Comments on: Nokia announces N97 flagship phone

By: Edd

Edd — Tue, 10 Feb 2009 23:37:33 +0000

Hi, sorry dunno if this has been answered somewhere in the midst but does anyone know the exact date of the launch in europe?

Apretiate it
Thnkx

By: duxxyuk

duxxyuk — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 13:29:49 +0000

What feature does it not have… well it does not yet have a firmware that is hackable :-p

By: vin

vin — Thu, 11 Dec 2008 20:51:51 +0000

@ christexaport,

The iPhone’s screen UI is what give the phone it’s hypnotic appeal despite it’s glaring lack of features. Resistive touch screens are just not in the same league.
A wand will take care of any issues with gloves or fingernails etc.. thick gloves can be pretty much useless on a small screen.
Nokia is giving us a so-so touch screen and in a features rich phone, just the inverse of the successful iPhone’s: feature poor with a great touch screen UI.
The great touch screen UI is the overriding feature that made the iPhone what it is.
Nokia needed to add their great specifications to a great touch screen UI.

For the above reasons I am sorry to say the Nokia N97 will be just another, one of many, failed attempt to dethrone the iPhone.

By: Aaron

Aaron — Mon, 08 Dec 2008 21:09:34 +0000

The IPhone has mostly all this in their apps that were free. I have more radio stations than I can use and now with the update that just came out we get more podcast than we can listen to or view on every subject imaginable.

By: christexaport

christexaport — Sat, 06 Dec 2008 16:45:43 +0000

@ vin,
don’t be so quick to judge the resistive touchscreen, nor to consider capacitive touch an advantage over a resistive screen. Its actually the other way around! Capacitive touchscreens are the old technology, but resistive replaced it because of its versatility.

A capacitive touchscreen can only be activated by a finger. Nothing else! A resistive touchscreen can be activated by nearly anything, even a gloved hand or a plastic spoon! The only complaint on resistives had been responsiveness, but the videos of the prototype N97’s show Nokia has solved the sensitivity issue by through all its research with the Nokia touchscreen web tablets. Since its as responsive as a capacitive touchscreen, the capacitive screen has a disadvantage, since it can ONLY be used with a finger. Cold weather, amputations, dirty hands, or extremely large fingered hands will appreciate the versatility.

Also, another falsehood is that multitouch makes everything easier. In fact, its another liability, since it requires 2 hands to pull off. It reduces productivity, which is one of S60’s strong suits.

Apple has brainwashed Americans and the consumer in general with misinformation. Their technology works well in its iteration, but more versatile, powerful, better featured options exist. Nokia has been ahead in features and productivity for 3 years. Now the UI brings it full circle, with the best of S60 in an easier, touch enabled package.

@ Raman
By the way, all Nseries have FM radio. As for TV, there is freeware software to stream TV from your Media Center, or you can get a HAVA or Slingbox. Nokia’s built in Internet Radio rivals satellite radio, and is free. Knowing the freeware community, and with that storage, a DVR app will come as soon.

By: Raman

Raman — Sat, 06 Dec 2008 00:34:01 +0000

Well i guess they could have easily crammed in the following too.

AM/FM radio
Over the Air HDTV receiver and tuner
Satellite Radio
DVR
radar detector
Universal Remote

See i am not asking for things that cannot be done like making a coffee or pizza.

But i guess we will soon see all these in phones in another 3-4 years.

Raman

By: vin

vin — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 19:07:56 +0000

The resistance touch screen is ancient technology.
This is a major flaw in what could have been an iPhone killer.
The resistive touch screen is a dealbreaker for me.

