Its Goodbye N97 - Hello... — Nokia Nseries S60 5.0 phones (Nokia N97 and Nokia N97 mini)

nottmbantam 24 Oct 2009, 17:00

Again to my trusty old N95.

Nearly two and a half years old, and working perfectly.

Was just totally underwhelmed by the N97, and looked around at other phones, and was really drawn to the E75. Basically, I think I wanted another qwerty keyboard, but then the camera on the E75 was only a 3.2mp - albeit a very good one by all accounts. I want an N95 with a qwerty. So I thought.

So, dusted off the N95 and tried typing a text or two, and can seemingly do it better and quicker than on the N97. Not tried a long email yet, and I think that's where it might lack a little, but so far - apart the added bonus of the N95 being lighter in my pocket - it works quicker and better than the N97.

THe keyboard on the N97 is a little frustrating, as I nearly always hit the Sym button by mistake. The E75 has a better laid out k/b IMHO.

Will try this for a while, but am reluctant to part with more money to hand over to Nokia. I'm feel badly let down, but there you go ,their complete arrogance is now reflected in their first financial loss for years, and I think many others have also had enough of them.

Will still look around for another phone, but a good solid reliable one - not one that's still performing erratically four months after release.

angiepea 24 Oct 2009, 17:47

Are you getting rid of it altogether Notty ? or will you come back to it after the release of the new firmware

:frown:

grantward 24 Oct 2009, 18:03

With my N95, I spent more time using non-telecommunication functions like Sling Media, instant messaging programmes, etc.

With N97, everything is a chore. Sling Player doesn't work for this model. Facebook keeps malfunctioning or freezes to the point it is not usable. Handy Blacklist certainly only runs but doesn't block a single text or call. The ovi store sells many applications that are not useful for people buying a high-end phone.

The phone reminds me of the old IPAQ 6365- remember that horrible phone? At least the IPAQ could be restarted using the phone's software. The iPhone was also a bit clumsy when it was released but its rescue firmware update was released fairly quickly. With this phone, Nokia doesn't seem to recognise that this is damaging their brand.

It was a rather disappointing buy. It should teach me not to believe propagandist advertising.

nottmbantam 24 Oct 2009, 18:22

angiepea wrote:Are you getting rid of it altogether Notty ? or will you come back to it after the release of the new firmware
:frown:

Dunno matey, I've written out an advert and was going to advertise it online out here, and was tempted to see if the new FW made a huge difference, but somehow I get the feeling that it's going to be a bit of anti climax, and also get the feeling the N97 isn't going to be hugely supported in the future once the N900 and N97 mini is out.

If I sell it now, I reckon it'll go for about half of what I paid for it, so might well cut my losses and learn a lesson - never buy a Nokia Smartphone until it's been out for at least 6 months.

plexus 25 Oct 2009, 00:10

I also bought the N97 because I had been very happy of my old N95 and N95 8gb.
I skipped the N96 because it seemed antiquated and overpriced and bought a Samsung Omnia (which I did'nt really like) and an HTC TouchHD which I deeply love and I still have and I'm now selling because I have preordered the HD2 that I should get nov the1st.
I bought the N97 because I hoped that it would be at least as good as the N95 and add a good touch screen to the mix.
Unfortunately I have been quite disappointed by it.
I bought one of the very first N97s to come to Denmark last june and I immediately hated it so much that 3 weeks later I bought an HTC Hero and stopped using it.
Now after the v12 ROM , all the updates and the latest version of Ovi maps it has become much better but still it's not what I expected it to be, My 12 month old HTC TouchHD is a much better phone and my 5 months old Hero is on another level altoghether.

One of the features I loved in the N95s and I hoped to find at least as good in the N97 was the excellent voice dialing app.
The N95 had the best I had ever seen, the N97 has by far the worst.
If you try to use the voice dialing app the phone just open up a random function without any relation to the command given.
Say "Bob" and it will open "settings" , say "calendar" andd it will open "Eva", a really bad jocke.
Even the camera, another strong point of the N95s got notably worse.

However I have been invited (like all danish N97 users) to one of the "N97 Academy" arrangements, and Nokia reps, besides udating softwares and answering questions ,also regaled all partecipants with some N97 accessories (lanyards, a very cool Nokia alu 2GB memory stick, etc) and specially a one year of free subscription to the excellent renovated Ovi Maps for all of Europe (worth more than 100$) , so I decided to wait until the new fabled 2.0 FW and see if it will improve the thing enough to convince me to keep it.

At the moment I am using as my primary phone my one year old TouchHD which is still the best win mob phone money can buy (yes much better than the TouchPro2 which I have tried), because the N97 (besides other troubles) has no usable voice dialing , which for a guy like me, obliged to drive his car most of his waking time, is an irrenounceable app.
The HTC Hero is absolutely fab. the free app in the Android market totally amazing and I keep it in my car or my briefcase because it has many great and unique features, but it can't be my primary phone either because it also misses (at the moment) a voice dialing function and also because , even if it'got a few great GPS free programs has a screen that is a bit too small to bee read while driving and using the phone as a GPS device.
Luckily in just 7 days I will receive my new HTC HD2 , and hey maybe the v2.0 for the N97 will prove to be miracolous and fix up all the potholes in the N97 system and make us all very happy.

One more thing I learned in this N97 academy from the Nokia reps is that the N900 will not be a telephone.
It will be just an internet tablet with a 3G broadband connection for browsing and some basic telephony functions , but it will miss all functions one would expect to find in a cell phone: no MMS, no tethering, no voice dialing, etc; and that's because Nokia is committed to keep the N97 as their flagship smartphone and they say that they will keep the stream of OTA updates, FWs and new ROMs flowing.
That's another reason why at the moment, I am reluctant to just get rid of this thing and keep only my new HD2.

nottmbantam 25 Oct 2009, 05:16

An interesting comment made by Nokia that they intend to keep the N97 as their flagship smartphone?

Might just hang onto the N97 til the 'promised land - mother of all updates aka v20' arrives and see if that magically turns it into a usable piece of metal / plastic.

Interestingly with the N95, it can can now take a 16gb sd card with the latest FW version ( I'm on v31 ) . The N95 8gb has no memory card slot....