Nokia N97 - Nseries with touch and QWERTY

my god that looks amazin... but dual led flash?! WHY!?

is NOTHING going to top my n82!? (don't point at other brands, i can't handle anything but nokia)

still, by the time thats rollin round to release if i'm going out of contract i might have to

It seems to be a very interesting device. A convergence between the E-series (qwerty) and the N-series (multimedia, N-Gage and so on).

The display resolution and the N-series branding indicates an "E97" with higher rez display and the same slide/tilt formfactor is probable.

I think Nokia tries the concept with this before they roll out the same form factor as the next Communicator. It�s very nice to have the laptop mode intact with the N97.

has anyone seen the presentation video, especially where the person flips through the menu? I think it is really poor to see, how nokia still is not able to build a fluid, well done ui, which runs smoothly and responds quickly. i have a n95 8gb and am really disappointed of how bumpy the menu loads and how not fluid the transitions are from menu to menu. sadly this also seems to be the case in the new n97. if nokia wouldn't have this big market share, symbian would already be bankrupt.

I got to say...holy crap. It looks good.

I keep on almost putting my hand in the cookie jar and buying an iPhone. The iPhone LOOKS fun. But then, I focus on lack of good camera/ bluetooth keyboard / landscape text / copy+paste. And then I think...I don't need it...its fun. Then I look around and see the richy guys with their iPhone...doing less with it than I do with my S40 phone... and I think...nah.

Now this comes around. And it looks fun. It looks BETTER than the iPhone. The dimensions are right. Longer, yes, but narrower, so easier to pocket.

I'm still going to get a 5800...can't plan to spend $500 plus in today's economy. But I really like this phone.

Well, you are right - they will NEVER enable all NSeries features on a lesser phone like 5800. But what ARE those features? The Ovi services - well they are on their way for 5800 too. N-Gage? Not that I am a huge fan, but likewise. A nicer photo gallery? There are plenty of third party apps to fix that .

Thing is, 5800 is also being positioned as a convergence device (what with wi fi, GPS, motion sensor, TV Out etc). Of course hardware wise it will lag behind N97, and I can bet all I have that N97 will sport a faster processor and much more RAM, on top of the bigger screen, keyboard, higher memory and better camera it already has. For those for whom the above three factors matter, they'll gladly shell out for this. People like me, though, will need a satisfactory answer to whether they are enough to justify the N97's price/weight/hype overload. This is precisely the reason why a device like 6120c was such a success.

Does it have hardware acceleration? This is going to be an issue in the upcoming months, when N-Gage games go accelerated.

Great. Another phone not designed for 3g in the US. No UTMS 850 ????

As with most releases I expect there will be a USA specific version.

ho, ho, ho, where's the fm transmitter?

Okay, wtf is with that keyboard, the space bar would piss me off.

And really Nokia, S60 is so antiquated, it's time to ditch it.

OK, still waiting for the "we're not Apple biased at all, honest" BBC news site to tell us all about it.

Hang on, a new blog entry...

"Can the MAC catch a cold", well who'd 'ave thunk it.

Was hoping the screen transitions would stay in, but all hands on videos seem to have them missing. I think to compete with iPhone, this does need a bit more eye candy.

Great looking device with a load of really cool features but one huge problem. It wont be available for 6 months and probably not widely available for 9 - 12 months. That is a lifetime in phone development terms.

Apple, Google, RIM, HTC and even Microsoft will have new products by then.

I remember Sony Ericsson announcing the Xperia X1 at the beginning of this year (which funnily enough resembles the N97 a little - without all the features) it drew a lot of attention and people waited and waited for the release - it came out last month and was a bit of an anti climax because everyone had moved on.

If the N97 was released today or in the next month i would buy it without a doubt, but it will be interesting to see what else will be available next summer.

"hmm complains about the size?"
Its smaller then the E90 that i have! (that i can carry easily)

"qwerty keyboard never used by anybody?"
What?? Why is it that everybody around me has 2 kinds of phones? E90 or E71??
Because of the qwerty keyboard!! (around me family/friends/coworkers have, i count 5 E90 and 5 E71, yes all guys, girls dont seem to like those 2 😊)

But this is for me a serious replacement for the E90, cant wait to test it in my hands how the keyboard is, and if it sits up right when i have it slide open.
It should be stable when i place it down, so that i can still use smartpad in my car to navigate without horrible car holding stuff.

If Nokia throws in a micro DisplayPort for the next release, connect that to a computer monitor, paired via bluetooth keyboard and mouse... I think I could learn to live without my desktop computer then.

Well i like it but it seems somehow tooo slooow. Look at the slow response of menus and videos.
This smartphone needs 2 things to be great:
1. NVIDIA TEGRA chip (very fast chip with HD playback and low power consumption)
2. OLED display

and with this features added they could sell it for 600-650 and i would buy it anyway.

The N97 is much smaller then the E90 - this suggests the next Communicator will be smaller and perhaps slimmer as well. I think the real story will be the next gen Communicator not the N97. I will buy the N97 because it is really the next step from the 7710 but I think the next Communicator will be mold breaking in terms of technology packaging.

EDIT: just watched a few videos on Youtube, the N97 is very very quick. Not bad for a proto FW device. This is going to be a good platform, a very good platform for future Nokia devices

I applaud Nokia finally having hardware QWERTY on the N-Series. I'm coming back to you soon Nokia! I'm with HTC Touch HD at the moment.

I got really bored of Nokia rehashes of late and jumped ship but I may just swim back to Nokia's Titanic! 😊

Nope, it's not a capacitive touchscreen (like that of the iPhone); it's a plain stupid resistive one (like all WinMo devices or the BlackBerry Storm). This sucks in a lot of respects (except for using with a stylus or any sharp pointing device)... I bet it doesn't have multitouch either.

