In this special edition of the All About Symbian Insight podcast we offer an audio unboxing (you'll see!) of the Nokia N97. We recorded this podcast in Regents Park (London) a few hours after receiving the full retail version of the N97. Rafe and Steve run through their first impressions of the device, the in-box contents, thoughts on software updates and on a homescreen that's alive... Plus bonus 'footage' of the keyboard 'clip-clop' sound(!)
Read on in the full article.
Is this serious?
You guys rock! lol
Heh, classic. I love Allaboutsymbian for doing stuff like this.
I hope you're planning some more in depth / serious content too.
Did you get the N97 that's for the UK? I had read that the UK will not be getting the stylus in the box, but you mentioned it, so I was wondering if maybe the UK are getting a stylus now? 🙄 I hope so, just for choice more than anything though. 😊
Hi Steve and Rafe
Great review.
You are not the first to notice the TV Out cable missing from the packaging. It is also now not listed "In the Box" on the Nokia website. Its an expensive accessory. Perhaps the stylus was a cheaper option!
And Steve you just couldn't do a video record with your N82 and its mighty camera 😊
Paul
Well, I wanted to do a video thing, but we shot just a few clips instead and most video content will be in The Phones Show 82.
Doing an audio podcast was more relaxing and practical, to be honest, in such uncontrolled circumstances.
great coverage guys, can't wait to get my hands on one!
oh you teasing bast****, driving all of us nuts.
Hey guys.
I actually kinda liked the audio unBoxing.. new concept.. lol...
Does it have a "breathing light" like E71, E75 and the XM5800 ??
Thank you.
I see Nokia are still up to old tricks even on new handsets with new software from the comment at 3:43 'Oh look its just reset itself'
Slightly worried that not even 4 mins into unboxing a retail �500 handset it already reset itself
Gotta say I like the idea of doing an audio unboxing guys 😊
Just one question that I haven't been able to find out anywhere though-
With the home screen widgets that periodically update themselves (the Facebook one for example) how often do they connect to the internet to update, and is this user definable?
Thanks
Can you please try out the fm transmitter?
I�d really like to know what the sound quality is like for music on a car stereo. Does it produce a strong signal, or can you hear static if the phone is in a less than optimal postition?
Also, can you use it for hands free calls on your car stereo? Will nokia maps instructions play over the car stereo?
What is the physical size of the camera aperture compared to the n82/n95?
Thanks so much for your initial review, you guys have the best insight to Symbian & Nokia on the web! Excuse me but I have a lot of questions that I hope you guys can help answer:
Hardware:
1) Does a 32GB Micro SD Memory Card work on this device?
2) You're the only one to mention the "video" chip on this device, no other reviews have told us anything about this. Please explain what this is and how it has improved the graphics performance vs. 5800 or "other Nokia Phones"
3) How much RAM is available after boot? Do the basic widgets (accuweather + Facebook) connected take up a lot of RAM?
4) Screen sensitivity: A lot of poeple have been saying this is more sensitive than the 5800, is this the case? How does it compare to the Capacitive Iphone?
Software:
1) Nokia has mentioned a lot of support for the next half of the year, you mentioned skype. To be constantly connected I'd expect the your contacts to show up as "online" especially if they already have fields for MSN / Facebook etc in their contacts page. Is this something available / expected to be available?
2) In the facebook App, the flash demo on the Nokia promo website indicated that you can accept events invites and "save it on your calendar". I think this is an extremely powerful tool, however is this saved calender "linked" so updates at the event also updated in your calendar (i.e if the event is postponed, does it update itself)? Also is there a link in the calendar event leading you back to Facebook / App?
Forward looking questions:
1) Nokia has been building a lot of buzz with S60 5th edition with 5800 excellent sales in Q1 and now comparing N97 sales to be like N95, the app store and announcing they will launch multiple touch devices within this year. Ofcourse there's the new SDK and available devices for testing. However, the key is here: Is there a lot of buzz from developers looking to develop for the platform right now?
2) Nokia has not said anything about upcoming new phones but I can't help but feel the N97 hardware was designed a year ago for launch Dec 2008, however Nokia's software dept can't keep up with the app store and S60 tweaking so they were forced to delay the device. It almost seems too easy for Nokia keep the exact same form factor but drop a 600mhz CPU (or even Omap3) w/ 256mb of Ram and an 8mp camera module with a Capacitive screen and call it the N97+. Am i right to think this way and what's your opinion?
3) Symbian^2 will be hardened before the end of this year, any chance we will see it on the N97?
You guys killed it!!
I'm totally listening to your audio unboxing while doing three other things on the internet.
Way to think outside the unbox!
without opening the keyboard can you send a text message?
i have the n82 and is there anyway to compare the actual hardware? the n82 takes some amazing pics...
and i would love to go to the n97 but i am afraid of losing quality.
one more thing... what's up with the skype thing. is it in or is it out?
