Nokia N97 Review : A must have for a Nokia Fan boy

This was inevitable isn’t it ? I wonder how many watched the Nokia n97 video review posted in my last post. Its been nearly two weeks playing with Nokia N97 and I knew I would be able to provide a review which would be able to help you deciding what to expect from this device. However, I might end up covering all positives, so make sure you ask your doubts or your questions in the comments sections. So without much more frills, here goes a short review of this device.

The Nokia N97 Review

Its a big brother of Nokia 5800, and those who follow this blog, must be knowing how much I crib about Nokia 5800. If you are a power user, text a lot , and  a proud owner of a full touchscreen phone (without buttons attached), it becomes so difficult to adjust the lack of a physical keyboard after some time. But again , at the same time , you may not want to keep on pressing so many buttons to navigate to a certain menu item, when its available on just a distance of  touch. Here is where Nokia N97 comes into picture. The power of a Touchscreen with a Full QWERTY keypad.

Price

Price is something which many people are concerned of. Everyone would agree with me that Nokia 5800 is most feature rich phone in the particular price segment. Nokia 5800 started with US$ 400 and Nokia N97 is around 699US$ or US$600( if you buy it at Amazon ). So lets see, what all you are getting in this 200 to 300 US$ price gap.

1. 3.5 Inch full touch screen compared to 3.2 Inch Touchscreen
2. Increased speed  of processor from 369Mhz to 434Mhz.
3. a Full QWERTY keypad with a D pad, with slide out Tilt Design
4. FM transmitter
5. LIVE homescreen
6. Digital Compass which can be used in Nokia MAPS
7. 32GB internal Memory, expandable upto 64 GB ( with 32GB microSD card )
8. 5 Megapixel Camera ( way better than 3.2 Megapixel ) with slide out lens cover.
9. Chrome finish with touch Sensitive buttons ( Call and End Call)
10. High Power Battery
11. Loads of preloaded application

So judge yourself whether are you getting worth for your money or not ? When you bought Nokia 5800, and proudly agreed that its worth, why not Nokia N97. I feel its much worthy the upgrade. But again, its upto you and your budget whether you would like to go for the upgrade or not.

 

Overall Hardware design

With the highly complicated slide out tilt design, many eyebrows were raised , whether Nokia would be able to do it right? Many said No, but again with the hardware reviews you must have read regarding Nokia N97, all rumors are proved totally wrong. The slide out design is rock solid and believe me, its just so convenient for using a phone. The more you use it, the more you get used to it and can not prevent yourself from praising it. Why not refresh yourself with Making of Nokia N97 video.

Its much better to have one proper viewing angle, rather than having many improper ones. The phone is just so comfortable to use, with your daily work, that it just become a part of your daily routine. And, having said that, while I am writing this review, two music albums are getting downloaded on my Nokia N97, and I can see the progress with just one touch. I don’t have to lift the phone, to see what’s happening. This is what a convenient viewing angle can do in your mobile phone experience.

Regarding the keyboard, there are lots of concern about the right side placement of the spacebar. Right side placement of the spacebar is in reality no problem, but once you get used to it. It might frustrate you a lot initially as everytime to insert a space, your thumb will automatically move towards the center, later realizing that the spacebar is on the right. I myself got frustrated, but again it was just a matter of time I got used to, and now I dont have any problem with it. It just how fast you get used to it.

Overall keypad is good, but the main negative point lie with the keys. I have no problem with the dedicated numeric keys absent on the keypad. I am absolutely fine with the keypad. The only concern with the keys is that, they dont make you feel as if you are pressing buttons. They are pretty flat, and at times, you wont realize that you have pressed the button, which inturn lead to many spelling mistakes. And at certain time, you might feel that you have pressed the button, but the letter does not appear. But again , this is also a temporary problem which you will get used to so easily once you start using the phone.

Another noticing factor, if you notice the hinge and slide out mechanism take a lot of space in the keypad, which must have resulted in space for  only 3 rows of keys. Now, I think its individual choice to have a highly complicated and better slide out mechanism with 3 rows of keys, or, a normal slide mechanism with 5 rows of keys. As for me , I will prefer to go with the former.

Touch sensitive Call and End Call button brought a sigh of relief for me. I know how much I hated those hard to press buttons on Nokia 5800, and I feel that Nokia heard me. However, one thing which I think Nokia should have given a thought on placement of charging cum data cable slot. As for my preference, it should have been placed between camera button and the volume rocker. I becomes inconvenient to use the phone while its connected or its charging. Its almost the same concept that of a laptop where the charging or the data slot is always either on the side or at the back.

The 3.5inch touchscreen is very bright , responsive and is amazingly legible under direct sunlight. I think its one of the best even when compared to Nokia 5800. The phone is also highly comfortable for single handed usage , as even while holding, whole screen is completely accessible via your thumb.

