Oh, Nokia N97. I wanted to touch you from the first time I laid eyes on you. You seemed like everything I wanted in a handset. You’d be the phone that surmounted the shortcomings of every smartphone before it. You were to be the mobile masterpiece. At least, I thought you were.
I’ve had the Nokia N97 for roughly 3 weeks now. Usually, we push out our reviews after just a week or so with the device – but I just couldn’t bring myself to sit down and review this one. Why? Because I thought I was missing something. There just had to be something I was overlooking – some setting, some application, just something that would earn this handset its pre-allotted spot in my pocket.
I wasn’t missing anything.
Now, I pay enough attention to our visitor statistics to know that a significant chunk of MobileCrunch readers are new to the site. As a result, any post in which I spout anything but the most positive of praise towards a phone leads to countless comments claiming I’m a “fan boy” of whichever competing company happens to fit the bill. For the sake of credibility, a bit of background on myself: I carry lots of phones, but I carry no allegiances. I have no primary handset. I am a fan boy of phones in general.
Now, with that out of the way, I feel I can more openly say: Of all of the most oft-discussed smartphones of the moment (Pre, G1, iPhone, myTouch, and Touch Pro 2, to name a few), the N97 is somewhere near the bottom of the list for me. It does so many things, but does none of them anywhere near perfectly. For every aspect of the handset, there is at least one flaw that just wrecks it.
Hardware:
If the N97 were just sitting on a table, you’d probably look at it and say, “Damn. That is a really, really nice looking phone.” You’d pick it up, play with it a little – and still, it’s an incredibly nice phone.
Then you’d play with it some more. You’d poke around, slide its hinge, punch the keyboard a bit.. and it all starts to go downhill. It’s like finding the girl of your dreams, taking her home, and realizing she has a tattoo of Bill O’Reilly on her back.
The first thing we noticed amiss was the battery cover. Nokia is incredibly inconsistent when it comes to the backside of devices. The battery cover on the E71/E71x? Stunning. On the N97? Chintzy piece of garbage. The quality of the material in no way matches that surrounding the rest of the device, and the tabs feel like they’re going to snap off every time you pop the cover off. Yeah, yeah – critiquing the battery cover seems like a low blow, the ultimate nitpick. But considering that the only way to access the SIM and microSD slot is through the backdoor, it’s worth noting.
Next up: the hinge. The screen on the N97 slides up to reveal a QWERTY keyboard, and Nokia has incorporated a rather fancy looking hinge to handle the heavy lifting. Everyone’s immediate response to the hinge is positive – because it really does look quite nice. You’re not looking at a bunch of springs levers – just one, nice, flush lift. Looks aside, the hinge might be one of the N97’s biggest downfalls. It requires way too much force to slide this thing open, even after a few weeks of use. On nearly every slide-out QWERTY handset that I’ve owned (and I’ve owned more than I care to count), sliding the keyboard out was satisfying – addictive, even. I would do it just for the hell of it, just to hear the gratifying “Swoosh! Thump.” of the open/close mechanism. Not the case on the N97 – in fact, I tended to avoid opening it.
Additionally, the unique design of the hinge means that the default position of the screen, which is about 45° or so in relation to the keyboard, is the only position possible. There is no tilting. Tilting isn’t all that common in smartphones, so that’s okay – but the default position just feels slightly off regardless of whether we’re sitting, standing, or laying down. It never feels like you’re getting a proper angle of both the screen and the keyboard.
Speaking of the keyboard: It was the flagship feature of this flagship phone. It was bigger than the Pre’s, prettier than the G1’s, and more “real” than the iPhone’s. It was the primary element that drew me to the N97, so I’m incredibly disappointed to say that it.. well, it sucks. The buttons just don’t feel like buttons. Have you ever worked one of those keyboards that is built for an environment that might get messy, like those of a cash register? Those ones that are not buttons, but just a thin sheet of plastic laid across buttons for easy cleaning. It feels like that.
The Screen:
Damn it, Nokia. Stop with the resistive screens. You could have a phone that doubled as a jet pack and could read my thoughts, and the resistive touchscreen would still make it feel archaic right after launch.
For those who are wondering what I’m babbling about: there are two common types of touchscreens. Capacitive, and resistive. The iPhone, G1, and the Pre use capacitive screens, giving them that hard, smooth, glide-friendly feel. The N97 and many other smartphones uses resistive screens, which require you to push a liiiittle bit harder. It’s trivial and fairly easy to adjust to, but it feels like hot garbage. The stylus is dead, Nokia. Capacitive screens may cost a little bit more – but when the N97 already costs some $700 dollars (unlocked – no US carrier currently offers it), it’s worth the difference.
The screen on the N97 is no where as responsive as the phones it is competing with, and the accuracy is quite spotty. Sometimes it’s to the right of our thumb, while other times it’s immediately below.
3.5mm Headset Jack:
When we declared our hatred for headset jack adaptors back in May, we promised that we’d make every attempt to praise any phone that incorporated a 3.5mm jack. The N97 does. They put it right up dead center on the top of the handset, perfectly flush and ready for use with your favorite pair of buds. For that, Nokia, we love you.
The Software – Symbian S60 5th Edition:
When Nokia decided to get heavy into this touchscreen business, they decided to bring S60 with it. So they tweaked, they twirked – and in the end, S60 5th Edition was born.
5th edition feels exactly like what it is: a touchscreen user interface spun off of a non-touchscreen interface. It’s definitely usable, but by no means our favorite. If we had to rank it, it would be somewhere below iPhone OS, Android, and WebOS, but somewhere above Windows Mobile.
It’s just too messy. Every single screen has at least two on-screen softkeys (with space for four), almost always listing “Options” and “Back” or “Options” and “Exit”. Nearly every time, the stuff listed on the other two (non-Options/Back/Exit) keys are listed a second time under the options button, which seems useless. These things take up anywhere from 10-20% of the screen and, to put it bluntly, are ugly as all hell. We’d kill for them to be a slide out drawer, a la the Palm Pre quick launch bar.
