The Nokia Booklet 3G is the Finnish company’s answer to th growing netbook market and to separate themselves from the rest, they’ve included some signature Nokia touches into the product.

There are four major aspects that this unit scored very high marks in my book:

Solid Design and Form Factor. The Booklet 3G is compact and solid with aluminum mostly used in the chassis construction. Obviously, Nokia took a lot of time and effort to make this device. The lid has glossy-black finish surrounded by a silver bezel. It’s sleek and slim design makes it one of the thinnest netbooks around (just 20mm).

And for the 10.1-inch size, it’s actually also very light at only 2.76lbs. Having that Nokia logo on the lid surely does attract a lot attention and surprise — yes, Nokia now makes laptops too.

The display screen is glossy and prone to fingerprints but offers better resolution (1280×720 pixels) than most other netbooks in its category.

Very Long Battery Life. The Booklet 3G has a 56,800mAh battery and the low-power Atom Z530 running at 1.6GHz offers a nice performance to save up on battery life. Even when running Bluetooth, 3G and WiFi altogether, the Booklet 3G still registers at least 6.5 hours of battery life.

With WiFi on and Bluetooth and 3G off, the notebook can handle up to 9.5 hours. Hands-down, it’s got a pretty impressive battery life (without sacrificing the design with a protruding battery compartment at the bottom).

Built-in 3G/HSDPA Modem. There’s a SIM slot on the right side of the unit. All you need to do is insert the SIM card, input the APN (access point name) of the 3G provider then click on connect to start.

There’s an indicator whether the connection is on GPRS or HSDPA so you’ll know if you’re on a fast connection or not. I’ve tried it both on Globe and Smart networks and works perfectly.

Built-in GPS with aGPS feature. Another great feature is the built-in GPS and aGPS function of the Booklet 3G. Just load up the Ovi Maps on the Windows 7 Gadgets panel.

The other specs of the Nokia Booklet 3G are pretty standard in its category. You get a 120GB HDD, 1GB of RAM, Intel GMA 500 graphics chip, WiFi 802.11n, 1.3MP webcam, 3 USB ports and even an HDMI port. The SD card reader is hidden inside a compartment slot together with the SIM card.

What’s missing is a LAN port and the back panel of the laptop is completely sealed, except for the battery pack. The only thing that bugs me with the unit is the keyboard layout (the Enter key is too small so I kept on hitting the # key beside it).

Nokia Booklet 3G is not yet officially released in the Philippines and I have this gut feeling it might not hit the country at all (I hope I am wrong). Besides, we’re not really sure how much it will cost if ever it arrives in the country. Best Buy is selling it for $199 in the US with a 3G contract and $599 without one (Php39,000 according to our source).

Separating itself from those glossy, black or decal-painted netbooks, the Asus Eee PC 1008P Karim Rashid Collection sports a rubbery-texture crocodile-looking hide that looks so good that you don’t want to put it in a bag or a sleeve.

This designer edition netbook is based on the Eee PC Seashell 1008HA that was released last year. It has the same slim form factor and light weight at only 1.145kg. What’s new with the 1008P is the Intel N450 processor, Windows 7 OS and 250GB hard drive.

The Eee PC 1008P also has a 3-cell Li-polymer battery which Asus claims can go for 6 hours on a single charge. More like 4 hours in normal usage which is pretty low considering that it’s already using the Intel N450.

People would want to have this netbook mainly for its style and at P25,900, it’s already a good price IMHO. The Karim Rashid Collection comes in glossy Hot Pink for the ladies or matte Coffe Brown for the gentlemen.

This limited edition Asus netbook is only available in select dealer stores: Octagon – Megamall, Complink – MOA, Villman – North Edsa and Accent Micro in Park Square, Makati.

The Intel version, which is the 1201N with Atom N330 dual core and nVidia Ion, will not be released by Asus in the Philippines. But that shouldn’t prevent you from seeing some units sold in the grey market.

If you’re familiar with the Seashell 1008HA and 1005HA, the 1201T is the 12.1″ version with respect to design and construction — slim and tapered at the edges.