Most likely because I suspect anyone using anything remotely similar to either would end up fending off Mr Job's legal pitbulls for the next decade.

As for the N97 itself, if it had an 800 pixel wide display and a cpu to match that in my E90 I'd be sorely tempted. Still, the widget based homepage is a pretty big deal, the next version of S60 desperately needs to get that functionality drafted across into the UI as a whole, menus and everything. It's not as primitive as Windows Mobile, but it is really starting to show it's age alongside the iPhone's UI.

Roll on the E91

elaverick wrote: and finally, how is that keyboard, I still compare all mini-keyboard to the old Psion 5 and Psion Revo and for me this one looks as though its not going to have a lot of tactility to it.

The Psion 5mx is still superior as a pocketable or handbag-able typing platform and as an electronic diary. No other device comes near.

I am sad that such a beautiful design has bad placement of space bar key.

They could have utilized the small space below with a thinner but a longer keyboard.

I also support the detachable keyboard design. Love to see such a phone.

Yeah you heard it right.

N series 5800 ... candy bar

blue tooth keyboard as another poster suggested detachable is good to to.

It looks good but in 6 months its going to look mediocre. they have had what over a year now to get their touch ui right and its still lacking badly in some areas but good enough for launch in the 5800 then they go and release the N Series successor for 6 months down the line when theirs nothing decent to fill in the stop gap now.

What were they thinking going for a Q3 release?

Cant tell from the picture but it still looks like their still failing miserably on the USB port location... on the bottom please! its useless everywhere else

is it just me or does this new device include the ability to use photos as a full background just like in desktops? take a look at the bike on Anssi's N97. can someone please confirm?

also where are all those transitions shown in the demo video e.g the one where the main screen transitions with widgets changing from portrait to landscape a la xperia style. in all the live demos so far all i see is a black screen in place of transitions.

in all seriousness this phone looked amazing for the first five minutes but honestly the missing transitions are turning me off. Besides what is the deal with front keys. the positioning just seems so wierd the call and end keys so close together and the angle of the menu key just seems so wierd. also i hear that a stylus is included in the box but there is no stylus slot in the phone! why? yeah i know everything can be done with finger touch only but why include a stylus.

also this might be a minor quirk to most people but to me the angle of that screen is perfect for video watching when the phone is on a table but that angle could be pretty annoying while typing on the go. i tried it on the TYTN II (AT&T Tilt) and i always prefered having the screen flat while typing on the go cos the angle of tilt was too much. i think the xperia has the perfect angle.

i am hoping the transition quirk is just a firmware issue and that it will be fixed. by the way for those who say there is too much information on the main screen, i don't think so 'cos the same goes for the iphone which has about 20 icons on the main screen when fully set up. at least with the N97 you have a lot more information readily available at a glance without having to click on anything and to me that is way awesome 'cos i love to have all my info at a glance without clicking nothing.

by the way that 32GB of storage is a sweet spot cos then the phone can be used as a flash drive now lets just hope Nokia did something about their read and write speeds 'cos right now they are simply dismal for USB 2.0.

Unregistered wrote:
also where are all those transitions shown in the demo video e.g the one where the main screen transitions with widgets changing from portrait to landscape a la xperia style. in all the live demos so far all i see is a black screen in place of transitions.

It depends on what was included on the demo handsets I suppose. The chances are the menu items are going to be beefed up or I would hope so seeing as their taking another 6 months to launch.

Didn't see any mention of FM radio with RDS?

slitchfield wrote:"That's exactly what the N93 does. So how does my old N93 beat the N97 on video capture? Are you referring to the lack of N93's optical zoom?"
Well, optical zoom, yes, but also the fact that video on the N93 is much clearer than on the newer devices: N79, N85, N96 and presumably N97 all suck when it comes to video. It may be VGA but it's not fit for purpose yet, in my opinion. I wish Nokia would come clean about video capture and what's going on. The current situation is insane.

This combined with optical zoom is great and hasn't been surpassed by Nokia devices. Several Japanese phones have optical zoom but I haven't come across one with stereo sound recording as well.

So yes .. a 12+ MP cam with optical zoom and stereo sound .. k thx .. bye 😊

Another Nokia faux pas? its embarrasing for Nokia to keep its high end community dissapointed in such a way. Oh well roll on N98...OMAP3 (fingers x)

bartmanekul wrote:There is not much dead space. And while people are already mumbling about the size, you want a bigger screen, and a Dpad on the front. It's just not feasible.

It IS feasible. Just look at the HTC Touch HD as far as the screen is concerned. (No D-pad there, of course.)

In addition, there's a lot of dead estate around the top. The screen could be moved a bit upwards and a D-pad added at the bottom. It'd be of tremendous help for players - and in enlarging the thumbboard.

seki wrote:This combined with optical zoom is great and hasn't been surpassed by Nokia devices. Several Japanese phones have optical zoom but I haven't come across one with stereo sound recording as well.

So yes .. a 12+ MP cam with optical zoom and stereo sound .. k thx .. bye 😊

12 MP with so small a CCD / MOS? TOns of noise. Not even Canon's DIGIC III / IV can get rid of it - and their 12+MP ultracompact Ixus cameras use 1/1.7" CCD's, which are far bigger than the ones used in mobile phones.

That is, it's the best to stick to 5 Mpixel. You could only resolution gain in well-lit scenes. In low light, the 5 MP N95 already does a lot of smearing (see my iPhone vs. N95 vs. IXUS 960 comparative shots if inetrested).