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.
N97 IS A BEST PICE BY PRICE IS TO HIGH AND 5 megapixel camera IS TO LESS IT GOES TO 10
Pity about this. I’ve been fairly brand loyal to Nokia, largely because they make the most sturdy phones I’ve owned, and I was willing to hold off my next upgrade until this came out.
But, after reading all these reviews, looks like it’ll have to be the iPhone 3GS.
*Sigh*
don’t do Nokia phone reviews , just go n fU*K yourself BGR
Was badly balancing between Iphone 3G S and N97 !
To day, after reading BG, will rush right now to the nearest Nokia Store…
Watch out eyeslight, Nokia users here tend to jump on you if you say you like Nokia but somehow for whatever reason, end up getting the Iphone 3gs. Nokia’s high end phones just don’t sell in the US,even with its build quality, hardware and better functionality. Unfortunately, we are at the mercy of the carriers, until Nokia works it out with a carrier here, you’ll need to shell out big money and order it on line. N97 is a good phone that could have been better for a flagship device. I never had it, but this info is coming from expert Nokia users here and all you have to read is pages 8 and 9. The BGR’s review could have been better too.
how does this Nokia N97 compare with the HTC Magica and Hero?
How does the Nokia n97 compare to the HTC Magic (Google Ion) or the HTC Hero?
I always had my doubts but after reading this I am definetley going for an Iphone. I am surprised with NOKIA being out of touch with the current trend, after being a pioneer in this industry. May be it needs to rest some of its old timers and let the fresh blood takeover the design department. I wont be surprised to see NOKIA go down the drain if they do not act fast. NOKIA does not enjoy a diversified base compared to some of its competitors like SONY and MOTOROLA (even APPLE) and cannot afford to stay behind for long.
ROFLMFAO! You call that a review?
I’m none the wiser having read your comments, the only thing helpful in this review were the pictures of the phone, the rest of it you just sounded like some egotistical numpty who sleeps with his archaic iphone.
In future, to help you improve your site, perhaps just take photos of new phones, and copy and paste the specs and leave it as that.
i don’t believe this 2-bit website has a anyone with sufficient experience to be able to fully review anything. I’m amazed people even visit this site!
hello
Yesterday my friend brought this cell.I am not impressed at all at first look.its very bulky.I feel the same look and feel for this cell as I am looking at any s60 seriies model.Nothing special.I am having HTC vox.Thats much better than this.
I swere dont waste your money on this piece of shit.
Sorry
SORRY HAD PHONE LESS THAN 24HRS SENT BACK ITS RUBBISH THING DONT WORK PROPERLY WAS TOLD TO WAIT FOR SOFTWARE UPGRADE SHOULD NOT HAVE TO SHOULD ALL BE SORTED BEFORE GOES ON SHELF I LOVE NOKIAS BUT THIS HAS PUT ME OFF THINKIN OF GOING TO THE I PHONE
Finally got to play the N97 briefly, a colleague of mine had one. Its a good phone, certainly not a flagship device. He even installed the new firmware. Anyway, I had it side by side with the Iphone 3gs and the Iphone was a lot snappier with programs. I know, multi-tasking on the N97 none on the iphone, but majority of cell phone users don’t multi-task.Video playing on Iphone believe it or not is comparable to the N97. I do like the keyboard of the N97, spacebar was a none issue to me. Icons on N97 is truly not as bad as some folks say it is as far as pressing and activating. Still like the capacitive screen. I like the tilting screen of the N97. Sound is not as good as my old N95 8gb. Like the graphics and smoother action on the Iphone 3gs than the N97. Overall, the N97 wasn’t bad but I have no regrets getting the Iphone. I’m sure Nokia can improve with the next Nseries phone.
I have to say this is a negative review. Try the Iphone and the N97, everyone has other demands. I phone is overhyped, this phone will be underhyped if people are trusting a review without doing some proper thinking by themselfs.
After trying the N97, it is not a bad phone after all. Chris, you’re right. Try both phones like I did and then make a decision. For personal reasons, the N97 was not up to my liking, but it is capable of more than the Iphone. There has been no hype here in the US with the N97, Iphone dominates in that category here and no awareness in the general public. Nokia dominates the rest of the world, so I guess that not a big deal for Nokia. I would be using the N97 now if only Dell did not have it on back order for a long time.Unfortunately, US reviewers were not all thumbs up for the N97 too. In the end, its all up to the user and yes, this review should be more positive.It should be interesting to see what happens next year for Nokia.
