Diaries of a Nokia Fan Boy

It appears as though making that Booklet was not enough for Nokia, as it seems set on introducing a smartbook to the market come mid-2010. This new “Book” is likely to sport either an ARM Cortex A9 Sparrow, or a Qualcomm Snapdragon. That means that smartbook will be able to handle HD content, as well as conserve battery use. The implication would be either a high resolution screen, or HDMI out (or both). Of course, that also implies that Windows is out of the question and that leaves Nokia with either Maemo, Symbian, or Android. And frankly, as much as we love Nokia and Symbian, I hope that won’t be their choice of operating system.

I would say that we will all have to wait until Nokia World 09, but given the latest round of leaks and spills its quite possible that NW9 won’t be introducing anything new at all.

-Nokia FanBoy

via: DigiTimes (read)
and: Engadget (read)

Well it looks like the seal on the Booklet 3G news is more leaky than a sieve! Some more info coming to us from NetbookNews and UMPC World. Lets leave the best for last and start with the specification update.

First of all, it looks like a safe bet that the CPU is an Atom Z530 (1.6GHz dual-core). That’s not necessarily a bad thing, its a pretty decent processor.

Second, the HDD is going to be 120GB. This implies that its going to be a disk drive, and not a solid state. Which is a shame because the solid state would have fared much better, as well as increased the battery life even further. To be perfectly honest, its a mystery how they’re getting 12 hours considering they have a dual-core processor and a disk drive :S

Third, and this is more of a speculation, the machine is likely to have 1GB RAM, and I am inferring this mostly from the CPU, the HDD and the fact that its a high-definition screen.

Fourth, it is quite likely that the battery isn’t going to be 12 hours, maybe closer to 6 hours with light usage, which is closer to the truth, and sounds like most other netbooks out there.

Since there are a lot more points mentioned I will just go on to the last one: the price. The Booklet is expected to have a price of $799, which, by any standards, is not acceptable for a netbook, even one as nicely outfitted as this. I believe that in order for this device to survive, it will have to be priced in the sub-$500 range, then it will have a fighting chance with the HP Mini’s, Acer One’s, and AI TouchBook’s of the world. Of course, the Booklet is meant to be subsidized by carriers, but the problem is, so are the other netbooks, and some are less than half the price! (the HP Mini 10.1″ is $350 at Costco across the street from me)

So in short, the specs are more disappointing than I would have hoped for, and if Nokia prices it at $799 the Booklet will die rather quickly. Especially considering its only differentiation is aluminum chassis, 3G, Bluetooth, GPS, and HD (720p?) display with HDMI out. In today’s world that just isn’t enough for a netbook to be priced in that range.

-Nokia FanBoy

via: UMPC Portal (read)
and: Netbook News (read) – warning: non-english

Well it appears as if more information is leaking out about the Nokia Booklet 3G, and its not even September yet. This time we get some more pictures (including a shot with an E71!), and a rumor as to what CPU the booklet uses!

In short, the pictures are below, and the Booklet is rumored to use the Atom Z530. The CPU is the dual core descendant of the Atom family, and would be quite capable of producing 720p content, which is all one can expect from a netbook. Still, it would have been nice to see it introduced with Tegra, but I guess the Windows requirement makes things difficult.

-Nokia FanBoy

via: Reuters (read)
and: Engadget (read)

Ok, so we all know that Nokia was planning to enter the netbook/notebook market, and apparently it did so by creating a “Booklet”. The Nokia Booklet 3G is basically a slightly more powerful netbook (for an unknown price). Nokia’s Exec. VP for Devices, Kai Oistamo, had this to say about the Booklet 3G:

A growing number of people want the computing power of a PC with the full benefits of mobility. We are in the business of connecting people and the Nokia Booklet 3G is a natural evolution for us. Nokia has a long and rich heritage in mobility and with the outstanding battery life, premium design and all day, always on connectivity, we will create something quite compelling. In doing so we will make the personal computer more social, more helpful and more personal.

I must admit, the device itself looks quite appealing, with a very understated yet elegant simplicity. Indeed the device does remind us of a somewhat older, more classic, Nokia design. The Booklet 3G has some fairly impressive specs to be competing with the netbooks of today:

Nokia Booklet 3G

• Atom CPU
• 10.1″ HD Display
• Built-in Webcam
• HDMI Out
• Bluetooth/Wi-Fi/3G/HSDPA
• Several USB ports, 3.5mm audio out
• SD card reader (SHDC? SDXC?)
• Integrated A-GPS with Ovi Maps!
• 12hr battery life
• 2cm thick
• 1.25kg
• unconfirmed: Windows 7

The specs look really promising, in fact this would be the perfect in-car computer, depending, of course, on what kind of hard-drive it has. For the complete spec list and price info we’ll have to wait until Nokia World 09.

I was just thinking about the target market for this, and I realised that the potential is quite large. Students that prefer to have an always-on internet connection or that require GPS in their laptop could definitely use this. Of course while most universities now offer campus-wide Wi-Fi, this would be great for completing projects on the bus. And just like for exchange-students that would be greatly helped by GPS when navigating strange cities, travelling Businessmen would also find this feature quite helpful. However for the businessmen the built-in 3G would be more helpful for accessing internet en-route to a client’s location or at the client’s location during, say, a presentation (basically same reason someone would get the USB 3G stick).

The battery life in this beast is also quite impressive, and even more so considering how light it is. However, I would be quite interested to find out just how HD the Booklet’s 10.1″ HD screen is.

As for now, we have a video and a gallery for you to peruse.

Nokia Booklet 3G Back	Nokia Booklet 3G Blue	Nokia Booklet 3G Camera
Nokia Booklet 3G Colours	Nokia Booklet 3G Group	Nokia Booklet 3G HDMI
	Nokia Booklet 3G Open

-Nokia FanBoy

via: Nokia Conversations (read)
and: Engadget (read)
and: Symbian-Freak (read)
and: GSMArena (read)