Nokia has been saving quite a few goodies for this year’s Nokia world it seems. First we saw the Booklet 3G and wondered about what it actually will be like. Then last week, Nokia came out with the X6 that is now on display at the IFA 2009 happening at Berlin and was displayed the day it was announced at the Nokia World 2009 that was held in Stuttgart on the 2nd and the 3rd of this month.
Understandably, the Booklet generated a lot of buzz when it was first announced at towards the end of August. Specifications were not released back then but it was made known that the device would have 3G onboard. Now, Nokia has finally spilled the beans and confirmed what many had already guessed.
It is merely a netbook with great aesthetics and onboard GPS and 3G capabilities. However, those last two things are quite enough to set it apart from the rest of the netbook crop.
It will have 3G/HSPA (along with GPRS GSM support) and the simcard will be hot swappable. However, you won’t be able to make voice calls from it. It is just a 3G modem with two possible variations and the choice to drop it entirely before buying. It will also have built-in WWAN support in addition to WLAN. The battery-life is being touted at 12 hours and with a 16 cell, 56.8watt/hour, Li-ion prismatic battery it does have a good chance of living up to that claim. The battery is removable.
There will also be Bluetooth 2.1 with EDR, assisted GPS and support for 802.11b/g/n WiFi (2T2R). Thus all possible connectivity options have been exhausted. I guess Nokia is taking its motto (Connecting People) pretty seriously with this netbook.
It is runs on an Intel Atom Z530 1.6GHz processor and uses the Intel Poulsbo US15W chipset. The Booklet 3G will be less noisy than comparable netbooks because it uses passive cooling. Things can get pretty hot this way though plus performance may be hampered if the cooling is not done right. However, let’s hope Nokia and Intel have fully figured this one out. You get a 120GB 1.8” SATA HDD for storage. It is really slow at only 4200rpm.
The chassis is machined out of a single piece of aluminum. The same process that goes in to making what Apple calls the Unibody. The advantage of this type of chassis against piecing it together is the strength that it inherits from the solid piece of aluminum.
Nokia drops the ubiquitous VGA port and keeps only the HDMI port on the Booklet 3G. There are 3 USB 2.0 ports, 1 headphone out that also functions as line in with OMTP headsets, 1 SD card reader slot and one slot for your SIM/USIM. Dropping the VGA means it won’t work with older displays and projectors, so think things through if you have to use a VGA port equipped projector regularly.
There is the mandatory webcam with a built-in microphone. The 10.1inch display will be made out of glass, which will make for richer colors but it might also cause glares.
With the Booklet 3G comes Nokia applications and integration with Nokia phones via the Ovi suite. You get Ovi Maps to use with the GPS, Social Hub for the social animal inside you, Nokia software updater and also Nokia Music for PC. The Social Hub application also sends SMS.
The Booklet 3G comes in 3 colors – black, azure (blue) and ice (white). At $800 (Euro price is 600), this is one expensive netbook. I say hold your horses till we get to review this thing.