I had this phone for a week now and I haven’t used it more than 1 hour continuously. It keeps on rebooting and shutting down. Its a shame, I spent 6-7 months waiting for this phone and they came up with this crappy one…
Nokia needs to do some research on where other competitors stand…This phone still has features I had on my old N82 and they are charging 700 bucks. Really disappointed. Hopefully they will learn.
I had this phone for 3 weeks now…and I love it..the review is very unfair!!!..the phone is awesome..very sexy and very useful applications!!..the new firmware fixed the few glitches…i have tried the iphone and the HTC fuze before and the N97 is much better..please be fair when you review nect time or u will lose your credibility.
@ bulls, if your device isn’t working properly, call Nokia support. They are fast and will take care of you. Its obviously defective. Mine hasn’t rebooted once in two weeks on this firmware or the old one. None of the REAL reviews mentioned instability like you mentioned, and should be a clue your device has a problem.
Finally got mine in last week and decided now would be a time to voice my opinion. Let’s start with the keyboard like BGR did. Now I’ve been trying desperately to figure out if I have an issue with mine, or if everybody else has the same symptoms as I do. My keyboard is very wierd. All three rows have different tactile feedback. The center row is absolutely perfect with a good key travel feel, great clickiness, great all around feeling, while the top and bottom rows have hardly any to absolutely zero clickiness/feedback. It gets worse the farther towards the right I get. The same goes for every direction on the D-pad except for the right for some reason. Amazon sent me another one because I thought this was a manufacturing flaw and the new one did the same thing, and the screen hinge didn’t work properly anyway so I sent it back and kept my original one. Oh and I have no problem with where things are on the keyboard. I do have an issue with how I can’t press and hold a letter to get the symbol/number behind it. I really hope that’s something we get in a future firmware release.
The screen is brilliant. The best screen I’ve seen on a Nokia. Sorry E90 guys, I’ve never seen that screen in person so I can’t comment on it yet. Being a resistive, I enjoy being able to use pens and my finger to navigate through screens. It responds well to the touch, but does require a tad bit of pressure for things to register. It’s a lot better than the 5800, I can say that, but I can’t comment any further in comparison to other resistive screens. Using the tip of your finger where your nail is provides the best results and doesn’t require hardly any pressure to be put on the screen. Being my first touch screen device ever, this really is easy to use, and I only have slight issues depending upon how small the object is I’m trying to tap, or the very rare tap but not registering issue. Capacitive would have been better, but this isn’t one, and it’s still a great screen.
I loved the feel of this device when I first picked it up. It just seems right at home sitting in your hand. But before I put the battery in, it felt extremely light, and very fragile, almost cheap. But then I picked up my N95-3 and realized just how far Nokia has come with their Nseries designs and build quality. It’s the best I’ve felt in an Nseries. Loads better than the N96. I did have an annoying rattle coming from the SIM card holder, whenever I shook the phone with the SIM card in it. But now it seems to have stopped. Also, the back cover worries me. It never made any creaks or any noises prior to me pulling it off 15 times. Now it has some creaks in certain spots that I’m trying to figure out how to get rid of. I have to wonder how long it will last with me constantly switching between phones. The volume keys are perfect and the two stage camera shutter feels great. The power key is a little too small, but not nearly as bad as the E71’s. The slide mechanism on this one is perfect, compared to the one I returned which was good, but tended to get hung up if you closed it in certain ways. It feels very strong and I anticipate it holding up over time. I was also very pleased with the size, although I would have preferred a wider device. I can’t believe how thin they made this. It’s unreal they could jam all that into a body 16mm thin. I hardly even notice it in my pocket. This coming from someone who uses an E71 5 days a week and an N95-3 on the weekends. I really do wish that Nokia would start building Nseries like their Eseries with metal casings but who knows how long I’ll have to wait for that.
As a phone, it will surprise you how well it is. Very clear, almost landline like. However, if you happened to rub the back cover while on the phone, plan on the person on the other end hearing it loud and clear. Signal reception was also vintage Nokia; very good. Speakerphone sounds good, but boy was I disappointed with how not loud it is and how poor it sounds. I mean c’mon Nokia. How do you make the 5800 loud and sound good with speakers that small, and then go and do this? The N95-3 dumps all over this. And playing music over them really shows how weak they are. They don’t get that loud, there’s no bass, and they sound like they’re distorting when the volume is really high. I’ve heard the same things from a lot of people, and I hope Nokia can come out with a firmware update to adjust these things if it’s even possible.
