Thanks to Micky Aldridge for putting together a great summary of the links you'll need in following up on a badly scratched Nokia N97 camera glass cover. Notable is that he includes an official statement from Nokia on the subject - at least, you'll have something you can now print out and hand over when turning up at the local Service Centre?
Read on in the full article.
I had removed the cover and left it off. Will go back for a fix now. The scatch on the lens was easy enough to polish out with a dremel and a buff tool.
Now if they could come clean with the GPS issue.
Hi
I aquired my vodafone branded N97 in early September and have had no scratch issues - having said that I have not used camera a lot .I have not had any GPS issues either - in fact the the GPS seems much more responsive than N95 8gb.
Boothy
boothy wrote:HiI aquired my vodafone branded N97 in early September and have had no scratch issues - having said that I have not used camera a lot .I have not had any GPS issues either - in fact the the GPS seems much more responsive than N95 8gb.
Boothy
It seems reasonable to assume that they have fixed the design/hardware issues once they discovered them. It's no consolation to the "early adopters".
What proof is there in that article that the response is officially sanctioned by nokia?
Surely for a reply to be official it would have to appear on a nokia website or be made through the press with the person issuing the statement named?
Is this yet another translation from the article that appeared in the Finnish media?
No, the quote in the article came directly from a Nokia Social Communications spokesman who we know well. Rafe also got the email. So it's official. I've chased for a similar statement on GPS 8-)
See http://conversations.nokia.com/2009/10/08/talking-about-the-n97/
That's official.
This "isolated cases" thing is making me mad, though. Over 1,000 people signed the petition. It may be < 0.1% of sales, but it isn't isolated - and thats likely to be half a million euros retail.
I don't want it fixing. I want it replacing. Nokia Care Point repaired devices are never as good as factory build, unopened ones...
*sigh*
I'm getting mad again...
I'm glad that nokia conversations has posted about it.
This puts an official stamp on it that the public can see.
But all I did was just cut a small square from a screen protector , then cut a small circle in the middle, and then put that on the lens. Prevents the cover from sliding on the lens, and still leaves a clear shot for the lens. It's usually the simple ideas that win, no?
@dave
While I appreciate that having a damaged phone must be frustrating it doesn't alter the fact that if it only affects less than 1% of total sales then it is an isolated issue from the point of view of Nokia, or indeed any other business. You simply can't expect them to look at it any other way, no matter how annoying or frustrating that is to the people who have suffered from this problem.
Maybe its only 1% beacuase only 1% of people who own a nokia n97 either used the camera a lot to have it happen to them or a lot of people haven't noticed or complained about the problem to nokia to be a statistic
I have had 2 n97's both of which the lens became scratched and both of them did not have the new camera slider with the hollowed out section. 1 of the n97's i got last friday new and suffered the same problems with the added bonus of the backlight failing once a day.
It doesn't matter why it's only whatever figure it is, Nokia can only comment on the figures they're aware of and if they indicate that the number of N97s suffering from lens scratching issues is a tiny proportion of the total handsets in circulation then of course they're going to be of the view that it's an isolated issue.
Is there any serial number or or other identifying feature that I can use to tell if my n97 will suffer this? I am currently hesitant to use my camera 😞 I am pretty sure it's a recent device, I bought it mid september, It's white, and it doesn't seem to have the gps issue everyone talks about, if that helps. Should I just use it anyway, with the knowledge that if a scratch appears, I can get it fixed under warranty?
Regarding fix vs replacement mentioned earlier, I would not be concerned about just getting the lens fixed, as it seems to be a pretty simple process (just checking out youtube vids), and is more akin to getting a tyre changed on a car, than getting the entire car engine overhauled. I agree, it would suck to buy a brand new car, and have shonky tyres, but in that circumstance, it would be unreasonable to expect a new car. Not being an apologist here, I have already vented on numerous occassions how let down I am that my n97 does less than my old n95, but the screen and keyboard are making it grow on me. Just need the voip back, and the dlna server, and I'd consider it equal to the old n95. But I sure miss those dedicated media buttons. Don't suppose there's an app anywhere that lets you change the camera button to be 'skip to next track' when the lens is closed?..
I have the N86 and the lens scratches as well, but luckily just on the sides so no problems with photo's, the gps gave me a few probs when I updated the firmware the first time, but after last update it now finds my location in no time at all!
Nokia publicly admited this N97 lens scratching issue using about the same statement to a Finnish tabloid newspaper (called Iltalehti) already at the end of August.
This came after several weeks of not commenting the issue and pretending it didn't exist.
It's good they now come public with this, but why this late? A more open attitude would get them more goodwill.
Link to the story: http://www.iltalehti.fi/digi/2009083010154551_du.shtml (Finnish) and in English with a bad Google translation: http://translate.google.com/translate?prev=hp&hl=en&js=y&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.iltalehti.fi%2Fdigi%2F2009083010154551_du.shtml&sl=fi&tl=en&history_state0=
on a positive note, my local nokia care centre has offered to fix my lens free of charge.
Hi
Further to my comment earlier in thread my lens (famous last words!)is now showing signs of scratching so I will be off to repair centre soon!
Boothy
My N97 just returned from repair. Had lens cover scratches and touch screen issues. They repaired everything on warranty. I did not mention the GPS problem, but it seems to be fixed too. And they replaced the battery for whatever reason as I did not see any problems with the old one.
So all problems fixed at once and I have new battery. My N97 feels great now on firmware v12!
Well i got a new phone from 3 two weeks ago and the lens cover is badly scratched.
Have a look at the pictures.
http://www.allaboutsymbian.com/forum//forum/thread/90390/
will be calling the nearest care point on Monday.
The problem is that 'new' phones can have been sitting in boxes in shops for months.... 8-((
Nokia STILL haven't found a replacement camera glass/cover for my white N97, by the way.