Nokia N97

Nokia N97 is a touch screen mobile phone in the Nseries of smartphones by Nokia, with a fold-out QWERTY keyboard.

Announced on 2 December 2008, the N97 is Nokia's second touchscreen phone (after the Nokia 5800 XpressMusic) based on the Symbian OS S60 5th edition platform.

The Nokia N97 was released in US flagship stores on 9 June 2009 and on 26 June 2009 was released worldwide. In September 2009 it was reported that two million N97 handsets had been sold in three months following its release.

The N97 ships with trial versions of Quick Office, Adobe reader, Boingo and JoikuSpot Premium as well as Nokia's own Ovi Maps and Ovi store.

The initial software had mixed reception, prompting the release of new firmware in October 2009. Nokia released the new firmware with kinetic scrolling for the N97 to address the major issues present in the firmware the device launched with.

Since October 2009 the N97 Mini is available which is a downsized version of the original N97.

Operating times

Informal tests have shown that the battery can last nearly two days with regular use of the phone's various features for the original N97. Nokia quote the following claimed operating times

• Talk time: Up to 6.0 hours (3G), 9.5 hours (GSM)
• Standby time: Up to 17 days (3G), 18 days (GSM)
• Video playback: Up to 4.5 hours (offline mode)
• Video recording: Up to 3.6 hours (offline mode)
• Music playback: Up to 40 hours (offline mode)

Applications and options

With the optional DVB-H Nokia Mobile TV Receiver, SU-33W it is possible to watch television on the phone.

The device can run Skype with an application from the Ovi store. It is compatible with Nokia's N-Gage games.

Marketing

The phone can be seen in the beginning of the music video for I Gotta Feeling by the Black Eyed Peas when two of the members — Taboo and apl.de.ap — are checking their DipDive and text messages.

Nokia N97 Mini

The N97 Mini is a downsized version of the N97 and has been available since October 2009. The N97 Mini downsized some features of the original N97, such as 8 GB of storage memory, 3.2 inch touchscreen, removal of FM transmitter, and a shorter battery life. It includes however a bigger internal (phone) memory and an improved keyboard. It uses the 2.0 Nokia N97 software by default. Here under are some major changes listed in a table.

A limited edition called the N97 mini Raoul Limited Edition has been released in relation with fashion house FJ Benjamin and the Raoul brand. It also features the new Fashion Asia widget and went on sale in late October 2009 in Malaysia and Singapore.

Reception

Older firmware issues
Common criticisms of the original N97 were the relative lack of RAM and free disk space on the C drive. With only around 50MB of free RAM available after boot, the phone can become sluggish and close programs in order to conserve memory. Many first part applications also will only install on C: and with around 50MB of free space, this is used quickly as it is also where temporary OS files are placed. This issue was resolved in the N97 mini as the user often has over 250MB of free space on C drive. A memory mapping alteration from firmware version 20 allowed applications to use less RAM and free it up better, helping to ease the strain of a lower amount of free RAM to the end-user.

Anssi Vanjoki, EVP of Markets at Nokia, admitted that quality control in software has been an issue for this device, saying "it has been a tremendous disappointment in terms of the experience quality for the consumers", though, according to Vanjoki, later repaired by firmware updates.

Other criticisms
On occasion, the camera lens cover of the original N97 can cause scratches on the lens. Nokia has acknowledged that on many devices the cover is mounted too closely to the lens so that dust and debris can cause scratches. On later models however, this issue seems to have been resolved. The N97 mini does not have a lens cover.

The user interface of the S60 5th edition software platform, built on top of Symbian OS 9.4, has been criticized by the site TechRadar as inconsistent because menu items require two taps to be activated.

When compared to the original N97, the cheaper N97 mini was reviewed as an improvement, especially its keyboard. In spite of the generally lukewarm reviews the phone sold well.

Nokia N97 mini - Final words

The Nokia N97 mini is a very versatile full-featured device, nicely balanced with with hardly any serious holes in its specs sheet. What's best about it, is that "mini" moniker is certainly not a negative one. The N97 mini is in the size range of the Nokia 5800 XpressMusic and it's in fact thinner despite the slide out keyboard.

The N97 mini build quality and materials are on a exacting high level and we're glad the S60 touch UI is moving forward too. The UI has gone a long way since we first tried it on the 5800. Granted, there are still some inconsistencies and home screen widgets and flick scrolling or not, some people will scoff at the oddities of the UI.