Another strange design choice is navigation. On some screens, you double click to enter an item. On others, you single click. This is a fault of the resistive touchscreen; as you have to actually push down and “drag” lists to scroll through elements (rather than “flick” through them), this ensures that you don’t accidentally click an item whilst scrolling. At least, that’s what we assume. Even on the single click sections, however, we’re able to scroll around without accidental clicks – so when the double click screens come up, we tend to forget. I’ll usually click once, then wait a few seconds thinking that the app had hanged before I remember this screen needs two clicks. It’s really quite strange.
The interface is a bit strange, but surmountable. What we can’t get past, however, is the lag. It lags seemingly at random, and in fairly nasty ways. For example: when we were testing out the widgets for the section on them down below, we launched the Facebook application. Part of the app loaded within a second or two – but the on-screen softkey area we mentioned above took nearly 15 seconds to catch up. So we had 80% of an app, and then a gaping hole that showed through to the homescreen taking up the other 20%. The only other apps open were the browser and the Ovi store.
Widgets:
The N97 homescreen makes use of a new widgeting system, and it’s one of the few elements of this build of S60 that we’re quite fond of. You’ve got 6 widget slots, which you can fill with widgets that tie into your favorite applications. The Facebook widget, for example, shows the number of messages in your inbox, recent pokes, friend requests, and the last 3 status updates your friends have posted. Clicking on the widget launches the correlating app.
You can swipe the widget screen to hide all the widgets besides the clock and calendar, supposedly intended to minimize distractions when you’ve got it on your desk. Instead, it just confused us at first, and then annoyed us after we realized what was going on. We honestly thought it was a bug.
The Browser:
The browser seems decent, though the UI seems incredibly silly. The page is rendered in a view window about 70% of the maximum size, with the page title and the navigation taking up the other 30%. If you don’t click anywhere in the navigation area for a second or two, the page expands to fill the whole screen. To get the navigation back up, you click a button in the lower right of the screen. It’s not bad, but it seems very outdated by the default browsers on competing handsets.
Browsing seemed a bit slow, even over WiFi. Pages took anywhere from 2-3x as long to load on the N97 as they did on both the G1 and the iPhone, all of which were on the same wireless connection.
Phone:
It’s strange; when it comes to smartphone reviews, it’s easy to gloss over reviewing the actual phone part. Don’t worry, you’re never going to be missing much. It’s always going to be incredibly arbitrary (even more so than the rest of the review), affected by so many elements that it’s silly to spend much time on it beyond saying “It works.”
That said, it works. The phone is easily accessible from nearly any screen just by tapping the green “Dial” button, the numbers are big, and contacts were simple to navigate (Hurray, group support!). In a completely scientific test, we asked 5 people how we sounded through the phone. The general response: “Uh, fine?”. We got about 4 hours of talk time out of the handset before it faded out.
Photos:
Bright light, indoors, no flash.
Low light, with flash.
Low light, no flash.The 5 megapixel, autofocus camera on this phone is one of its strongpoints. It especially shines during outdoor photoshoots with lots of bright colors; alas, we can’t seem to scrounge up any of those test shots and it’s far too dark outside at the moment to recreate them.
The dual LED flash is only somewhat worth while, generally washing out pictures more than it actually improves them. This is another place that Nokia seems to have taken a shortcut. With a nice xenon flash, this camera would have been killer.
Conclusion:
I could go on and on about the N97 – but there’s no point, and no way to do so without seeming unnecessarily harsh. Nearly every element of the phone has one glaring fault that just kills it for me. A nasty lag here, an odd interface choice there. Even down to the media functionality: it’s as basic as can be (we had no trouble with audio files, but we had a hell of a time finding videos that would play on it), but the built in speakers make even your favorite songs sound like they’re being played through a cat. Nokia makes a valiant effort to cram everything into this phone, but doesn’t pull a damned thing off perfectly.
S60 has seemed as if it was on its last limb for some time now; with other interfaces now swooping in for the kill, it’s really dragging down Nokia’s efforts. It may be one of the most popular platforms in the world, but that doesn’t mean its one of the best. Sorry, S60 – it’s game over.
What we like:
- It takes some great photos
- It looks really, really nice.
- 3.5mm headset jack
What we don’t:
- They cut corners on the hardware in all the places you wouldn’t look first.
- The keyboard is terrible.
- Resistive touch screens are dead.
- Every aspect of the UI feels archaic.
- Lots of sporadic lag.
There are a number of elements we didn’t get into here; the Ovi store, the front-facing camera, the FM transmitter… Thing is, they’re fantastic icing on the cake, but the cake is made of crap. I’m sorry, Nokia – I really, really wanted to love the N97.
[Disclosure: Nokia supplied the N97 to me for review purposes, and it will be sent back in the following weeks.]
Great review post!
Yeah .. I must say that the review was very well done (Even if you were sounding very defensive initially).
It appears that you thought about sentences before you wrote them. This is very uncommon in the blogging world :-). Kudos, and keep up the good work!
ps, if you read this comment, which phone are you recommending to people currently?
Depends greatly on the person. I most often find myself recommending the iPhone, as it’s the surest bet that’s readily available through a US carrier.
If they don’t want an iPhone but still want something in the same vibe, I reluctantly recommend the Android-based myTouch. I say “Reluctantly” as I feel most would be happier with the HTC Hero, once it’s stateside. If they want a good ol’ fashion physical QWERTY keyboard, the G1 – though I do suggest that they wait until the end of 2008, when easier-on-the-eyes alternatives will be available.
If they’re all about the BlackBerry, I’m all about the Tour. Launches this weekend on Sprint/VZW.
