Nokia Booklet to hit O2 Germany October 22 for €249 on contract (update: €749 total)
By Nilay Patel 
posted Oct 7th 2009 1:44PM
posted Oct 7th 2009 1:44PM
Update: Okay, the Nokia PR is out and as commenter Amyd has helpfully translated for us, you're looking at two different payments here: the O2 MyHandy purchase program, where you buy the Booklet for €249 upfront and dish out €20 a month for two years, and the actual O2 wireless service, which is €25 a month. That's a total of €749 for the Booklet 3G, plus the service fee -- yeah, we'll pass.
The flat rate will probably be for the €249 ($366) price tag, since in all other european countries as well, flat rates come pretty cheap.
For instance, I pay 9 euro / month for a flat rate data plan. Things are just cheaper over here. The service providers have a relly tight competition and pricing has dropped a lot over the years. Ofcourse the smaller size of the countries makes it easier to build 3G networks and thus create more competition.
I know these prices are hard for you folks over in the states to believe, but that's just the way things are over here.
I live in Denmark and here for the equivalent of a quarter, i.e. 0,25 $ (1DKK) anyone can get the latest models of netbooks by Lenovo, LG, Samsung ,HP (Vivienne Tam edition excluded), Acer and probably some other I did'nt see , if he agrees to sign a 6 months unlimited data plan for about 15 bucks a month.
I doubt that anyone will be tempted to drop 250 euros just to get the Nokia logo on his netbook
@ Engadget: They probably have two contracts where the 20 euro contract is a volume limited one (say 500mb traffic) while the flat rate tariff is unlimited traffic.
Spot on juischau! I think this how it goes down
Not too bad. The carriers will probably tie it to a handset as well.
There is no flatrate, the netbook will simply be sold under the "o2 MyHandy" program, which is essentially a 0% interest financing system: so you pay 249€ upfront, then a monthly rate of 20€ for 24 Months.
Any kind of data will be extra, but you can also simply just buy the netbook from o2 and use it with a stick/SIM from another provider if you wish so,
Flatrates for 3G in Germany O2 starts from 6.8 euro... So yes, probably the €25 / month flat rate for 24 months is for the €249 subsidized price.
Perhaps I wasn't clear: there is no subsidized price, and there is no flat rate. You are simply paying the full price: €249 upfront, then €20 rates for 24 months.
If you want a data plan from o2, you pay an extra 25€ / month for it.
Yes.
For 25 Euro you get 10GB (gprs speed there after)
for 10 Euro you get 200MB (gprs speed there after)
Outgoing voice is 15cent per min.
Inbound voice is free.
0 euro base fee.
No minimum turnover.
Ofcourse you pay the full price for the laptop in the end, probably more. It's normal, it's the whole idea of subsidizing. You pay less up front but pay as much or more in the end.
BUT, where you are wrong, the 20 euros include the basic subscription, where you can select the data-plan of your choice. Like the basic flat rate plan for 6.8 euro month.
Wow, big chance to be a tipster at engadget.com (funny enough I mentiode you guys as my most important ehh entertaining Blog in a Samsung competition like earlier today). But Aymd was faster and most prominently right: You are looking at two contracts: 20 EUR goes per month for this credit buy of Nokia's neat netbook premier. The initial 249 bucks are part of the price to reduce the 24 monthly rates. The data plan are another 25,00 EUR. Maybe new: You can buy this netbook with this financing scheme indepently! from any mobile tarifes from O2 (in case you are at big magenta T and already paying 89,00 EUR for the everything included Iphone contract - plus 25,00! EUR for the pairing option)
do want the blue one.
Can anybody tell me whats so special about the booklet, that its so expensive?!
Heard of www.google.com ever?
-Aluminium unibody design, glass screen cover
-1280x720 screen
-under 2 cm thin
-apparently 12h of real battery life (with normal WLAN/3G use)
-integrated 3G
-integrated AGPS
It's certainly expensive, but if the reviews are positive, I think it's worth considering - the used materials are worth a small premium to me compared to all those plasticky cheap netbooks...
Thanks, didnt knew the Specs. But still, i think its too expensive.
I thought the Booklet was $570.
and then I thought it was $800
http://www.engadget.com/2009/08/25/nokia-booklet-3g-to-run-799/
Conversions are always so confusing on Engagdet. Is it really $1000?
The guys at engadget have big difficulties in calculating price without VAT. No point in converting the incl.vat. price to USD since the tax in the states is much smaller.
I have to admit I don't completely understand how Engadget arrived at this figure. I mean, I get that they're adding up the total expenditure over the life of the contract. But why is this different from the Samsung slider that was covered today? The phone is USD$170 after rebates on a two year contract, does that mean the phone actually costs USD$1370?