Using the phone was a blast. It’s everything I’ve ever come to expect from S60, now controlled by touch. No, they don’t have cute transitions. It just works, and it does it well. I had no issues with mine while I was on the original firmware, and I have no real problems now with the new firmware. I love the homescreen, and all the widgets, but there’s one thing that needs to be done. They need to be programmed to allow you to custom adjust how often you want them to refresh, what access point to use, and a time out or something to kill the updating if you lose service, or it can’t get a signal after 5 minutes. I’m hoping for more widgets to come too. The web browser is great, and I wish they would incorporate kinetic scrolling in every part of the OS. The double click thing in lists, I do understand why it’s annoying to some. I get annoyed too, but I realize its useful in particular areas such as the contacts list, music, videos, and going through your inbox and the like. But other area’s where there’s no options menu to do anything besides go to help/open/exit, I see no reason to keep it there. Nokia should get rid of the double tap in all lists and only put it where it makes sense and is useful.
The camera does a good job, better than the N95. Video recording, I wasn’t totally happy with. It doesn’t seem to know what it’s doing with the focus, but still records well. However, I noticed a big problem with the mic. Because it’s located underneath the display, on the keyboard, you will get mixed results while recording. Sometimes voices will come over soft, and then all of a sudden, they come over loud and clear, without you even moving the phone. I wish they put it on the outside of the phone somewhere. Audio quality is also fantastic over a decent pair of headphones. I was amazed just how good it was. Battery life I still can’t comment on because I kept charging it every day since I had it because I never had it fully charged and I was constantly using it hard. But not having any widgets updating on my homescreen aside from email, it should last me 2 days easily. Oh and that reminds me. Nokia’s email client, you know, Nokia Messaging, is terrible. It doesn’t register your taps half the time for anything, and they took out the main screen that shows all your accounts. I’m trying ProiMail right now, and although it has issues too, its worlds better than Nokia email and it looks like a keeper even though its gonna cost me.
So, all in all, I’m happy with this phone, and my two biggest complaints are the inconsistency in keyboard feel and the stereo speakers. All other complaints should/can be dealt with in future firmware releases if Nokia listens to its customers, and I think they will for the most part. As the CEO of RIM once said, “Nobody gets it perfect out the door.” It really is a great phone, and I have a hard time putting it down. At times, I just want to use it even though I don’t have anything I need to do with it. I think its definitly worthy of the flagship name, but still needs improvements to be the king of all smartphones.
i did buy one of the n97, but i had to return it due to the fact that this phone does not have IP stack. U can’t make internet calls like my E71 and N95.
Best luck to them i guess.
I have this phone. It has everything I need and lots more. There is just nothing that this phone lacks when it comes to features and design.
Just look over the feature list and compare to ANY other device. No other manufacturer has everything included in one device. But this baby does.
And to those who complain about the firmware and unpolished applications: do you realize it took Apple (for example) three years to accept that people need to copy and paste information? Go figure and give this device some slack, will ya?
Peace
only fish eaters give a damn about Nokia. In America, they are nothing.
End this discussion.
Here is why Nokia “is nothing” in the US (BTW: in “America” they are market leaders, except in the IS): http://news.zdnet.co.uk/communications/0,1000000085,39657136,00.htm
In Summary: European (and Asian) mobile broadband penetration triples that of the US, that’s why long years of market leadership in these regions of the world have taken Nokia to make devices are far more sophisticated and mature than the iPhone which is flashy, but not by far as powerful and feature-rich (and I still love my iPod Touch which is where Apple really shows off its core competences!).