If for some reason they’re insisting on Windows Mobile, the Touch Pro 2 has the nicest keyboard I’ve used in years.
I’m currently carrying an iPhone, HTC Magic, and Palm Pre.
“It’s like finding the girl of your dreams, taking her home, and realizing she has a tattoo of Bill O’Reilly on her back.”
I must say it is the world’s funniest analogy!!!
As for “I’m currently carrying an iPhone, HTC Magic, and Palm Pre.” Damn!!! What does it take to work for mobile crunch?!!
Good job Greggie!! Nice review but a bit defensive…Next time write your post and to not give a hoot to anyone that calls you a “fanBoy”
Completely agree with all of this.
I recently got a Nokia 5800, which is my first Nokia for years since the days of the rock-solid 8210,8310,3310 etc. It replaced an iPhone (went to my girlfriend as the lack of background apps was sucky)
The 5800 has the poorest UI i’ve used for years. Some things require double-clicks, some only a single tap. Nothing is hardware accelerated. I have to reconnect to a network twice each time I load up an app – the Facebook app actually requires 4, 2 for selecting the wifi connection, 1 for general network access, and 1 to access my information. WTF?
Nokia used to have the best and most reliable phones available which is why they became number 1. Now there’s hovering down there with Windows Mobile.
I just came back from the future and ironically your review of the N97 is almost identical to the reviews for the forthcomming crunchpad. Sorry to break the hearts of all the TC fan boys, but if you think the N97 is a let down, the crunchpad makes it look like a true Jesus phone. Don’t worry though, it turns out that the crunchpad makes an excellent doorstop.
Its an expensive handset too. Ok it has alot of memory but still cant justify the price. As for Ovi, it doesnt compare to Apples or Googles app stores
Less expensive to operate than iPhone 3GS. Do the math with a data plan, don’t just look at the device’s price. If you are too lazy or dumb, go to BGR’s review and check out the comments — some people did the math.
How is it less expensive?
it is a GSM phone, so I GUESS you could use it on T-Mobile, but the rate plans for AT&T are the same – 3g data is ALWAYS $30 on top of your phone plan. I guess you could forgo data, but then what is the point?
Here, did the work for you:
http://www.boygeniusreport.com/2009/06/12/nokia-n97-review/comment-page-6/#comment-532598
3G data is $15/month on AT&T for an unlocked phone. Which means the iPhone winds up costing 24 * $15 = $360 more in data plan costs over the course of a standard 2-year contract. I’m always amazed that so few people are able to work that out….
@TW, anyone can throw out fake figures.
I have looked everywhere, for months, up down left right for a data plan for less than $30 on AT&T that is unlimited. I call bullshit. If you want to make such outlandish claims as 3G data being $15 a month on AT&T for unlocked phones, you MUST supply some kind of link or information pointing us to it. Otherwise you are just making it up…
Not sure I can really help you if your googling/search skills are that crap. There are tons of info on this out there, on HowardForums.com and other places.
Call AT&T and tell them you want a data plan for a unlocked phone, and you’ll get the $15/month — though as always you may have to eal with some clueless customer reps first.. I’ve been on the $15/month unlimited data plan for years, been on 3G for the past 2 years (yes, there were 3G phones on the US market before the iPhone 3G…). It is pretty much the one good deal you can get on cellular plans here in the US.
A friend of mine just got the $15/month plan for his (unlocked) phone on AT&T, so it’s not just a grandfathered-in thing either.
@TW
As I said, fake figures. If you lie to AT&T and don’t tell them you have a smart phone but just a feature phone with 3G, they will give you the $15 plan. Of course, once you move it into the 3G data phone, or you start actually USING some data and they notice the bandwidth you are taking, they may or may not catch you, but what you are doing is illegal.
Yes, AT&T has a $15 3G plan. But it is NOT a smartphone plan, so what you are doing is illegal (if caught)
I actually told them exactly what kind of phone I had last time — it fit my definition of a smartphone, but not theirs, since it wasn’t sold by AT&T as such (or at all, for that matter – this was a N95-3).
As for this being ‘illegal’ — now it is my turn to call BS and your turn to provide a link. Which law is this breaking?
very good phone, it will hardly find a competitor as
i love nokia models and i think this one is the best one from them. right now i am using HTC cell phone but soon thinking to have N97 too. the features and designs are simply rocking.
There are few cons as well but still the model is cool enough to have ;)
Great review.. I could not believe when Gizmodo told it doesn’t take great photos. But now, it relaxes the mind of a Nokia phone user, who wishes to buy this phone.
Agree with the S60 comment.. its game over with them. Nokia can’t run long with their best products if they still keep going with that traditional S60.
WebOS from Palm, iPhone OS from Apple and Android from Google are miles ahead of it. And N97 will not make a large impact due to that reason.
Btw you got any good points to say that its better than Windows Mobile OS?
Oh and the resistive screen, which i saw in the Nokia 5800 too. I did not like to use my hands harder than when using on iPhone. The iPhone took my finger command with just a feather touch, but 5800 needed some more pressure. If its what you are talking about N97 too, it would suck :(
Love the design of the phone though. Better than any other mobile launched by Nokia till now, if you ask me.
I wonder why these old-school phone makers aren’t realizing that Android is leaps and bounds better than the crap OS that they are slapping on their phone. They are just making it easier for more agile companies like HTC to benefit from their lethargy.
Nokia, who owns 40% of world’s phone market, probably isn’t keen to become a Taiwanese-clone-PC-maker, as it would become if it would give up its own operating system development. If Android or Windows Mobile would take over, we’d have group of low-margin hardware manufacturers competing as fiercely as they do now on PC side of things. Sure, it might be nicer for customers in general (until there’s only just one viable option left for majority of consumers, like what happened with PCs when Win95 took over), but manufacturers would lose majority of their profits (its no surprise that HP makes its money from services, not hardware — or that IBM quit the PC manufacturing..).
