You can see in the photo, this was after less than 24 hours with the Nokia Booklet 3G. Keep in mind, though, that only the top cover is shiny-fingerprinty. The rest of the computer, including the keyboard and wrist-rest inside are all matte finish, and thus do not accumulate fingerprints as quickly. Unfortunately, the top cover is the first part of the laptop you see, and, well, there it is.
When I was at Nokia World 2009 and chatting with one of the guys in charge of the Nokia Booklet 3G project, I asked about the possibility of custom skins, similar to the one that I have for my Asus 1000HE. He was intrigued by the idea, which leads me to believe that, sometime in the future, we’ll see some available for the Nokia Booklet 3G.
I’m curious as to why laptop manufacturers insist on using these high-gloss finishes in the first place, though. Over the weekend, Mrs. Guru’s laptop died and we had to buy her a new one. She finally settled on a new Dell 14″ Inspiron, and alas, there’s that high-gloss top cover again. Is there some inherent benefit in this finish that I’m simply missing?
Ricky Cadden 