By: christexaport

christexaport — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 17:46:32 +0000

@ Aaron,
maybe in America, but Nokia has slowed much new device releases, and most of its offerings were old. They wanted the new OS to set the bar much higher since the competition has gotten better. They lost a lot of marketshare, but going from 70% to 40% without ever attempting to touch the American market’s 68% growth rate for smartphones. Now they’re ready to encroach on Apple’s playground. The wait looks to have been worth it, with the first new 5th Edition devices both offering something nothing else can offer, especially the iPhone. The 5800 offers the loudest speakerphone ever on any smartphone in history, a camcorder with pro quality optics and full touch at only $349 unlocked, almost half the price of an iPhone, yet easily outperforming it on the specsheet. The N97 needs no introduction. Now every Python, c++, Mscript, Javascript, Java, Flashlite, Ruby, Qt, Web2.0, and Garnet developer just found a place to plot their next killer app, service, or media content creation/consumption tool. Life’s good as a Symbian Freak. Ahh…

By: Hmmmm.....

Hmmmm..... — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 11:08:39 +0000

Wow, that apple kool-aid is very strong, with a comeback like, ’still sucks IP3G rocks end of story’. Even with all that info that the iphone can’t compete with, it now boils down to ‘my toy is better than your computer!’ Boo-hoo!

By: Juan

Juan — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 18:33:10 +0000

Still sucks iPhone 3G Rocks end of story

By: Aaron

Aaron — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 17:00:04 +0000

Well that is good said but the IPhone has set the standard and everyone else is following and it is the number 1 PDA/phone. Talk is cheap FACTS SPEAK LOUD AND CLEAR.

By: Likeabite

Likeabite — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 14:25:32 +0000

@ christexaport I agree

By: Hmmmm.....

Hmmmm..... — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 06:34:51 +0000

BURN!!! LOL!

By: christexaport

christexaport — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 04:30:46 +0000

Well, anyone with an idiot’s IQ and a decent mobile browser can google “S60 3rd Edition apps” or “Symbian apps” and get more sites and lists than you can count. And only a fool that couldn’t find apps for Symbian (Ever heard of Symbian-Freak’s Freeward Downloads section for starters?) would consider most of those joke Apple apps better than the Symbian OS tools.
Also, most Symbian users use the free JBak Taskman as the main UI for task launching and management. Only neophytes use the system menu. Now compare S60 with JBak Taskman with the iPhone UI.

By: seriously

seriously — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 23:24:59 +0000

i’m willing to bet that if at&t or t-mobile picked this phone up and didn’t bog it down with crapware, kept the sales package fairly intact, priced it at around 200, and had a decent marketing campaign, it’d sell like hot cakes. After all, it’s shiny for the most part and has a touch screen, and that seems to be the recipe for success in the US market.

By: Aaron Pruitt

Aaron Pruitt — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 21:00:21 +0000

I would not call my IPhone apps trinkets and they have been coming out with IPhone killers for 6 months and I haven’t seen on yet. Keep trying.

By: Aaron Pruitt

Aaron Pruitt — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 20:54:51 +0000

The Mac OP System to me is the best operating system bar none. Also what all the other phones are no where near, is the App store that Apple has for the IPhone. My last count I knew of was 10,000 Apps and growing daily.

By: Fahad

Fahad — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 20:34:36 +0000

I was accepting something really exciting after seeing the count down bar. But its not really unique thing just a upgrade to n96…. Nokia come on…… with something unique to beat iPhone…. why people are always…trying to compete iphone…why not to come up with something unique..like apple came with iPhone

By: Marc Flores

Marc Flores — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 20:34:30 +0000

Like BG said, the OS is probably going to make this thing a pain to use. Yes, spec sheets are impressive and quite frankly, I find myself lusting after this phone now. Even then, I just don’t see this replacing my current Blackberry as my main phone. If I still used the iPhone 3G as my main device, I can’t dig resistive touch screens over capacitive like the iPhone or G1. And is it just me, or does the keyboard look flush or even recessed? Without having had hands on, I can’t imagine typing on this would be a pleasure.

By: mr Hopkins

mr Hopkins — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 19:36:31 +0000

dude above said he was “tragically unimpressed” LOL. Guy…this is one sexy ass functional ass phone. 32 GIGS??!! Plus room for 16 more?!
Only $695(hopefully)? I will have one.

one letdown though no xenon flash to go with that lens?(at least I didn’t notice)

By: Tyrone D.

