Customer Reviews

Nokia N97 Unlocked Phone with Touchscreen, 3G, 5 MP Camera, A-GPS, 32 GB, MicroSD Slot, and Integrated Ovi Applications--U.S. Version with Warranty (White)

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(11)
3 star:		(8)
2 star:		(10)
1 star:		(9)

 

 

Hello, I shared this review with the black version of this phone, but I wanted to share it with this one as well so we who bought this version can get some insight. :)

I am a phone app developer and have had some 'face time' with the Nokia N97. I'll let you know some of the more in depth details so you can decide if this is the right phone for you or not. There are many positive features about this phone, but a few potential pitfalls for power users as well. Average users will probably never notice any of the pitfalls, but probably will never use some of the best features of this phone either to justify the cost.

This is the new Nokia flagship phone and it packs almost every feature anyone could ever want. It has a DVD quality camcorder with sample videos found here:
http://www.vimeo.com/4352001
Notice how well the mic picks up the creeks of the boats in Monte Carlo, and how rich the colors look. That is due to the Carl Zeiss lens Nokia has put in. The quality is also great and can be sent directly to the TV via the TV out cable, but I would recommend making a DVD from the memory card as the quality of the cable isn't as good as the DVD quality this phone provides. Video starts up quickly, which is an improvement from the previous versions.

The pictures taken by this phone are of very good quality. Many consumers are fooled by 'megapixels' (mp). Well folks, after 5mp or so, mp doesn't mean much. All it does is make your picture size better, it does NOT increase the QUALITY. I assume most of us aren't pro graphic artists that need huge pictures to zoom in on the most minute detail, and if you are, then you probably don't need this review :P
The lens and picture quality of this phone is superb, but not as good as the Samsung 8 sadly. It is by far tho, one of the best mobile phone cameras around. You can notice some problems in darker areas and they went with a dual LED flash instead of the Xeon gas flash. The Xeon gas flash would have provided much better lighting in low light situations, however as a phone enthusiast I feel it's good enough.
View sample images from thesymbianblog.com:
http://vaibhavsharma.wordpress.com/files/2009/05/nokia-n97-camera-photo-sample-01.jpg

and

http://vaibhavsharma.wordpress.com/files/2009/05/nokia-n97-camera-photo-sample-03.jpg

Judge for yourself.

This phone is a TRUE smart phone OS which means you can download apps for it such as VPN software to connect to your office network and apps such as PUTTY or RDP clients to remote control real computers at the house/office. With 3G speeds the potential is limitless.


Now for the bad. Nokia decided to use the old ARM II CPU found in the N85, 95, etc. phones but increased the clockspeed (mhz) slightly. We were looking forward to the new TI cpu which would have provided much better speeds, at the cost of battery life. They also stuck with 128mb ram with about 80mb available after boot up. I don't know about you but after I load up all of my apps and get cranking, I eat that up. I was able to notice some slow down in the pre-build when I:
-opened up several websites w/ flash content
-ran the music player
-opened up 'widget' applications
-tried basic functionality

Most users will probably never do that. If you are a power user, then you probably already know about the Samsung Omnia HD which boasts of similer features, but also the new faster CPU and dedicated GFX chip which means you can play Ipod type 3d games with ease. The final point is with the potentially underpowered CPU, you will not be able to play the super high resolution videos the Samsung can play.

Finally this phone has the slower 3G speeds which don't reach 7mbps, will you need 7mbps? Probably not. I think for 99% of users, the current 3G speeds offered by this phone are fine.

I tried out the phone and pre-ordered, I can't wait to get it. I can't wait to develop some 'widget' applications for it and really see the power of this phone with the newer more stable build.

Thank you for reading this, feel free to respond, yell, scream, or ask any questions!

When I first learned of the n97's release, I was excited. I had been waiting for Nokia to release another ground-breaking phone, like the n95 of years ago. The n96 wasn't it, nor was the n85. Then the n97 came - with a touchscreen and QWERTY keyboard to boot! I was sold at once, but did all of my research anyway and found it to be full of innovative ideas and modern must-haves. I bought it nearly two weeks ago at a reasonable discount from NokiasUSA after Amazon ran out of stock and jacked up the price.


