Nokia and AT&T just announced the official availability of the Booklet 3G, Nokia’s Win7 netbook. It will be available on October 22 for $299 with 2-year contract and $60/month data plan.
The netbook, rumored to hit 12 hours of battery life and has and Intel Atom processor, 120GB HDD, 1GB of RAM, WiFi, HDMI, and 3G. The netbook will be sold by AT&T in Best Buy stores.
There’s honestly not much more to say other than godspeed, Nokia, in this endeavor. These netbooks seems like a nice way to ensure a nice, long revenue stream and, given that the hardware is probably worth about $400, the carrier doesn’t have to eat costs and make it back in the contract with devices like these. The carrier subsidy, it seems, may be dead.
We’ll try to grab some photos and hands-on impressions shortly but what do you think about this odd, out of character move by Nokia?
I wonder if you’ve got a iPhone data plan if you paid the additional $20, you’d be covered on both. Likely not.
It seems more like an odd, out of character move for AT&T, considering that their 3G is so bogged down with Iphone usage.
That’s exactly what I was thinking. These guys tell us they had to wait to allow MMS and can’t offer tethering – something they DO support on other smartphones – because the iPhone usage has saturated their data network? With that argument how can they add MORE data usage?
I think the FCC should find AT&T negligent on delivering their services and require them to provide all users the unlock key so we can choose another provider if we wish.
So $1739 plus tax for a low end, small screen. small keyboard laptop that you will probably run on wifi all the time anyways.
gah, beat me to it!
Funny… that is what I say about the iPhone.
Your point is invalid.
Someone who wants AT&T’s wireless service in this scenario has two options:
1. Buy a standalone netbook with an internal radio (or have to pay for a dongle), and then pay for the wireless service.
2. Buy this netbook on the cheap (eliminating need for dongle), and then pay for the wireless service.
Either way, they’d pay for the service, so those costs become irrelevant.
“$299 with 2-year contract and $60/month data plan.”
Ouch. So they want $1739 for that device with 2 years of service?
No thanks.
You also forgot to note the extra fees they tack on per month. I’m sure they’re going to nickel and dime their customers. I’m guessing that will increase the price to about $2000
It’s not about the final price you give including the data plan, but about the increase of productivity you may get for the mobility fact. That’s what counts.
Uh-huh. I don’t need $60 a month of productivity. That’s almost double what I pay for home broadband.
this
You can also be 3g usb adapters for your current notebook / netbook.
Gah!
$1599 every year for a new Apple Macbook? Who would pay such outrageous prices on a YEARLY basis!
Anyone who would sign a 2 year contract in order to get a netbook is an idiot. Anyone who would sign a 2 year contract with ATT for *anything* is beyond stupid at this point, and is entering the realm of techno-Darwinism, where they will subsequently be offered discounts on Betamax recorders, Dvorack keyboards, and Beanie Baby collections.
How is the cans with the strings running between them working for ya????
LOL….now THAT is funny!
Don’t be too quick and naive to write this one off. There’s a slice of the market pie that this makes sense for. #1 – I don’t pay for internet at home because I surf on my iphone via 3G. $40/month savings. Being online everywhere anytime (parks,etc) – that’s worth $20/month to me. Works for me.
I think its a great idea by Nokia, I would actually consider buying it, seems like a great deal, got the 3G inbuilt so I can just slip in my sim card and away I go. The design is also slick. One question though, in the video it seems to run windows 7, hope 1GB is enough for ram.
I have a dell mini 9 that runs Windows 7 w/1GB without a hitch, it should do fine.
This is out of character for Nokia as it actually is a very nice deal – 3G, HDMI, in a real sleek and portable computer. The screen resolution of that puppy is high end compared to other netbooks, and the battery life really is something bigger laptops need to evolve to. I struggle in this respect with my Macbook Air where battery life is short and I know I cannot replace the battery once it is dead (closed case construction).
Too bad it’s GSM. The GSM coverage is horrible here in Colorado. The speed here is also slower compared to CDMA. I am an iPhone user and I have to carry a Virgin Mobile phone around so I can have a phone that works in emergencies.
Well, GSM is working fine in the rest of the world.
I question the future of this pricing model. It doesn’t seemed geared toward the consumer at all but instead geared to lining telco’s pockets.
If they sold it without the 3G tit and made it so ppl could use it on wifi alone then I’d understand, but this model seems hateful to the consumer.
If you’re going to pay 60/mo for data service anyway than 299 for it makes sense. it’s just the overall cost on the unit w/ the data service added in at around $1700 thats hard to swallow
The hand model is not touch typing correctly in the video. Sad.
so what’s the no contract price? i actually think this stinks as it will inflate the real cost of netbooks. instead AT&T ands the other carriers should be offering naked data plans for use in the devices that should be sold contract free.
Those are surely a man’s hands in the video… with blue nail polish. Creepy.
So Nokia/AT&T is clearly the choice for the cross dressing community.
Next time get a hand model to type! I agree, creepy hands. Internet free almost everywhere I go . . . will NOT pay another contract for service I don’t need.
what’s with the bloomberg music in the video?
will need to get an unlocked in India.. or just launch their too…
I would probably just pay full price and use the SIM from my iPhone, assuming it would work.
For people complaining about the $599 price, if you go to Dell’s site and configure a mini 10v with all of the same equipment (higher res, upgraded wifi + BT and 3g card) the Nokia is only about $50 more….. Although if I bought the 10v I would probably go with the Ubuntu option.
Anyone know whether or not this will offer true global 3G roaming? Or will this be like most other Nokia devices and come with a US version and a Euro version? How does that stack up against the new “global” Kindle….does it offer 3G downloads worldwide?
Anyone think about Internet Connection Sharing and “tethering” this to a Real Notebook at home?
While IPhone tethering may be prevented, I don’t think they could remove this basic feature from Windows (of course, it is running a version of Window 7… does it have ICS? Though 3rd party apps, like NET32, should be able to provide it.)
I bought mine without the contract and it came out to $640. I tried putting my iPhone SIM card in it but took it out right away afraid that I would see a huge charge on my bill… I think I’ll try it again though.
There have been successful attempts by others to put Mac OS X on the booklet.
Overall a really nice netbook, better than any others I’ve seen. The hardware really feels like a Mac product and the battery life is outstanding. It really does get 12 hours (with wifi and bluetooth off but still 10 hours with it on).