With the Nokia N97 getting ever closer, there's now an official Flash site, with the usual feature lists, animated graphics and 'interactive demo'. There's also a 'Pre-order' page, although this only works if you live in the USA, Sweden, Germany or Italy.
Read on in the full article.
Meh. I don't care about the N97 anymore. With an underpowered CPU, no graphics acceleration, and the usual 5MP camera, it is the S60 5th ed. analogue of the N96. It's really sad for me to see the company that made the N95 lately to come up with such drek. Wake me up when Nokia finally releases a real flagship phone for the N-series; the N97 is certainly not it.
You can add Finland to the country list as well Steve. Verkkokauppa is allowing for pre order. The price is currently listed at 999.90 Euros but this is the place holder price. We should see the actual prices come in to play very soon.
I am still looking forward to it and can't wait to get my hands on one. For me the great leap is not in the hardware alone, but the software pieces and ovi coming together.
http://europe.nokia.com/n97/features
N-Gage isn't mentioned at all - it only shows a generic games icon/section name. The first real sign of the death of N-Gage?
Chlettn, the N-Gage logo is used on the demo screen, that's why it's an orange N. I'd expect them to replace it with the controller icon used on Ovi.com though, purely because they want to use the same icons across all Ovi-compatible devices.
The N-Gage icon's name has always been "Games" on all existing N-Gage-compatible phones. That doesn't really tell us anything one way or the other.
If something does happen to N-Gage though, it's more likely to be an integration with the Ovi Store client rather than "death".
Nokia have got some very good exclusive games on N-Gage with more in the pipeline, I think they'd rather use them to promote Ovi Store than just throw it all away. And the N-Gage platform's multiplayer infrastructure is very good when it's done properly, just visit resetgeneration.com for an example. If they could integrate that into Ovi Store it would make a very useful resource for game publishers.
I don't think the people who did this N97 site know much about games though, as they're using video from the 2D Java version of Asphalt 4 instead of the proper 3D S60/N-Gage version.
rvirga wrote:Meh. I don't care about the N97 anymore. With an underpowered CPU, no graphics acceleration, and the usual 5MP camera, it is the S60 5th ed. analogue of the N96. It's really sad for me to see the company that made the N95 lately to come up with such drek. Wake me up when Nokia finally releases a real flagship phone for the N-series; the N97 is certainly not it.
The 'underpowered' CPU will result in a better battery life and the lack of graphics acceleration will position the N97 as a more serious phone and less of a toy, so both positives in my opinion.
As for negatives in my opinion, the price. They are in cloud cuckoo land if the Finnish post is anything to go by.
utossa wrote:The 'underpowered' CPU will result in a better battery life and the lack of graphics acceleration will position the N97 as a more serious phone and less of a toy, so both positives in my opinion.As for negatives in my opinion, the price. They are in cloud cuckoo land if the Finnish post is anything to go by.
Okay fair comment, better battery life has got to be a bonus - BUT why put a physical D pad if not for better gaming, and then go and blow it by not including graphics hardware
The 'underpowered' CPU will result in a better battery life
the lack of graphics acceleration will position the N97 as a more serious phone and less of a toy
utossa wrote:The 'underpowered' CPU will result in a better battery life and the lack of graphics acceleration will position the N97 as a more serious phone and less of a toy, so both positives in my opinion.As for negatives in my opinion, the price. They are in cloud cuckoo land if the Finnish post is anything to go by.
New processors used in modern devices (note: the N97 is not modern) have dynamic power saving features, which allow them to run more efficiently at higher clock speeds with graphics acceleration as a bonus. So Cortex A8/Snapdragon/the rest = faster than ARM11 and less power consumption.
I think the N97 is Nokia's last chance to put an old, inexpensive CPU into their flagship and make a silly margin off of the people who will buy it just because it's the flagship. I mean really, your N95 is more capable than the N97 FFS! Wake up!
Still not yet available to us in Finland at the moment, but periodically checking availability. I tried pre-ordering from Play.com, but during the final stages of my checkout, it prompted me the item could only be shipping to a UK address, even though it has allowed me to add Finland in the registeration area.
jonnybruha wrote:.....I think the N97 is Nokia's last chance to put an old, inexpensive CPU into their flagship and make a silly margin off of the people who will buy it just because it's the flagship. I mean really, your N95 is more capable than the N97 FFS! Wake up!
Spot on, joonybruha, really.
To me, it's apparent that Nokia has obviously stolen a page out of Apple's Iphone play book, with the exaggerated marketing of old hat/already done specs.
So, I agree, wake up ppl.
The N97 is definitely over priced compared to the offerings of my N82, as well as, my old Classic N95 imo.
True Nokia N97 is a cumbersome task, but selecting one of them depends on your requirements. and guys are't we missing nokia;s own software pieces and ovi
How a phone specs suit will be down to individual requirement. the first thing I do with a new N series phone is remove N-Gage and claim back the space for something useful, so I will never need graphics acceleration, and I suspect the majority are the same.
I've already ruled out N97 on both price and exterior dimensions.
