOT REPLACEABLE) RAM, 120GB HDD, Intel GMA 500, and the Windows 7, Starter Edition. While i generally had a good Impression by my first  Windows 7 Experiences, i felt the Booklet was extremely underpowered. Mona used the Booklet fresh, without any Apps installed. During the week i started to install some of my very basic Applications, that i use on every PC. Tweetdeck, Google Chrome, Thunderbird, just to name a few.. and well, i hate to say it, but the Booklet lags. In Fact it lags a lot. Chrome + Tweetdeck Notification = Lag. Thunderbird + Chrome + MS Excel lags. This shouldn’t really happen in my Opinion. Thinking about the “Setup” i have going when i work on my Laptop, i doubt the Booklet can take this.

• One more Thing i wanna add her is the Lack of Nokia on the Booklet. Nokia Social Hub, an Application to keep Track of your Flickr, Facebook and Twitter Contacts, but thats pretty much all that indicates that you’re holding Nokia. Not even OVI Suite is on it!? Would’ve been really cool if Nokia surprises us, but unfortunately, they didn’t!

As you can see, the Booklet has some Things to cheer for, but it also has some Problems that can’t be ignored. A very high Price for an underpowered, yet very sexy Device – is this enough to buy it?

PS: Gifts in form of a Booklet 3G for Mona are more than welcome, with regards from her

There’s a Thing in my Pocket, but it’s not one, it’s many

But, it seems like there is Light on the Horizon, a new Breed that i think brings back a lot of disappointed Users to the Nokia Ship again. What i’m talking about is the Device on the left Side, waiting to unleash Hell – The Nokia N900. Equipped with Maemo, the linux-based Open Source Greatness that i was able to try on the N800 3 years ago. and boy, Maemo has changed – to the better. For the first time its featuring Phone Features, which makes the N900 not only a great Internet/Media Device but a PHONE as well!

Nokia has done a Lot of things right on the N900. My Lists is what i personally thought of the N900, what appealed the most to me, what made me happy about the Device. This may not cover all Features, as i wanna keep it personal. It won’t appeal you as mindblowing Factor, but what i’m about to mention is what i enjoyed the most. Ready? I like the N900 because…

• …of the Formfactor: Full Touchscreen with slide-out QWERTY keyboard. My next phone needs to have this form factor, period. Having a huge, brilliant Screen like the N900’s 3,5″ resistive Touchscreen with WVGA Resolution (800 x 480 pixels) plays along nicely with the Keyboard, whenever you need it. Resistive Screen? Yes it is, and let me say this: The N900 has the absolute BEST resistive Touchscreen i’ve ever tried. It’s extremely responsive, reacts quickly and what matters the Most, i never had to use my Fingernails. This is a Way i HATE to use my Phones and i’m glad it stopped here. Another nice little Gimmick that my Hero misses: The Screen automatically turns off if i make a Call and the Phone is on my Cheek.The whole Device is well built, the Slider to open the QWERTY Keyboard is rock solid and does not feel like it’s turning wobbly anytime soon, opens and closes with a noticable Snap, that further enhances the solid Feel. The Buttons provide a good Feedback, a lot better than on the N97 i have recently trialed. I still dislike the N900’s Keyboard Design, i want to see more than just 3 rows, which should give more Space to have Special Keys on both Sides. (Ever tried to type ”123″ on your Phone? Horror!). Apart from that Stereo Speakers, a better Cam Shutter than on the N97 (scratch is the word) with a Kickstand, a 3,5mm Audio Jack and a whooping 32 GB on-board storage are definitely accelerating the Heartbeat.

• …it can connect with TVersity: This was definitely one of the biggest WOW-Moments i had with this Handset. In Case you don’t know, Tversity is a PC Application that allows you to stream Movies or Music to your Playstation 3 via WLAN. Now it was one of those Days when i was playing around and suddenly found a small Link for TVerstiy like you can see in the screenshots below. Let me tell you this: Watching Episodes of my favourite Series on the N900 via WLAN rocks, especially while sitting in the next Room having Dinner  

• ….because Maemo is awesome: Yes, awesome may not be the most professional Word to describe Maemo, but it describes my Feelings for the N900 the Best. I won’t go completely in-depth because almost everything about Maemo can be found around the Net, so i’m just picking a few Things i love.First off, the new Standby Screen. While the N97 had only one Screen and just a few Slots, the N900 gives you almost complete Freedom. It feels great to customize not only one, but four Home Screens, without any Restrctions. There are Lots of Widgets available already, and the growing Maemo Developers Community is helping to make it even better. Weather Widets, Dataplan Monitor, Application/Bookmark/Contact Shortcuts – it’s like Nokia is saying: Do whatever the Hell you want! Everything is redesigned, polished and looks just great. A Status Bar on Top of each Screen gives you a quick Look at the most important Settings like Clock, Battery, Data Connection, Profiles or Bluetooth. The Menu Button on the left upper Corner is multifunctional, not only launching the Menu, but also gives you an Overview of the Tasks you are currently running on your N900. This happens not via the old Icons like on S60, but in small Preview Windows, which looks great. Also in the Task Menu are the Notifications: Whenever something happens, it shows up in your Task Menu, after disappearing in a small Popup. It doesn’t stay as a “1 New Message”-Tag anymore on the Home Screen, which i definitely like.The Menu itself appears S60 like with Icons like in the old Menus, which is okay, since every former S60 User can feel right at Home. Going back to the previous Screen happens via a simple Click in an empty Area of the Screen. This works in almost every Application and is a very easy Way to get back.The Contacts are redesigned and have a separated Link to Call/SMS. With a 3rd Party Application called Hermes, you can even pull in Birthdays and more Informations from Twitter/Facebook like in the HTC Hero. Unfortunately this is the only Glimpse of Social network integration we have so far in the contacts app.

