Nokia tells all on Booklet 3G: $299 with a 2-year contract on AT&T
By Paul Miller 
posted Oct 13th 2009 10:42AM
posted Oct 13th 2009 10:42AM
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Wow. $299 with a 2-years contract... for a netbook? And AT&T! C'mon, that's a lot of money guys
I agree it is too much. It is not like this some $800 smart phone which is subsidized and sold for $100! Oh wait. This does retail for $800. I think that is where the price is too high!
No.
@Jim,
I guess, you didn't read the paragraph properly. It says unsubsidized price is $599, which is even less than an iphone
which is not even half powerful as this one.
Also the subsidized price of $599 is quite good, considering that ASUS, ACER, and HP netbooks are selling for around $499 to $550 unsubsidized on AT&T premier site.
And i think $299 price is also very good and Engadget didn't have anything to complain about the price this time, unlike all other news bit on Booklet.
So, I could just buy a regular netbook for $300 brand new and tether that to my Blackberry instead for no more than I'm already paying monthly and be on whatever carrier I want to be on. Why would anyone, travelling businesspersons included, use this?
Maybe if they needed to ensure people were accessing their network from a corporate owned machine with specially installed wiping software or something, so you couldn't use your personal machine for business. Still, buy a fleet of $300 netbooks or laptops and set them up appropriately.
It seems to me two groups of people will buy this: people with too much money to know what to do with it, and people who don't know about tethering. Nokia and AT&T banking on ignorance? *gasp* Perish the thought!
Wait.. Does it have a resistive touch screen?
That's an OK deal if you need a WWAN device, i guess
TCO = $1739 and you're stuck with it for 2 years... Surely too high a price to sell many.
Not like this market is short of competition either.
I think it's a very well built little laptop. It's looking durable and has a lot of features you rarely if ever see in netbooks... and never see in netbooks costing much more than this.
I'd much rather have this than an iPhone. Internet everywhere? This is now my #1 gift idea for my mother in law who can't handle computers. I won't have to worry about whether she's online with this thing, and it's just cool.
Sometimes, cool things cost more just for their size or appearance. See: the entire iPod line, the PSP Go, and almost everything else that's successful in computers.
Not a ripoff... just premium.
Too much money? Riiight. Who would pay so much? *Looks at iPhone*. Nevermind.
$299 seems a little steep with a 2 year commitment. Its a netbook after all running a not so great processor and lacking a DVD drive. However, if it ships with the 16 cell battery, that may help justify some of the cost.
No it is not a regular netbook. It has hot-swappable sim card slot, GPS, and a 16 cell battery apart from excellent hardware design
and unibody aluminium.
Show me one netbook that has all these features and capabilities and is cheaper than this.
Use my Samsung N310 and hook it up to my G1. Perfect. And unlimited internet, texts and 800 calls for £25 a month you can't beat that. I am hoping data prices will fall pretty soon though.
for a few $ more you can get any other netbook, plug in your phone and voila! mobile internet.
I don't see the word netbook anywhere in the article. Are you just assuming?
@Paul
http://www.engadget.com/2009/10/13/nokia-booklet-3g-hands-on-with-video/
Read the first sentence, i think they are talking about the same "netbook"
That's a lot of "through"s for one sentence.
It's AT&T so you know the prices are jacked...but it looks cool. I would use it...
What happens if i leave this in my pants pocket and accidentally put it through the washer?
Then i guess, you have taken a bath in the washer.
dude...it has a swappable SIM card slot - GPS, 12-hr battery life
Its like a mega-super-cool phone/computer thing!
Oh, Engadget, how about that 1000 something usd "we'll pass" ??? Did any of the commentators say that the price would translate from Euro to USD at a rate of 1:1 ???
Any thoughts or self-criticism on how you view and predict pricing? Nope, guess not. This is again proof of how the Engadget crew has totally failed, especially when they tried to bring a negative view on the Booklet pricing when the Euro-pricing were announced. As if ever the price in the States has been anything near the EU-pricing.
I agree. +1
This site seems to thrive on criticizing stuff. It's fun to read and argue about, so they are probably just trying to be controversial.
I don't think it really affects the industry at all, so no need to get too upset. Engadget makes a lot of critical comments that get details wrong... just enjoy the rage and laugh when it turns out that the device is wildly successful anyway.