The unit is glossy all over — from the lid, to the keyboard panel and the palm rest — so expect a lot of smudges and fingerprints when using this. Some people like it, others hate this type of piano-black finish.

The chiclet-type keyboard is well-spaced although the individual keys are a bit small and prone to slipping when touch-typing. I kinda liked that style though.

The display screen is 12.1″ in diagonal and has a resolution of 1366×768 pixels. The glossy screen is bright and crisp — a big disadvantages when used outdoor because of the glare.

When I ran Windows Experience Index, the processor got a rating of 3.2. This is 0.1 higher than the same Athlon MV-40 on the ThinkPad X100e (WEI: 3.1) because I installed 64-bit version of Windows 7. More benchmark information here using PassMark. Here’s a comparison against the ThinkPad X100e with the same CPU and GPU.

Now at least we know that 64-bit OS does some improvements on performance. There’s also a difference in the GPU performance but that’s for another entry. I guess the most revealing about this CPU is that it can’t play YouTube HD (720p) smoothly — playback is choppy at best. It can play Full HD 1080p video files but that’s because of the help of the GPU.

One unique design feature of the Asus 1201T is that the trackpad area is continuous with the palm rest and that it’s pimpled (dotted like that of a Braille). This gives you some tactile feedback and I think works very well. The other drawback though is that the left and right click buttons are not separated.

The system is pre-installed with the Asus Express Gate, a quick-boot OS that allows for basic functions like instant messaging, browsing, games, video and photos. It’s a nice feature that’s built into the system and saves a lot of time when you’re in a hurry to get connected and just wanted to do a quick check.

As for battery life, the 6-cell battery only provides up to 2.5 hours but that’s because of the low rating of 4400mAh. I reckon if it had been 5600mAh, it could do about 3.25 hours. The Athlon CPU and Radeon HD3200 graphics are really juice-guzzlers.

The unit sells for Php21,900 without an OS — pretty affordable price if you asked me. However, the poor battery life and slightly above average performance of the CPU isn’t something to be too excited about.

In some respects, it’s actually better than a regular Atom-powered netbook with a 3-cell battery selling at the same price point. At the same time, if you compare this to the Lenovo ThinkPad X100e which has the same specs, the Eee PC 1201T looks attractive with the Php21,900 but don’t forget you still need to shell out some more money for the operating system.

The ThinkPad retains its signature design — sturdy, cold and not a hint of glossy finish. We’ve known the ThinkPad line to be very strong in the business segment but it’s also got its following with consumers because of the solid construction.

The unit is not really that thin but it’s already light for its size. The 6-cell battery protrudes at the back and not at the bottom which, I think, is a better positioning. The keyboard is nice and spacious with an almost chiclet-type form — it’s slightly curved at the bottom end and has a concave surface. This allows for better touch-typing experience which helps prevent your finger from slipping into two keys at a single tap.

My only gripe is that Lenovo still insists that the function key (Fn) is placed on the leftmost edge rather than the control (Ctrl) key. I use the Ctrl key more often than the Fn keys and putting it on the leftmost helps me hit it easily. The arrow key on the right are more prominent and they even added a dedicated Page Up and Page Down keys in between. This is probably one of the best keyboards I’ve ever tried on a laptop.

The trackpad has that same unique features of the ThinkPad — multiple sets of clickers with a dedicated scroll button — but all that seemed that have eaten a couple millimeters of the area of the trackpad. That nipple mouse (the track-point) is still there in the middle — a classic ThinkPad symbol and serves as alternative mouse pointer for those who still loves using it.

The ThinkPad X100e comes in different flavors — the one I had was a single core AMD Athlon Neo MV-40 which runs at 1.6GHz. It’s not as fast as the dual core Athlon X2 L335 on the Wind U210 but it’s still performs quite well. It can’t play YouTube HD 1080p (a bit choppy) but runs YouTube HD 720p just fine.

The rig came with an ATI Radeon HD3200 with 256MB dedicated RAM so it scored high in the graphics department. Results from Windows Experience Index gave the GPU a 4.8 for 3D gaming while the CPU got a decent 3.1 (will have some benchmark results between the MV40 and Neo X2 in the PCLabs later).

