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Happy Birthday N97

17 replies · 6,295 views · Started 19 June 2010

zxon 19 Jun 2010, 22:50

The N97 is now one year old (aww, bless it). I think we should bake it a cake.

How're we all feeling about it? Is the N97 the phone you expected it to be one year after release?

seki 19 Jun 2010, 23:26

zxon wrote:The N97 is now one year old (aww, bless it). I think we should bake it a cake.

How're we all feeling about it? Is the N97 the phone you expected it to be one year after release?

welp .. I still have one .. despite access to an iPhone 3gs etc .. I use it as my work phone .. Honestly I've had very few problems with mine. It could have been faster the dpad on the keyboard to me is still a fail.
My main phone is a Satio with SPB Mobile shell .. that would be pretty nice for the N97 .. but its a little short on RAM.

/me waits for N8

ironass 20 Jun 2010, 12:31

bang bang boom wrote:wow my son was born yesterday

Do you mean literally yesterday (19th June 2010)?

As for my N97, it has had its bacon saved a few times in the past year... not by Nokia every time I might add.

Whilst I've not suffered any hardware problems, I truly feel that if firmware's v20 and v21 had not been released then this phone would have bitten the dust 9 months ago.

Firmware's v10, v11 and v12 were a joke!

Free iSMS was a big bonus for me and a "must have" on my N97.

The release of Ovi Maps v3.04 and the subsequent free navigation also went to buy more time for my N97.

Finally, the recent release of SPB Mobile Shell, v3.5.5, has improved the handsets usability no end and kept my interest in the N97 going as it offers the sort of user experience that I originally expected from the phone.

nottmbantam 20 Jun 2010, 12:46

Oooh errr, bought my N97 exactly a year ago today, in a phone shop downtown Riyadh, complete with arabic and english keyboard. Sold it on April 27th. Ten months of ownership.

bang bang boom 20 Jun 2010, 20:58

ironass wrote:Do you mean literally yesterday (19th June 2010)?

As for my N97, it has had its bacon saved a few times in the past year... not by Nokia every time I might add.

Whilst I've not suffered any hardware problems, I truly feel that if firmware's v20 and v21 had not been released then this phone would have bitten the dust 9 months ago.

Firmware's v10, v11 and v12 were a joke!

Free iSMS was a big bonus for me and a "must have" on my N97.

The release of Ovi Maps v3.04 and the subsequent free navigation also went to buy more time for my N97.

Finally, the recent release of SPB Mobile Shell, v3.5.5, has improved the handsets usability no end and kept my interest in the N97 going as it offers the sort of user experience that I originally expected from the phone.

yea at 05.34am

zxon 20 Jun 2010, 22:30

ironass wrote:Whilst I've not suffered any hardware problems, I truly feel that if firmware's v20 and v21 had not been released then this phone would have bitten the dust 9 months ago.

Firmware's v10, v11 and v12 were a joke!

Free iSMS was a big bonus for me and a "must have" on my N97.

The release of Ovi Maps v3.04 and the subsequent free navigation also went to buy more time for my N97.

Finally, the recent release of SPB Mobile Shell, v3.5.5, has improved the handsets usability no end and kept my interest in the N97 going as it offers the sort of user experience that I originally expected from the phone.

I agree that the firmware updates have made (patient) people stick with the phone a little longer by making it a bit faster, adding kinetic scrolling, and fixing some bugs (Do you remember the days of the screen-locking bug??). I wonder what v30 will bring us?

I also definitely agree that third parties have made the phone better too. Now whether this is seen as a bad thing or not is anyone's guess: Because these improvements were made by third parties it means that other S60 5th edition phones have reaped the benefit too, not just the N97. Free iSMS, Ovi Maps, and SPB Mobile Shell all work on a 5800XM, for example. On a good point, it means that more phones can benefit from these excellent additions. On the downside, they could very well make the N97 a little less unique, if these must-have apps work just as well on a phone that costs half as much.

We can't forget Opera's efforts, of course! I still use the built-in Web app fairly often but if I want no-nonsense browsing, Opera Mobile is my browser of choice. As we all know, the only downside is the lack of Flash support (which I would turn to the built-in Web app for, if needs be) but who knows... maybe they will introduce it in the future...

To wrap up, the N97 really isn't the phone I expected it to be a year after release. That isn't to say it's worse; it's just as good as I expected to be, but somehow in different ways. I won't be changing it anytime soon, that's for sure. In fact, I hope the N97 will become my longest used phone ever to date... it has another 14 months before it beats my 6600.