What's good about the relatively new OS edition is that the Ovi Store is really picking up speed, which is great news for the N97 mini. The key aspect of an app store is that it lets users make full use of their phone. Without one a smartphone is pretty much left high and dry unless you go the extra length of searching and researching third party apps. The current selection of apps available for S60 5th is growing and the in-store experience is similar to what Android offers - and that's a compliment.

Well, all that being said, it's time we introduce the competition. The Motorola MILESTONE (or DROID in the US), certainly has drool-worthy features. Android 2.0 Eclair is stirring up a lot of excitement, although not getting the free Google Maps Navigation is a hard blow (it's US only for now). The rest of the specs though will certainly make the N97 mini sweat it.

If it's the social networking features that you're after, the Motorola DEXT is another Android alternative. Instead of Eclair, it runs the previous incaranation of the OS, but it's seriously spiced up with Motorola's MOTOBLUR interface.

The HTC Touch Pro2 doesn't have the 5MP camera but the bigger, high resolution screen and great Office integration will win over the business crowd. It's a bit on the heavy side, and we didn't quite like that about it.

Motorola MILESTONE • Motorola DEXT • HTC Touch Pro2

The Samsung B7610 OmniaPRO (another seriously large handset) fetches a premium price tag, but the appeal of a 3.5" WVGA AMOLED screen is undeniable. DivX support and Office document editing out of the box make it a phone that can do both work and play. And if these WinMo phones cross the price line you've set for yourself, check out the Sony Ericsson XPERIA X1 - it's noticeably lighter on your wallet.

Samsung B7610 OmniaPRO • Sony Ericsson XPERIA X1

And here's one for the maximalists - the current Nokia headliner, the N900. It blurs the lines between UMPC and smartphone to the point where buying two devices makes little sense.

Nokia N900

The Nokia N97 mini certainly lives up to the reputation its bigger brother already established. We certainly appreciated its solid and enjoyable user experience along with its minute and pocketable size and will certainly win the hearts of many Symbian users who will feel right at home with it.

Nokia N97 mini - Preinstalled application

Preinstalled application keep you connected, informed and entertained

Nokia Drawing is a new and simple piece of software that lets you draw stuff with different colors and thickness of the pencil.

Nokia Drawing

JoikuSpot Light is a free limited edition of JoikuSpot that shares your phone's 3G internet connection over WiFi (WLAN) to laptops and other WiFi devices. For a full feature set, you have to purchase the full JoikuSpot Premium at the Ovi Store.

The trial version on Nokia N97 mini supports only HTTP browsing, whereas the Premium one has more secure browsing plus VPN support.

JoikuSpot

World Traveler is a handful open platform application developed by Psiloc that is aimed to make the traveler's life easier. The program offers four services - weather, world clock, currencies, and world map. More about this piece of software to be found here.

World Traveler

AccuWeather for Nokia N97 mini is a Widget, which provides users with weather information for global locations including current conditions, 4-day forecasts, radar or satellite images, 15-day calendar view for a quick check of upcoming weather, hourly forecasts in graph format for visual display of temperature and conditions. It is also displayed on the home screen tab.

AccuWeather

Amazon is a simple application with different categories. There is also a search engine, which opens results directly in the Amazon site. You are also allowed to choose in which country you'd like to look for an item, which is great for the local buyers.

Amazon application

AP Mobile, which was announced this month with the launch of Nokia N97, is an application that enables users to choose their news, offering personalized delivery of content set according to their preferences. Consumers can scroll through stories and AP photo galleries as well as watch AP videos. Interesting images, videos or news can be directly shared via Twitter or Delicious.

AP Mobile is great for the Associated Press readers

Bloomberg application brings you up to date financial information. It has four tabs - news, markets, my stocks, and search section. If you are into finances, you can find out more about it at their website.

Bloomberg application

The final noteworthy app is the Reuters Slideshow, which gets you galleries from the mobile version of Reuters.com. It's not a news application, it just displays images from the several available categories with short explanatory texts.

The Reuters Slideshow

Here are some more of the preinstalled applications:

Elle • CNN Video • ESPNsoccernet • Metro

The Elle application serves up news bits from the fashion world, interviews, horoscopes and lots and lots of photos. CNN Video is a more serious app, which lets you watch videos from CNN news reports.