The 11.6″ screen, with a resolution of 1366×768 pixels, is bright but not very crisp (probably because of the matte finish). It’s more usable in the outdoors or bright environments compared to other glossy screens that attracts glare and fingerprints.

The other essential specs like the 2GB RAM and 320GB HDD are adequate as well as connectivity options with WiFi 802.11n and Bluetooth 2.1 (and no, there’s no ODD in here). The RAM is upgradeable to 4GB and there are models with 3G options too. The system comes with Windows 7 Home Premium pre-installed.

Lastly, the 6-cell battery is rated at about 5600mAh and Lenovo claims it could last up to 5 hours. However, on normal use with WiFi on and average display brightness, it only lasts just a little over 3 hours. BatteryBar shows the same with a full lifetime of 2:52. That’s really the trade-off you get with the MV40 and HD3200 which eats up a lot of juice.

Lenovo’s already got the ThinkPad T series in the thin and light category but those are targeted to enterprise users and businessmen and has a pretty hefty price tag (in the vicinity of Php100k) so seeing another ThinkPad at 1/4 of the usual price is an attractive offer. That’s with a starting price of Php28,990.

Neo is a local company who’s a little young in the PC business but they’ve made a mark for offering really affordable laptop alternatives to the market. The Neo Edge Z3265 does not seem to fit into that grand scheme of things.

First, the Edge series represents the thin and light category for Neo. The Edge Z3265 is 13.3″, an under an inch (23mm) thin and is lightweight (1.45kg) for its size. the slightly curved edge also gives an impression that it’s thinner than it actually is. The lid is smooth and shiny; same goes with the screen — that gives you a nice crisp and bright display but gets a lot of glare outdoors.

Like many other laptops in its class, you get a really good real estate, a full keyboard with a rounded, square-type keys (similar to the ones we’ve seen on MSI and Acer notebooks). The trackpad is great to use and despite the fact that the left and right clickers are not separated, it’s easy to use and I rarely miss the mark. The right side of the trackpad also has a small area dedicated for auto-scrolling.

The unit is powered by an Intel Core 2 Duo (SU7300) running at 1.3GHz with 2GB DDR3 RAM and Intel GMA4500. The dual core processor makes up for the low clockspeed and performs quite well actually. Results from Windows Experience Index gives a score of 3.4 based on the gaming graphics performance. The SU7300 CPU got a sub-score of 3.9 which is close to a dual core AMD Neo X2 1.6GHz at 4.1 (an Intel Pentium SU4100 1.3GHz gets a sub-score of 4.0).

For connectivity, the Edge did not disappoint — it’s got both Gigabit LAN and WiFi Draft-N as well as Bluetooth 2.1. There are 3 USB 2.0 ports and the HDMI port easily allows you to hook up the laptop to an LCD TV to play HD-quality movies straight from the 320GB HDD.

The Edge Z3265 also comes with a built-in 3G modem (Huawei EM770, HSDPA 7.2Mbps/HSUPA 5.76Mbps) found inside a screwed-in compartment at the bottom. This is the same built-in modem used by Asus in their EeePC 904GO.

The only disappointing feature of this unit is the short battery life of the 3-cell Li-Polymer battery (2800mAh). Running BatteryBar only gives it somewhere between 2.5 hours to 3 hours of battery life. I was actually expecting somewhere in the 4 to 5 hours but maybe, with a 6-cell battery, this will eventually improve (but based on the layout of the battery at the bottom, I don’t think there’s an upgrade).

Lastly, as I mentioned in the introduction of this review, the price of the Neo Edge Z3265 veered away from the usual range we’ve expected from the company. Suggested retail price is Php49,999 which is similar with other name-brands in the same category (e.g. Lenovo U350, Asus UX30, Acer Aspire Timeline 3810T). The advantage of the built-in 3G modem is somewhat overshadowed by the not-so-great battery life.

Update: Neo gave me an updated specs. They’re running a promo until January 31, 2010. The Edge Z3265 now comes with an external 6-cell battery that should bump the life to 12 hours. There’s also an additional Samsung optical disk drive that go with it. The upgrades finally resolved our concerns earlier. I just wish they’d make them a permanent offer rather than a promo.

