Nokia N97 – Review , Specification and Pics

Nokia N97 Review - Internet in your pocket
Nokia N97 Review - Internet in your pocket


Finally the much awaited Nokia’s high end Full Touch Screen Nokia N97 is out. It will be available in most of the stores in a week and expected to be priced at Rs 32000 -34000 in India. Around 380 UK Pounds, same will be available in US for 670-700 USD.  The phone has been much talked about for almost a year.The phone itself doesnt offer anything new except the full touch screen and QWERTY keyboard, a marriage between its Entertainment heavy weights like N96 and E series beauties. Actually N97 reminds me of some of the HTC slider phones, but they weren’t this good in features.

If you are someone expecting a slim phone then it isnt the phone for you, it is slightly thinner than the N96 or N95 8GB but still is 15.6mm thick  (18mm at the camera location). Lets get to comparing the N97 with some other popular phones.

The phone comes in two colors White and Black and the white definitely looks better. It definitely blurs the line between the mini laptops and Mobile phones, in terms of features it is better than any mini laptop.

Though most of the media ignorantly writes that main disadvantage of Nokia N97 is that it doesnt have a App Store like Iphone, the truth is the opposite. Most people have been buying Nokia N series and E series because of the availability of so many softwares and most of them being free. The symbian OS is the operating system with more softwares than Iphone OS or Windows Mobile or Google’s Android.

The Coolness factor –  Looks and Dimensions

Nokia N97 - Dimensions - Length x Width x thickness

Nokia N97 – Dimensions – Length x Width x thickness

Here are the dimensions of the popular Models

Nokia N97 –  117.2 x 55.3 x 15.9  (18.25)  mm

Nokia N86 – 103.4 x 51.4 x 16.5 mm

Nokia N96 – 103 x 55 x 20 mm

Nokia N95 8GB – 99 x 53 x 21 mm

Nokia E71 – 114 x 57 x 10 mm

Apple Iphone 3G S – 115.5 x 62.1 x 12.3 mm

Interestingly the Nokia N97’s dimensions are not far off from Apple iphone 3G S , it is 3 mm thicker than the iphone but has powerful features and Full QWERTY keyboard to balance that.

Pictures of Nokia N97

Nokia N97 Emailing - Front View
Nokia N97 Emailing - Front View


  • Form:Side-slide with tilting screen
  • Volume:88 cc
  • Dimensions:117.2 x 55.3 x 15.9 mm (18.25 mm at thickest point)
  • Weight (with battery):150 g
  • Additional size and shape information:
    • Sliding tilt mechanism


Nokia N97 - Front view dexternights
Nokia N97 - Front view dexternights

Keys and Input Method

  • Full slide out keyboard
  • Cover keys (S60 keys, Menu key, Send/End keys)
  • Touch screen
  • 4-way navigation key with centre select
  • Dedicated camera and volume keys

Memory

  • MicroSD memory card slot, hot swappable, up to 16 GB
  • Internal memory: 32 GB

Nokia N97 - Full Keyboard
Nokia N97 - Full Keyboard


Connectivity

  • Bluetooth version 2.0 with Enhanced Data Rate
  • TV out
  • Support for local and remote SyncML synchronisation
  • High-Speed USB 2.0 (micro USB connector)
  • 3.5 mm AV connector
Nokia N97 white - dexternights Back view
Nokia N97 white - dexternights Back view


Display and User Interface

  • Size: 3.5″
  • Resolution: 640 x 360 pixels
  • Up to 16.7 million colours
  • Resistive touch screen with separate touch foil and touch feedback
  • Brightness control
  • Orientation sensor
  • Proximity sensor
  • Ambient light detector

Power Management

  • BP-4L 1500 mAh Li-Ion battery
  • Talk time (maximum):
    • GSM up to 570 min
    • WCDMA up to 360 min
  • Standby time (maximum):
    • GSM up to 430 h
    • WCDMA up to 400 h
  • Video playback time (maximum): VGA 30fps
  • QCIF 15fps up to 5.5 h
  • Video recording time (maximum): up to 1 h per clip
  • Music playback time (maximum): up to 40 h

