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

Just received a very funny Mail from my Friends of WOM World Nokia, who apparently took a Minute off from Work and played a fun game of “Guess Who”. How? Well, read the Title of my Post!

Now here’s a Question for you: What would YOU do with 40(!) Nokia Booklet 3G’s?

Guess what I would do: Loading pictures of beaches and sunshine on all of them and forget the horribly cold Weather and Snow on the Outside for just a bit!

I was contacted by Nokia WOM World on January 13th asking me which device I would like to trial and then they told me that they have an N97 available at the moment. It was my first opportunity to do something like this so I gladly accepted it.

Excited to death because I never used a touchscreen phone before! (well, except trying out iPhone…which failed to impress me)

So here I am 10 days later with a Nokia N97 in my hands for 2 weeks and since I am in Canada right now…it will be my utter delight to tell these phone-deprived people the real potential of Symbian smartphones…they’ve been living off berries for too long

Here’s the unboxing video (my first one) recorded with my still-awesome N82

My Trip started on Jan. 7th, not exactly the best Time to start this, considering the heavy Snowchaos in and around London. Since all was booked, and i had Sunday left if anything goes wrong with my Flight back home from the UK, i decided to start off anyways. The Flight from the Vienna Airport at 13.15 went very smooth and without any problems or delays. 2 hours later, i stepped foot on UK ground and was immediately greeted with blistering, cold weather. Covent Garden, the underground station i had to go, was directly on the Picadilly Line, the underground train that comes from Heathrow Airport. Arrived at Covent Garden and, surprise surprise, i had no idea where to go now. No sign of the Travellodge Hotel i booked my Room in, but that was figured out quite easy, with the help of some friendly UK people – to whoever you are: thanks! Checked in the hotel and waited for Dan Carter to arrive, who decided to go to the WOM World Towers first, thanks dan! lol (joking of course)

WOM World Meetup

This little get together was organized in the weeks before my arrival in London, in order to have a relaxed Evening with like-minded tech heads from all over the blogosphere, with some nice chats, free drinks and foods, thankfully provided by the GREAT People of WOM World Nokia. It was very special for me this Time, as i was about to meet some People again, who i had the Honour to meet in Vegas back in 2007 at the CES event! That’s right, in addition to Dan Carter, i also met Jay Montano again (Jay writes on My Nokia Blog and brought this awesome N900 Cake with him – that thing was epic), Frank Grindrod, Donna Suffling and Director of 1000 Heads, Mike Davison! That was an awesome Rollercoaster Ride of Feelings, its been 3 Years on this Day that we all met and talking to those People again has been amazing.

In addition to the Guys above, i had the honour to meet Chris Stobbs, with whom i had a very nice Conversation about our blogging styles (thanks again for the mention in your recap post at NomadsNirvana – Mobile Info), dani2xll (who writes on her own blog and daily mobile), the ever entertaining Nirave (writing on Mobile-Users) plus my good Friends Tom Hall, Katie Bunting and Lydia Millet, who also work for WOM World Nokia. In Addition to those Guys, who i already “knew”, i had the Pleasure to meet some new Guys, in Paul, Chris, Joel (and probably some more, if i forgot you, SORRY!)

Another Personality i had the Honour to meet at this meet-up has been James Whatley. In case you’ve been sleeping at the other side of the Moon so far, James writes on the really mobile project, as well as his own happy place, and is the newest Member of the 1000heads family. good catch there, guys!  Mr. Whatley proved as one hell of a nice Guy, it was fun having a few words with him, as it was with all the others.

The whole meet-up was a big success, with free drinks with nice people, hot pizzas, some pac-man games, a N900 that saved the big-screen premiere of the n97-mini marichi videos and some drinks in the bar near us. We were accompanied by Mike and Donna on our Way back to the Hotel, which was a very nice treat from them! We arrived pretty late at the Hotel and i was completely tired of the whole Day so i was pretty happy to close my Eyes for the Night, with big Plans for the following day!

Day 2 – Store Invasions, an edible Review and Sightseeing!

Day 2 started delicious, i had my very first english breakfast. baked beans, scrambled eggs,sausage and much more. full stomache and big plans ahead, me and dan started our walk back to WOM World Headquarters to pick up my Cap which i forgot at the meet-up. We decided to come back again later on and started straight off to Regents Street, to have a look at the Nokia Flagship Store there, which is supposed to close next month. I felt right at home, immediately getting my Hands on some of the latest Devices in there, including N97mini, N86 8MP, Booklet 3G, X6, as well as some E-Series Goodies like the E52, E72 and E55. (a little impressions report coming soon on them).