The good thing about the Acer Timeline 1810TZ is that, despite the low clock-speed at 1.3GHz, it’s still got dual core processors. That means you benefit from the ULV giving you longer battery life but can still crunch some pretty good numbers when you needed it, courtesy of the 2 cores.

Screenshots of the CPU-Z and GPU-Z are show below. The Intel GMA 4500M takes a minimum 64MB memory but pumps it up to 796MB when needed. The 2GB DDR2 RAM (the other Timelines have DDR3 RAM) is enough but can be upgraded to 4GB.

The Timeline 1801TZ can be readily compared to the netbook version, Acer Aspire One AO751, which we reviewed here earlier. Only difference in the form factor is that the 1810TZ has an embedded 6-cell battery while the AO751 has it protruding at the back end.

Windows Experience Index of Acer Timeline 1810TZ

The Windows Experience Index of the Timeline 1810TZ is impressive with a base score of 3.2. That’s pretty much evident when you put it side by side with the one from the AO751. Now that’s a huge difference between an Atom Z520 1.33GHz and an Intel Pentium Dual Core SU4100 at 1.3GHz.

Windows Experience Index of Acer Aspire One AO751

The system plays YouTube HD smoothly and with the HDMI port in place, you can hook it up to a big monitor to output some HD movies. My HP Mini 311 with NVidia ION LE still struggles with YouTube HD because of the Atom processor. The 11.6″ display has a screen resolution of 1366×768 pixels is standard for its size.

The 250GB hard drive, a Draft-N WiFi, Bluetooth and Windows 7 completes the specs line-up to make this an ideal mobile notebook.

The battery lasts about 5 hours on a single full charge (based on internal battery indicator) while BatteryBar gives it a good 5.5 to 6 hours.

The Acer Timeline 1810TZ is not officially available in the Philippines yet and the review unit we had was bought from Hong Kong for $750 (Php35,000). It could go as high as Php39,990 when it gets here.

Looking to Buy? You can get the Acer Timeline 1810TZ Special Olympic Edition for $570 at Amazon: Acer Aspire Timeline AS1810TZ-4008 11.6-Inch Olympic Edition Laptop (Silver)

The HP Mini 311 went out with a design that crosses between the HP Mini 2140 and the Mini 110 — a glossy, black swirl lid and matte silver keyboard finish. It has a thicker base though that tapers into a bit thinner at the front end giving an impression that it’s slimmer than its predecessor.

In most respects, the Mini 311 has almost the same internal specs as the other previous mini-notes with the single exception of a souped up platform — an NVidia Ion LE, which includes the nVidia GeForce 9400M graphics with 512 dedicated memory. That, plus the DDR3 memory (the default 1GB is embedded and an extra DIMM slot can take an additional 1GB or 2GB stick).

The rest are pretty standard — an Intel Atom N280 1.66GHz, 160GB HDD, 1.3MP webcam, Bluetooth 2.1, WiFi b/g, card reader, USB ports with an added HDMI port for HD output. There’s a dedicated physical button for WiFi on the upper right side of the keyboard.

The system is pre-installed with Windows XP SP3 and while it’s very responsive and snappy, I have yet to check the system running Windows 7 (nVidia ION LE is made to be only compatible with XP but a hack is possible to make it run Windows 7 smoothly).

If there’s one thing I appreciate the most, it’s the screen real estate of the HP Mini 311 — the glossy screen is bright and crisp with a pretty nice resolution of 1366×768 pixels. You don’t have that nagging feeling you always get with most netbooks — small, cramp screen with incessant scrolling. The only drawback is that the glossy finish is prone to glaze in the outdoors.

With size comes comfort and the bigger form factor of the Mini 311 allows for a much more comfortable keyboard layout. It’s the same as the one in the Mini 2140 but you get a more spacious palm rest and a much bigger (like 50% more area than the Mini 2140) trackpad with separated left and right clickers. The trackpad’s got multi-touch features too.

The unit has a built-in 6-cell battery that’s fitted into the body so you don’t see any protrusion of any kind at the back which is nice. A single full charge gives me an average of 5 hours of normal use with WiFi on.