And then again, having two or three almost-equally-strong operating systems (well, that’s bit silly to say as S60 is — outside States — pretty much the 600lbs+ gorilla) competing means innovations — look at the browser business: when IE ruled, no innovation. When Firefox grew “too big”, innovation almost halted. It needed Chrome, Safari, Opera, Firefox and IE to compete for the market until stuff like HTML5 started to move forward.
So what does iPhone OS can do but Symbian can’t? Multitasking? Flash? Better battery life? Oh wait — it’s the other way around. But iPhone OS is prettier; that’s makes all the difference. Right?
Don’t cry baby, don’t cry. Calm down, take your feeding-bottle. Good boy.
@intosh:
> But iPhone OS is prettier; that’s makes all the difference. Right?
Yes. Although to me “pretty” does not have the negative connotation you seem to ascribe to it.
I also enjoy driving a car that has a well-thought-out interior and is fun to drive over one that goes 100mph, owning a home theater setup that is easy to use and looks good in my living room over one that shakes the foundation of my house, reading a manual that is well written over one that covers more material, eating food that tastes delicious and fresh over bland food that provides more nourishment.
How the device feels when using it is more important that what the technical specifications are. Plenty of people still shop by feature checklist, and there will always be a universe of poorly designed consumer products to satisfy them.
@carl: Right. I don’t dispute that. Of course, we prefer good looking UI but if an OS is functional but not pretty, which is the case with Symbian, it’s not an automatic failure.
@joey: You just showed everyone that you have absolutely no argument. Think harder if you can. Boy.
@intosh
I absolutely agree with you that Symbian is not an automatic failure, and I do not share the original reviewer’s sense of impending doom about the platform. It’s just that people have gotten more demanding of the fit and finish of their mobile operating systems and the Symbian team is a little too complacent with their status.
> if an OS is functional but not pretty
I guess my point is that to me, aesthetics and usability *are* a function. Not the only function, certainly, but an important aspect nonetheless. I’m just ecstatic to see that reviewers are not just lazily comparing objective features like megapixels and battery life but actually reviewing the experience of using the device. (Sure I love ’splosions and robots in my movies, but I’m glad film critics do more than simply list how many things get blown up and how many robots there are in a movie.)
To give some background, I purchased my current phone two years ago after making sure it met my needs for things like playing MP3s and stereo bluetooth. After dealing with the horribly bad, frustrating, and illogical interfaces of the included media player I rarely end up using my phone to play music. The device technically has the capacity, but effectively it ends up being as if it did not. So I am being more careful as I select my next phone.
So… to sum up… you quite liked it then?
Nokia seem totally bewildered at the moment – they owned the market for so long, put all their smartphone eggs into Symbian, and have suddenly found a new generation of platforms which have left them behind so fast that they’re groping in a cloud of dust. Symbian simply doesn’t cut it – existing ecosystem and all – in a world of Android, WebOS and Mobile OSX…
Disclosure: Symbian actually offered me a job in 2000 to work on their WAP browser :)
Two things that haven’t happened yet:
1. The Nokia crash.
2. The Android rise.
Both are imminent. Nokia is floundering in the smartphone market and Android is set to have 12+ phones launch this year.
The division of marketshare will look very different two years from now.
I agree Nokia is floundering in the smart phone market and as forever their phones are hit and miss but the The E71(x) and E72 will keep them going for the foreseeable future.
We’ll have to see how the N97 pans out and what’s next of course in the touch screen line.
Hope they read this review and get rid of all the negative points when they launch its sequel.
I like N97 but nothing I have not seen it yet…touch screen qwerty keyboard bla bla bla….
But I must say kudos to you Greg for one of the best reviews I have seen on other blogs. I don’t think even Nokia would be able to describe it as u did …
@Livecrunch
all those old-school mobile phone manufacturers like nokia, sony-ericsson, samsung, motorola remind me of the u.s. auto industry: they’re not agile enough for adjusting to radically new trends within reasonable time.
with cars, it’s the hybrids and electric cars – with mobile phones it’s the usability of an iphone, palm pre and android.
nokia is particularly bad. symbian series 60 sucks. it’s slow and non-responsive.
Nokia makes great phones. I have the E51 and don’t trade it for the iPhone for a number of good reasons. One of them being the battery life. And I have all the apps I need on a phone. Not responsive? Opposite is true. Btw, Symbian is the dominant mobile OS.
Nokia is a world leader in mobile phones, with a whooping 40% shares, second and third are Samsung and LG, Apple has 1.9 % share :) I don’t think they are not adjusting, i guess this device they launched too late and did not timely shift.
you look at an E71 an exceptional keyboard device with build quality outstanding.
I still have an N93 in my house and it dvd quality movie it makes plus 3x Optical zoom and the handy cam design was in every way radical back in 2006 or 7 i guess.
Offcourse all your products can’t be run away successes. I hope they don’t repeat nokia’s mistake on riding success of only one type of handset (RAZR ) for years before going down. the need to move quickly
Please don’t lump in regular phones with smart phones when comparing market share. The fact is that Apple, Palm, and RIM sell ONLY smart phones, so of course Nokia, LG, and Samsung will come out ahead there.
It seems pretty clear to me that if Nokia doesn’t “pull a Palm” with it’s OS pretty quickly, the only direction they’ll be heading is down.
Actually, Nokia does own 40% of SMARTPHONES.
Non-responsive?! People who actually owns Symbian-based phones report it’s quite responsive. Maybe new phones exhibit some responsiveness problem due to firmware, which would be phone-specific. Or maybe you felt it wass not responsive because Symbian doesn’t do fancy transition animations like some other phones do to hide the load times.
I don’t get your analogy…what’s wrong w/ a girl having Bill O’Reilly’s tattoo on her back? He’s smart, handsome, informed, fair and balanced. Who wouldn’t want his tattoo on their girl?!
