Nokia N97
Phone Scoop Review
Jul 1, 2009 by Eric M. Zeman
Nokia's 2009 flagship phone offers a little bit of everything. This is a case where more features, however, don't necessarily make for a better phone. read review ›
User Reviews
Average Ratings
After playing with it for a week and having come from a HTC FUZE
Pros
Great Battery Life
Great screen response and color
Awesome capabilities
Amazing keyboard
Best signal reception on phone I have ever had
Cons
Not as adaptable for programs as I would like
Not enough contol over personalizing phone
First off, I am sorry that the other guys had issues but that is not the Nokia N97. Mine is not buggy, just the opposite, it is dependable and smooth. My FUZE with a 538 mhz processor froze at least once to twice a day or I would make a choice and wait and wait. I haven't had to reset once or wait. If I made a choice, it comes up to work and this is while having several apps open at once. The phone is fast on the internet and the maps program is just plain cool. I love the keyboard design and found it made sense. I am use to resistive screens so as far as they go, very responsive and super clear clarity in sun or not. Simply amazing. All of the apps work as promised and I have not had any issues with the lower ram or processor speed. I investigated and found that with Symbian os, you don't need it because it is smooth and fluid and efficient and have now experienced it. This is the first phone that without a doubt makes me feel that I will be using it for the next two years. I am highly into changing the way my phone looks and sounds. I found an issue with the phone not being able to switch themes up enough and the ovi store is quite bare for choices at this time. I will admit that I am a first time user for Symbian so ignorance should be playing a part on my lack of understanding on where to go to get the goodies. I can understand why people would want to change around the home screen and I am sure that this will be coming in future os upgrades. Nokia will have to do this to compete with Apple here in the States. All of the issues listed that others have complained about, I have not found on mine. I am very impressed. I recommend whole heartedly as a phone to get.
As expected
Waited for this phone to drop in price and for the inevitable first FW release.
Paid $559 from Dell.
I bought two iPhone 3Gs 32GB , sold one and used the other for a week intending to keep it until the first FW was released and I could buy an N97 for less than $600, Both came to be so I sold the iphones and really like the N97.
Coming from an N95 I find the familiarity comforting and the upgrade is nice as well. Nokia has a very nice upgrade to the N95 here.
Pros
3.5" screen with 16:9 aspect ratio
Nokia build quality rugged, I don't feel like I have to baby this phone. Lord knows I did not baby the N95.
QWERTY keyboard is far better then not
Battery life is great for this powerful of a phone. I always had two batteries with the N95
Nice to have an SD card for more storage.
Phone is a lot faster than the N95 in processing speed.
a ton of features and they all work well
Nokia Maps is better.
Cons..
OVI Store needs work.
would like more selectable applications on home screen.
inevitable bugs that cannot be realized until the masses start using the phone.
Would like to get at the SD card without having to remove the back cover...
Not crazy about double click app opens
All in all my expectations have been exceeded especially given the price I paid and having had an N95 for a few years.
Nokia N97
Very well designed phone. i have had many high end nokia devices and this one is on the top of my list. everything is perfect and works great on it. the camera is amazing with two xeon bulbs! very fast responses.
The only thing i didnt like about it was the keyboard, maybe cause i still like the keyboard from my Nokia E90 better. have gotten used to it now though.
literally is the best phone in the world at this point. the iphone 3g S still has no flash player and only a 3mp camera.
not as good as i would have hoped
Pros:
Battery Life Good
Camera/Video
Speakers
Mass Storage 32gigs & Mirco Sd
RF Good
Solid Sliding Mechanism
Cons:
Laggy Unpowered CPU
Unlocked Interface Annoying
Resistive Touch Screen
Its sad, got it on Thursday sent it back on Wednesday. too buggy too, much hold time on the phone with nokia. tried everything nokia wanted to do. codes to reboot, reinstall the firmware and few other things.... not good. during the time i had it the whole phone locked up 4 times (had to take the battery out) accuweather and facebook locked up 3-4 times a day and the phone was sluggish. as you can see by my earlier messages i was really looking forward to getting this phone. guess maybe its a first generation phone issues. not what i think you should get for the $$
Very high quality, high end phone
I work for a "Mom and Pop" Cellphone company that Sells both new, used and new unlocked phones in St. Petersburg Florida.
Here is my opinion of the n97
My disclaimer first.
I am a Nextel customer, have been since the mid 90's, so I am use to solid, durable phones with not too many "Wiz-bang" features.
The N95 is a very beautiful phone, very sleek, very usable and very expensive.
My ONLY complaint about this phone is mainly the learning curb. Which is mostly me. As I said before I am a Nextel customer.
This phone has LOTS of features that you can't even get in a iPhone, this phone is for people who have disposable income, who travel and who don't want to be limited to the phones of there GSM carrier.
I love the interface, I love the slide up screen to access the keyboard, it's fast with web browsing, supports WiFi and HSDPA, which is very nice.
My complaints about the phone are trivial.
First it took me about 20 minutes to get use to the interface, and being this is a very high end phone I found the price to be a bit shocking.
