Nokia n97 reviewed

[ChrisFilter]

I think the N97 is likely to be my next phone. It's disappointing that it's not a huge step forward from the N95 but the larger screen, touchscreen and qwerty keyboard are significant improvements.

It's going to be released about the same time as the new iphone of course. I really don't see what the iphone offers that the N97 doesn't, other than the allegedly better UI and a bunch of gimmicky apps that most people will only ever use once. Additionally it will have a decent camera (unlike the iphone) and, it appears, will be significantly less expensive on contract.

I am the last person on earth who wants to big up the iPhone, but unless you have specific reason for choosing a handset (need hw keyboard, work given you a limited choice, just don't care about having smart features, etc) then there is no good reason to choose something over the iPhone.

Believe me. I tried every possible option before admitting defeat and getting one.

It's fucking superb, as much as it saddens me to say so.

 

[Kid_Eternity]

It is. Imo if you're gonna get a touch screen phone there's nothing better currently available in the UK.

 

[editor]

I am the last person on earth who wants to big up the iPhone, but unless you have specific reason for choosing a handset (need hw keyboard, work given you a limited choice, just don't care about having smart features, etc) then there is no good reason to choose something over the iPhone.

Well, there's also the matter of length of contract, zero network choice, poor camera with no flash, no radio, no user replaceable battery, and the hefty cost.

Other phones may not offer such a slick package, but they can certainly outshine the iPhone in some areas, and similarly featured handsets can be picked up for a whole lot less too.

 

[Kid_Eternity]

Your average consumer doesn't complain trust me. Was out with two mates tonight, both are now getting iPhones after playing with mine. I should buy shares, I've made Apple some real money lately!

 

[editor]

Your average consumer doesn't complain trust me. Was out with two mates tonight, both are now getting iPhones after playing with mine. I should buy shares, I've made Apple some real money lately!

Not everyone can afford an iPhone and not everyone wants a smartphone either.

That's why Nokia handsets still massively outsell the iPhone.

 

[mhwfc]

I just had a go at one in the Nokia shop, its across the road from the Apple shop,

You did well to find some working N97s in the Nokia shop, torn between the 3GS, the N97 and the 5800 I went in the Nokia shop on Regent Street and not one of the display N97s seemed to be working. Which will probably gain Apple another customer, the Nokia 5800 seemed alright though, however the touchscreen just wasn't as good as the iphone which'd annoy me every time I used it.

 

[editor]

You did well to find some working N97s in the Nokia shop, torn between the 3GS, the N97 and the 5800 I went in the Nokia shop on Regent Street and not one of the display N97s seemed to be working. Which will probably gain Apple another customer, the Nokia 5800 seemed alright though, however the touchscreen just wasn't as good as the iphone which'd annoy me every time I used it.

I'd definitely give the HTC Hero a look or - if you have the patience - wait to see if the Palm Pre appeals.

It's pretty much acknowledged as the first really serious contender to the iPhone and comes without Apple's app control-freakery which may make a difference for you (it does for me, but then I'm always getting worked up about meddling corporates).

 

[mhwfc]

I'd definitely give the HTC Hero a look or - if you have the patience - wait to see if the Palm Pre appeals.

It's pretty much acknowledged as the first really serious contender to the iPhone and comes without Apple's app control-freakery which may make a difference for you (it does for me, but then I'm always getting worked up about meddling corporates).

I need to get a new phone fairly soon really as my Sony Ericsson C902's bitten the dust just after it came out of warranty , I've considered the HTC Hero and previously tried out a Magic but the overall user experience of the iphone still can't be beaten IMO, ironically for me a main killer ap is the easy synchronisation between itunes and the iphone, though fair play to Palm for trying to find various imaginative ways of trying to replicate this

 

[editor]

If iTunes synchronisation is a major factor for you, then the iPhone is your obvious first choice.

 

[ChrisFilter]

Well, there's also the matter of length of contract, zero network choice, poor camera with no flash, no radio, no user replaceable battery, and the hefty cost.

Other phones may not offer such a slick package, but they can certainly outshine the iPhone in some areas, and similarly featured handsets can be picked up for a whole lot less too.

I got mine on eBay for £200, though I take your point. If you're in the Market for a smart phone its weaknesses become kind of irelavent once you've used it for 5 mins.

 

[6_6]

After playing with the HTC Hero, I still prefer N97 'cos of the physical qwerty.

 

[Kid_Eternity]

Not everyone can afford an iPhone and not everyone wants a smartphone either.

That's why Nokia handsets still massively outsell the iPhone.

Going by this there really isn't too much difference in price. Like I say, everyone that has a look at the iPhone wants it. If you want something bad enough you'll find a way of getting it...

On the tube this morning, yet another morning of everyone playing with either a Blackberry or iPhone. It's incredible how popular smartphones are these days...!

 

[Kid_Eternity]

You did well to find some working N97s in the Nokia shop, torn between the 3GS, the N97 and the 5800 I went in the Nokia shop on Regent Street and not one of the display N97s seemed to be working. Which will probably gain Apple another customer, the Nokia 5800 seemed alright though, however the touchscreen just wasn't as good as the iphone which'd annoy me every time I used it.

If you got the money I'd say get the 3GS, you wont be disappointed. There's really no reason to get another touch screen phone frankly...

 

[6_6]

Not everyone can afford an iPhone and not everyone wants a smartphone either.

That's why Nokia handsets still massively outsell the iPhone.

