More details have finally surfaced on the intriguing Nokia Booklet 3G, Nokia's first foray into the competitive netbook space. Nokia is partnering with AT&T to sell the gorgeous machine for $299 with a 2-year contract, starting Oct. 22. The Booklet 3G will be available exclusively at Best Buy stores through the holiday retail season.

Unfortunately, a 2-year contract with AT&T for its 3G data services costs $60 a month. That doesn't really make $299 a very good deal, since the total cost ($299 + [$60 x 24 months]) with the data services is $1,739. The average consumer might do better to purchase the unit for $599 and buy a wireless card or cellular modem.

We really enjoyed getting our hands on the Booklet 3G at CTIA and think it warrants a much closer look. It has an aluminum chassis and a 10-inch screen with 1280-by-720 resolution, weighs 2.76 pounds, and runs Windows 7 Home Premium. The Booklet 3G also offers Wi-Fi, 3G connectivity, GPS, a 1.6-GHz Intel Atom processor, a 120GB hard drive, 1GB RAM, and supposed 12-hour battery life.

Look out for a full review of the slick machine later this month from laptop analyst Cisco Cheng at PCMag.com.

Gateway and Verizon Wireless are teaming up to release a new netbook equipped with Verizon's 3G mobile broadband service.

The Gateway LT2016u will be available starting October 4 on verizonwireless.com and in Verizon stores. The device is available in "night sky black" and will connect to the Web via Verizon's 3G network.

The netbook will retail for $149.99 after a $100 mail-in rebate, which will be sent out in the form of a debit card. Customers will also have to sign up for a two-year Verizon mobile broadband contract. Options include 250MB of monthly access plus 10 cents per megabyte overage for $39.99 per month or 5GB plus 5 cents per megabyte overage for $59.99 per month.

The LT2016u features a 10.1-inch, high-definition WSVGA LED, a 6-cell battery that Verizon says will provide up to six hours of battery life, an Intel Atom N270 processor, 1GB of memory, 160GB of hard drive space, and a digital media card reader.
 

The device also includes two built-in speakers, a built-in digital microphone, a 0.3 megapixel webcam, 802.11 Wi-Fi connectivity, and ports for USB, Ethernet, and VGA.
It comes equipped with Windows XP Home Edition, weighs 2.95 lbs, and is 10.17 inches long, 7.24 inches deep, and 1.03 inches high.

Gateway launched its first netbook - the 11.6-inch LT3100 - in June, and followed that up the next month with the 10-inch LT2100u. The LT2100u was basically a rebadged version of the Acer Aspire One (the D250-1165), just like the LT3100 was a rebadge of the Acer Aspire One A0751h.