Nokia announces N97 flagship phone
We mentioned it a few days ago and rumors were true, something big has come from the Finnish mobile manufacturer. Nokia has just announced in Barcelona, Spain during Nokia World ‘08 that it will be launching the N97. This feature-packed phone is guaranteed to please Nokia fans and general phone geeks alike. Apparently, product managers are calling this the “Facebook Phone,” and while it is a little silly, the name doesn’t just come from nowhere. The device is geared toward social networking and multimedia but it doesn’t seem like the business user has been left out, either. Here are some specs to get your appetite going:
- 3.5″, 640 x 360 resistive touch screen (No! Why not capacitive?! Fail.)
- QWERTY keyboard
- Tri-band HSDPA 3G
- 802.11 b/g WiFi
- A-GPS and Stand-alone GPS for directions and geo-tagging
- 32GB Built-In Memory
- microSD expansion support for ADDITIONAL 16GB
- 5 megapixel camera with Carl Zeiss optics
- Flash Lite 3.0 support and Flash Video in web browser
- Music player up to 36 hours playback time
- Share and Ovi services support
Holy cow, this phone is loaded! Is there anything else you can ask for? 30 frames-per-second video and tons of on-board storage! It has 3G, WiFi, a touch screen and a full QWERTY keyboard and a fully customizable home screen. We’re not going to call this an iPhone killer just yet, but Apple has some serious competition. The biggest feature for a lot of you will be Flash support and Flash video - bonus! This is going to be a killer phone for sure. The N97 will be released in the first half of 2009 and will go for €550, or approximately $695 - maybe. Hit the jump for more images and a video.
Tags: AGPS, Carl Zeiss, Facebook Phone, flagship, GPS, n-series, N97, Nokia, Nokia World 08, Nseries, Press Release
YES WE CAN. a phone for change. thank you nokia. i will gladly short my retirement fund to have this mobile communication device. goodbye fried chicken hello nokia.
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Hmmppp! I was expecting something more jaw-dropping with that big count-down clock. Tragically unimpressed. Next.
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Awesome looking phone BUT lacks the “finish” that the iphone has like most other touchscreen phones out there… c’mon nokia hire a good GUI designer…
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This phone looks amazing.
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this is the first nokia device I have been relatively impressed with in a few years now .. it’s still not jawdropping .. but .. seems pretty good ..
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No one is ever going to be happy with whatever is put out. No matter how many features a phone has or what the spec list looks like, someone is always going to nitpick. With that being said this phone is packed with features and I can’t possibly see what anyone else can need in a phone.
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It seems everyone has run out of ideas and are bent upon copying apple, why does everything have to be iphone-esque ? Et tu Nokia
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Is nokia still using those ridiculous Battery charging/audio out ports?
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Is this a phone or an internet tablet?
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Amazing. This device has everything the mobile community has been lusting after, and still you all are not satisfied.
The Iphone has what compared to this device? The Apple OS and Itunes? That’s it.
This N97 has everything else, from the 32gb onboard to the 5megapix cam to HSDPA and GPS.
WTF else could you ask for?
I want one NOW.
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Phone looks to be using standard usb port for charging/syncing.
AND has a normal 3.5mm headphone jack.
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I don’t deny that the phone has a lot of features and is packed up with goods for a multimedia user as well as a casual business user…but with the hype I was expecting something on the verge or groundbreaking…
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@jackal
I am sorry to disagree but I mean what was the hype, A countdown timer? That is not much hype is you ask me. And everything is always jumping on the iPhone’s balls. I don’t disagree that it’s an amazing device, I had one. But to me, the restrictions and what it can’t do outweigh what it does do. Everyone wants to talk about how everyone copies the iPhone. Ever heard of HTC? They were doing it way before the iPhone. I don’t think this phone has been hyped nearly as much as said iPhone and ON PAPER, it seems to blow the iPhone out of the water.
This comment is brought to you by a past iPhone user and current machead so I can in no way be accused of being a hater.
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WHAT? You mean this dang thing can’t even make hot chocolate??? Ugh.
jk jk - Very nice Nokia. I’ll take one!
