The N97 was consistently responsive. The only annoying delays were in the camera application and gallery. When the device is slid open, the screen re-orientates itself into a landscape mode, but this wouldn't take more than two seconds, and only once took as long as five seconds.
Answering calls when the screen is locked is far from obvious. Two sliders are offered: Answer and Unlock, the latter giving you the option to reject the call. The problem is that both controls look much more like buttons, so pressing them won't do any good. Still, call quality and RF reception were excellent, although the RF read out was quite sensitive for a Nokia, with more fluctuation than we're used to seeing.
Battery life was even more impressive, given that the N97 is shunting around 230,400 pixels, 50 per cent more than an iPhone or a Pre, with brightness on max if you're outdoors. Thanks to the stalwart 1500mAh battery, I was assured of a full day's use. Leave autolock on, and beware of the power-guzzling uses such as Bluetooth audio streaming (A2DP) and the loudspeaker. Annoyingly, Nokia has followed the trend of displaying the battery charge based on recent usage. This assumes we're too thick to anticipate our own usage. Just tell me how much is left, please.
Home screen with the N97 closed
Home screen with the N97 horizontal
Notifications area: nice feature, could get even better
This is a feature, not a bug
This is not a bug, it's a feature. It's what you see after following a very simple, and common, sequence of events. The phone is closed (in tablet mode) and you want to make a call. You then go to the address book - but your address book has too many entries to scroll through, so you begin to type a name.
COMMENTS
I have one and it's amazing!
I have an N97, after finally letting go of my N95. I have had NONE of the memory problems described and find the keyboard very easy to use! No, it's not a traditional QWERTY layout but who cares? The positioning of the space under your right thumb was inspired! I have read a lot of negative reviews which I can only ascribe to lazy reporters copying old pre release reviews! The N97 is amazing to use, feels really well made and is suprisingly light. It is not perfect but it is a very worthy upgrade from an N95! Claiming it is just a 5800 with a keyboard was, quite frankly, moronic!
Ho Ho Ho! Now I have an N97!
I can say my experience with the keyboard differs greatly from Andrew Orlowski in that I find it very useable and can bash out texts, facespace updates, emails etc... a lot faster than I can with, say, my iPod Touch.
I admit I'm still learning how to get the most out of it, coming straight from an N73 (it has a *lot* more that's customisable, for instance) but it's still very intuitive if you're already used to S60.
You won't be jacking in your iPhone to get one of these, the iPhone is much more of a mobile computing platform than a Smartphone, but it is an upgrade from just about any Smartphone out there and now I can point and laugh at anyone with a Blackberry Storm. Ah, sweet vengeance!
Umm...OK
OK, fair enough. The iPhone has a couple of capabilities that the N97 can't even begin to compete with - it can change colour and you can fry an egg on it.
Umm - yes, I did.
Thanks for re-iterating my comments anonymous coward. You could just try the N97 for yourself like I suggested before you attempt to ridicule my opinion.
Yes, I did register simply to add my comment. Is there another reason to register other than to add comments?
I feel the review lacks balance and I wanted to share my thoughts on the N97, I think it's a great phone. I have had no problems at all with the keyboard size/layout or the interface. I agree that the touch sensitive screen is not as functionally rich as the iPhone's but it certainly works well for my purposes (it does take a little getting used to though).
Taking everything into consideration, this is one hell of a piece of engineering. Yes, 21st Century Swiss army knife - I stand by every word.
One other thing which is important to me...this phone is damn tough. Have a look at the N97 test videos on Youtube to see for yourself - try that with a [insert latest smartphone of choice].
Damien.
Was waiting to see...
I was involved with dev of a series 60 device a few years back. Found it unintuitive (how many softkey presses to send a txt???) frustrating, slow and clunky.
Sad to see nothing has changed. Contacts tell me Series60 internals are a mess - that's why they're still producing and releasing buggy handsets.
Nokia are still somehow managing to keep going off the back of the 3300 series years ago, it would seem. I think it's time I relented and bought an iPhone - everybody else is trying to catch up, and failing, with legacy platforms being crowbarred into trying to be slick and responsive, but failing dismally... plus, of course, the existnig major handset manufacturers are struggling under the weight of their own pasts in terms of design methodology.
Good review though, but it feels like all the reviews I've ever read of Nokia handsets. "Disappointing".
