Nokia N97 Review
It’s no secret that we had our issues with Nokia’s 5800 XpressMusic, but has the Nokia N97 changed our minds? It is, after all, their flagship device and is packed to the rim with goodies. We already said the Touch Pro2 was the best Windows Mobile device to come out of HTC, is the N97 the Pro2’s match for the Symbian world? Hit the breakage for the review and what we thought!
Keyboard:
It’s hilarious that when Nokia finally listens and tries to make a somewhat normal QWERTY keyboard layout (we bitched and moaned that the Z key was always incorrectly right under the A key on previous devices) they mess it up even more. Like honestly, you’re expecting people to use something with the spacebar key stage right? If the layout isn’t bad enough, the keys certainly are. While the texture of the keys is actually pretty stirring, there’s absolutely positively the smallest tactile feedback imaginable when pressing in a key. For comparisons sake, the T-Mobile G1, whose keys aren’t the best in that department, is worlds better than the N97’s keyboard. It’s really disappointing because Nokia just can’t seem to nail this keyboard area. You could argue that there’s a virtual on-screen keyboard, but that’s so useless we’re not going to entertain the idea of you bringing it up.
Screen:
Man… this is a tough area. Some people are going to viciously attack us for saying this, but, is this the best you can do Nokia? If it is, you’re out of touch with the entire cell phone world because this is one of the most disappointing screens we’ve seen in a long, long time. Besides being a poor resistive touchscreen with good resolution — it’s poor because they try and allow it to decipher touch actions separately from select actions — it looks like there’s a weave pattern behind the display. It gets really infuriatingly annoying. We’re assuming it’s the digitizer, but seriously, learn how to make a touch display. This isn’t 2003. Every single flagship phone has a display 10x better than yours. If you want us to break them down because you’re too out of touch to realize it, we’re glad to do so:
- HTC’s Dream and Magic — wonderful bright and crisp capacitive displays
- RIM’s BlackBerry Storm — awesomely vibrant capacitive display
- Palm’s Pre — packed tight with resolution, vivid and capacitive
- Apple’s iPhone 3G/3G S — an amazingly accurate clear capacitive display with incredible accuracy
Noticing a trend here?
Hardware / Build quality:
Nokia has been around the block for a long, long time. They’ve had their share of hiccups, but man… they know how to make a phone and make it solid. And a sexy phone at that. The N97 might feel lighter than you’d expect at first, but it really has a quality feel all around. The metal bezel is actually plastic and is probably the cheapest-feeling part of the device. But all in all, the build quality is top notch and we shouldn’t expect anything less from the world market leader Nokia. The 5 megapixel camera also doesn’t disappoint — just what you’re used to if you’re a Nokia Nseries fan.
Feel:
This is kind of the same as build quality in a way, because the feel of the device will change depending on the build quality, but the overall feel of the Nokia N97 in your hand is a pleasant one for the most part. Not a huge fan of the matte finish/texture on the back of the device, but button placements are very standard Nokia and comfortable. Power button on top, dedicated two-stage camera shutter key, volume keys, etc.
Connectivity:
This is the second Nokia handset with tri-band HSDPA and it’s awesome they’ve finally come around. In addition to the UMTS sex appeal, you’ve also got a quad-band EDGE radio, Bluetooth 2.0, an FM transmitter (yep, it will allow you to tune to a radio station and listen to your music), A-GPS, and Wi-Fi all built in. Very, very cool.
Phone calling / speakerphone:
There’s no if, ands or buts about it — Nokia seriously knows how to make for some damn good voice calling. Their radios are usually on point (besides the disastrous Nokia E71-2 scenario and we guess some 5800 problems), but for the most part it doesn’t get much better than Nokia. Some could argue RIM is almost on Nokia’s level in terms of RF performance and voice quality, but Nokia, in our view still has a slight edge. Phone calls made with the N97 were loud and sounded bright instead of dull like some phones we’ve been testing. Callers reported to hear us just fine and sometimes thought we were calling from a land line phone.