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@ librapaj
‘There is a mysterious countdown timer front and center on Nokia’s dedicated events page, and the clock is ticking down to 9:15 am CET when Nokia CEO Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo and Executive VP Anssi Vanjoki are scheduled to begin their keynote speech entitled transforming the way we connect. That title leads us to believe this Nokia World announcement will be service-oriented rather than device oriented, but there is no way to know with any certainty for the time being. The countdown page however, also includes a sharing widget with the text, “it looks like Nokia is planning something big,” to be delivered to any recipient with whom the page is shared. ‘
Based on the above excerpt from Zach’s post, I expected more. I have not ever owned an iPhone, so I do not love or hate it. I’m actually about to buy an e71. I am a big Nokia fan from way back. I just really expected more from Nokia.
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bleededge comes with bleeding edge problems. phones are a rectangle with a flat touch screen. that cannot be changed, its the innards that will separate greatness from lameness. im onboard. ive used the iphone and iphone 3G and after the honeymoon is over you start to see a lot of the limitations or what you can and cannot do.
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All I want to know is: Can I put android on it, because that interface still looks & runs like balls.
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Nice touch!
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I can’t believe you people. I’m the most phone addicted person on the planet (minus BG) and see absolutely NOTHING wrong with this device. Exactly what feature does it NOT have? I mean name one? lol. This will be in my hands the day it comes out….
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Finally a true competitor to the iPhone. No doubt the iPhone is a great device but the only way it will continue to improve is if there is a true competitor out there and I think this might just be it. Lets face it the BB Storm attempt bombed. The Apple App store is great but the most of the applications are stand along trinkets. We live in an age of convergence. How does a device get a way with not having turn-by-turn GPS directions, Cut & Paste, AWOL ‘push notifications’ and no Flash support. Nokia have been clever as well by not making the device available immediately following launch they can slowly leak devices into the market place which will allow true field BETA testing to iron out those kinks and ‘just plain stupids’ prior to launch. Take note Verizon. Forget the quarterly conference call. Releasing a product early just to quiet Wall Street only leads to the situation you currently have with the Storm or should I say ‘Depression’. I mean how arrogant do you have to be in order to release a smart phone with no WiFi and a locked down GPS API. I mean have these people heard of location aware social networking. The only thing lacking in the NYT’s flogging o review of your device was it wasn’t harsh enough. Americans tend to forget that there is a world beyond the two shining shores and Nokia dominates it. When I first arrived in this wonderful country there were two obvious areas where the US trailed the rest of the world. Online banking and mobile phones. With the launch of the iPhone the mobile phone playing field effectively caught up but Nokia has now demonstrated that we cannot sit on our laurels. Let the games begin.
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Damnit if only this worked with T-Mobile’s stupid 3G network *cries*
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@librapaj
You’re not wrong. On paper, it just as hell does smash the iPhone. The problem is, what’s on paper doesn’t matter anymore (in the scheme of things). The iPhone was the first device to change that. Before it used to be, “Well my phone has a 3 megapixel camera and Wi-Fi and I can watch short movie clips!!!!” Yeah, but you couldn’t use the damn thing because the UI and OS was so terrible. So while you are right, that on paper this thing beats the iPhone more than a red-headed step child’s step father, the resistive screen and Nokia’s horrible OS (Yeah, I TOTALLY said it) will make for a rather unpleasant user experience in my opinion.
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Just when I was about to run out and buy an HTC Touch Pro, Nokia goes and drops this. I can wait 6 months to replace my N95 LOL. We need to stop comparing everything with an iPhone, this thing is a monster. I agree that the resistive touchscreen is a slight fail but judging by the videos I’ve seen of this phone in action, it looks very responsive. One can only hope it will stand up to the rigors of my daily life (ie. When I load all kinds of crap onto it, will it still be fast)
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@jackal
Why would get hyped about what someone else wrote? I read the post and made my own assumption. And in my eyes when a phone has a list of specs like these it is something big. You must be hard to please. If this doesn’t impress you I don’t know what does.
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dude what more did you want from nokia? I will be picking this up on launch day to replace my touch HD. This phone completely blows the iphone out of the water. I’ve had almost every model of the iphone from the 4gig first gen to both the white and black 3G models. The iphone is a casual phone because whatever it can do, extremely well. Unfortunately for myself and other gadget freaks it is very limited it what it can do. With my old n95 I could do so much work on it where as my iphone I could text,email and make calls
The only way you guys would seem to be happy would be if steve jobs did the keynote instead then everyone would call it a revolution. Silly fanboys should try more gadgets
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