The Altec Lansing speakers are situated at the bottom part up front and span the entire width of the unit. The speakers have enough volume even for open movie playback. The black paint tends to get chipped off easily though. The 1.3MP webcam is decent and comes with a small pin light.

From experience with normal usage, I feel that the graphics outperforms the CPU so some of the noticeable lags could be attributed to the Atom rather than the GeForce 9400M (This is from experience with playing Flash games and running YouTube HD on a number of netbooks of varying configurations). Will do a separate entry on graphics benchmark, gaming and over-all system performance at the PCLabs.

For a suggested retail price of Php28,990, the HP Mini 311 seemed a bit on the expensive side but considering you also get an external DVD+RW out of the box (worth Php3-4k), I think it’s a worthy buy.

The MSI Wind U210 is a pretty large netbook, weighing in at 1.45kg (3.19lbs) with the 6-cell battery while the 9-cell version that I bought is heavier at 1.6kg (3.52lbs). And though most of the other 12-inch netbooks have a diagonal screen size of just 11.6 inches, the U210 is larger at 12.1″.

In many respects, this model is like a cheap, full-fledged notebook without a built-in optical drive. I remember buying a similarly-spec’ed 12″ Compaq-Presario laptop 2 years ago worth Php55k.

The design is similar to the first generation Wind netbooks — glossy lid cover, glossy display screen and about an inch thick, not counting the protruding 9-cell battery at the bottom. It’s got a wide and textured trackpad with separate left and right click-pads which are pretty easy to use. There are 3 USB ports, a multi-card reader, LAN port, VGA port and and HDMI port to output HD videos to external monitors.

Standard specs of this unit is also above average with 2GB DDR2 RAM, 250GB HDD, WiFi draft-N, HDMI and option for 9-cell battery. Unfortunately, Bluetooth is missing (although the F9 function key has a Bluetooth icon printed in it) — prolly to save on production cost.

Most interesting part is the AMD Athlon Neo X2 processor that powers this unit. It’s a dual core CPU running at 1.6GHz.

On Windows 7 Ultimate, it scores high on Windows Experience Index with 3.0 as the lowest sub-score assigned on the graphics card (ATI Radeon Xpress 1270). The CPU alone got a sub-score of 4.1, the highest we’ve when compared to the Intel atom N270, N280 and Z530. Video performance is also good and capable of playing HD videos as well as streaming YouTube HD.

However, that extra juice that the dual-core CPU is pumping also becomes a problem when it comes to battery life. For a 9-cell battery, I was expecting between 6 to 8 hours of battery life on a single full charge. Even after several optimization and tweaks, I could not even get it to last more than 5 hours. On average, you’d get 4.5 hours with the 9-cell battery. I wonder how would the standard 6-cell battery perform? My guess is 3 to 3.5 hours.

So far, the MSI Wind12 U210 is one of the most responsive and powerful unit in the netbook category I’ve ever reviewed. The only drawback is that it’s also power-hungry so battery life is below average. Surprisingly, the unit does not feel hot even on prolonged use — probably due to the ventilation offered by the protruding battery at the bottom (PC Wizard records CPU temp between 53 to 57 degrees though which is high IMO).

Shops are selling this for a promo price of Php23k without an operating system so you’ll need to shell out a couple more thousand bucks for an OS license or you can get the version with Windows Vista for Php28k. Standard battery is 6-cell and the 9-cell model I got was during the promo period. If you have an old XP license or Windows 7 RC at home, maybe the Php23k price is a good deal.

Before anything else, check out our short unboxing video over at YouTube:

Such a huge box for a small device.

The Sony Vaio X has a black matte finish all over so that solves the fingerprint-magnet problem often encountered with glossy finishes. There are 2 USB ports, a VGA port and a slightly hidden Ethernet port on the sides as well as a 1.3MP webcam at the top of the display screen.

Super Thin. At only 0.55″ all around, it beat sthe “light as a feather” Macbook Air which is still at 0.76″. If not for that VGA port that’s protruding at the side, they could have gone thinner.

The 11.1 inch display screen is also matte so no problems with glare when used outdoors or against bright lights. The display si still bright and crisp at a maximum resolution of 1366×768 pixels.