One thing that’s funny about Nokia is that their speakerphones range from horrible to pretty good. We’d say the N97’s is right in the middle. It’s no where as loud or clear as the Touch Pro2’s but it’s decent enough to be used. Anyone ever had a Nokia phone where the ear speaker was louder than the actual speakerphone? We have!
Usability:
Here’s one fairly large issue for us — the slide/flip up screen. The mechanism is actually very well-built, but it’s the angle of the screen and the non-adjustableness (forgive us) that get us going. For instance, to see the screen at the perfect angle when flipped up means that the keyboard is going to be pointing straight up at the ceiling. Wait, what? Yeah — you can barely use the keyboard comfortably when navigating through on screen applications and the like. It might not be a big deal for some, but for a keyboard that it feels like your typing on a pad of Post Its, it’s a big deal for anyone remotely interested in typing something.
The directional pad also suffers from the same issue as we mentioned earlier in the keyboard section — zero feedback. It’s unfortunate but it really doesn’t enable you to accurately navigate as well as it should. As far things like home screen widgets go, they’re cool. But just because you have live widgets on your home screen doesn’t mean people will overlook how out of date and poorly designed S60 is becoming. It’s almost like Nokia keeps bandaging the OS up and it’s starting to get more and more difficult to use and less and less relevant.
Conclusion:
Nokia tried really hard here, but to be honest, speaking from my personal opinion, the second I saw the N97 announcement I skipped right over it in my head. I’m the biggest N95-4 fan you’ll find — but S60 5th Edition with a resistive screen, horrible keyboard and horrible navigational buttons? No thank you. The problem with the Nokia N97 is — and please don’t take this the wrong way — that this exact phone could have been launched 2 years ago and no one would have blinked. What other phone can you take out of it’s current place, drop back two years, and have no one question where it came from? Take the Palm Pre for better or worse, and bring it back to 2007. People would have heart attacks. What about the iPhone? Well, you know how that turned out. BlackBerry Storm? People would have broken through glass to get it. But, no one really would care about the N97 and that, besides not being a device we enjoyed using, is the larger issue. Nokia has lost its place in the sun when looking at the consumer smartphone market and until they get back on track, RIM, Apple, Windows Mobile, Palm and Android are going to continue eating more and more of their lunch.
Exactly what I’ve been waiting for, thanks!
Meh.lets see the BB Magnum!
While it’s hard medicine to swallow, it’s definitely what Nokia needs to hear. When it was launched, I was expecting to be more enthusiastic than I actually was. It just didn’t really stand out, and nothing really changed much from launch, as we can read.
*whips out..*
Oh…wrong Magnum…my bad.
I have the Phone and I’m going to send it back Monday ! Only thing I really Love is The video and picture Camera,, Beside that the phone should have came out 3 years ago !! Unless someone puts Android On it They have Lost the lead In Cell Phones
The review pretty much mimics what I’ve been reading on online boards and forums.
Even the Nokia fanboys haven’t gone all crazy over the device. Most of the opinions and personal reviews range from “Good” to “Eh” to “awesome”, but it’s mostly the former rather than the latter.
I was thinking of trading in my current phone for this, but I might just hold out for s’thing better.
Thanks BGR.
Well that’s a shame! I was extremely excited about this handset, but BGR i think you’ve just pushed me to the TP2.
The only reason I hesitate is because of WinMo, but I haven’t used a device with TF3D yet, so I guess it’s time I give it another shot.
D@mn shame about Nokia tho, I currently have an N95-4, but seriously what happened to them? Why do they seem to have stopped innovating?
Nokia will never compete here if they don’t put more phones into carriers stores with subsidies. Who wants to pay over $500 for the n97? But paying $200 for it I might be able to live with some shortcomings.
I am actually afraid to try a Nokia now, the e71 is the only one that is attainable price wise, but there are so many other phones I would rather have.