I just made a total arse of myself on the tube, giggling hysterically when the laconic 'oh look, it's reset itself' disrupted the flow.
This was a fun idea and a good listen, so thanks.
I liked the show, but must admit to being slightly underwhelmed by a �500 device that resets itself 5 minutes after being unboxed. It's all very well saying that this is early FW, only for early adopters etc., but it sounds pretty dismal to me.
I'm not sure Steve would be quite so accommodating of such poor quality coming from other manufacturers on his Phones Show...
This was great, I really like you guys and your site is my favourite among phone webs 😊
Great podcast guys, really enjoyed this one as I too am waiting for the arrival of my Pre-order. Im even more excited now.
Could you confirm the UK model comes with the Stylus.?
Also, do you know if the hinge is plastic, or lightweight alloy?
I often travel to china, but find all my existing s60 devices cannot display any chinese which I find a serious deficiency for international travellers.
Can you try to display some chinese on the n97? I'm most interested in SMSes, but I guess you can't get anyone to send you any, so how about trying this page : http://www.sina.com.cn/ - do you see chinese characters or just gabled western characters.
Only models with Chinese fonts will display Chinese web sites or SMS.
I'm pretty sure there'll be an N97 that can display Chinese, but only if you buy it with Chinese firmware in or from a country/region where Chinese is spoken (PRC, Hong Kong, Singapore, Taiwan, etc.).
In other words, an N97 made for Europe, North America or Middle East, etc., will not display Chinese text out of the box.
N/A wrote:Only models with Chinese fonts will display Chinese web sites or SMS.I'm pretty sure there'll be an N97 that can display Chinese, but only if you buy it with Chinese firmware in or from a country/region where Chinese is spoken (PRC, Hong Kong, Singapore, Taiwan, etc.).
In other words, an N97 made for Europe, North America or Middle East, etc., will not display Chinese text out of the box.
Well, I know this is true for all the S60 phones I have used (3rd FP1 and before), but I've not tried it on anything later, and I was hoping it would be fixed at some point.
I don't want to get into flashing phones with f/w meant for other versions - I've done it before because I've had to test the S60 s/w I was working on for phones of those regions, but as a user, I don't want to risk my own phone, let alone going through the backup/restore nightmare (I always lose something).
Also, if I were to reflash my phone with Chinese f/w, I can't help but wonder if I'll be losing some features - for example, Wifi on a phone is not allowed (well, the last I heard it wasn't anyway).
Clearly, this is kind of pathetic. Hardly a 'desktop experience' if they can't display Chinese - when was the last time your desktop browser failed to display Chinese? Furthermore, phones are the most portable devices and should work anywhere. When I land in Beijing, the first thing I get is an SMS from China Mobile, which should be welcoming me to Beijing, or something like that - instead I get a screen full of square characters.
So, Steve, or anyone who actually does have an N97; can you try that web page and let me know for sure?
I guess I'd be interested in knowing if the 5800 works or is still broken, if anyone has one of those.
Thanks,
Max.
No, that web site shows up with horribly broken characters, as you suspected.
8-(
davidmaxwaterma wrote:Well, I know this is true for all the S60 phones I have used (3rd FP1 and before), but I've not tried it on anything later, and I was hoping it would be fixed at some point.I don't want to get into flashing phones with f/w meant for other versions - I've done it before because I've had to test the S60 s/w I was working on for phones of those regions, but as a user, I don't want to risk my own phone, let alone going through the backup/restore nightmare (I always lose something).
Also, if I were to reflash my phone with Chinese f/w, I can't help but wonder if I'll be losing some features - for example, Wifi on a phone is not allowed (well, the last I heard it wasn't anyway).
Clearly, this is kind of pathetic. Hardly a 'desktop experience' if they can't display Chinese - when was the last time your desktop browser failed to display Chinese? Furthermore, phones are the most portable devices and should work anywhere. When I land in Beijing, the first thing I get is an SMS from China Mobile, which should be welcoming me to Beijing, or something like that - instead I get a screen full of square characters.
So, Steve, or anyone who actually does have an N97; can you try that web page and let me know for sure?
I guess I'd be interested in knowing if the 5800 works or is still broken, if anyone has one of those.
Thanks,
Max.
As you have experience with NSS you probably also have experience with FontRouter? If you go to the developers website there's a signed version which you can install.
You then just need to have the Chinese font or other Asian fonts from the N97 and place them in E:\resource\fonts and there you have it.
If you have Chinese fonts you are able to display Japanese also but not e.g. Korean.
I do agree that such things should come out of the box e.g. when using Nokia Maps or MSDictionary both in which doesn't come with support for foreign languages. (A friend of mine bought a guide for Japan and it showed up garbled on his Nokia due to him not having Japanese support)
You can try looking at Psiloc which have applications supporting different languages. However there are heavy DRM as well as being expensive. (And using proprietary fonts / font engine)