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.
Blackberries are for saving time,
Iphones are for wasting time,
This phone is for you if you want to make a statement.
I can’t wait to play with one of these.
Wow. My N95 is missing a keyboard. This has one plus a touch screen! I could never commit to a touch-screen device only.
The Blackberry doesn’t do Video Out and its GPS unit is dismal. Nokia Maps rocks my world, but damn, I wish I had BB Connect for work and BB Instant Messager for my friends. What is a user going to do if BB is the de facto standard at work? Carry two phones is what I have to do.
The touch screen could be a little more desirable but being able to write on that thing is pretty cool.
If it’s not too fat, this will be my next phone. I’ll wait for the NAM now.
@librapaj
I am hard to please. I want what’s next. The bar has been set. I would love for Nokia to establish a larger presence in the states, and in order to do that-they are going to have to do more…more marketing, more agreements with carriers, more revolutionary products. There is nothing wrong with being hard to please, I’m not going to fall in line and accept the status quo.
Looks like an HTC Tilt in my opinion!
Lots of features, but was expecting something
Crazy Hott, especially with that count down clock and all.
I’m so happy I’m almost crying haha.
I can’t wait to ditch my 3g iPhone for this. Sure the iPhone is great but the restrictions kill me. I have so much video content that I just can’t watch on my stupid phone because I didn’t purchase it from iTunes. I’m not sure that I actually would use it as a video device, but I’d like to at least have that ability.
Oh and I bet Nokia won’t block Opera from making a browser for this phone –oh wait, Nokia doesn’t have a kill switch for apps they don’t like (read: make money off of).
I bet it’ll sync nicely with my mac, and over bluetooth if I want it to
And can sombody tell Nokia, silver phones with
Chome all over them are out! Stealth Black baby!!!
How about in black?
@jackal
I am not saying for you to settle for anything less, but I am sorry to disagree with you once again. By purchasing this phone you are not settling for anything less. This phone ON PAPER seems to set the bar really high. Can you think of one phone that has better specs than this phone here in the states? Because I am hard pressed to think of one.
This phone looks like a winner.
I don’t think I’ve ever wanted a phone more than the N97. It has the outstanding specs, a physical keyboard, rock-solid OS and is absolutely beautiful.
I want this!
why?
does nokia has serious problem with T-Mobile?!
defective 5610
no handset will offer to T-Mobile till further notice
no WCDMA IV phones
some of iphone-dickriders are ridiculous. i think its a great phone. the only thing iphone has a super easy UI with BIG EASY TO READ PLAYSKOOL ICONS. after getting my E71 i love nokia. they’ve been using flash for while. i dont need some stupid hack of app just to watch youtube videos. by todays standard websites iphone should have had flash lite in there FIRST iphone if apple is such an innovator. dont sleep on othe brands. the n97 is like how i like my women… sleek, white, and tilts & opens just the right way.
sick phone but it’s missing two crucial features:
-a marketable, pwnable nickname
-850mhz 3G for Canada, USA and Australia.
Regardless, this is the best thing coming in the foreseeable future
I’ve used Nokia phones for years. When this hits AT&T, my ancient candybar (almost ashamed to use it in public) will be history.
By the time this comes out here in the US the next generation iPhone will be out. It will be marketed better, hyped more, and likely cost less. The average consumer doesn’t care about the one uping attempts by all of these phone companies. They either switch to the carrier with the iPhone or get the phone most like it on their carrier….here in the US at least
@librapaj
This phone is not in the states, probably will never make it here unless we buy it unlocked..I cannot justify $695 for a phone that will probably be surpassed by the end of 09(if not before) I know that has more to do with Nokia and contracting with the carriers in the states(and that’s a whole other conversation) Great specs on paper yes…but I can buy another piece of equipment with maybe a little less specs for a much lower subsidized price. This is a direction that Nokia has to go in order to build up market share of their ’smartphones’ here in the states.
@jackal
You are right that is another conversation. So let’s stick to the topic. It was not about price and it was not availability. The topic was about how unimpressed you were with the announcement. And frankly I do not see what is unimpressive about it. But it’s ok we can agree to disagree.
@ Techdoc1,
Give me a break! Apple did not patent the rectangle. Show an Apple fanboy a phone with a somewhat rectangular shape and he/she will call it an iphone clone.
This is not copying – it is OWNING.
P.S. The iphone copied the LG Prada.
I have a couple of questions…
1) What version of Symbian will this thing run?
2) 5 Megapixels is plenty good [for a cameraphone] but I think this should have included at least an 8 megapixel camera.
I’m not trying to split hairs here because this seems to be a damn good device and I may become an early adopter. I’ve grown jaded by touchscreen phones but I may go back for this thing.
@BGR
I don’t know if you’ve happened to see any of the vids that are floating around, but, the OS on the N97 looks nothing like the 5800’s.
To go and call it “horrible” at this stage, would be a disservice to your readers and irresponsible, IMO.
Those of us who actually like to have customizable today screens with pertinent information available at a glance; fail to see what’s so on point about the iPhone’s GUI.
There are plenty of people who read this site that use their phone for more than music and video; it’d be nice if you’d stop shitting on us every chance you get, with your constant Jesus-Phone rhetoric.
one other thing I noticed… Nokia is way behind the times… who uses Friendster any more? (check it on the home screen)
Friendster is huge in Asia and a lot of Europe.
@librapaj
Thank you. So what do you think about the ’tilt’ of the screen when opened? I will say that I do like the fact that you can use the touchscreen even when it is opened up. I also agree with the other commentors about ditching the silver, black is the way to go.
I’m not saying it needs to be an iphone cause lord knows i’m a nokia fanboy but if you are gonna come out with a touchscreen device in this day and age at least make the interface smooth.. apple has set somewhat of a mark, thats what apple is good at, making things look flash and clean.. nokia = good functionality and features but lack the finish, if the interface were better the phone would be 10x better, even if you aren’t an apple fan you have to give them credit for the iphones slickness the closest thing would probably be the Flash UI that samsung and LG are using and even that still isn’t as smooth as the damn iphone, on the flip side the iphone has a SH*T camera and lacks many features but damn the interface is smooth
Flat black, not shiny black. too many fingerprints. I don’t want to want to be constantly wiping down my device. The tilt is convenient because just like you said, you can use the touchscreen even when it is opened as opposed to having to close and open the screen continuously.
One thing I really do not like about the N97 is the keyboard layout. What’s with the space bar location? And with only one function key, it would’ve been nice if the numbers were in a number pad layout.