Thanks for the post (bummer) I was somewhat excited for this phone to launch. It is becoming harder to remain a nokia fan boy! looks like i will be moving on to other devices… Looks like I am iPhone 3Gs bound,
You are on some serious crack if you thought the N series phones were built well. I worked at MCO for a year and no phone came back more than the N95-1,2,3 & 4, not including the N81. The slider on the N95 was the biggest piece of junk I have every seen.
I gave up my HTC Diamond and iPhone for a 5800 and would never go back and I plan on getting the N97 in White. I played with it in Black and loved it. I also love Nokia’s cameras. I thought Nokia got it right because I hated phones like the E71 that didnt have a touchscreen.
PS 65% of iPhones came back with cracked glass. I have amazing RF with my 5800 and the Storm is garbage.
personally I think S60 sucks… I prefer S40… they just need to release more high-end S40 phones with the same technical specs as their S60 cousins and they’ll be in business… that and have a document reader (Adobe, Word, Excel) for S40 either built-in or as a downloadable app… that’s all they need(!)… I say ditch S60 and start developing more apps for S40(!)…
Wow it’s really like i wasn’t impressed. But now I can offically take the N97 off my list of phones to look at this summer. Thanks BGR!
A disappointing and flippant review. The N97 is leaps ahead of Apple iPhone in virtually every aspect – better camera, better in car integration, better one stop uploading to Flickr for photos, better voice / call quality, better input methods according to personal choice, can be used with gloves / one handed easily, built in MAPS and turn by turn directions, better homescreen, better social media integration…and so on.
The fact is that this will sell by the bucketloads and whilst not groundbreaking technologically it’s exactly what millions of Nokia users want – a touchscreen mobile with a huge feature set.
I’m the biggest Apple fan and have been since owning a Classic years ago but I still won’t buy the iPhone. For me Nokia have it nailed. I’ve spent over an hour with the N97 in the Nokia Store Regent St. London and was very impressed. It’s a joy to use and I just don’t get your comments about the screen (Was excellent) and keyboard (was fantastic to use).
Very good review, and I was expecting this. It has no wow factor – old software and hardware seems so “blah”. Nokia needs to find the ‘oomph’ again and make a huge comeback this year or beginning of next.
Waiting for the Tour review, BGR.
really did hammer the phone didn’t you… is it so freakin bad?!?
now wtf do i pickup?
@Mark R.
Where do you get your figuere? And if 65% of iphones come back with cracked glass its becuase crack-head parents get their kids iphones and then they drop them, thats not a manufacturer defect thats called user abuse.
I can’t say I’m shocked to be reading this from this review. That’s a shame you didn’t like it. I already ordered mine and I can’t wait for it to show up at my door. No, its not perfect, but it’s darn close. An OS designed the way I think it should be for the most part, great looks, great hardware, and its Nokia. Take the keyboard comments however you want people. I heard a lot of people saying they liked the N95 keypad, especially the clickiness of it. I’ve never liked it. My N75’s keypad was still the best I’ve ever felt with the E71 in a close second.
Oh, and I don’t know what disaster he’s talking about with the E71’s RF. I’ve never had an issue with mine in an area with decent coverage. In sub par coverage area’s yeah, I have my problems, but so does my N95.
What about battery life?
Was psyched about this phone and still canceled my preorder. It’s like a mid range phone with a high end internal storage tacked on at a high end price range and a bad keyboard design…
Nothing screams flagship. You might as well get the 5800 for almost the same features for less than half the price.
Nokia’s own other phones beat the N97 for what they’re trying to sell it as…
Some really tough love in this review for Nokia.
I’ve been a nokia loyalist for years and was dying for this to be their breakthrough touchscreen entry.
Was looking at the ovi store with disbelief too, so piteous in comparison to its competitors.
RIP Nokia.
This review was a decision maker for me!
Last year when I first heard of this phone I was amazed and couldn’t wait for it to arrive in the states. Guess it wasn’t that good after all
I was all hot and bothered to get the N97, but this review and some others I’ve read have convinced me to skip it. Nokia is really slipping.
BG You really dont like Nokia , do you?
I played with this phone at the Nokia Store, and I agree with you 100%