Best Buy to offer Nokia Booklet 3G

Nokia, the world’s largest cell phone maker, is getting into computer business.  During a press event Nokia announced that it is partnering with AT&T to sell its new Nokia Booklet 3G for $299, with two year contract.

The Nokia Booklet 3G comes with Microsoft’s latest Windows 7 operating system and offers a battery that lasts up to 12 hours. The $300 price point is insane for a premium product like this,” said Avi Greengart, research director at Current Analysis. “If you look at other Netbooks in this category that sell for about the same price you get four or four and half hours of battery life. This will easily give you over eight hours of battery life with all radios turned on.”

Of course, like most great offers, there are always strings attached. The $299 price requires two years data service contract with AT&T. The service will cost $60 a month for up to 5GB of data per month. The total cost $299 + $60 x 24 months with the data services will be $1,739. But consumer is better off getting an unsubsidized. Best Buy will offer an unsubsidized Booklet 3G for $599 and without $60 AT&T service plan.

The Nokia Booklet 3G features a 10-inch screen with 1280-by-720 resolution, 1.6-GHz Intel Atom processor, a 120GB hard drive, 1GB RAM, weighs 2.76 pounds, Wi-Fi, 3G connectivity, and GPS.

The Booklet, which will be on sale exclusively at Best Buy starting in mid-November.