The N97 is also available for preorder from Spain
N97 is no longer on pre-order in germany
IT IS NOW SHPPING
http://shop.nokia.de/nokia-de/product.aspx?culture=de-DE&qty=1&sku=4007158&justadd=true&cc=769771fa5b194112ba483eb178509970
Some of you guys are missing the whole purpose of what the N97 is about.
undercover wrote:N97 is no longer on pre-order in germanyIt isn't. When the N97 starts shipping, you can bet that on that day there's a press release on http://www.nokia.com/press
IT IS NOW SHPPING
Micky! wrote:Some of you guys are missing the whole purpose of what the N97 is about.
For just a second, forget any of the differences between the OmniaHD and the N97. Let's pretend they have the same camera, the same storage space, same screen, and they both have a hardware keyboard. One still has the Cortex A8 600mhz processor with graphics acceleration for $599 and the other has the same ARM11 434mhz processor without and hardware acceleration for $699. One will open your photo gallery near instantly and browse through them very quickly while the other slowly generates all your thumbnails and takes a few extra moments every time you're navigating through it.
Or look at it like this. Would you buy a more expensive laptop with a mediocre processor just because it came with a few extra pieces of software? Or would you buy the one next to it with a faster processor and a much better video card and a smaller price tag? These examples are one in the same.
As a former Nokia customer, I regret that I won't be able to see what comes of the Ovi Store since I won't be buying the N97, but only about as much as I would regret not being able to test out a new version of Download! from Beta Labs.
That's an unfair example, JohnnyBruha, comparing the two prices and saying "imagine" the hardware is the same. For me the Omnia HD only provides incremental improvements over a phone like the 5800, larger screen, better camera, and (supposedly) faster. I say supposedly because until real-world reviews start coming out from users comparing the Omnia HD and N97 we won't know exactly how much of a difference there will be in speed. The N97, however, price point-wise, nets you the keyboard, a good camera, Ovi, Nokia's firmware upgrades, kinetic scrolling, huge storage capacity. The Omnia HD just feels like a faster 5800 with a way better camera, but minus all the Nokia-only goodies.
My point is people will pay the 6 or 7 hundred dollars based on what's important to them. Sure, if reviews start trickling out of the N97 that describe it as slow or frustrating I'll reconsider. For me personally the Omnia HD isn't an option anyway because I'm in LA and there's no full 3g.
The point to my example was to give a handicap to the N97, not boost the appeal of the OmniaHD (which would be unnecessary). The noticeable variables are the hardware QWERTY, larger storage space, and Nokia's Ovi software versus the significantly better screen (OLED, larger, capacitive), 8mp camera+HD video recording+better camera software. The unforgivable variable is the processor, which is just plain better on one device than the other.
So yes, you're paying more for the keyboard and the extra storage, but you're also getting a 2 year old camera, 3 year old slower processor, and a smaller resistive touchscreen.
So a better way to reword my example would be, let's pretend the N97 DIDN'T have the N95's camera and the same touchscreen as a WM device, and compare it to a cheaper device with a faster/more efficient processor.
rvirga wrote:Meh. I don't care about the N97 anymore. With an underpowered CPU, no graphics acceleration, and the usual 5MP camera, it is the S60 5th ed. analogue of the N96. It's really sad for me to see the company that made the N95 lately to come up with such drek. Wake me up when Nokia finally releases a real flagship phone for the N-series; the N97 is certainly not it.
Agree. From a purely hardware side it's no match for the Omnia HD. To be blunt in some ways the N97 is already out of date before it's been even released, old camera tech, old CPU etc.
Whatever way you paint the CPU of the Omnia HD is always going to be an advantage over the N97, I believe the battery life argument doesn't hold any water either as the OMAP 3 is more energy efficient than the older chip, the same way the OLED screen is also more energy efficient.
At the price levels we are talking at for both devices the slight price difference between the two is fairly insignificant & certainly not likely to dissuade many purchasers away from it.
Well in Germany the price is nowhere near 999.
Its 649, with tax and shipping included, and in Spain 599 without tax or shippping, so more or less the same as in Germany at the counter.
Some people already buy more expensive computers with worse processor/other specifications.
they are called mac fanboys. but it doesn't seem to do them any harm in getting things done. the processor is not the phone, I await reviews.
ps. I use a mac but also a nokia.
I've seen S60 5th running on OMAP3 HW, and honestly it's not that different to running it on an ARM11 at 350MHz. S60 is rarely CPU bound anyway, in my experience. Wait and see what the two devices are like in the real world. It'll probably depend largely on the difference between the built-in apps.
I just wish they would bloody well release this already!
If Nokia had launched this three months ago they would have had a runaway success. But now the competition is heating up and what was a showstopper phone back in December has lost it's wow! factor somewhat.
Nonetheless I really like the form factor, keyboard and homescreen so I'll be buying this.
djplus wrote:Some people already buy more expensive computers with worse processor/other specifications.they are called mac fanboys. but it doesn't seem to do them any harm in getting things done. the processor is not the phone, I await reviews.
ps. I use a mac but also a nokia.
Yes but the processor is not the only hardware advantage the Omnia HD has over the the N97.