Nokia Booklet 3G review - part 1, design and hardware

[j d]

I think the "it's not symbian you shouldn't report it" argument has been made, many times, and found wanting. Please stop it, it's boring and not impressing anybody.

I for one have been waiting for a good review of this for a while, and a review from a Symbain users perspective will be the most relevant to me :P

[Rafe]

I'm almost added a paragraph to the review titled why we're reviewing the Nokia Booklet 3G, but I though it would be fairly obvious. I wish I had now.

I've said in the past that All About Symbian will cover material outside the strictly Symbian view point - we've done this with device comparisons for example, but also general mobile topics. There's more of this to come. I want to do more of this because I think the majority of this site audience aren't interested only in Symbian, but rather high tech mobile. Of course the primary focus of the site is and will remain Symbian, but that doesn't mean we can't have occasional outings to other areas of interest.

Of course I should also say that part of this is also about access to devices - having good links with Nokia means I was offered a chance to take a look at the Booklet - I've had one on loan for a little while. I thought it was an opportunity worth pursuing, especially as this is Nokia's first foray into the space and there's not been a great deal of online coverage about the device. The point about Samsung netbooks is well made, though I'd point out the implicit links (e.g. inclusion of Ovi software) aren't really the same... and Samsung in a consumer electronics conglomerate in general.

It'll be more obvious in the second part, but I thin the Booklet 3G makes a great companion devices to mix with some smartphones (especially the non touch ones). To be fair that can be said about a lot of netbooks (Ewan has commented on this 2 box solution multiple times in the past.

I appreciate that some people feel this site is Nokia heavy, but that's an inevitably consequence of their dominance in the Symbian community. If you look at shipment figures (Western Europe - see NB about Japan) for example this would suggest that only one in every one hundred device centric stories should be able a non-Nokia device.

N.B. I'd like to cover Japanese stuff in more detail, but its not be possible to get hold of the devices.

Anyway hopefully at least some people will find some interest in the review, if not I suggest you ignore it. If people feel really strongly about this please get in touch - unregistered comments don't really cut it this instance.

[Rafe]

Originally Posted by j d

I think the "it's not symbian you shouldn't report it" argument has been made, many times, and found wanting. Please stop it, it's boring and not impressing anybody.

I for one have been waiting for a good review of this for a while, and a review from a Symbain users perspective will be the most relevant to me :P

Thanks, glad you appreciate it.

Originally Posted by Unregistered

How about changing the name of this site to: www.magnet for nit-picking-whiney-wankers-to-moan-about-absolutely-anything.com?

I think long domains name get a bit tricky to type in!

Originally Posted by anphase

The price to power ratio for this booklet/netbook is pathetic. The build quality though is admirable but not enough for this to be a winner for me. Its good to see AAS branching out like this, makes it more interesting .

Cheers

I comment on this more in part two, but yes this is the issue and potential purchasers need to be aware of this... But I think, potentially, a lot of netbook purchasers are entirely driven by the price/power ratio... be interesting to see people's comments on this in the second part.

Originally Posted by Unregistered

What exactly is the problem with a non-symbian device being reviewed here? I mean did somebody die or something?

It runs Windows 7 and it's made by Nokia. Oooh, somebody call the police my delicate sensitivities are all upset.

I hope AAS continues to ignore these pedantic anal retentives and keeps giving us interesting insights into new devices. There is no law, byelaw and covenant that suggests an editor is bound by the domain name in the URL.

Keep it up AAS, it's actually very good work.

Thanks - it's nice to know I'm not unrealistic in my hopes. I sometimes wonder if I should have used a different domain...

Originally Posted by Unregistered

Great review. It would be nice if you can also review Samsung GO N310 netbook and compare that with Nokia's booklet.

Regards,
Amit

I hadn't though of this before, but you and the other poster who mentioned this makes me think it might be a nice idea. Part of the issue may be borrowing one from Samsung's PR, but I'll see what I can do.

Originally Posted by Unregistered

Agree. And what happened to your post on the Nokia flagship store closing? You gave it enough coverage when it opened.

Anyway, I was sold on this until you mention that you can't upgrade the RAM. That would make it a downgrade for me from my current Eee PC (at twice the price too). Shame, because it looks lovely.

I'm working on that story. It is confirmed, but I want to add something more than just - Nokia store closing - horror of horrors!