Tyrone D. — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 19:08:48 +0000

buying it!!!

By: Who?

Who? — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 18:01:02 +0000

Is there onboard Rhapsody support like on Nokia’s N800 Internet tablets??????????? Hello celestial jukebox!!

If the N97 has onboard Rhapsody support I’m buying it, even if it’s $700.

If the price is right and the phone gives you streaming access to millions of songs, the iPhone can’t compete (although people will still buy it anyway). That said, I’m not a huge fan of the keyboard, but I’ll just have to get used to it.

This will hopefully be my Tilt replacement.

By: andy

andy — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 17:57:12 +0000

A physical number pad

By: JakeyBoy

JakeyBoy — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 17:39:21 +0000

Nokia-
OS=no
Phone=yes

Still can’t beat the iPhone for overall appeal, sorry Nokia fanboys. Yes, Steve Jobs is an idiot, who cares, he doesn’t make the phones anyway…

By: dude-who-doesnt-own-an-iPhone-only-iPodTouch-and-the-N95

dude-who-doesnt-own-an-iPhone-only-iPodTouch-and-the-N95 — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 17:29:28 +0000

Losing market share in smartphones? afraid of new competition from Apple, RIM & GOOG/HTC?

What should Nokia do?

Well, I guess Nokia can only do the Nokia thing: throw more specs at us. Which admittedly is better than doing nothing, but does not tackle the true issue at play: in content and in applications, Apple won this year, and Nokia LOST big time. In fact Nokia started losing it before Apple thought of the iPhone – it is in Nokia’s DNA. Nokia is a hardware and a process company – period. Never got software, never will (and probably never got clever marketing either).

This landslide in the mobile industry leadership in terms of mindshare will not be reversed by the ex-leader throwing hardware features at a software issue in one product release, be it as overspec-ed as the N97 – it does NOT matter anymore.

Dunno about you, but using the AppStore is heaven compared to absolute damnation of trying to actually FIND anything usable but a Google app (such as Gmail or Google Maps, incidentally miles better than Nokia Maps) on an Nseries phone.

My guess is Nokia will slowly become the IKEA of cheap mobile phones for emerging markets, where the market leader will remain unbeatable in the sub-10 dollar price bracket, thanks to its economies of scale, powerful sourcing, smoothest production process known to man, and immensely cost-effective design. Probably for the very same reasons, they will never make it in software, and their smartphone foray is doomed.

Nokia dominated smartphones when it was all about tech and hardware. They dominated the market when smartphones were dumb and hadware specs were enough to push the product at a premium. This era is over, period.

Good luck and good bye Nokia N97 – shame you’ll be outspec-ed by half a dozen Korean & Taiwanese models by the time you hit the shops – not to mention a next-gen iPhone and several new blackberries. Oh dear.

By: ob

ob — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 17:20:50 +0000

whatevr happen to the video of the S60 Touch phone from Nokia a few years back. thats the phone they should’ve shown

By: sixdonuts

sixdonuts — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 17:11:09 +0000

Totally agree! Someone needs to make a smart phone which can make, receive and manage calls!

By: Robert

Robert — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 17:10:46 +0000

What more could you want from a phone, it has everything. From the videos it looks like they pulled off the resistive touch screen very well. I’ll be picking one up as soon as possible.

By: sixdonuts

sixdonuts — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 16:55:08 +0000

If this thing has the call quality of my Nokia 6200, a functional/speedy GUI, email like my blackberry and can surf like my computer I will buy. Call quality/range and durability with the iPhone and the latest Blackberry’s (Curve +) hasn’t been great. Also tired of “babying” electronic devices. If it is designed to fit in a pocket it shouldn’t need a special cover or require frequent cleaning. OS speed is also important!!! If I need to make/receive a call while surfing/emailing this should be a quick and simple process! Still seems like I need two devices to accomplish this. Hopefully the n97 will resolve this.

By: carloa

carloa — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 16:50:50 +0000

the specs on the phone do look amazing…