ESPNsoccernet is invaluable to soccer fans - it has schedules, news, results, everything about soccer championships around the world. Metro is yet another source of world news.

And there are other apps, but you get the point - the Nokia N97 mini comes with just about the most preloaded apps we've seen.

Nokia N97 mini - No games onboard

There are no preinstalled games on the Nokia N97 mini. None. Not even the so popular Snakes. That's a real shame.

The Ovi Store has free games to offer, but if you're going to put a Games shortcut on the top level of the main menu, like Nokia did here, they should have at least preloaded a couple of those titles.

Ovi Maps 3.0 comes to back up the GPS

Nokia N97 mini comes with a built-in GPS receiver and judging on our experience it's a sensitive unit but nothing spectacular. The handset managed to acquire satellite lock from cold start in about good 8-10 minutes upon the first attempt (A-GPS turned off at the time).

Nokia 5800 XpressMusic had it quicker, but still after you get the satellite lock, keeing it locked is not an issue for N97 mini even in dense urban environments.

The large high-resolution screen sounds like a serious premise for reasonable use as a dedicated navigation unit. Unfortunately, the N97 mini has only 10-day trial voice guided navigation (region dependant) and you need to pay for more.

The phone comes with Ovi Maps 3.0 Touch preinstalled (the rebranded Nokia Mpas). As you might have guessed this is merely a touch-enabled version of the standard Nokia Maps 3.0 application. It offers extensive map coverage for free but you do need to pay for most of its extra features such as traffic information or city guides.

As we just mentioned you will also have to buy the voice-guided navigation license, should you pick the application for the purpose. At least the actual purchase itself is quite simple directly via the phone interface. If you prefer an alternative navigation software, you might want to carefully look around for a compatible version.

The touch-enabled Ovi Maps application itself is doing pretty well in terms of features too. It has four different view modes including satellite and hybrid maps. Those however do need an internet connection. The more regular 2D and 3D view modes are also at hand.

Ovi Maps 3.0 Touch application offers four different view modes

The route planning algorithm is also rather easy to customize to best suit your preferences. Toll roads and motorways can be avoided and so can tunnels and ferries. Route selection can be set to either fastest or shortest. The app is also usable for pedestrian navigation or you can switch the GPS receiver off and use the phone as a hand-held map.

Some of the available settings

One of the gripes we had with Maps 2.0 was the lack of "Go to my location" shortcut On the positive side, panning and zooming in the maps is really fast and the high-res screen is capable of showing quite a lot of data.

The overall impression with GPS navigation on Nokia N97 mini is positive but, having in mind that a 1-year voice-guided navigation costs a lot and we are not sure whether many people will go for that. But who knows - with an ample screen like that it might easily replace a standalone navigation system.

Third-party applications and Ovi Store

When the 5800 XpressMusic first launched, there were very few third party applications available. But now, the S60 5th edition army has grown in numbers and the Ovi Store is fully operational and hosts over a thousand apps and games compatible with the N97 mini.

Two of the four pages of the applications menu

Browsing the Ovi Store, you can choose between several sections - Applications, Games, Audio and Video content, Personalization, Recommended and of course, My Stuff, which shows you the apps you've already installed.

The structure of the Ovi Store client is simple - a list with the name and logo for each app (or podcast, or whatever), the category it's in (Entertainment, Utilities, etc), price and a three star rating.

The Ovi Store has a simple but easy to use structure

Selecting an app, gives you more details - a description, info on size, reviews by people who have tried it, the ability to write a review yourself or sent the description page to a friend, a list of related apps and a Report issue button, which helps you report fraud, spam, abuse, etc., but not bug reports or feature requests.

Searching the Store is quite easy if the Recommended section and the Related apps list doesn't get you what you're looking for.

Our Nokia N97 mini comes preinstalled with a load of third party applications. Some of them are very handy tools for reading news, handling social networks, weather forecasts, etc.

Of course, since this is Symbian we are talking about, you can also pay a visit to some of the numerous sites for software available online. Here is one to get you started, while a simple Google search will show you the rest.

You can download the apps straight from your phone or from your desktop computer and than transfer them as you find fit.

Finally, Nokia Download! is still available, but when we tried it, it failed to load the load the list of available content. It's obsolete now, anyway.

Nokia Download! App