Nokia Booklet 3G review

After almost a year of hype, and nearly three months on from its official unveiling, the Nokia Booklet 3G is here. Billed as a premium netbook, the Finnish phone maker’s first laptop is setting out to best its raft of rivals with claims of epic battery life, stunning build quality and easy web and file access. So does it do the job? Read our complete Nokia Booklet 3G review now and we’ll tell all.

The Nokia Booklet 3G is being billed by Espoo as a mini laptop as opposed to a netbook. But a quick read of the spec sheet shows this isn’t quite the case. There’s a 10.1-inch screen, an Intel Atom processor (and a pared down Z530 version at that), along with built-in 3G.

Take a closer look though and you’ll soon realise this is most definitely a premium netbook. The Nokia Booklet 3G comes loaded with Windows 7 Home Premium, letting you get stuck into a beefed up version of Microsoft’s all new OS on a dinky machine.

Thia does present difficulties however. When we fired it up, the Intel Atom Z530 took an age to open Windows 7. And once we’d got it going, opening more than two programmes proved a tad taxing. If you like having your mail client, web browser and media player all going at the same time, you’re going to need to keep an eye on speed here.

Read our Acer Aspire One D250 Android netbook review now

There’s certainly no doubting that the Nokia Booklet 3G has some killer features though. The isolated keys are as good as any we’ve used on a netbook, although they did take some getting used to owing to their dinky size. The 720p HD screen is a joy for watching TV shows and short clips on the go. While netbooks are moving in this direction slowly, it’s good to see Nok’s first effort already packing hi-def skills.

We found the embedded 3G worked nice and zippy from our base down in south London too. SIM access is easy from a port down the side, so you don’t need to go heaving the battery out to slide one in.

Perhaps the Nokia Booklet 3G’s biggest draw though is its battery life. We found Nokia’s 12 hour battery claims to be remarkably close to the truth, squeezing out 11 and a half hours while watching two films and tinkering with our email throughout the day. However, make sure you keep the screen brightness down. Push it up to full tilt and you’re looking at seven hours max before you’re out of juice.

There’s no denying the Nokia Booklet 3G is a great little netbook. Its build is ace, but it could have a smidge more grunt for running more apps. And with Asus and Acer already pushing into the next-gen of netbooks, chances are this will be hideously outdated in 12 months. Still, if you love Nokia and want a netbook, it’s well worth a look.