Err… Someone who wants to be able to maintain an erection in her presence?
“fair and balanced”
Hahahaha!
when review is swayed too much on one side, you know something is wrong with the review…and low % of trust shd be given to the review…as it becomes purely an individual’s comment instead of a review or advice…
What? If a device is crap, why should you praise it ?
I think it implies trust that he got this phone from nokia for reviewing and still says its junk.
Nokia needs to wake up, they lie on the ground with windows mobile while apple, google and palm are up in the air.
Teck I must agree with you. I can’t see too many objective, detailed arguments, and after reading the so-called review I just feel that the phone is great and it’s the author’s subjective taste that’s causing all the dissent. I’m going to have a serious look at the N97, which is already available here in Taiwan.
Agreed. All the negative points seem to be overly amplified by the reviewer. Opinion about the resistive screen (btw, a large part of the World do like to have the stylus option), keyboard (still not exactly sure why he hated it) and UI feel are all highly subjective assessments from the reviewer.
Also, a two pages long “review” of any smartphone can’t be taken as a thorough evaluation of the product, but rather a “first-impression”.
You’re joking right?
Whew, thanks for the review, cos i was on the verge of buying it thinking it was the all in one smartphone. It seems it a ‘jack of all trades, but a master of none’.
I’m glad that a multitude of negative comments like this are coming out. I’m hoping it scares Nokia into action. I think they got a little arrogant with the mega-success of the N95.
I think that there’s a masterpiece somewhere in Nokia. I guess it just needs to get the crap kicked out of it before it produces one.
“It’s like finding the girl of your dreams, taking her home, and realizing she has a tattoo of Bill O’Reilly on her back.”
This is absolutely hilarious! Quote of the Year! You rock, Greg!
Thanks for the informative and entertaining review. All reviews seem to agree, it really is that bad.
Wake up, Nokia.
I have been Nokia fan for so many years, buying a new handset twice a year. Now i must say, i fully agree with the review, because it was similar already with the N810. An almost all in one device, but nothing was done right; Web browsing, GPS Navigation, E-Mail, RSS, audio, video: at the end everything was in this 1 device but nothing really worked well, it did suck like hell.
Nokia had the best hardware on a mobile on the world with the N95, but afterwards they have put all their efforts only into outsourcing R&D to China. As a consequence they are not good in anything anymore: medium hardware, outdated OS, poor usability….
It was such a awesome experience after N810 and N95 to start with the iPhone, because Apple thinks about usability! I really love my iPhone, but still try to switch to Android just right now because i don’t like all those proprietary ties in Apple, like iTunes. Only thing which is clear: Nokia is currently no choice for me anymore. The N86 would have been an option but it doesn’t pair with my SU-8W Nokia bluetooth keyboard, which would have been a really nice package because of the N86 built-in stand, again 1 major draw back and no deal for Nokia…..
I thought it was a great phone, but thanks to your in depth review, it has shown me otherwise. Thanks!
I’m glad I did not wait for the N97 and jumped at the 3GS.
You see I was a big fan of the physical keyboard thing…. after using the Psion 5MX I was hooked on a small clamshell form factor.
So when the initial iPhone came out, I was like whatever dudes… you can lick Jobs’ feet all you want but I’m getting my E90!
Well the E90 does look slick especially with its cool multi angle hinge and spacious keys… but guess what.. they keys suck!!! They require too much pressure to press and so its almost impossible to “touch type” as in.. set it on the table and type with all fingers (like I could do with the 5MX).
After using the E90 for 6 months, I gave up… the extra bulk did not bring me any convenience in the input department. Plus, the S60 OS felt dated.
Then I toyed with the Pre… ugh.. the keyboard was too bloody small….
So finally I relented and tested an iPhone…. HEAVEN!!!! I couldn’t believe I could actually type fast on a virtual screen. So I caved and became an Apple ‘fan boy’.
And boy, does it feel good!
I have an E90 and I would not trade it for an iPhone (I’ve used the iPhone). You get phones like the E90 for pure productivity. iPhone are for media consumption.
There’s no comparison atm that E90 QWERTY is superior to anything out there. You’re the ONLY person that has said otherwise. Your problem is you bought a full on top of the line business phone and traded it for a second rate business phone that’s pretty; meaning you completely bought the wrong product from the sounds of it.
In terms of business phones, nothing touches the E90 as an overall productivity phone, even now.
It’s great that you like the iPhone but what you were looking for was a basic productivity device with heavy media cunsumption capabilities; something the E90 is completely counter of.
Even in terms of usability of input, you can use the E90 in both 2hand (dektop) position AND as a 1-handed device. It’s the true road warrior’s phone. Try and input into touch screen with one hand and it’s beyond clunky. It can be done but it’s clunky. Now try and input with one hand on a touchscreen while in transit.
I have an E71 as well and as good as that phone is, it’s still not as “functional” as the E90..well it is sexier. And the iPhone, sexy it may be, simply cannot deliver the power that an E90 (or even E71) can.
Iphone’s direct competitor are the N series. Making any comparison between an E series and an iPhone is going to hurt the iPhone quite a bit.
S60 is one of the slowest interfaces i’ve used, not as slow as winmo but slow.
Great review. I thought this phone was a gem. Now I know.
I disagree with some of the points of the article, but I also do have a slightly different perspective.
First, I don’t live in the US. I live in a country where prepaid mobile is the norm, and thus the iPhone isn’t an option for me. Thus, I’ve never seriously considered it.
I upgraded from the N95 to the N97 and the transition was fairly smooth. I’ve had a communicator type phone from Nokia in the past–and that is one thing I was struck by initially. This phone ‘feels’ more like a S80 phone than a S60 phone.