The stores in Chicago and NYC are closing early next year, too.

http://www.fonearena.com/blog/2009/1...s-in-2010.html

There really is no way to sugar coat this. Nokia is in full retrench mode right now. Their [insert number here]-year strategy to "focus more on the US" has obviously failed, and more competitors are eating their lunch around the world. My own view is that Maemo is the last shot. If not, Nokia should bite the bullet and adopt Android. That way they could leave the software to someone else and concentrate on what they do best, which is hardware.

[UKJeeper]

Originally Posted by Rafe

I'm working on that story. It is confirmed, but I want to add something more than just - Nokia store closing - horror of horrors!

Make that store's, plural. New York and Chicago are going too.

Why all the fuss about Steve and his reporting? Everyone knows he is in the bag for Nokia. No problem with this. My only question is: Is he getting paid to always talk up Nokia? If so then this becomes the real issue. For the most part I do not really give much of what he says a lot of credibility, however he is not always wrong as well. Pick and choose what you want to believe and then do your own research to find the answers.

[Abushaheed]

A part of what makes any web space worth viewing is accommodating different viewpoints. Some of us may feel that AAS is Nokia biased in some of their articles, presentations and choices; but name calling because someone's view is different from yours is well less than adult behaviour.

Adults should be able to disagree with class. Some of the persons posting here miss that point entirely.

[buxz777]

all about symbian do some very nice work and steve , ewan and raffe are excellent at what they do however i do agree that the site is more tailored towards nokia and anything nokia with nokia devices sometimes getting a better perception then they deserve compared to other devices

but the phone world is a personal one so its obvious everyones views will be different

[ericklamothe]

Nokia has understandably opted for the windows platform which unlike on mobile devices is very competent and versatile on the desktop. It will allow its aim to reach to a wide audience by ensuring there is a good integration capability between its mobile products and the wider computing market.

However, by 2011 we can expect Nokia's booklet range to include a few devices that will run on a variant of Maemo. That is one of the primary reasons for Nokia's decision to increase support and R&D for Maemo enabling it to have a truly vertical operating system to link computing platforms from the laptop or desktop all the way through to mobile devices.

Originally Posted by Abushaheed

A part of what makes any web space worth viewing is accommodating different viewpoints. Some of us may feel that AAS is Nokia biased in some of their articles, presentations and choices; but name calling because someone's view is different from yours is well less than adult behaviour.

Adults should be able to disagree with class. Some of the persons posting here miss that point entirely.

~Suggesting someone is "less than adult" is name calling in itself. And the post that you are referring to are someone's view. It is different to yours.

I don't believe anyone has been singled out or suffered a direct personal attack. What really happened was that somebody expressed an opinion. If somebody else chooses to take that to heart, then there must be some truth in it.

[brendan]

It seems a decent review so far that I read with interest. To me, as a smartphone user, I found it a product of interest. Does it fit with a site called 'Allaboutsymbian'? Not at all. AllaboutNokia more like. I am sorry Rafe, Steve et al whilst Nokia was on the up, high end smartphone wise, then allaboutsymbian being allaboutnokia was fine but these days the smartphone market is wide open. Nokia are making mistakes aplenty and really seem to be comfortable in the middle tier so people are justified in complaining about the obvious Nokia bent of this site or is just than symbian is becoming middle tier and therefore not very interesting?

Originally Posted by Unregistered

My only question is: Is he getting paid to always talk up Nokia? If so then this becomes the real issue.

I don't see how this can possibly be any kind of issue when he has stepped forwards and answered the question more than once.

Originally Posted by brendan

It seems a decent review so far that I read with interest. To me, as a smartphone user, I found it a product of interest. Does it fit with a site called 'Allaboutsymbian'? Not at all.

Why exactly? What rule are you invoking here? Brendan's personal preference law?

Originally Posted by brendan

AllaboutNokia more like. I am sorry Rafe, Steve et al whilst Nokia was on the up, high end smartphone wise, then allaboutsymbian being allaboutnokia was fine but these days the smartphone market is wide open. Nokia are making mistakes aplenty and really seem to be comfortable in the middle tier so people are justified in complaining about the obvious Nokia bent of this site or is just than symbian is becoming middle tier and therefore not very interesting?

Again, why exactly?

[mikej]

Great to see this being reviewed here. Why? Because as a long time Symbian user, I see few options outside the rather plentiful array of Nokia S60 devices (even with all the faults and misfires) if you are happy with the platform (and I have tried others!). And if the company puts out something that is designed to work with/compliment Nokia phones, I'm interested in hearing about it from people that are also Symbian users. FWIW, although I haven't seen any plans from providers, I think there are cheaper solutions for what the device is offering. Looks pretty tho'!

The kind of metal extensively used on this thing is alumin-i-um.