Super Light. As light as 655 grams (1.44 lbs) which is almost half the weight of most netbooks in the market. The Sony Vaio P pocket PC is like just half the size of the Vaio X but has the same weight at 635 grams (1.4 lbs). We very rarely see ultaportables and netbooks under 2lbs.

Super Sturdy. The body is made of carbon fibre and not just ordinary hard plastic so you don’t have to worry about breaking it in half inside your laptop bag while on a rugged trip. I’ve actually dropped the unit a couple feet high and not even a sign of a bump or scratch although I wouldn’t dare try banging it against a cement wall.

Usually, features like “small and light” comes with “slow or sluggish” but not the Vaio X. It’s powered by the fastest Intel Atom processor in the market today. Running at 2.0GHz, there’s no other ultraportable or netbook I know of that can match that clock speed.

But yes, Intel’s Atom still inherits that marketing stigma that it’s only for internet surfing and Word processing. My gut feel is that the Intel GMA 500 graphics chip has got more to do with how it performs rather than the processor. I will be doing a separate performance comparison of the CPUs later at the PCLabs. I’m also interested to pit the CULVs with the Atom Z550.

If there’s one thing that I found a little short is the size of the individual keys. Over-all, the chiclet-style keyboard is good and keys are well-spaced. However, the size of the keys are a bit smaller that usual which makes touch-typing a bit awkward at times. You’d get used to it in time.

As for battery life, the 2.0GHz model can last up to 5 hours on a full charge with WiFi on. Already pretty impressive for its size and weight but Sony says they also have an extended battery that can last the unit up to 16 hours (now that’s something I’m really curious). The hibernate feature is also impressive — it can turn back on from hibernate mode in under 5 seconds. That has probably got to do with the SDD drive and the pre-installed Windows 7 operating system.

The Vaio X comes in two models — the 1.86GHz Atom Z540 with 64GB SSD drive and the faster 2.0GHz Atom Z550 with 128GB SSD drive. They don’t come cheap too — Php69,999 and Php92,999, respectively. Sony already has the netbook category covered with the Vaio W so the Vaio X is more targeted to a higher end of the market.

What made the S10-2 different from its older S10 sibling is has mostly got to do with the design and construction of the netbook. Under the hood, everything looks the same in terms of CPU, RAM and storage.

Unlike the previous IdeaPad S series, the S10-2 is thinner (about 20%) and lighter (about 15%). The design is also rounded compared to the previous one which squarish which gives the S10-2 a much slimmer look. The lid cover is also glossy (from matte) and has some sort of wallpaper design painted on top (similar to the HP Mini 1100).

The display screen is glossy giving it a bright crisp resolution (1024 x 600pixels). There’s no NVidia Ion here but the usual Mobile Intel GMA 945 chipset.

As seen here on the photo above, the S10-2 is way thinner than the Acer Aspire One D150. Although the S10-2 review unit I have only had a 3-cell battery (instead of a 6-cell), it’s still lighter than the AOD150 without it’s battery latched on. On regular use, the 3-cell battery gives me an improved 3.5 hours battery life.

There’s a WiFi switch on the right side of the netbook beside the two USB ports although a function key (Fn+F5) can also enable/disable WiFi connection. Inside the battery compartment is a SIM card slot for 3G connectivity. This is one of the main features not found in previous models (and very rare in netbooks available locally). Lenovo could have just named this model as S10 3G instead of S10-2.

The problem with the 3G modem is that it doesn’t come with a utility software/driver so if you plug-in your Globe/Smart/Sun SIM, they won’t work unless the telcos provide a custom software for these. I guess they’re not actively doing so because it could eat up on their own USB dongle sales.

The S10-2 also features a one-touch restore button (just beside the power button on the left) as well as a QuickStart button on the right side (pictured above). The Lenovo OneKey Rescue backs up system files and applications to a second partition or an external drive which can later on be used to restore in case of virus infection or system crashes.

The QuickStart is a Linux platform (SplashTop by DeviceVM) that allows you to boot the S10 in seconds to gain access to chat, IM, email and video without booting up Windows XP.

The Lenovo IdeaPad S10-2 has a suggested retail price of Php23,300 and available in grey, pink black and white.