**If you read the specs, you will find all of the high points, but here are some more:

-I found the phone to be fast and responsive when given input. The keyboard is phenomenal - the key spacing and feel is just right and the offset space bar is not as big of a deal as it is often made out to be. The only thing I could ask for is a little click to acknowledge the button was pushed, though if the sound is on the phone makes a small noise. The keyboard could have been even bigger yet if they dropped the D-Pad, which I rarely find myself using as it is a touchscreen (maybe make it a secondary feature for other keys?).

-The GPS unit quickly finds a satellite signal (faster than most Tom-Toms) and accurately places you on a detailed map. The turn-by-turn voice directions work well, except they do not read the street name. Best of all, it doesn't make you agree to do-not-drive-as-you-use-this-device waivers every time the program launches.

-The call quality is excellent.

-No contract and not bogged down with un-deletable carrier apps and tacky logos that remind you who bought your soul.


**The bad and the ugly:

-My first thought when I handled it was, "a little chintzy, eh?" It does give off the impression for a little while, primarily because of the battery cover. They used a plastic, snap-on/ pry-off cover whose snaps are easily bent out of shape, but did not break and easily bent back. The rest of the construction, especially the hinge, seems to be very solid now that I have used it extensively.

-The 5MP camera takes remarkable photos and videos, unless you want to use the flash, which is too close to the lens and whites out a third of the image. Thinking about this more, I decided Nokia has used a very similar camera since September of 2006 when the first n95 debuted and such a quirk is unacceptable in something that has been around the technology world for so long.

-The battery life is terrible. With normal use, it will most likely get 24-30 hours.

-Reception is bad. The internal antenna does not pickup signal where my Blackberry does and my Samsung (4 years ago) before it did, to include my apartment in Boston (not exactly East Reeve, Wisconsin).

-The FM transmitter is hardly worth having. After trying numerous stations I know to be unused in my area, the reception in my newer Audi with rear-mounted antenna was terrible unless I held the phone out the sunroof. I assume if you have a hood mounted antenna, it would be a little better (does anyone know?).

-The resistive touchscreen is outdated and somewhat unresponsive. Resistive touchscreens are great if you wear gloves, and if they are huge, but that doesn't happen on a mobile phone. Resistive touchscreens use a grid-like system to figure out where they've been touched, as they have invisible lines that make a grid across the screen. When the selected area is touched, the corresponding up/down and left/right lines are pushed against sensors on the screen's edge and send the information to the processor. Capacitive screens measure minute differences in its electric field cause by the conductive human body and are generally much more accurate.

-The inertia scrolling is not as one would expect, probably because of the aforementioned screen. It does not matter how fast the screen is flicked, the information displayed travels the same measly distance and stops rather quickly no matter what, if it works at all. Navigating web pages is probably the only reason I would use the provided D-Pad just because the scrolling with the touchscreen is so terrible.

-The accelerometer, which detects the direction the phone is tilted, is often incorrect and the phone is very slow to change the screen's display between portrait and landscape.

-Oftentimes, the phone must be unlocked 2 or 3 times to get the LCD's backlight to turn on. This may be a software or a hardware malfunction, I do not know.

-The talk and end button are not raised but should be, especially because the phone does not acknowledge them having been pressed for a second after. Plus, real buttons are always preferred.


**Then there's the software:

-The user interface is not so good. Every application has an options menu, but after the application has been customized, you probably will not find much need for any of the other options except exit, which is buried at the bottom of the menu and needs to be scrolled to.

The phone screen is inefficiently laid out. On the screen there is a "Call" and "End" button, both of which are physical keys on the phone itself, as well as a "Contacts" button which can be found on the previous screen. I would rather just see bigger numbers. Also, the phone is setup to display two lines of numbers and forces a single number from the area code on on the second line when I would rather like to see bigger number buttons and ALL US numbers on a single line.

-The homescreen widgets do not update as freely as one might like, the AccuWeather is rarely connected and my Hotmail account will ONLY refresh manually. The FaceBook app is good.

-The homescreen has a button on it to change the sound profile, but tapping the power button brings up the same menu - Nokia should just get rid of the redundancy and dedicate the space to, well, uhhh, anything else.

-No QWERTY keyboard option on the touchscreen.

-Being able to run multiple apps is great, but switching between them shouldn't mean a fight with the options menu, there should be an external button to switch between them.

-The homescreen has an option to compose a new message, but not one to read old messages. The button should be dedicated to going into the messenger application instead.

-Half of the menus require a double touch while the other half require a single touch.

-Plus a dozen smaller "Oh, that's silly" features not worth mentioning.