No snark here, I honestly want to know what I'm missing. I don't think EUR250 is unreasonable for that machine, if the specs and the form factor are any indicator of what we'll actually get when it ships.
Ah, I see, they're charging you monthly for the duration of the contract an additional EUR20. THAT's what I was missing. Mea culpa. So, yeah: overpriced. Especially when you can walk into a FNAC and walk out with a loaded gaming laptop or powerful ultraportable for the same price or less.
No, Quapo, Nokia spells it out quite clearly in their press release:
http://www.nokia.de/nokia/presseloft/pressemitteilungen/pressemeldungen?newsid=-28510
"Das Nokia Booklet 3G wird über „O2 My Handy“ angeboten. Nach einer einmaligen Anzahlung von 249 Euro kauft der Kunde das Mini Notebook zu einer monatlichen Rate von 20 Euro über 24 Monate. Als Datenoption empfiehlt sich die mobile Datenflatrate für zusätzlich 25 Euro monatlich."
For those that do not speak German, it says:
"The Nokia Booklet 3G will be offered under the "O2 My Handy". After a one-time payment of 249€ the customer buys the Mini Notebook, with a monthly payment of 20 Euro over a period of 24 Months. The mobile Data Flatrate is a recommended option, for an extra 25€ monthly."
That is the whole idea behind the o2 My Handy gimmick: they offer you a selection of cellphones (and now netbooks) that you can buy with financing (upfront payment plus rates over 12 or 24 months) and you do not need to buy a voice or data contract from o2. It is as if a bank or credit card financed your purchase, you only need to pay your monthly rates and then the device is yours. Of course, the cellphones come unlocked and you can use them with whatever provider you want.
The downside is that you pay absolutely the full price of the cellphone, and if you can afford to pay everything upfront, you can generally get it for cheaper somewhere else: eg the Nokia Booklet has I believe a list price of €699, but with the o2 program you end up paying €729 for it.
Hi,
danke, dass du denen mal das System erklärst. Wird aber Zeit, das Engadget die Headline etc. mal ändert, denn die Aussage ist ja falsch. Im Grunde ist das bei O2 nur die Ratenzahlung. Das MyHandy System ist in meinen Augen nur ne doofe Art der Ratenzahlung, weil der Preis nicht konkurrenzfähig ist.
To explain the data plans:
6,8€ is for 200MB@ max 3,6MBit/s (VOIP not allowed) usable in mobile or USB WWAN Modem, >200MB = GPRS Speed
21,25€ is for 5GB@ max 3,6 MBit/s (VOIP not allowed), >5GB = GPRS Speed
regards
morsch
Leave a note if it turns out to be a REAL flatrate, as in full speed, all the time. I'm not coughing up €25 for a gig or two when it's back to GPRS-trickle after that. Because that's what they call "flat" now, sometimes with only a few 100MBs.
want the white one when it hits Best Buy...not on At&T...looks like the most appealing laptop/netbook ive seen in a loong time here in the states.
more expensive than macbook?
for that hardware....no way
Is there any MacBook currently under $800.
Have you used the Booklet 3G hardware? or haven there been
any reviews yet? So this is not the right time for comparison.
Compare when the booklet is actually out. It has same or superior atleast aluminium
body as Apple.
-put on elementary school teacher hat-
249 + 24x20 is 729, not 749.
-remove hat-
these people fail at math of any kind.
Nilay Patel is spoiling the reputation of Gujaratis in Maths. Disappointed.
Amyd - ok thanks for clearing things up.
Still - it seems that Germany is pricewise more in the category of the USA. In Finland and Sweden for instance, flat-rate really is flat-rate, no limits, minimum speed at 384. Usually 1Mbps for around 10e.
And that is the carrier pricing.
So basically, retailers and etailers will sell this baby for well below 700e. So when you translate it to your ridiculously low taxes in the states and the traditional euro 1:1 dollar conversion rate, you are looking at 700usd unsubsidized price in the US.
What Engadget editors seems to be unaware of, is the fact that almost every single piece of electronics in Europe cost around 50% more than in the states. Partly due to higher VAT/taxes, but also pricing politics from vendors.
Basically, a 1000 usd Apple laptop costs 1000 euro in Europe, that is 1500usd. Engadget, see what I did there? Aren't you about to go ballistic over how Apples products are priced, based on the pricing you see in Europe? Oh, wait a minute, that would make this techblog seem objective. Dang.
Newsflash: I pay more for my car if I finance it than if I pay cash.