Nokia N97 - Review

A Fantastic phone for the right person!

A week with the Nokia N97 and its mostly good. I'll start with where I came from to get to the 97.
I am a huge Nokia fan, every time i have strayed from the Finnish manufacturer, I have deeply regretted it for the next 18 months, till I could return with my tail between my legs begging for a free nokia on another 18 month contract!
I used to own the N95 8GB, again fantastic phone, at the time the only phone to own really. Great camera and functions, but all this was distroyed by the arrival of the iPhone. Ok back to the N97;

Unlocked to UK Networks
32GB as standard expandable to 48GB
5 MegaPixel camera with flash and Video
Built in GPS Nav
HSDPA and WLAN surfing
Slide out qwerty keyboard and touchscreen

What I'm Loving;
QWERTY keyboard - a fantastic feature
Camera! 5 megapixel with the now nokia standard Carl Zeiss lens
Super fast web browsing and easy connection to my WiFi at home.
Speakers that come in the box
On Screen Live Widgets

Why Why Why;

Touchscreen not quite as precise as iPhone 3GS or the HTC Hero

Lack of Apps

Ridiculously difficult to sync music and films from pc

Push email is hit and miss

Ok I'll break down the above.

The QWERTY Keyboard

A fantastic brilliant addition. For me being held hostage to a touch 

screen was something I didnt want to face, I have used the 3GS 

touch screen, and yes the upgraded machine has the ability to rotate to landscape keyboard to avoid sausage finger mis-spells, but not having the feel of a proper back lit button when typing emails, txt, URL's or even this blog meant the N97 was a must have. You dont even miss the predictive txt and when typing url's it feels more like a uber small notebook than a phone.

The camera. Using the same camera as the N95 8GB is a great choice, I would have thought Nokia would have upgraded this though due to Sony Ericsson's C905 8.1 MegaPixel camera and even Finland's very own branded Nokia N86 has 8 Megapixel but that said its a cracking camera, and fantastic video, good flash although it is an LED, so it could be better, but it is a great camera.

Surfing, Wether it be on Vodafone UK on your WLAN its incredible quick for a phone. I would actually go as far to say you could almost do away with your laptop or pc at home, due to its Adobe PDF reader and home office etc. really quick and ability to bookmark your most visited sites.

Nokia MD-8 Speakers come in the box along with the software and cables etc, really nice addition and great for long journeys or if you have a bit of down time in the office.

On Screen Live widgets, The phone (UK Version) comes pre-loaded with a whole host of actually quite good apps, which run live and update automatically; Facebook, Amazon, your favourate RSS feeds, your email, or you can download more specific ones if you want, I have my Gmail, Associated Press and BBC's RSS feeds for Technology, AND BBC iPlayer! This I think is probably the N97's best feature.

Things I hope with software updates get better.

The Touch Screen, It's not quite ... wait thats a lie, its no way near as sensitive as the 3GS or the Hero, that said if you've never played with your mates iPhone (and if you haven't you probably work in the only place on earth in which the iPhone hasn't infiltrated) then you'll never notice the little lag, or the fact on small links/icon's (on the net) are best touched when the text has been zoomed in, which unlike the 3GS is a basic double tap on the screen.

App's, iPhone's app store is generations ahead of Nokia's Ovi store. Even the Hero's app posibilities are much better. This I hope is going to get better, with Nokia appealing to developers in India to come up with more ingenious apps, that are so readily available to the iPhone users. The N97 has the ability to use motion  and touch just as the 3GS, it just developers need to work harder with the overly complicated operating system Nokia choose to use.

Nokia Music and Photos, Oh my god, I love technology and I understand you have to have to be patient some times, (I'm not one of these people who when their desktop freezes they keep smashing buttons till it rights itself!) But i have never wanted to see if my laptop bounced more than when i was trying to get all my mp3's and pictures from my Laptop to my phone via usb link. Absolutely rubbish, and again to refer to the 3GS a quick sync with iTunes and its all done. Again i'm hoping with a software update all this will get sorted out.

Email, Although the live email on your home screen is a god send for me, I was having massive problems sending (push) my emails, even with Nokia's own ovi account, I eventually got round this problem with downloading Google's gmail app, which isn't great but it does the job. That said you can quickly go to your email providers site and check that way, again hopefully with a software update it should be smoother.

Overall has my life been enhanced by the N97..... yes it has, its a fantastic device, and the fact I have downloaded tons from iPlayer etc is great, All my friends have iPhones, one or two have the 3GS, which is a great phone too, both the N97 and 3GS have google maps, Nokia maps with the free 6 month (UK) walk and drive option is great. Surfing is great with the keyboard camera is great, its just the app's that suck! But an awesome phone!

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