-My phone has needed to be reset because one or more different things were not working correctly at least once a day, though it has never frozen completely. Once, strangely, the touchscreen would highlight the selected app/item, but fail to execute the command completely.



Overall, it is a good phone, but certainly not worth the money. I recommend you wait for the first major software update to be released and reviewed before purchasing.

UPDATE (4 July) - I've made updates on the n97 (Black) page.

Have had a world of problems including roaming issues (popped my SIM into another phone and it worked so was not the provider), constant issues with the software locking up (often had to pull the battery to wake it up --- and that takes ages for it to reboot), battery life not typical of Nokia (sadly lacking), flash failed after a few months ... pictures all foggy .... major disappointment. Plug in charger died after a couple months ... USB charger problematic, had to source another.

I don't know if i simply got a bad phone. But since I shipped to a location out of the US, trying to get it returned was complicated .... so suffered thru! I really loved my N95, but this felt like a step back. Had I the option to do over, i would choose otherwise! Sorry Nokia, this one just didn't cut it!

I have this phone since it came out. After more than a year i know all the goods and the bads of this phone. Unlike other reviewers having this phone for a week or so.
Out of the box this phone was not working properly. The backlight won't go on when i would unlock the phone. I did research and find a new firmware wich fixed the issue.
Here is all the bads:
-the photos made with flash look awfull.glare shows in almost every picture.
-bad design for camera slider. Lots of dust gets there. Also sometimes it slides by itself in my pocket.
-photo gallery is slow and still doesn't have option to upload photos to facebook. There is an app for viewing the pix wich after one year is still in beta. Can't be set as a default photo viewer.
-in one year and still didn't get used to this keyboard. At the beginning of a sentence i have to press twice for a special character & number. In the middle of the sentence only once.
- often i would not be able to answer a phone call. The screen is unresponsive.
-The answer call and hang up '' buttons'' to close to eachother. hard press buttons woud be better instead of touch ones. I could answer a call while driving without looking at the phone. Than slide to activate loudspeaker.
-the shiny silver frame peeded off showing cheap platic.
-No stopwatch and countdown.
-i had like 10gb of music in it (out of 32gb max) and it takes forever to scroll thru the music files.
-Nokia maps is a joke. Would never find my location where google maps find it on the spot.
-bad memory management. I have to delete all the time cookies and cachee to make like 20mb space in the phone.
-it takes like 5 seconds to open a simple sms.sometimes even more.
-slow browser. I have opera installed so i stop usind the default one. It would be nice to be able to set the opera browser as default
-ovi store is a failure. no usefull programs to be found there .
I had to send the phone back for repairs last year in august. The headphone was not connected to it but showing that its connected. So the only way to hear someone on the phone was to activate the speaker or connect some headphones. They fixed it , did a factory reset and installed the latest firmware. No change on performance. I guess symbian sucks.
Yes. The operating sistem is worst out there.
I could go more and more but i have to go. This review was written from a HTC my touch 4G. Sorry for the typos. I will never buy a nokia again. At least until they catch up with samsung, htc and apple.
Peace.

Having bought this for my wife, I have lost all respect for Nokia. This is their flagship??? She is ok with it but isn't very technical minded and doesn't tend to use it for much except calls. Call quality is terrible. FM Transmitter does NOT work. 32 Gig harddrive, yet you can only store a couple apps on the phone at a time. I absolutely abhor this phone, and yes I've done an update to the OS for her. BAD BAD BAD in almost every way. Shockingly bad in my opinion for the money spent! Better off with Blackberry, iPhone or Android. I have almost never given a bad review to a product bought from Amazon. But seriously, this is the worst product we've ever had the misfortune of spending over $500 on. Never again Nokia!

Sluggish and freezes when you operate fast and with just even 2 applications.

Avoid buying this.

This gizmo is full of gadgets, that I guess are attractive to game players and tech people. It simply chocked on my 1,400+ contacts and six email accounts.

Worst of all, making a call is an exercise in patience. I am giving it to one of my kids.

UPDATE: (Changed review from 1-star to 3-stars) After shipping the phone to the Nokia Service Center for repairs (sent on a Friday received back by the following Wednesday), the phone is working fine. There are still a few, small glitchy software issues - but otherwise functioning properly. I am not sure if it was this individual phone or if all N97s have software issues to start. However, now I am afraid to update the phone software, for fear that it will have more problems. One note: it was difficult to get in touch with support and speak to someone "live." I sent the phone in on blind trust without speaking to anyone - but all's well that ends well...

