|  The Nokia N97 would not be such a disappointing device if it were not supposed to be the flagship multimedia smartphone for the largest handset manufacturer in the world. It has some great specs, including that impressive 32GB of storage (expandable to 48GB), a solid, smart design, and hefty battery power. However, the touchscreen interface seems more like a few controls laid atop a standard Symbian S60 interface. When the Nokia N97 gets things right, they are right indeed. I thought the build quality, especially the hinge mechanism, was superlative, and most of the external design was spot-on. The keyboard was cozy, even with its unique layout, and my biggest problem was the lack of onboard apps to support the messaging features. In the end, I had recommend a Nokia Eseries for serious messaging and business users, and a Nokia N85 for camera and multimedia enthusiasts.
Advantages are, it has great hardware. Superior specs, including massive storage and great connectivity. Good keyboard. Long baterry life.
Disadvantages are, mediocre touch interface design. Apps not optimized well for touch. Camera, media playback features underpowered. All in all, I can say that it is seventy five percent very good.
More about the Phone:The design is very good. In terms of hardware design, the Nokia N97 is superb, polished phone. The thick tablet clicks open with a firm snap to reveal a full QWERTY keyboard. Open, the screen lies at an angle to the keys, similar to the HTC Touch Pro 2. Overall, the phone has a solid construction, with one of the snappiest slides I ever used, and in a nice fit and finish that makes the N97 recognizable as the top of the Nseries lineup. The face has only three keys: Send, End and Menu keys, though I think it could use one or two more, perhaps a Back key up front. Otherwise, I like the clean, classy looks that does not shy away from standardized ports or external controls like other touchscreen phones, and does not aim for a look too minimalist for our taste.
The Nokia N97 improves very little on the interface from the company`s first major tablet phone, the Nokia 5800. Compared to far superior models like, well, everything else with a touchscreen - the Apple iPhone 3G, which I also have, Palm Pre and HTC Touch Diamond 2 are obvious examples - the interface on the Nokia N97 cost more than twice as much, I were hoping more.
To Nokia`s credit, the touch interface is often more useful than aesthetic. The home screen is a simple collection of Widget panels, and though these never looked great, they did offer plenty of useful features. A facebook widget will report incoming messages and partial status updates from friends. So too will the e-mail widget. There is a widget to control music, a widget for the weather, and so on. Nothing groundbreaking, but Nokia lets you customize the widgets and their arrangement, and the phone offers an enticing Download link from the Widget screen that I hope means more will be offered soon, as developer support grows.
In terms of calling, I can say that the phone is very good. Keep with their solid tradition, the Nokia N97 has somes trong calling features and good call quality. I tested the phone on AT&T`s 3G network and I was impressed with the sound quality during calls.
The messaging and Keyboard are also good. As the top of the line phone in Nokia`s Nseries arsenal, and the first with full QWERTY keyboard, it is surprising that Nokia does not ship the Nokia N97 with more messaging options onboard. There is support for a very basic SMS and MMS client. There is no threaded text messaging to help keep track of conversations, this is simpler wireframe app with no frills. there are no instant messaging clients on board.
The Multimedia is good. For multimedia playback, the Nokia N97 packs some serious hardware, but cannot quite manage the interface and apps to handle all that power. The phone comes with a whopping 32GB of onboard memory, as capacious as any phone on the market, but you can also top off the N97 with a 16GB microSDHC card, bringing the grand total to 48GB. How nice, is in it?The web browsing is also very good. The Nokia Nseries devices always impressed with their Web browsing ability, and the Nokia N97 does an admirable job, bu the transition to touch has not added any new features, and some of my favourites are now missing. The mini map is gone, replaced by a simpler zoom slide that adds an extra couple of steps to browsing long Web pages.
The Camera is also good. After being so impressed by the camera on the Nokia N85, we were let down by the 5-megapixel shooter on the Nokia N97. Pictures still looked very good on this phone. Colors were usually accurate and vibrant, and we were able to achieve some nice depth of field effects from the auto focus lens. Low light handling was quite poor, though, and the dual LED flash did very little to help the situation.
It also has GPS Navigation that is very good. For GPS nagivation, the Nokia N97 uses Nokia Maps. It is a nice mapping app, and it works well for turn by turn directions, but it clearly is not ready for the N97`s touchscreen.
Price and availability. I bought my phone 1000 swiss francs in MobileZone. If there is anything that I have not explain, feel free to send me a response. Thank you. Have a nice day. Keep posting. Happy Mylotting.
Best regards,Jeff
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