The keyboard is NOT one of those flat sheet style keyboards. The design reminds me of a Sun Type 5 where it has real keys, but the sheets are used inside. I didn’t initially like the keyboard, but I’ve become very proficient in using it in less than a week. My typing rate exceeds the rate at which I can type using T9.
I was initially put off by the battery cover, but I understand the engineering decision Nokia made when they designed it and I’m happy with their choice. If you’ve owned an N95 and dropped it a few times, you found out that the battery cover was the weakness. The clips on the cover would break off and the cover would fly off when you dropped it. After about 2 drops your battery cover needed replacement. The Nokia cover isn’t going anywhere, and if it gets loose you can go buy a new one cheaply. No squeaky battery covers or loose fitting ones. It’s a replaceable part–and when replaced you’ll get an as-new experience again.
I do wish the MicroSD was external as on the N95, but I am not sure how often I’ll be using the slot honestly.
The hinge is well done, but I wish it were easier to open. I’m opening it carefully now to take care of my phone. The hinge is very solidly built, and the angle lets the phone rest on a flat surface with the majority of the phone weight properly distributed so it is stable. Also, the angle is fairly optimized for the LCD’s viewing angle. It’s very comfortable and appropriately angled when typing with the phone held also. I just think the motion of opening the hinge takes too much force to get started, so I worry about long-term wear.
I don’t have a problem with the screen pressure. I don’t tend to do any dragging though… It’s just not how I use the phone at the moment.
The OS is stable and bug free in general. If you’ve ever bought a new expensive phone and run into software bugs, you know how annoying that can be. I think as with the N95 you’ll see application refinement and addon downloads over the lifetime of the product. This is obviously a longer lifetime cycle product, as the N95 was.
I did get the chance to review the audio side by side with an iPhone 3GS and the iPhone is quieter, but may have a flatter response curve. The N97 is slightly tinny, but is louder.
Things I don’t like:
- the FM transmitter isn’t strong enough for my tastes, and the charger seems to interfere with the FM transmitter signal.
- the cellular reception on the phone needs some fine tuning. It tends to jump towers a little too much.
- Recieving images and mp3’s in batches over bluetooth is still poorly implemented. You can’t even mark a group and save them all at once for faster processing.
- the OS is a little post-paid centric. The home screen can be very annoying when you don’t want it to use the internet to update.
This is obviously more of an evolutionary leap than complete innovation. I think Nokia does have a unique vision, but I think their development cycle is a little slow to keep up with Apple. I think the real vision for the N97 OS is a bit forthcoming as updates are released.
How is the prepaid-prone environment different whether you get an iPhone or an N97? They both rely on data anyway and non-subsidised prices are similar…
Joel, I’m curious if you’ve ever owned a phone with a capacitive screen before? There’s no way I could go back to resistive at this point.
Great Review !
I ve been postponing my N97 review trying to find good points !
Camera rocks , Touch is not perfect .
Widgets are cool but crash sometimes
We need better software for this good piece of hardware !
Worth noting is also the history of N95 — Nokia’s success story in “smart phone” area (their real success stories are the cheaper phones that sell in hundreds of millions per year). When N95 launched here in Europe, it was the first phone at its time to pack pretty much “everything” within one device. But man, its software sucked, crashed and was laggish. But Nokia released something like 5 – 10 fw updates within first year or so and improved the device’s software shortcoming very rapidly.
I’m quite certain that it will also happen with this one — as per my 2 day test so far, the biggest problems are really with some weird software bugs and/or ways how software is implemented (sure, you cant “fix” resistive screen to capacitive screen — but living in North, I sorta prefer to be able to use the phone also my gloves on.. — or the bad, bad style-mistake with the back cover).
Actually, they have already shipped one FW update to the phone, late last week if I remember correctly.
It sucks that Nokia ships the phones with unfinished software. It just ruins them from start. Same happened for N95, I bought it, put it to my desk drawer because the software was crashing and buggy. Got it out 6 months later the v20 software and what a beautiful phone!
Nokia has now released the v11 firmware and I hear a lot of things has been fixed on that. It of course does not fix the PR damage the early phones have done to them. What a pity…
I agree with the resistive touch screen being too cheap for $700 device. Have no problem using them though when I touch with my fingernails. Not much pressure needed. Using with fingertips is impossible.
Hey Great Review Greg!
I myself had checked the phone out a few days back. Amazing Camera. Widgets look cool.
With the kind of Hardware it has, the OS seriously needs major improvement.
Well, if nokia keeps up with this, we will soon be looking forward to SE cellphones.
So lame…let’s all jump on the iPhone bandwagon since it can now do video (something that phones have been doing for 7 years). At least the N97 has amazing speaker quality, good battery life, and a real keyboard.
The BEST feature of the N97 is the homepage with the widgets. No more ‘retard screen’ like the iPhone with just a bunch of icons and no ability to see your upcoming calendar entries, emails, etc.
What happened to N96 – the N series phone that was released before this one? Was it an epic flop?
Top review.
I’m like you. I really, really wanted to like the N97. I held off renewing my contract until it came out because I assumed it was the next phone for me, The N95 was fantastic – with a touch screen and full keyboard it would be even better!
What a shame. Got an LG Viewty Smart last week instead. Sorry Nokia.
If you don’t want the girl with a tatoo of O’Rielly on her back – I’ll take her.
How much did Apple pay you?
Never read such a crappy subjective and suggestive review. You probably did your best but ended up bashing every little thing. Maybe someone likes the girl with the tattoo on her back :) I was summing up the good and bad points but stopped halfway because you were only bashing instead of making a good comparison or showing the upside. This must be the most negative review of the N97 on the web..
- Battery cover quality
Did it break? Ever heard of one break down on the N97? How often did you HAVE to open it in 3 weeks?
- Hinge requires to much force
That’s a good thing. It is high quality and doesn’t open when you don’t want to.
