Next up, ladies and gentlemen, I give you the Nokia N97

[Hands0n]

This past few weeks has been a whirlwind of wild speculation about Apple, its new version of OS X for the iPhone and of course the newest iPhone 3G S hardware.

In parallel with this has been some frenzied viral marketing of the Palm Pre, the latest supposed "iPhone killer". It must be delightful, within Apple corridors, to see so much effort being put into defining and building a "killer" for their one and only mobile smartphone product. They must be feeling quite smug.

So, now that the hiatus of the above has pretty much passed us by it seems a good time to turn our gaze to the globe's largest manufacturer of mobile telephones and smartphones. An enviable reputation to be sure.

Staggeringly improbable but true, Nokia have pretty much been last to the table with their own touchscreen smartphone. Even more surprising is that they have finally done so with what looks like a re-worked HTC Touch Pro 2 (see here, here and here for some comparison articles).

So will Nokia be able to do the "killer" deed with their N97 based on Symbian OS version 5? Do they even need to for that matter?

The reviews I dropped in this short article are entirely random and not selected on any criteria other than they are reasonably short and well written comparisons. They may be fair, they may not, I only offer them here as seen.

July is when we are supposed to see widespread availability of the N97 and there are Nokia die-hards who would not consider anything else, no matter how "good" the other device/s may be. So it is reasonable to make a presumption that the N97 will be a Nokia success. But what about a market segment success? Any chance of that happening against the Windows Mobile, iPhone and Android opposition?

And what about "the experience" that is the iPhone and Android supporting infrastructure? The very foundations upon which these two are based. Are Nokia up to the mustard to be able to deliver on time with their own Ovi and Ovi Store products? Certainly, there is a lot of disaffection with Ovi at the moment, with a catalogue of issues to be dealt with. Can Nokia be ready by July?

For as sure as eggs are eggs, the Nokia N97 will be held up to its competition by eager industry watchers and Nokia loyalists alike. And they'd better not be disappointed because Nokia have certainly had sufficient time upon which to build their own proposition.

I know of one of our Talk3G members who has [very] briefly had possession of an N97 and has got rid of it. Hopefully he will care to comment on the why's and wherefore's for himself.

The Nokia N97, are you waiting for its arrival? Are you buying into the proposition? What are your expectations and wants? How will you use your N97?

[chaslam]

I got my hands on my very own N97 today after I won one from NokNok.tv.

The device is probably the best built device ive seen from nokia is years. Usually, Nseries devices are pretty plasticly and, well, rubbish build quality. The N97 is the complete opposite and is really sturdy. The new homescreen is great aswell, and the touchscreen is really responsive. The UI is like nothing ive seen from Nokia before in terms of speed, so they have definitely used the time wisely. The only criticism I have so far is the keypad is a little small for my fat fingers haha, which I was expecting anyway, and its a tad chunky when you first see it, but when you hold it that all goes away, but apart from that, I would probably go as far to say as its the best Nseries device that Nokia have ever made.

Any questions feel free to ask. Im going to use for a couple of days and then write a review about it on worldofnokia.co.uk.

[Hands0n]

@chaslam - I liken the Nokia N97 to the Google Android G1 in that it is a combination touchscreen and physical keyboard device. Would that be a fair comparison at that level?

Looking at the physical nature of the fold-out keyboard on on-line videos and write ups it looks a fairly robust arrangement. Have you managed to get used to the keyboard arrangement yet? What is its responsiveness like?

In common with the iPhone the Google Android series has access to the likes of Android Market for its independently developed apps. Nokia have Ovi Store, that has drawn a fair amount of criticism and early day issues. So what do you think of the apps so far?

I suppose the big question has to relate to how well, or otherwise, has Nokia been able to develop touchscreen for the Symbian S60 OS. It is interesting doing a search for N97 software on the Ovi Store where it reports :-

We were unable to find any results for N97. You can try a different search or browse through our recommended items below.

Surely some mistake?



The N97 SIM-free is £499 at the moment, and on contract the price is highly competitive against the iPhone but not the HTC Android kit at the moment.

[Hands0n]

The BBC have a short 3-minute presentation on the N97 that is quite revealing, if short.

I didn't realise the N97 touchscreen was "Resistive" as opposed to iPhone/HTC Capacitive. The difference being that with Resistive you have to put some pressure and so it will work through gloves etc.

View the short presentation here http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programme...ne/8105496.stm

[chaslam]

Well ive had a couple of days to get used to it, and I have to say, this is an awesome phone, and you really have to give credit to Nokia for this one for their first flagship touchscreen device. You have to really feel and see the device to appreciate it properly, but I have to say, its nicer then I thought it was (Mind you that was going on the build quality of other Nseries devices, so I wasn't exactly expecting a huge improvement haha).

I think what Nokia have done with the live widgets works very very well, and is really the step forward in homescreens. Obviously the phone is kind of designed to be used on the web alot, so you would need to make sure you have a data add on or inclusive data, because its a fairly data intense phone.

Now, the camera was something i wasnt really looking forward to but I have to say, im very impressed with it. Ive only taken a few snaps so far, but here they are:

http://www.me.com/ro/chaslam/Galleri...12454204580001
http://www.me.com/ro/chaslam/Galleri...12454203800001
http://www.me.com/ro/chaslam/Galleri...12454203560001

As you can see in alot of light they are pretty impressive pictures. Also, the phone is very geared to ovi. Its very easy to upload pictures directly from the handset (By the way if your wondering why im using mobileme its because I paid a tenner for a subscription and I wanted to try it out, uploading from iphoto).

In regards to the ovi store, I just hope they will add more apps soon really. They dont seem to have alot on there at the moment considering how many are out there, but I guess that in the future they will have to add more. The layout is pretty good of the ovi store and its easy to use, just not enough apps at the moment really.

[chaslam]

Ok, MobileMe doesnt seem to like "Me" so I will post the original ones from OVI I uploaded directly from the phone.

http://media.share.ovi.com/m1/s/0932...78156c3618.jpg
http://media.share.ovi.com/m1/s/0932...0acb7ff3f6.jpg
http://media.share.ovi.com/m1/s/0932...3d9e45f730.jpg
http://media.share.ovi.com/m1/s/0932...9bfb4433fa.jpg

[Hands0n]

Those N97 photographs are rather good. LOL I wonder what Mobile Me has against Nokia hardware