  The Messaging Application is also heavily redesigned and is now called Conversations. All your Messages are threaded now into contact-based Thread, with an own thread for every Contact you texted with. Cool Thing here is, that here’s not only your SMS Messages, but also your Nokia Messaging Chats. A much better way to handle your messaging Way of Life in my opinion, and i just hope there will be more Options integrated soon!

  The Photos App got a really nice Overhaul as well, with its probably best Feature – Tags! You can now edit your Tags right on the Phone, which get stored in a Tag cloud, so you can use them quickly over and over again. Great Feature, which hopefully comes to ALL future Devices. Pixelpipe is already available for the N900, so sharing is quick fun. The Browser handles almost every Site without any Problems, even flash-heavy Sites went very well. However, i thought the Browser is too desktop orientated, not being recognized as Mobile Phone Browser anymore. More on that in the 2nd Part.

  To give you a little Example how well Maemo works as an eye-catching, new OS is the Story when i met my best Friend a Week ago. We usually meet every Week or so and discuss the latest Happenings, tech talk included. I remember he was quite excited to lay his Hands on a N900 (although he’s not as far as tech-fanatic than i am) and after playing a bit with it, i noticed him really enjoying this Handset. He actually noted that “even i can use this”, which i found really impressive, since he’s the typical Guy for basic Phone Usage.

• …you don’t need a Stylus anymore: I know this would be suited in the Maemo Part as well, but i just wanna point it out separately! Whatever i did on the N900 (3rd party Apps excluded), i never needed a Stylus. The only Time i “needed” it was, when i pulled something out of my Teeth had a Look at how the Stylus looked like. Seriously, Maemo is what Symbian S60 5th Edition should’ve been from the beginning.

• …the Camera doesn’t disappoint either: Dual LED Flash asides, the N900 Camera delivers. We’re talking about Nokia’s well known 5 MP Carl Zeiss Snapper with the questionable DUAL Led Flash and, here comes the news, 16:9 Ratio Pictures. Shot at 3,5MP resolution you’re now able to insert your Pictures in your Youtube Videos without those stupid black Fields on each Side. Combined with the 32 GB built-in Storage and microSD Slot, your Holidays can’t be long enough to run out of Storage!

• …i don’t need to convert Movies anymore: Yes that’s right and i couldn’t be more happy about. Sure, the Nokia Internet Tablet Video Converter was pretty handy on S60 5th Ed, but isn’t it much better to just send the raw avi file to the phone and thats it? Exactly what the N900 does, i did a short Video about it (still hate to see/hear myself on Video) to show you that it works!

• …Maemo and Nokia could soon be what i want: Maemo is completely open-source. Basically everyone can go on and develope an Application for the N900, publish it on the Repositories and us Users are good to go. I’ve seen the Hermes Application, which takes User Informations from your Facebook Contacts and adds them to your Contacts. A good Mail Application like Profimail, Gravity (are you reading jan ole? ), social networking Integration and i’m good to go. The N900 may be bulky, but i could live with that. I still dislike the keyboard design but i could live with that. Given that Maemo 5 is just the beginning (Maemo 6 will be live in 2010) and i’m still hoping that Nokia decides to bring out more Powerhouses like the N900, i may sell my Soul again to Nokia. If Maemo 6 gets more social networking integration and better mail handling plus a high-end N900-like Handset, Android will have a hard Time in keep me staying.

So do i enjoy the N900? Yes i do! I’ve had an awesome Time with this Handset and enjoyed exploring the shiny Maemo OS. It was almost every Day something new, which was super exciting. I think Nokia is on a very good Way with Maemo, and if they listen to us Powerusers (the targeted Audience of the N900), they could really score big Time. Is the N900 made for Joe Average? No, i don’t think so. I believe for a not-so-techy User it might be very complicated to work with the Phone, maybe even too feature-rich. Again, i believe the N900 is made for Powerusers, who prefer high-end, open sourced Greatness and here’s where Nokia showed us a Glimpe of Things to come, and i’m excited to see more of it!

Of Course the N900 has some Downers as well, which i will list as well, so keep your eyes around for more soon

Check out my N900 Picture Gallery which will get an Update soon with some Camera Shots!