The thing is, not everyone wants a smartphone and honestly not everyone know what a smartphone is neither. But that doesn't matter to them, they would still want an iPhone

 

[teuchter]

The thing is, not everyone wants a smartphone and honestly not everyone know what a smartphone is neither. But that doesn't matter to them, they would still want an iPhone

And therein lies the Apple marketing genius.

 

[editor]

The thing is, not everyone wants a smartphone and honestly not everyone know what a smartphone is neither. But that doesn't matter to them, they would still want an iPhone

I think you've been taken in a bit by Apple's hype there.

Lots of people are quite happy with their regular handsets. Some people prefer smaller phones, some like clamshell phones, some like keyboards, some want FM radios, some want decent cameras, some prefer Blackberry's style etc etc.

 

[teuchter]

Well... I have been in posession of an N97 for a couple of weeks now.

I think we could describe it as a bit of a love-hate relationship.

Two of the main reasons I chose the N97 over the competition are: decent camera and Nokia Maps (now known as Ovi Maps). I realise I am not starting off with the same priorities as most people. Certainly, I wouldn't recommend the N97 to anyone - in fact I think I would probably advise against for most.

The reviews haven't been terribly good for this phone and there are several forums with quite a lot of N97 owners swearing quite a lot in Nokia's direction. Before I got mine, the gist I'd got from reviews was: hardware good, software bad. In general terms, I'd say that about sums it up.

The phone itself I like. To me it feels well built and I like how it looks. It's certainly not as ugly as the N95 (which is what I've come from). I enjoy the large screen - makes a big difference for stuff like web browsing. I don't actually find the resistive instead of capacitive touch screen an issue at all - I like the accuracy of it and I never find that I have to press it harder than is comfortable - quite responsive enough for me.

The slide-out keyboard I like too. I wasn't too sure to start with because you don't get a great deal of tactile feedback from the keys but a couple of weeks in I'm finding it OK and I think am now at least as quick as I was on T9.

The camera seems fine. Haven't used it a huge amount yet but so far I'd say it's a slight improvement on the N95 especially in low light. Having the big touch screen makes adjusting the settings and stuff easier too.

Where it really falls down is in software. The overwhelming feeling is that they released this 6 months before they were ready. I know people are saying that the OS (symbian) is a compromise having been adjusted to work on a touchscreen when that's not what it was designed for. Well that may be true but in my opinion it's not actually the main issue - I'm pretty sure it could be perfectly functional if they'd spent just a bit more time de-bugging it and thinking stuff through more to ensure a bit of consistency.

There are various things that just don't work properly - for example the homescreen widgets which don't update themselves like they are supposed to. Some things work but not particularly well - not what you'd expect from a "flagship device". For example the music player: it does the job but not in a particularly brilliant way and I get the impression it struggles slightly with the 25gig of music I've put on there (it's quite slow switching between playlists etc). That's not much good if you've advertised it having up to 48gig of storage as one of its selling points.

The crappy software theme continues with all of the apps which are supposed to link or sync it with your computer. I've had problems with almost all of them. For me the pain is increased further as I am on a mac and their mac support is even worse than that for PCs.

It's possible that the user experience will improve with firmware updates (this tends to be the pattern with Nokia) but I think they will have lost the faith of quite a few loyal Nokia users with this and are going to have to seriously get their act together if they are going to be taken seriously in the post-iphone market. I shan't be selling mine on yet because it still does stuff that the competition can't. But it's a close call.

 

[editor]

My nephew has got the Nokia 5800 and the interface really feels half finished on that too.

 

[teuchter]

I think the N97/5800 interfaces are pretty similar. It gives them even less excuse for it being such a bodge - the 5800 having been out for several months should have given them enough time to present something a little more refined on the N97.

(The firmware update has resolved most of the major bugs on the N97, to be fair: for some reason they hadn't updated it on the ones in the Nokia store on Regent St when I last went in there so the ones in there were crashing all over the shop )

 

[teuchter]

This piece is a pretty good summary of Nokia's failure to "get it" as far as the software side of things goes; in this case with regard to the "music experience":

Anyone on Nokia’s music team should be completely embarrassed by this experience. The top-of-the-line phone in Nokia’s multimedia arsenal should not take 7+ hours to synchronize 25GB of music from my computer, period. The result is that I have music on my phone, and I have music on my computer, and according to Nokia, those are completely separate and disjointed. Nevermind the fact that both Apple’s iPhone and Microsoft’s Windows Mobile smartphones are able to offer a complete desktop-to-mobile-and-back-again music experience. The world’s largest manufacturer of MP3 players, who is supposedly super-dedicated to mobile music, can’t understand that we listen to music on our computers, too, and need for that to be included in our music experience.

http://www.symbian-guru.com/welcome/2009/07/nokias-music-experience-is-a-joke.html

 

[oicur0t]

I've been reading up on symbian because I've got an interview with them today. From what I gather it's going to take time with the UI because a) they've just become open source and haven't got their shit together and b) there's going to be a change to Qt for Symbian4 which was only announced at the end of April. The platform allows any manufacturer to create their own interface, which allows flexibility, but makes it harder to compete with the likes of apple, who make killers UIs all the time. With the varying screen sizes and input methods on offer to manufacturers you end up with screens that look half finished or bodged together. Compare this with the new Palm offering, iphone, or these new spangled phones that are being pushed purely on the UI, it's gonna be hard for nokia over the next couple of years.

 

[teuchter]

So the long-awaited upgrade to the N97 firmware is finally out ... for some people at least.