Operating Frequency

  • (RM-505, Global) WCDMA 900/1900/2100, Quad band GSM 850/900/1800/1900, HSDPA, GPRS, A-GPS, WLAN
  • (RM-506, PR China) E-GSM 850/900/1800/1900, A-GPS
  • (RM-507, Americas) WCDMA 850/1900/2100, Quad band GSM 850/900/1800/1900, A-GPS, WLAN
  • Automatic switching between GSM bands
  • Flight mode

Data Network

  • GPRS class A, multislot class 32
  • WCDMA maximum speed up to 3.6 Mbps
  • HSDPA maximum speed up to 3.6 Mbps
  • WLAN IEEE 802.11b/g maximum speed up to 11Mbps/54Mbps

Software Platform and User Interface

  • S60 5th edition
  • Active standby
  • Voice commands
  • FOTA (Firmware update Over The Air)
  • Automatic UI rotation
  • Software updates

Applications

  • E-mail (SMTP, IMAP4, POP3), MMS, SMS, unified editor
  • Viewing of email attachments – .doc, .xls, .ppt, .pdf
  • Mail for Exchange
  • Data: Calendar, Contacts, To-do, Notes, E-mail
  • PC Applications: Microsoft Outlook, Outlook Express, Lotus Organizer, Lotus Notes

Email & Messaging

  • Easy-to-use email client with attachment support for images, videos, music and documents
  • Support for SMTP, IMAP4, POP3, MMS, SMS. Unified SMS/MMS editor
  • Email web widget
  • Nokia Email
  • Mail for Exchange*

Other

  • Personal Information Management (PIM)
  • Search content in device and search on the Internet
  • Quickoffice document viewers (Quickword, Quickpoint, Quicksheet)
  • Adobe PDF viewer
  • Customization through themes, ringtones, applications
  • Portrait and landscape orientation modes; with transitions via dual slide operation, or auto-rotate controlled by accelerometer
  • Settings Wizard for easy configuration
  • Data transfer application for transfer of PIM information from other compatible Nokia devices
  • Nokia Software Updater for firmware upgrades with the user’s PC, with user data preservation
  • FOTA (Firmware over the Air Software Updater) for firmware updates directly to the device over WLAN or 3G

Nokia’s fastest mobile devices? – Nokia Mobile processors comparison

You might get surprised by the below numbers. A day after N97 was announced in I wanted to see how different are the high end ones different from the other models of Nokia’s Nseries and ESeries models. Here are the findings. Surprisingly N97 doesn’t have fastest processor and also it is marginally better than that of N95.

Generally the Eseries models had better and faster processors than their costlier Nseries counterparts. Below is the list of processor  CPU speeds for Latest Nokia mobiles.  The Nokia model with fastest CPU are E52 and E55. The N96 has dual processors (2 ARM 9) . Though the CPU itself is not the only criteria in pricing of the models, but costliest model N97 has a reasonably lower CPU speed than E52 which 50% of N97’s price.

Same with E71 and E63. E63 is exact replica of E71 except GPS and 3G.

Nokia E52  – ARM 11 – 600 MHz

Nokia E55 – ARM 11 – 600 MHz

Nokia N97 – ARM 11 –  434 MHz

Nokia N86 8MP –  ARM 11 – 434 MHz

Nokia N96 –  ARM 9 – 2 * 264 MHz

Nokia N79  – ARM 9 – 2 * 220 MHz

Nokia E63 – ARM 11 – 369 MHz

Nokia E71 – ARM 11 – 369 MHz

Nokia N79 – ARM 11 -369 MHz

Nokia E75 – ARM 11 – 369 MHz

Nokia N85  –  ARM 11  –  369 MHz

Nokia N95  8GB  – ARM 11  – 332 MHz

Nokia N82  –  ARM 11  –  332 MHz