- Angle of the keyboard
You can hold the phone in any angle you want. The angle is just a big improvement over the G1 which lacks that.
- Keyboard keys
I find them just fine.
- Resistive screen
The screen is resistive but also has a high protection against scratches. Check the videos on youtube where they try to damage the screen.. they just can’t!
- Softkey buttons
Just doesn’t bother me
+ Headset jack
Wow, 1 positive point?
“How much did Apple pay you?”
Couldn’t have said it better. This article reads just like the iPhone-N97 version of the Mac-PC ad.
“The screen is resistive but also has a high protection against scratches. Check the videos on youtube where they try to damage the screen.. they just can’t!”
That’s a terribly weak argument against capacitive screens. I’ve had an iPhone for 2 years now and there’s not a single scratch on it because it’s optical quality glass. But the functionality is SO MUCH BETTER than any resistive screen.
The thing about phones is that each person has different requirements and uses their phone in different ways.
Consumer report recently downgraded the importance of talk time and voice quality which for someone lime me who still primarily uses their phone for phone calls is utter madness. For me the number one priority is battery life, a ’smart’ phone with a dead battery is just a brick.
As another example I use the camera a lot and the cameras on the iPhone and Pre are just old hat compared to the 5/8mp wonders out there, I find it very difficult to downgrade in that area.
I get the feeling that some elements of the N97 are more subjective than others, like the keyboard and the hinge which should maybe be downplayed for that reason. I’ve read plenty of reviews that love them both.
As for Symbian it still remains a very good Phone OS, it’s been multi tasking for years and the only real area it doesn’t compare to the more ‘modern’ platforms (lets face it most of the new ones are based on – not very new – Linux) is in the UI/ease of use area especially on a touch screen. It just needs a much more up to date UI and better communication applications and it needs them quick. This is the single most important thing Apple did with the iPhone a God bless them for making the rest of the manufacturers sit up and take notice (except Nokia it seems).
As many have pointed out Nokia can be accused of releasing sub standard products in the past, like the N95 but when they sort it out with hardware (N95 8gb) and software updates they can go on to be very good and very popular.
My feeling is that Nokia aren’t there yet, but I’d be very surprised if they’re sitting around doing nothing about it.
Android is very interesting but as the HTC Hero and the rumoured Sony prove it too is lacking in the UI department and it’d be nice to see some of that good stuff as standard in the base Android OS.
It’s an exciting time in the smart phone market but also a confusing one. Maybe this is the year to “wait and see” and buy a ‘normal’ phone or just be done with and get an iPhone?
Very good reviews! Thanks for this! I’m planning to buy this phone this month.
This Nokia as well as xpress music sucks!
Big time.
The UI. Archaic everywhere. $700!??
Come on!
Nokia has to understand that there is
a Before and after iPhone era.
Just like a before and after for transformers 1
and The matrix.
I used to love it. But Ive had to say this.
Nokia. Is going down if they don’t drastically
change 590% their OS. And the damn resisitive
screens!!!!
Later boys.
They have to change 590% of their OS? Are you sure? It seems like 610% is a more realistic number!
:)
Hmm… I will keep my cool Nokia 9500 (Symbian S80 r2).
“Then you’d play with it some more. You’d poke around, slide its hinge, punch the keyboard a bit.. and it all starts to go downhill. It’s like finding the girl of your dreams, taking her home, and realizing she has a tattoo of Bill O’Reilly on her back.”
AWESOME Analogy!
Why does everyone complain about the price? $700? So what? Unlocked iPhone costs the same, if not more! Wait until N97 comes to your provider and get it then for AT MOST half the price.
Because most North Americans don’t know what an unlocked phone is. They don’t look further than the device’s initial price; aren’t smart enough to take into account the plan’s monthly fee for calculating the total cost of ownership.
what the hells wrong with a chic having Bill O’Reilly tattooed on her back?
Crappy it is. Indeed! Not worth buying.
People need to jump off this ‘how much did apple pay you’ bandwagon – this is a very good review of a flawed handset and doesn’t scream of apple fanboy-ism at all. Nokia have been falling off for years, and Symbian is pretty much as it was 5 years ago. The game has been upped in terms of OS in the last few years and so far, Nokia couldn’t be further away from the mark.
Are the widgets, and in particular the Facebook widget the most important thing about the UI, particularly for users who expect and always-on, active screen. So is the next but one N97 actually the iPhone for the next generation?
http://blog.endeavourpartners.net/2009/07/10/will-the-n99-be-the-iphone-for-the-next-generation/
Greg. Great Review. I experienced the same working with it. We gave up developing on this platform after a weekend. From a developer prospective, the platform is not ready. Take the miniview, for example, you only get a resize message. We think they (Nokia not Facebook) incorporated unpublished Symbian code to update the status. This is a no-no because as a developer we do not want to ship a handicapped app.
I had wanted one until I heard about the new HTC. Now I am waiting on it.
Last of the “we don’t like” points: “Lots of sporadic lag.”… It’s either lots, OR sporadic. The two are a bit exclusive. =]
Nitpicking aside, good review. I read another one the other day that basically came to the same conclusion: Nokia needs to work on getting Symbian into this decade, or they’re screwed.
As a commenter said before me, I think next year the market share figures for smart phones will show a few big changes.
Interesting review.
I have an N97 and have decided to keep it (you get 7 days to review as part of distance selling rules here in the UK).
Apple need to have a team of developers working on one phone and one OS. Nokia need dozens of teams. Hence, the N97 is full to the brim with bugs. They just haven’t got enough people working on the OS.
I agree with many of the points in the review, but I would make this point.
