The Nokia N97 is the newest phone in the N-Series line of devices. It offers touchscreen capabilities, a very cool widget based interface and some other added features that bring this newest N-Series device to life. Is it perfect? Far from it, but it's still a great option for power users.
| Build Factor and Design | Rating  |
Plain and simply put the Nokia N97 felt great when I got it in my hands. The device offers a length of 117.2mm, width of 55.3mm and 15.9 mm in thickness. The size makes it perfect for throwing in your pocket, while still large enough to navigate around the device without need for a stylus (finger friendly).
The N97 is dominated by the very large 3.5" touchscreen display that takes up most of the devices frontside realty. The only other buttons you'll notice on the front side of the screen is the call and end buttons which are flush and touch compatible, offering a nice blended option that keeps the front of the display smooth while offering simple dialing functionality. You'll also notice a video conferencing camera option on the front of the device which is also flush to the device.
The back of the device then features a 5MP camera with a dual led flash that isn't as flash as the front side of the device, but which offers a nice lense cover to protect your camera.
Users can also slide their display in an upward motion to reveal a rather large and useful full size qwerty keyboard. This keyboard is complemented my soft keys that can access screen functions in landscape mode and a d-pad to the right of the keyboard which offers some of the best non-touchscreen navigation I've seen to date on touchscreen based devices. The keyboard also offers keys that are well spaced and raised high enough to make for easy typing with a fast learning curve.
The rest of the options on the device are pretty standard, including the microUSB slot for charging and syncing.
The device feels well built when you hold it, except for the battery cover which feels more like cheap plastic than high end plastics or metals. The sliding mechanism didn't show any signs of gaping or loose components either, although the thin plastic piece that holds it up worried me since it's rather thin and looks ready to break.
Overall the build quality is comparable to the HTC TouchPro 2 and didn't give me any problems.
Here's a look at the design factor of the device:
| Display | Rating  |
The display on the Nokia N97 offers a 3.5" display that that outputs at 640x360 pixels of resolution. While the output isn't too bad the colors on many apps often appeared faded compared to other high end devices. However when using Nokia icons and the basic Nokia provided themes the screen appeared more optimized.
On a separate point the touchscreen capabilities didn't feel too bad. I found that navigating around the devices display was simple and even the lightest of touches had quick feedback. When dialing contacts and swiping my finger from screen to screen there was little to no delay and the tactile feedback made the screen feel more like a keyboard than the Nokia 5800.
Overall Nokia is moving towards better touchscreen displays and for a relatively newcomer to the touch screen device market the company is off to a relatively good start.
| Connectivity | Rating  |
The Nokia N97 comes in two versions the worldwide version with non-3G in the U.S. and the more U.S. network friendly Nokia N97 NAM. In the U.S. the NAM version offers super fast 3G connectivity that's perfect on the AT&T Wireless network, while Edge and GPRS functions also work well in non-3G areas or on the T-Mobile network and a variety of Canadian 3G networks. Setup of the mobile data networks is not only easy its automatic, simply plug in your SIM card and your ready to go.
The N97 also offers Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g with UPnP technology. It's extremely simple to choose an available network and connect to those networks in just a few quick clicks. I was able to connect in a matter of seconds to my unsecured home network and to a secured network after entering the required password. The WiFi option not only connected quickly, web pages via the included mobile browser loaded quickly.
This Symbian Smartphone also offers Bluetooth 2.0 with A2DP a function that allows Bluetooth Stereo headphones to be used alongside the devices stereo output. I tried out the A2DP function with an older Motorola S9 headset and I found the quality to be on par with other Nokia music based devices.
If you want to connect via GPS this N-Series device offers Assisted GPS with Nokia Maps. Simply wait 10-15 seconds and you're location shows up on the mapping service and directs you with turn-by-turn directions. Nokia routinely offers free trials of the software, however a subscription is required after that point. I found the GPS to be competent and rather fast, but overall I would have preferred the stronger antennas of Sirf III processors typically found on Windows and Google Android based devices.
Finally the Nokia N97 offers a microUSB port that not only charges the phone, it can sync the device to your computer as well. The port is well placed along the side of the device and it offers quick connectivity when you have the device you want to attach to within your reach.
Overall the connectivity is standard but offers excellent options for even the most high end of users. Whether you need a quick connection or a more robust set of options you get them on the N97.