 

Over all software design

I found the software much stable compared to Nokia 5800. Even though screen rotation is still not the way I want it to be, but overall you can see a huge change in software. Again , I get a feeling that Nokia nearly answered all my problems with Nokia 5800. The major change in software part are as follows :

1. A proper album management software : Now viewing pictures and video comes with various options. Album viewing option is available month wise , albums or tags.
2. Nokia finally replaced the Edit button with Mark Multiple in photo gallery, which make it so much in managing your pictures and videos. Now marking multiple items is just a breeze.
3. You can use shift key and touch combination to mark multiple items.
4. Full screen browsing with Kinetic scrolling is so pleasant. Bigger screen means, more visible area. Combination of QWERTY keypad means, you can select the link as you type, as per previous viewed pages. Download manager has improved a lot . You can download multiple files at a time and also, if you are downloading a music file, it starts playing even if its partially downloaded. Great step forward Nokia.
5. With the use of QWERTY keypad, searching music tracks has become so easy.
6. Refreshing phone book design, now you can add favorite contacts which always display at the top of the list. Marking multiple and searching contacts has become much easier with QWERTY keypad.
7. Video manager now turned into Video and TV
8. Finger slide for lifting the call when the keypad is locked.
9. Inclusion of timed profiles.
10. Bigger screen means bigger buttons, texting in Alphanumeric mode is now all the more pleasing with huge buttons.
11. Inclusion of predictive text while using the QWERTY keypad is a huge plus. This makes typing so easy and so much fast and quite pleasing too.

and many more improvements here and there.

 

And Why I bought a Nokia N97 ?

With boasting so much about Nokia N97, it does make me feel that I should make my readers aware on why I decided to buy the Nokia N97. It all started with planning, so first I got rid of my Nokia 5800,and sent it my sister couple of months before Nokia N97 was about to be officially released in UAE. However, to come to the decision was not that easy. For me the major points for buying a Nokia N97 are as follows :

• A full QWERTY keypad with Touchscreen :  Believe me or not, its just a deadly combination. You have all the goodness of a touchscreen + a QWERTY. They both compliment each other, and as per my experience, with either one of them, you are missing a lot in your mobile experience.
• Nokia MAPS  : Another reason, I dont have a Data plan, so I cant afford to keep downloading MBs and MBs of maps data everytime when I am on a move. Nokia MAPS comes handy, you can download the map via your PC onto your mobile, and save a lot of your time while on a move.
• Multitasking : Something which I cant live without. Consider my Nokia phone, I have my Google Talk running in the background, my browser is downloading 7 to 8 files simultaneously, I am listening to music and at the same time texting my friend. To add more, I have one touch access to all my applications running in the background.
• FM transmitter : I want everything to be plug and play. I hate wires and want everything around me to be wireless. I hate burning CDs , and want one place access for all my music files. People know how much time do you waste in morning and evening traffic. How good it is , to just listen to a podcast or a song or an audiobook directly on your car stereo via your phone. No wires , and no duplication of data and music. Just play it on your phone and one touch access transfer it to your car stereo.
• Wide range of Applications for my phone : I love to install different types of applications for my mobile. I keep searching stuffs on OVI store and keep trying and downloading the application either just for timepass or for the productivity.
• A LIVE homescreen : A homescreen where everything is accessible with just one touch. I should get my news updates , my friends updates and plus my favourite applications accessible to me with just one touch.
• YOUTUBE : I am a youtube addict and I am proud to say that. I needed a phone whose browser can support youtube videos and should be a pleasure to watch on.
• A BIG SCREEN with Good resolution  and Ease of viewing : It just compliment the above point mentioned. Viewing pleasure can only come when the screen is big enough with good resolution. Also, it should be available at a very comfortable viewing angle without trouble your palm.
• A good Camera with Great Video Recording Capability : Nokia N97 video recording capabilities are not hidden with anyone. Widescreen Video capture just make it awesome to watch recorded videos, and are also a pleasure to share with friends. If you still doubt the video recording capabilities of Nokia N97, watch the video below which I took from my Nokia N97.

Video Taken by Nokia N97

 

And Above all

 

• An ALL IN ONE NOKIA PHONE : This is where it all ends. Being a Nokia fan, it gets inevitable for me to not to buy a Nokia phone. So since N97 was from Nokia , it made so much sense for me to go for it .

 

Conclusion

Nokia N97 for me is a complete phone. I have little complains regarding the processor speed , and the stereo speakers which are not as good as Nokia 5800, but having said that, I am so much impressed with this Nokia phone.

You are aware why I bought a Nokia N97, and if you think you have something else to share or ask, feel free to comment, also if you are a proud owner of Nokia n97, how about sharing why you bought this phone ??

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