The N97 is the ultimate “eight out of ten” phone. Everything on it scores an eight. Everything. Messaging could be great, but it’s full of bugs. (8) The widgets are innovative but need a bit of work (8). The 5MP camera is decent, but the flash is a bit ropey (8). Here in the UK, iPlayer works well, but the screen doesn’t blow you away (8). The GPS is really really fast, but Nokia Maps doesn’t really beat Google Maps. Ovi store contains much promise, but there’s nothing there at the moment (er… actually 5!). The touch screen might be resistive, but most people are quite happy, especially if you use your nail or a smaller ‘point’. (8). The keyboard is a bit annoying, as there are only three lines, but it works, at least it’s on there and most people seem to change their mind once they’ve used it for 7-14 days. The spacebar is often slagged off, and then people say “actually I quite like it”. (8). No home screen is as customisable as the N97’s and few are ‘live’. (8). The OS is mature, familiar but slow and clunky. But it works (8).
In short, it’s loaded with bug after bug after bug and that’s the biggest failure from Nokia. They need to get the firmware updates out, divert resources to making the N97 a success and bully the networks into releasing the updates asap.
This is still the best phone on the market for features. I want a phone that does everything, so I can have just one device in my pocket.
I’d rather have 8’s across the board – than, say an iPhone that scores a lot of 10’s and a lot of 6’s.
But it’s all down to personal preference blahblah..
I think the N97 at the moment is poor. Frustrating, buggy and too new for networks and Nokia to be able to explain why software behaves as it does. The Bloomberg app only saves five stocks on my phone, Messaging keeps crashing and requiring a reinstall, Facebook logs out, Accuweather’s hopeless. Totally unacceptable – and Nokia need to pump every second of their time into sorting these things out – as they lose goodwill every day that goes by.
But. In six months, I am pretty confident I will own the best phone in the marketplace.
No pain. No Gain. Overall – 8/10.
+1
how many consumers out there want a phone that has to update via pc suite. I bet 60% of n97 users dont even touch the cd thats in the box and live with that buggy phone for 12-18 months then go to apple/android
One of the major advantages of the n97’s OS is OTA firmware updating – it doesn’t even need to be in the same room as a pc.
I really enjoyed this review. The Bill O’Reilly analogy was quite funny.
I have to say I lost faith in Nokia when I bought an N70. The OS was the number one bug for me.
It’s interesting to note that here in Indonesia five years ago, I could ask my students what kind of phone they had and 9 out of 10 would have had a Nokia. Now it’s very different. There’s a lot more variety including some Chinese phones.
I have to say though, that I think companies hold on to resistive touch screens because of sales in areas that don’t use the Latin alphabet. Cambodia, China, Taiwan, Thailand. Even here in Indonesia where the Latin alphabet is used, I’ve only seen two iphones and one itouch.
Competition is good for us. In this case, we should expect better and better smartphones in the coming years. I look forward to it!
You such an apple fanboy. The N97 is really a great phone. You just nuts.
It seems, you missed talking about the memory, how less it is. Only 30 MB you get out of 70MB which is taken by OS.
I am not talking about mass storage in there.
It’s user-interface is primitive, looks like I can design better, I am not designer btw!.
I am long time Nokia user and hacker, but I am disappointed with N97. It sucks.
EXCELLENT Greg
Funny review, love the O’Reilly tattoo analogy… As a smartphone fan who owns both Nokia and Apple phones, yes Nokia has dropped the ball here. My E71 is a great phone, arguably the pinnacle of Nokia non-touch business-oriented phone development. Great build quality, excellent multitasking, very responsive, and a battery that lasts forever.
By contrast, I tried the 5800 at a store, and it felt distinctly underpowered. From the sound of the N97, this trend has continued. It appears that S60 5th edition requires more processing power to handle touch and other new features, but Nokia has not upgraded the processors to suit it. For a $700 unlocked phone, I am also surprised that the N97 doesn’t include a dedicated graphics processor of any sort, and even requires users to buy a separate TV-out cable. The N95 (which I also own) included both of those things.
In short, if Nokia wants to stay in the smartphone game as a leader, they need to do these things:
- Massively overhaul S60 (particularly the interface and developer’s tools), or replace it with another OS
- Nokia, stop skimping on your flagship phones! A phone like the N97 must have serious WOW factor. You make these things to impress, not to maximize your profit. Those are what your 100 other cheaper phone models are for. If I pay $700 for an unlocked phone, I want EVERY top-notch hardware feature you can throw at it. The best camera, processor, battery, etc…
Ok, the analogy of “It’s like finding the girl of your dreams, taking her home, and realizing she has a tattoo of Bill O’Reilly on her back.” is perfect – there’s laser removal, just as Nokia has firmware updates. As with all of Nokia’s (and many other manufacturers’) flagship phones, they are never perfect at point of release. Phone manufacturers never rely on flagship phones as their bread and butter – it’s just a way of showing off.
Saying that, I’m a user of a Nokia 5800, which still isn’t perfect, but is very usable and has improved with firmware updates (can’t wait for the v31 fw – which is where the phone will really take off).
I’d like to see the phone re-reviewed in 12 months time and see the improvement.
The N97 is a bit of a hit or miss for people. Personally I think I’ll stick with my 5800 for now as there isn’t enough to justify moving to the N97. Nokia seem to be suffocating because they’ve grown too big and have layers of unnecessary bureaucracy that stifles innovation. That said, I expect them to come good in the long run and our friends in the US would do well to remember that Nokia demolish everyone else in the smartphone market – the 5800 outsells the iPhone in every market outside the US, for example because it’s cheap, has awesome features and is a brilliant music phone. Those saying that Nokia are doomed don’t really have a grip on reality, I’m afraid.
As an aside, I tried an iPhone 3G for a while and found the lack of haptic feedback really irritating. The capacitive touchscreen is nice but to be honest I don’t find it much better than a good resistive screen. Great phone though, just didn’t work for me.
Looking forward to the HTC Hero. That looks awesome.
Nice review!
This handset is just ‘passé composé’
It seems that Nokia does not want to innovate a bit with their handset..