I would recommend this phone to someone who wants everything possible in a mobile phone and also has a extra 800-1100 dollars to burn.
After a weekend with the N97
Had my N97 for 3 days and at this point I'm ready to call it my 2nd favorite S60 phone ever (E71 is #1).
It's the best constructed N-series phone I've ever seen. The problem is that newer E-series phones run circles around the N-series in this department. It's nice but not as solid as the E71 or E75. But that might be asking for too much. N-series phones have more expensive parts in them (faster processors, higher quality cameras, etc) so asking for more metal casing would probably make the N97 too expensive.
Took about an hour to adjust to S60 v5. Being so used to v3, you just have to practice with the new version but then instinct take over. Many of the apps I use are not available for v5. The ones that are have been working well. I've already started using Gravity, Mobbler and Google Maps. I've also set up my work email and Gmail accounts and they work flawlessly. The preinstalled Facebook app is also nice.
I'm not a huge fan of touchscreens but this one is good. Yes, it's resistive but it's pretty responsive and doesn't seem like it would wear out (like on Treos).
Keyboard is a gripe. I need physical buttons but coming from the E71 this one is frustrating; too much pushing the shift and/or CTRL keys. You shouldn't have to use shift to get a comma. You also have to hold down CTRL to get any numbers. That's especially annoying when you want to use 6, 7, 8, 9 or 0. It's just not as easy or intuitive as E-series phones. That said, even though a lot has been made about the space bar key being off to the right side, it's surprisingly easy to get used to it.
I have yet to use the camera but I'm not concerned about that. If it's like the camera on the N95 it shouldn't be an issue. Actually the N97 reminds me a of the N95: a lot of anticipation for both phones but both were somewhat maligned when they first came out. However Nokia fixed a lot of issues with the N95 with subsequent firmware upgrades and I can see the same thing happening with the N97.
B+ Phone
Pros:
Battery Life Really Good
Camera/Video
Speakers
Mass Storage 32gigs & Mirco Sd Slot
Screen Resolution
Easy Tether Option on Board
FM Transmitter (works ok)
RF Good
Solid Sliding Mechanism
GSP Fast and Accurate
Cons:
Can be Laggy, Unpowered CPU and RAM
Resistive Touch Screen not Capacitive
QWERTY is Tiny and Keys Shallow
Unlocked Interface Annoying
Must Double Press Everything, Annoying
Adding Large Music Libraries can be Annoying and Cumbersome
Battery Cover Creaky and Loose
OVI Store is a Joke
I Don't Know What I Did but in Two Days of Playing With it, it Needed A Hard Reset
Firmware Doesn't Seem Rock Solid
I really wanted to like this phone, and it was going to be my iPhone replacement. However, after two days, I will be returning it and looking forward to the iPhone 3G S. Now that doesn't mean the N97 was a bad phone, it just wasn't the mighty iPhone (jailbroken of course). Perhaps I have more quips with S60v5 then the N97 in particular, that aside, the phone gets a B+. It does what is does pretty good, but not great. It could of used more CPU and RAM. The camera was slightly better then the coveted N95. A resistive screen is simply unacceptable on a flagship phone now-a-days. Keyboard is small and shallow making it hard to use, I could type much, much faster on my iPhone virtual keyboard then the N97 physical qwerty. N97 not a bad phone, just not ready for prime time, could use a firmware update or two, and certainly not what the N95 was a couple years ago.
Personally, N97 v iPhone 3G S (jailbroken), its iPhone 3G S (jailbroken) by a moderate to large margin.
nokia n97 (RM-507)
I BOUGHT A N97 (RM-507) AMERICAS. THE HANDSET WAS A PAIN IN MY REAR . SINCE DAY ONE IS THE WORST NOKIA. HANDSET EVER!! I SENT THE UNIT FOR REPAIR . NOKIA/PALCO IN HUNTSVILLE,AL THE PHONE WAS RECEIVED . BY MURPHY. AT NOKIA/ PALCO REPAIR CENTER . ON THURSDAY., AND SUPPOSEDLY REPIR THE SAME DAY. AND SENT BACK. TO MY HOUSE THE SAME DAY. INCREDIBLE! WELL . THE PHONE WAS SENT TO ME . IN WORST CONDITION THAN THE FIRST TIME . THIS TIME WITH INTERNAL KEYBOARD. PROBLEM. UNABLE TO WRITE AN E-MAIL ETC, THE PHONE FREEZES ALOT . AND I HAD TO REMOVE BATTERY ALL THE TIME. REINSTALL FIRMWARE I 17 TIMES. PLUS DEEP RESET #*7370# ETC, THIS HANDSET. IS MADE IN CHINA . SO YOU CAN EXPECT ALL THE IMAGINABLES ISSUES. OR WHATEVER YOU WANT TO CALL IT. DO NOT BUY THIS NOKIA MODEL. AND SAVE YOURSELF A LOT OF HEADACHES!! NOKIA CUSTOMER SERVICE IN THE UNITED STATES. IS A WASTE OF TIME.