We also saw an incredibly expensive Galore of Nokia 8800 Phones, namely the 8800 black with diamonds, gold version, carbon version and the saphire one. Me and Dan were drooling all over, but decided to leave the beauty in order to experience functionality in the Maemo Lounge, which was a very nicely done Information Place for the Nokia N900 with Lots of Screens showing different Videos.

Right across the Street we decided to invade the Apple Store as well. And as much as i’m a Nokia Fan, i have to admit that the whole Appearance of the Apple Store was nicely done. A Ton of Apple gadgets ready to get your Hands on. The 2-storied Store with the big Apple Signs in its Windows was packed – and i mean packed. It was hard sometimes to get your Hands on some of the Toys at the Tables, because so many People were waiting to try them. The sad part about is, that there weren’t much more than 5 People at once in the Nokia Store at the opposite Side.

While i’m still not really interested in getting an iPhone, i must say that the Macbooks, or lets better say, the Mac OS has really attracted me. it’s so nice to use and it’s built in Applications put Windows to shame, by far. As for my next laptop choice, i think that’s almost clear now. A million of different speakers, bags, earphones and whatnot for the iphone, the helpdesk called “genius bar”, live tutorials from the apple staff and lots more gave a really good impression in their Store. Hats off, Apple.

Its a Shame how people forget their previous Lifes, right dan?!

After we have left the Apple Store, Dan picked up a T-Mobile UK Simcard with unlimited Data Usage for the rest of the trip. finally able to twitpic again without worrying about a gianormous Phone Bill, we dan and i decided to travel to the world-famous Madame Tussauds Museum of Wax Figures. This has been one of the things i really wanted to do on my next Trip to london and it was a blast. Being tricked right at the beginning by a wax-figure that looked like a photographer that was constantly shooting pics of Will Smith and some more nice treats, we had lots of fun. Nearly every major Moviestar, Politicians, Musicstar and much more have been there, and yes, they all looked very real, scary sometimes! At last i have been tricked again by a “Statue” that appeared to be real, when i was trying to picture with him and myself. That was a good laugh, while i walked away embarrassed

After the Blast that was Madame Tussauds, we returned to the Bar from the Day before, in order to have Lunch with Katie, Lids and Donna from WOM World. (Thanks a lot guys!) My Chickenburger was a tasty Way to fill my Stomache, but we were told to save our Dessert for later, as the Girls had another Surprise for us. The Surprise was another tasty one – we both were invited to do a.. well, let’s say different Way to express our Opinions about the Nokia N900, Blackberry and Apple. Different? Well, watch the Video and judge yourself, all i can say is, this was the best Way EVER to do a Review!!

As you can imagine, that was a whole Lot of Fun! Next up, was a bus sightseeing tour, for which we’ve bought the Ticket earlier this Day. The Roof of the Bus was partly opened, so as you can image, it was a pretty cold, but good Experience, being on the Road and watching almost all the Sights London had to offer. On our 2h long tour we saw good old Big Ben, the London Eye, Buckingham Palace, Trafalgar Square, the first ever Hardrock Cafe and so much more. Unfortunately the sun went down early again, so i couldnt take much more Pictures but the few i made can give you a great Idea of what went down on our Sightseeing Bus Tour!

We went for a little souvenir shopping to end this unforgiving cold Evening before walking back to the Hotel. The Evening saw me fullfilling my last “Task” for this Mission: Trying fish & chips! I missed doing this on the Ovi good things trip, so we decided to have Dinner in the Hotel that night and i decided to finally give it a try – and it was well worth it, good stuff! After some unsuccessfull Attempts to upload Pictures, i decided to perform some Shuteye early, in order to be fresh for the next Day.

After another great breakfast, all that was left was packing, go to the utrain station again and hope for some good weather for my flight back home. I must say i was extremely lucky, as my flight was right at time – as opposed to the more than 50 flights that were cancelled later this afternoon. I landed very smooth back home in Austria, my head filled with some great Memories of the whole trip and the Meetup.