The US does not need to be market leaders in everything, we can afford to give the edge on mobile broadband to other countries. Lets not forget Windows and Apple Os dominates computers. Apple came up with the first consumer personal computer. I admit the Nseries is much more capable than the Iphone, but it does not mean the majority of cell users will use it. I have used Nokia Nseries phones for the last 5 years, but I am loving the Iphone right now. Hey, whatever floats your boat. I am just tired of hearing you Americans this and that. Apple has computers, ipods, music, softwares and the Iphone. Nokia has just phones and they have been doing it for years, hence the quality. IMO they have to redo the symbian system thats more on par with the Iphone and Android, at the same time keeping the features that makes Nokias a multi-function device. Apple’s marketing power will totally trump Nokia here in the US, and with no carrier to subsidize it, forget it. As far as Europe and Asia tripling the US in mobile broadband, I believe we are talking about 2 continents vs. one country.With all of Apple’s technology and marketing, do you seriously think that they can’t match the Nseries sophisticated functions if they choose to? I’m sure they have their own reasons. I travel a lot through Asia and have seen the advances in cellular technology, particularly in Japan, Singapore and S. Korea and I know the US lags behind with regards to mobile broadbands, but we Kick Ass in everything else! No need to trash the Iphone just because its garnered success, I am not locked into the Iphone, if Nokia comes out with a N series that I like, I won’t hesitate to use one again. In fact, I still use my N95 8gb when I’m out of the country.
The US does not need to be market leaders in everything, we can afford to give the edge on mobile broadband to other countries. Lets not forget Windows and Apple Os dominates computers. Apple came up with the first consumer personal computer. I admit the Nseries is much more capable than the Iphone, but it does not mean the majority of cell users will use it. I have used Nokia Nseries phones for the last 5 years, but I am loving the Iphone right now. Hey, whatever floats your boat. I am just tired of hearing you Americans this and that. Apple has computers, ipods, music, softwares and the Iphone. Nokia has just phones and they have been doing it for years, hence the quality. IMO they have to redo the symbian system thats more on par with the Iphone and Android, at the same time keeping the features that makes Nokias a multi-function device. Apple’s marketing power will totally trump Nokia here in the US, and with no carrier to subsidize it, forget it. As far as Europe and Asia tripling the US in mobile broadband, I believe we are talking about 2 continents vs. one country.With all of Apple’s technology and marketing, do you seriously think that they can’t match the Nseries sophisticated functions if they choose to? I’m sure they have their own reasons. I travel a lot through Asia and have seen the advances in cellular technology, particularly in Japan, Singapore and S. Korea and I know the US lags behind with regards to mobile broadbands, but we Kick Ass in everything else! No need to trash the Iphone just because its garnered success, I am not locked into the Iphone, if Nokia comes out with a N series that I like, I won’t hesitate to use one again. In fact, I still use my N95 8gb when I’m out of the country. Peace people…
Jonathan, I completely agree that it’s stupid to enter the “my country vs. your country” controversies – fortunately nationalism is a thing of the 19th century and of some people whose mind did not evolve.
In the end, as a consumer, we all love American OSs (Cupertino powered) and hate, but still use American OSs (Redmond powered) and try to avoid European inventions like Linux. We love German cars (driving a Honda), the iPhone (using a Samsung), don’t care if we are flying on an Airbus or a Boeing plane, and so on. In any case, we do not necessarily buy the product which is emotionally most attractive (otherwise, MAC OS X would be the undisputed market leader).
I agree that Nokia has been caught by surprise by the touchscreen buz, inmersed in (and distracted by) a profound reinvention of its business model from a device maker to a service provider packaged into devices. But I don’t have the slightest doubt that Nokia has the flexibility to adapt to new market tendencies. Right now, the iPhone is Apples one-trick-pony, while Nokia offers dozens of smartphones, one for every need, except – I agree – for those who want a flashy yet relatively powerful, really easy to use, leisure phone.
Re. Europe and Asia tripling US in mobile broadband – no, it’s not absolute figures of two continentes against one country. It’s relative market penetration – in absolute figures the difference would be even much bigger. The explanation is not that the EU is more or less advanced then the US, it’s because the (well, European…) GSM/GPRS standard created millions connected smartphone addicts in years when the Americans still loved their (unconnected) PDAs – isn’t the iPhone a tribute to the American love for PDA form factor?
In consequence, US carriers (including German owned T-Mobile) are still strangulating their customers with weird contracts, brandes/crippled phones and outrageously expensive data rates, similar to what other countries suffered until two years ago. That is the real explanation of why the smartphone penetration in Euope and Asia is much higher than in the US – because data use is MUCH cheaper so that even my teenage kids can afford it to check soccer results, update their social network pages and chat chat chat… (they are on 3c per 1 MB – prepaid, I am sure that the US would have much higher mobile broadband penetration if it had more competition between operators).