However, the release of the N97 has certainly taught me a valuable lesson: Don't believe the hype!

Nokia really pushed the N97 for months before it's release, and I remember the day exactly a year ago when I waited anxiously for my brand spanking new iPhone-killing mobile telecommunications device to arrive! I'm sure everyone will agree with me on this... It sadly wasn't as good as I hoped it would be, due to lens scratching problems, poor GPS, and bug-filled software. However (this is where everyone will disagree), I still felt (and feel) it's a terrific piece of kit, and my patience has paid off with thanks to support from Nokia and various third parties.

I feel I was lucky with the N97. It's probably not a good thing to feel lucky about a flagship device. In fact, you shouldn't feel lucky that it works at all. You would just expect it to work. The experiences that I've had with the N97 have taught me to be a little more patient when it comes to gadgets. Let's take the upcoming N8 for example. At first, it sounds fantastic! 12MP camera, OLED capacitive display, HDTV-out, 720p video recording, Symbian^3 OS... the list goes on, everything (besides the built-in storage) trumping the N97. However, the un-swappable battery and lack of physical keyboard would really put me off. Also, who's to say it won't flop like the N97 did, despite all the improvements? It'll be the first Symbian^3 powered device... what if it's riddled with bugs? It's the first open-source Symbian OS... will this actually result in more and better apps being made for it? The built-in battery... will it suffer the same problems as iPhone owers have experienced? Only time will tell on this.

That's why from now on if I'm going to get a new piece of kit, I'm going to wait up to 6 months after release to see how it performs. I'll get an idea about what bugs it has, what hardware problems ail it, what kind of support it gets, and how firmware improves it, amongst other things. Now, I hope that my next phone will be a Symbian^4 powered device. The last I heard, those would start coming out in the first half of 2011, which means I wouldn't consider replacing my N97 until mid-late 2011, because I'd like to see how S^4 does. I know waiting a few months means I'll probably end up buying a device that's already "out-of-date" by the standards at the time, but I would be safe in the knowledge that it performs well and will be supported for years to come. That, I believe now, is more important than having the latest gadget.

Bloody hell, I'm only 27 and already I sound like an old man with eons of experience lol 🙄

ironass 21 Jun 2010, 04:44

A very well written and objective posting zxon.

zxon wrote:
Bloody hell, I'm only 27 and already I sound like an old man with eons of experience lol 🙄

With reference to the above, can I just draw your attention to angiepea's signature...

"Good judgement comes from experience.
Experience comes from bad judgement."

Oh, so, very true!

keys 24 Jun 2010, 12:23

After its dubious first year the N97 sells for �140.00 on Ebay - unlocked and still within warranty.

Surely that represents stunning value to someone upgrading from say an E71 - which itself would sell for �99.00...

For me that �40 got me a real nice camera, faster wifi, larger 'touch' screen, huge storage, richer louder better audio, a working mfe experience and so on..

Its the Lancia Thema of phones (without the rust).😎

Stezo2k 25 Jun 2010, 13:05

I personally hate mine, problems since day one. My only real complaint is the touch screen, it hardly ever works and when it does, its not accurate and also my phone keeps holding people by its self. However I do love the much better battery and QWERTY keyboard. Shame really

dog-man 25 Jun 2010, 13:14

At the moment, I love my N97 again after installing v21.0.102.

Spb shell has also improved it further.

Running like a dream at the moment. 😃

dog-man

Stuntman 25 Jun 2010, 18:01

I have mine for 3 months now. I dealt with problems for a few weeks until I installed the v21 firmware. After that, my N97 has been quite stable. It probably took me about a month to get my phone working and configured to the way I like.

Lately, I had issues after installing the Nokia Messaging for Social Networks beta. I noticed that my phone reboots when I lose my network connection. Twice, when I drove into the underground parking at the local mall, I noticed that my phone restarts. Also, twice I noticed it restarts when it loses the WiFi connection when I drive away from my house.

Overall, I am happy with it. It's my first smartphone and after owning it for a while, I realise smartphones are really complex devices compared to older mobile phones I have used. When I decided to get one, I had little knowledge of smartphones and what they can do. Now that I have used it for 3 months, I have a much better idea of what smartphones can do. I have often wondered if I would have made a different decision on a smartphone had I known then what I know now. Hindsight is always 20/20. Still, I felt that at the time, I made the best decision I probably could have with what I knew then.