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My review of the NAM N97....with your help

3 replies · 2,489 views · Started 17 June 2009

Hello all

I am currently a jailbroken iPhone user who has been DIEING to get his hands on a Nokia N97 ever since i saw the first photos and videos for it. It seemed to be the best device that would encompass everything i wanted (as close as possible anyway) in a device. I luckily live in Chicago (1 of 2 Nokia Flagship stores in the US other is New York) and i went down there and picked myself up a N97 in white to play with to see if it could kill my iPhone and take over the spot as my every day device. However if it doesn't, they have a 14 day return policy so i figured plenty of time to use it and make a decision.

I am planning on reviewing the main things i personally use my iPhone for which is:

1) Email
2) Texting
3) Internet Browsing
4) Music playback / Listening to Radio via data radio applications
5) Video/Media content via youtube and others

I am pretty much a virgin when it comes to S60 but i have used S40 a lot but i am a total gadget and tech geek and have had no issues with playing around with the N97 so far and downloading some applications and making some changes to the organization of folders/etc.

I am going to give myself a few more days before i put all my thoughts together but wanted to know if any of you had any questions that i could answer in the mean time that anyone might find useful.

I know this is my first post but i feel like i have done so much research on the device and am lucky enough to have the ability to play around with it for a while that i should share the wealth with other users.

Jim

Despite the temptation to "convert" an iPhone user, I am hesitant to tell you to definitely change.

The N97 is a *NEW* device and the software is beta+ quality so far with promised updates in second half of 2009.

If your iPhone makes you happy (i.e it does all that you want it to do)--you'll probably want to stay with it.

If you're not entirely happy, then the N97 with a lot of effort on your part to set it up (after all it is a complex device) may be able to help you.

On the music side....last night I installed Nokia Music on my desktop PC and had it scan for my music collection, expecting it to be a bit like iTunes (I have an iPod nano) and download to my N97 when I connected it.

Didn't happen--no built-in help for Nokia Music and the connection while it indicated it connected, did not begin any transfers. I'm still working on trying to find out what the problem is (maybe my Norton Internet Security 2009?).

Meanwhile...I'm finding a few disappointments in the built-in software which is not entirely a deal-breaker in that there may be aftermarket software which may do what I want (like reading HTML emails or handling contact information better). See my thread "Taking a giant step backwards" for more details of my initial impressions.

Good luck and I hope things work out for you.

1) Email - Is not that great out of the box. Consider downloading Nokia Messaging - you can get this from the Software Update application on the phone.

3) Internet Browsing - I think the native browser is good, but you might also want to try out Opera Mini for speed. Available from Ovi Store.

4) Music playback / Listening to Radio via data radio applications - Internet radio is not available yet, but you can put real audio stream URLs staright into Real player. Music is decent and you can use Nokia Music or another MTP (e.g. Windows Media Player) for transfer and sync.