Nokia N97 hits Flagship stores today for $699.99
So maybe the iPhone 3G S announcement left you a bit unimpressed this morning. We can’t say we blame you, but there’s plenty more in store for mobile fans this month. Among the hoards of hot phones dropping in June is Nokia’s new flagship handset, the N97. Sure it’s a bit pricier at $700 than the 3G S but those who have been recession-proof at this point deserve to splurge a bit from time to time. S60 5th Edition, QWERTY, side-sliding/pivoting 640×360 pixel touchscreen, 5 megapixel shooter, 32GB of memory… It’s all good. The N97 will reportedly be available from Nokia Flagship stores starting today — who’s in?
Look at the size of that thing!!
Having played about with the 5800, and the Samsung Omnia HD, Symbian S60 5th is just not good enough for the touch screen world. Nokia should have been working on a proper touch screen platform for over 2 years, yet they have nothing for the launch of one of their most important phones in a long time.
wOOt!
nice….BUT – I fricken pre-ordered mine on 5/6….direct from Nokia USA….and I’m NOT going to get my first? That’s B-FRICKEN-S….!!! What’s the point of the damn pre-order…??? Granted….I paid $ 507 for mine during their “ooops” price-glitch period ion the pre-order….but still…no matter!! Really annoyed!
Ship it already!
Dammit! Why no launch party in Chicago, Nokia? Why? WHY?
Sorry for the naive question, but can this device be used on AT&T’s 3G network in the US?
It sure looks nice!
im not into nokias but id take that over an iphone.. htc needs to follow suit and include dpads on qwerty slide outs.. im skeptical of most new phones because they all lack dpads..
if i had 700$ but again is too much sorry nokia drop it to 500 and maybe i will but it
I dunno the capabilities of the phone, but the way that qwerty is setup, it could be pretty nice for gaming
If i can get this for around $500 somehow its a done deal. AT$T and the slyPhone completely turned me off with those upgrade prices for loyal customers due an upgrade. This phone has everything that I want in a smartphone, I just wish the OS was a little more up to date…any possibility of the new Symbian OS being downloaded/uploaded to the device later in the year?
Can’t wait for a thorough BGR review.
I might have to make that move!
I heard that Nokia said that the OS on the N97 is not fixed for the phone’s life and to expect another something new in the 2nd half of the year.
Man, that thing looks gigantic in the above picture.
It actually makes the Sidekick look small.
no thanks
$700 for a phone is not compatible with T-Mobile USA?
Nokia, Disconnecting T-Mobile
The size isn’t so big. Its only slightly thicker than an iPhone. And PLEASE, BGR, keep it real. Its time people know that the N97 and the iPhone 3GS are identically priced at $699. So its no more pricier.
And Mingkee, the N97 DOES work on TMobileUSA, just only at EDGE speeds. At least wifi is still there… A TMobileUSA 3G radio along with a subsidy to bring the price to near $279 on a two year contract would’ve made this device the greatest Nokia high end seller in America for all time.
the phone is nice to hold and pretty good to look at, but the processor is not powerful enough. the flag-ship nokia store in NYC had it on sunday and i spent 15 mins playing with it. It has nice features, responsive touch screen, well designed keyboard…, but the processor’s lack of power is very noticeable while playing music and browsing the web.
to say the least, i’m quite disappointed.
Sorry Nokia, too late to the party. This would have been awesome in Winter/Early spring. The 5800 left a bad taste in my mouth for resistive screens and the new Symbian. The worst part is lack of an organized application distribution. The hardware might be great, but hunting down individual software that doesn’t suck is annoying. The Ovi store so far is fairly crappy.
Yes
How do two positives make a negative?
zzzzzzzzz $700??!!??
Yeah, right.
$699 is an unlocked & unsubsidized price… Go ahead and to try find another phone similar to this is features at this price. For reference the Pre is $899, the iPHone 3GS is over $800 for a no-contract price and it’s still locked to At&t.
no mention of lame processor speed BGR? i know you did before…
for those who don’t believe me, read BGR themselves:
http://www.boygeniusreport.com/2009/04/30/nokias-n97-has-a-seriously-wimpy-processor/
Amazon has it for $603.99.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00295RBNI?ie=UTF8&tag=symbiaguru-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B00295RBNI
@Andrew
The Pre is $549 full retail. Not saying $699 for the N97 isn’t a pretty good value, but let’s not kid ourselves here, k? Not to mention the fact that unlike the iPhone locked to AT&T (which might have some chance of being unlocked), that Pre is about as good as a health food store in North Korea when it comes to being used on other carriers.
@Jason Bourne
The way upgrade costs work make perfect sense. Why would they let you get a new phone before contract and throw away $200? They are in the business of making money, not giving it away.
AT&T buys the phone from manufacturer, who states a price it should be sold at. The carrier cuts $200 off the price because that is what the contract is worth. Why would they give you $200 (taken off phone price for 2 year contract) and then give you ANOTHER $200 ON YOUR TERMS WITHOUT COMPLETING THE CONTRACT because you want a new phone?
The carriers are not trying to screw you over. On the contrary, they make the phones cheap enough for you to buy. Its no wonder a lot of manufacturers stop releasing in the US. Most of us are too cheap to buy a phone unless a carrier makes it $200 cheaper, AND when they do make it cheaper, we whine about it because apparently they are ripping us off? Pathetic.