_____________________________________________________________________________
ORIGINAL REVIEW: I have had this phone since July 3, 2009. Since purchase I have had to deal with one issue after another, all related to the software and application interface. The hardware (physical) phone itself was great.

Negatives:
Too numerous to list all of them here, but essentially the software and applications are not intuitive and have MAJOR issues. I am fairly tech savvy and I cannot even imagine how someone who is less knowledgeable in this area would be able to deal with this phone. Very high maintenance.
--It took me, and several tech geek friends, A LOT of time to figure out how to set up 2 email accounts.
--The wireless access would not "remember" my wireless WEP key and typing that long# in repeatedly is not fun! It started 'saving' it on its own one day. (see reboot story below - now it doesn't save any more)
--Facebook app and "Favorites" app won't load onto the home screen (just says "Loading" but never does). I tried to reinstall the Facebook app, but had to go to a 3rd party site to find it. Nokia's Ovi store no longer has a FB app available. Once an app is gone from your phone - good luck trying to reinstall it. Impossible. If you can even find the app anywhere.
--Apps randomly work, then don't work. Very mysterious.

Yesterday I had to do a hard reset back to the factory settings (which means I had to back up and then delete all of my data, photos, text messages, music, and loose all of my settings, including difficult-to-set-up email connection settings, etc), to try and get the non-working/disappeared apps to work. There wasn't much else I could do the software was so messed up. It was the last resort to get the phone to function properly. However, resetting it essentially "killed" the phone interface entirely. It is so bad that I just sent my phone to Nokia's repair site in Alabama (their "customer care" phone and email are essentially non-existant: phone tree loop and a "generic" email response is what they consider "care.") Now, I am waiting to see if/when they fix the phone. Here is how the phone was "working" after the hard reset (that was supposed to bring it back to the original factory settings):

--The key pad won't function (on screen) so I can't even try another hard reset.
--The phone doesn't work (can't access it).
--The camera won't function.
--Most of the apps are missing. Including facebook and 'favorites'.
--Most of the apps that are still on the phone won't function.
--The phone shuts off when connected to the computer to update software.
--The phone randomly shuts on and off when you try to access an app.
--The 'memory full' message keeps appearing when there is nothing on the phone and there are no apps open.
Among other issues...

My main concerns about having to mail my new, $700 phone to a far away repair place are:
(1) now I am stuck with NO PHONE for "7-10+ days" and I am trying to run a small business (ironically enough it is for usability testing of products such as this - and boy does Nokia need to test their N97 interface - have they actually read the Nokia Users Discussion board?), and;
(2) the "Repair form" instructions for returning the phone state that they will "call me with an estimate of the cost(shouldn't it be free?!)" or that they will "return the phone if it is not repairable." That's just great. Can you tell that I am really annoyed? The phone cost $700!!!

Positives:
Nice hardware. The keyboard is easy to use and read. I liked the matte feel of the keys. The screen is large and crisp in terms of readbility, and I love the fact that you can use your finger or a stylus (or finger nail - which you can't do on the iPhone) to activate the touch screen. I love the weight and solid feel of the phone. The silver buttons and edging is also a nice touch. The camera, when it worked, took nice photos that rivaled my digital cameras' pics.

The white phone is pretty cool looking - too bad it doesn't work!

Its more than a year now since I bought this phone. I did not do any research on the phone b4 taking it n just bought it for its great looks. After spending $403 received this world's worst phone.

First, its GPS doesn't work. Browsed over internet, explored Nokia website, watched videos on YouTube but still no response.
Second, camera sucks. Only during good light it captures great photos and during low light like at the dawn or at the sunset it captures worst photos. The flash provided with camera doesn't help much. Also, most of the times the phones gets freeze while taking pics so you need to restart the phone.
Third, phone is very slow. Most of the times it says memory is full close some applications. All applications are close dammit now which application should I close!!!
Now the only solution is... restart the phone. >.<
It has got only 128MB of RAM and 32GB of internal memory which is of no use because if 10GB or so memory is used the phone freeze out much more frequently then and you have to unwilling delete your files.
Fourth, touch is not so good.

At the end, there are many and much better phones available in the market for this price. Don't take it even if some body offer you this phone for free. I wanted to give it a -5 star rating.

Hard to maintain working properly. Look for another option. there is definetely better phones of about the same or better price.