I remember when slashdot bashed the original iPod. Hell, basically the whole blogosphere did. A lot of people did the same to blu-ray. Maybe some of them are actually trying to shape the industry, but I think it's mostly just an effort to be interesting and 'cutting edge'.
No Ion? No thanks.
$100+ for data, plus whatever phone service you have, thats $2400~+ after your contract is up, data on the go just isn't worth $1000/yr to me. Especially not with the spotty coverage on ATT and the fact that it's not *really* unlimited.
It's not *unlimited*. It's ONLY 5GB per month with an overage rate of $500.00 per gig and the ability for AT&T to disconnect your service at their whim for "abuse". Consistent with all other carriers. But it's definitely not unlimited.
We are close to these net books being offered free with a service contract. They are going the way of the cell phones.
idk where youve been but for most of this year youve been able to get a netbook $0.00 - $49.99 from Radio Shack with 2yr contract.
My only question is - what market segment is Nokia trying to woo?
1. Too pricey for a netbook
2. Too bulky for a smartphone or MID replacement
3. Too basic for the generic notebook user
and the price tag - just to include a SIM card slot??
"and the price tag - just to include a SIM card slot??"
SIM slot, GPS, 14 hour battery life, aluminium body and the Nokia tax.
After a few months of being an iPhone user I think I have grown very used to having 3G net access everywhere. If the total cost is $1700 for having a computer with access everywhere for two years it's not nearly as crazy as it first seems.
Except you can spend $100 on a modem for your existing laptop and get the same data plan for the same price.
The Booklet 3G is as crazy as it seems.
Except, according to your logic, the real price of the Booklet is $199 when you consider that a modem costs $100. So for $199 you're getting a damn good netbook which is likely far more portable then whatever notebook you already have. The point here is to provide a portable solution for people who are already considering the $60 month data plan.
personally, i like this device. ive been waiting for years for a quality built device with a killer battery. the 3g im not so hot on since im on vzw..so i will be getting a white one unlocked. the build quality is unmatched in pc's...and thats why im getting it next thursday after work.
$60 a month = $1440 in 2 years... no thanks... i will be happy with my Pre tethering on my HP Mini.
the real issue with this is that data plans in america are ridiculously over priced and too lengthy.
$60 a month is too much. $40 is more reasonable. The basic iPhone data package is $30, so I don't know why they're asking for double of what I believe to be the same thing.
Because they the 95% of the people who will use the Data Connect Plan are business users and they will pay that much a month to be able to connect their Laptop to the internet on the go.
The greatest strain that the iPhone puts on AT&T's network is, by far, data usage. With the iPhone, they have the remaining $40 of the minimum $70 plan to help subsidize the data usage (since the voice service is worthless anyway--I just bought out my iPhone contract after a year of hell with dropped calls). With the Nokia, the data plan fee has to be sufficient alone.
Engadget, what is the source of these news? All your articles include source, not this one? hmmm.....
I see everyone complaining about this as if it's a new idea nokia came up with.
ATT already sells Netbooks on contract with the $60 data plan. This is nothing new, although it is a hell of a better deal then an Aspire One for $149 + $60/month for 2 years.
Untill the Cell Phone carriers get rid of that stupid 5 Gig cap I would never purchase any of their wireless broadband products - and I DESPERATELY need wireless broadband becuase I travel a lot on projects for 2 or 3 months at a time and hotel Wi-Fi is just awful. I would pay $100 a month for truly UNLIMITED wireless broadband - why can't I get that deal anywhere in America???
Hey dude,
From where did you get that 5 GB number? Can you point me to the source?
Any network sign-on contract.
lololololo another future failure from , nokia ,microsoft and at&t ,why am i not suprised...lololololo
EVERYTHING is ridiculously expensive in Finland so I guess Nokia just wants the rest of the world share a bit of that pain.
If this thing were a tablet, I'd be tempted. A flip open netbook is too cumbersome for the spur of the moment, fast Internet usage I've become accustomed to with the iPhone. If I can't use it that way, I see little reason to pay such a premium for a 3g service device.
I guess AT&T has a lot of spare bandwidth they need to utilize.
Jesus Christ, this is a huge ripoff. The correct price point here is: PAY ME $300 to take the laptop and sign the two year contract.
I want it!