First, a big THANK YOU goes out do Dan Carter, for spending the whole Time with me, and come along with me on to all the Sights we saw. Second, an another big THANK YOU goes out to the whole WOM World Team for making this Trip so special and giving me the Opportunity to meet some old and new Friends on this great meet-up. I surely had a blast there and i would absolutely love to do it again. Third, a special thanks goes out to Chris Stobbs, with whom i had this brilliant conversation about our blogging styles and for the sharing of our opinions on Nokia. I have the upmost respect for guys like you, who are not afraid to speak their mind and tell people what they think – straight in their face . and of course, last but not least, a big thanks and hello to everyone who attended the WOM World meet-up thursday night. it was fun seeing you all in person, have fun with you, talk about Nokia and just having a good Time side by side with like-minded personalities from the blogosphere. it was an honour to meet you and as i said, i would love to do it again sometime! – oh and by the way James, we’re going to cook this chocolate chili soon!

As usual, i have prepared a Flickr Set with a Ton of Pictures from my Trip to London, check it out by clicking the Flickr Logo! In case you attended the meet-up and want some of that pictures full size, let me know and i get back to you!

And also, if you want to read some more opinions on the meet-up, my Friends have each put up a nice Article with Lots of more Pictures from the actual Meetup:

• WomWorldNokia WWNMeet – by dani2xll
• WWN Meetup: The Aftermath – by Nirave
• WomWorld/Nokia Meet-up was awesome – by Chris Stobbs
• WOMWorldNokia Meetup – by Jay Montano

I have recently posted all the Details about my upcoming 3 Day London Trip right here on my Blog, in case you wanna meet me and my Friend Dan Carter from World of Nokia and most recently Android Today!

And now here comes the cool Part, my Friends from WOM World Nokia have just announced that there will be a WOM World Nokia Meetup right in their Headquarters this Thursday evening, starting from 18.30! Cool Thing, i like it and i’m sure as hell will be there, so if you wanna sit down, have a drink with me and Dan and chat about everything Nokia, head over to WOM World’s Meet-up Post and let them know you’re coming!!

Since all Dates are finalized, i can finally tell what’s going on in the 3 Days i’m in London:

• Arrival: I will arrive on 2.45pm on Thursday, the 7th of January 2010 in London Heathrow. I have no further Plans for Thursday, so if anyone is free and likes to have dinner, a drink with me or something similar, let me know
• Plans for the 3 Days: My overall main Priority, will be hanging out with Friend of Site Dan Carter, who will arrive as well in London. This is going to be huge, since Dan and i will meet up the first Time since our epic Las Vegas CES Trip back in January 2007! That’s 4 years, time sure flies these days. Friday the 8th will be WOM World Nokia Day, as Dan and i are planning to crash the new Office in London. I’m planning to steal some of James Whatley’s video + blogging skills and have a little re-union with my 1000heads Friends again, who i had the Pleasure to meet at my Nokia Trips so far. And who knows, maybe there’s going to be a little tech-meetup too, the evening of the 8th will be a hot candidate for this Sightseeing will be the plan for the last day, Saturday the 9th. i’m not sure yet where we’ll go, but i definitely wanna see madame tussauds – that’s on top of my wishlist. we’re planning to leave the hotel early, as Dan and i are leaving London in the afternoon.
• The Hotel: yes, the Hotel is already booked as well, so Groupies, Followers and Friends can meet me at: 

Travelodge London Covent Garden Hotel
10 Drury Lane
High Holborn
London
WC2B 5RE
Website

• Department: Everything is coming to an End, and i’m certainly not looking forward to this one. My Flight will take off at 3.45 pm on Saturday, January 9th, again from Airport London Heathrow. Most of my Trips does not have much Time left to get some sleep, so i’m sure i’ll sleep most of my Flight again. perfectly fine for me hehe

So, this is the Plan so far for my upcoming Trip to London. Again if you’re interested in having a drink somewhere along my Road, make sure to let me know and i’ll see if i can arrange something. You’re also most welcome to show us around London - whenever you find some Time, get in Touch, i would greatly appreciate it!

www.facebook.com/michaelhell
www.twitter.com/xmichaelsfx
or in the Comments

And as promised, the Ringtone of the slightly smaller Mariachi Band

>DOWNLOAD <

Of Course this is just yet another great Viral Marketing Campaign by Nokia, one of the Things i absolutely love about them. The N97 mini – Good Things come in smaller Packages!

I thought maybe someone is interested to see the short Interview i did for Nokia? This was Part of my Trip to find the good Things with the WOM World Team and 10 selected Bloggers from all over the World in London 2 Weeks ago. The Video contains Questions about myself, where i blog, where and how i buy Phones and what i wanna see in future Nokia Devices. I would’ve had a lot more to say on the last Matter, but i guess the N86 would’ve just run out of Memory then Anyways, i enjoyed the Interview and hope you do too!