It was about few weeks back when I first held the device in my hands and I really asked myself if the phone was worth the hype and price? Well, after using it for a considerable time I guess I have the answers to the aforementioned questions.
Package Contents:
Design:
To start with, Nokia has worked hard on N97’s design. And though, I agree that it is not up to the mark of a high-end premium phone, it is close. The phone feels solid in your hands. Large 3.5-inch display, chrome bezel, touch sensitive call keys add to the phone’s positives. The horizontal sliding mechanism is decent too creating a unique tilt to enhance better viewing.
The face is taken by its large touchscreen, call and the menu keys. Starting from left and moving clockwise, you’ll be able to find a two speakers, key guard, USB port; top with the power button and 3.5mm input; right with the volume and camera keys; and finally the down side integrates the microphone.
Keyboard:
Coming to the keyboard, I don’t know what were the Nokia designers thinking when designing one of the most important parts of the phone. Sure, the keyboard is well spaced out, has island keys but why did the intelligent minds shift the space bar key?! The space bar key has been shifted slightly to the right hand side and needs some practice before you get it right. Overall, the typing on N97’s QWERTY is good and as I crank out more messages, my typing speed too, is increasing.
Operating System:
Nokia N97 runs on Symbian S60 5th Edition which Nokia uses for its few-but-expanding range of touchscreen phones. Now, if you’ve used 5800XM, there are no major changes except few things here and there. Also, I feel the OS actually hampers N97’s hardware with the occasional errors it pops up while using the phone.
Camera:
N97 has a 5MP autofocus camera with Carl Zeiss lens. The camera can be activated by sliding the protection cover down or you can hold the camera button. Regarding the quality, the photos are not that bad when it comes to clicking under daylight but it tends to give out mediocre quality photos under low or medium light conditions. On the video front, the camera is able to record at a resolution of 640×480 pixels and can use dual LEDs as additional light in areas during low light videography.
Check out some sample shots below (Click for full-res image).
Widgets:
Widgets are an important part of N97. Widgets are small applications that can be access your favorite social networking sites, get stock quotes, e-mail and more. Nokia allows you to keep your four favorite widgets on the homescreen for quicker access.
N97 is the first phone from Nokia to come pre-installed with the Ovi Store. The integration is quite nice and you can install multiple widgets, applications in a jiffy.
Storage & Multimedia:
Massive storage is another thing which you may not find in other phones in the same range. N97 boasts a huge 32GB internal storage that can be further expanded to up to 48GB by inserting a microSD card. The mammoth storage makes it easy for users to store their multimedia content. And speaking of multimedia, N97 doesn’t disappoint either.
Coupled with the tilted screen and large widescreen, watching movies is a treat. Though there’s not a variety of codec support, going through the video conversion process is worth the pain. Indian N97 buyers will get pre-installed episodes of Khatron Ke Khiladi (Indian version of Fear Factor).
On the music front, the phone supports MP3, eAAC+, WMA, WAV and the built-in music player does a good job. It has various EQ options, Stereo Widening and has a good sound output when heard on a loudspeaker and also in the included earphones. If you ever get bored of your existing music library, there is FM Radio to the rescue or you can download new songs from Nokia’s Music Store. It’s also got a FM transmitter.
Other features:
N97 comes with the default webkit browser and the browsing experience hasn’t changed much except that I can use the touchscreen interface more efficiently now. The phone supports Flash, which means Flash required sites work like a charm. I tried YouTube and the videos rendered perfectly.
The phone comes with a built-in GPS receiver. Users can either use GPS either with Nokia’s homegrown Ovi Maps or third party apps like Google Maps. The usability again, is same but one thing that is added with the GPS receiver is the compass that is used in tandem with the Maps application.
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