WOW! Might This Be The One?

[ADDam]

NOKIA N97!

I'm Diggin' this thing

Nokia World Video:

http://events.nokia.com/nokiaworld/home.htm

Phone Promo Video:

http://www.nokia.com/A41445512

PDF Spec Sheet (http://events.nokia.com/nokiaworld/assets/pdf/Data_Sheet_Nokia%20N97.pdf)

FLASH Supported Browser!
3.5 inch 16:9 640×360 pixels resolution display
Integrated 3G wireless radio
Integrated 802.11 b/g WiFi
Integrated Bluetooth 2.0
Integrated GPS receiver with A-GPS support
5 megapixel camera with Carl Zeiss optics
32GB onboard flash memory with microSD for adding 16GB more
3.5mm headset jack
microUSB port used for both syncing and charging
Haptic feedback
1500 mAh battery

Looks like Retail Price is about $700 in Q1 of '09. Whoa.

http://www.blogcdn.com/www.engadget.com/media/2008/12/nokia-97-vs-iphone-3g-blur.jpg

http://blog.wired.com/photos/uncategorized/2008/12/02/nokia_n97.jpg

http://blogs.zdnet.com/cell-phones/images/n972.jpg

http://blogs.zdnet.com/cell-phones/images/n973.jpg

[Indy]

Wow to flash, 32gb with 16gb additional storage! 5 mp camera! Not so wow @ that $700 price tag. =/

[Hawk]

Drop that keyboard and I would be interested. otherwise it's too damn thick. (although the specs do sound very nice.)

[ADDam]

Drop that keyboard and I would be interested. otherwise it's too damn thick. (although the specs do sound very nice.)


N97
.63" Thick

iPhone
.48" Thick

Thats a .15" Difference, Less than a Quarter Inch. Almost 4mm. Not that Much thicker than the iPhone, and I would LOVE to have the physical keyboard! To each their own I suppose.

[Swagger]

For some reason I hate Nokia phones. I have to admit this does have some great specs. It seems that a hot phone's life is getting shorter and shorter. New phone's are coming to market on a daily basis. It reminds me of the ( back in the day) television show "The Million Dollar Man". We can make him better, stronger, faster. Mark

[ADDam]

For some reason I hate Nokia phones. I have to admit this does have some great specs. It seems that a hot phone's life is getting shorter and shorter. New phone's are coming to market on a daily basis. It reminds me of the ( back in the day) television show "The Million Dollar Man". We can make him better, stronger, faster. Mark


So Mark, Will you be adding this one to your collection of phones? Unless you attend rehab before this comes out :wink:

[jarofclay73]

Guaranteed it will not retail for $700. The Omnia was around $600 before a U.S. carrier picked it up. Now it's like $249 or something like that.

I like how the N97's keyboard is attached to the phone on both sides, unlike the T-Mobile G1.

[vegasflyby]

Drop that keyboard and I would be interested. otherwise it's too damn thick. (although the specs do sound very nice.)


I agree. I saw the first picture and I was slightly interested. The second picture made me realize the iPhone is the only phone for me. I love my onscreen keyboard and have never even wanted one since I've had an iPhone.

[UFGator]

Will the N97 support 3rd party apps?

[Hondamaker]

It doesn't have much on the iPhone , plus, like most of the other touch screen phones, customization is somewhat limited, and will there be thousands of apps to chose from? :wink:

[Youngbinks]

It looks to be rather large. Lengthwise at least. Just a bit on the top and bottom coupled with the extra thickness can make the phone seem huge in comparison to the iPhone.

[dturner]

Don't care for the keyboard. Just something else to break. And as Jack said, where are the apps? I'll stick with my iphone.

[Lincoln]

Nice phone - definitely one of the better "iPhone killers" out there. Still, too thick and no on the keyboard. It may sell well, but it won't touch the iPhone.

[psylichon]

That is hot. Indy you were right, Nokia was up to something. My issues with it:

1. Real keyboard. Don't want one anymore
2. (goes with #1) Slider... mechanical parts to go bad
3. Thickness
4. Nokia software.... you know it won't be as smooth as Apple
5. Apps? Eh....?

I'm lusting after that camera, though. I guess you can't really get Carl Zeiss without a little thickness [ahem]. And yes, a quarter inch is huge in cellphone land.

[dturner]

That keyboard is a common thread here. I just like a touch keyboard better.

[Twinnie]

I only just discovered this phone and I'm really impressed. I never planned to keep the iPhone all the way through the contract anyway but I don't think I'll be able to afford this without it being subsidized so I'm probably just gonna go mad with envy instead.

Why are people already deciding this phone has poor third party developer stuff? I understand that a lot of people in the US overlook them so I'll tell you a few things. Nokia has always had EXCELLENT third party developer stuff, not just on a commercial side but on the homebrew side as well. They have a developer site with all the usual SDK bits and bobs for anyone to download and dedicated staff who just help out whoever needs it, they also give out prizes to people who help out the community each month. I emailed them a suggestion once and had a personalised response two hours later. Nokia even had a sort of app store long before Apple were in the game, it's just nobody used it because it was some half baked thing that wasn't as impressively implemented and never promoted. Basically it was a bookmark link that opened up the browser on a mobile version on the Nokia Marketplace and you could download the installer files straight to your phone. Didn't matter though because you could download the installer files from anywhere on the internet (not just Nokia's site) and Nokia's PC-phone connectivity is so good nobody would have used it anyway. Hook up the phone via bluetooth, double click the installer file and that was it.

Back to the phone again though, I'll believe the UI is like that when I see a video of an actual model, not just a mock-up. And I think I prefer it because of the keyboard, I always thought I'd be alright with an all touch keyboard but when I'm typing a long text on my iPhone I find myself longing for even T9.

[Lincoln]

Yeah, the keyboard is definitely my main problem here. Before I got an iPhone, I thought I could love with physical keyboards on phones, just as long as they were QWERTY and not numeric. Now I hate the things. Virtual only.

And then there's the UI. I say this to every phone that comes along and is given the title iPhone killer. Not one has come close, at all, to scratching the superior interface that the iPhone carries. That alone is enough to, in my opinion, get the iPhone over what else is available at the moment.

[Saverino]

I REALLY want this phone! :angry:

I hope it comes with a good on-screen keyboard... I don't care too much for slide-out keyboards that much.

Also, the specs on this phone seem pretty incredible.

[Indy]

That is hot. Indy you were right, Nokia was up to something. My issues with it:

1. Real keyboard. Don't want one anymore
2. (goes with #1) Slider... mechanical parts to go bad
3. Thickness
4. Nokia software.... you know it won't be as smooth as Apple
5. Apps? Eh....?

I'm lusting after that camera, though. I guess you can't really get Carl Zeiss without a little thickness [ahem]. And yes, a quarter inch is huge in cellphone land.

I agree with 1 and 2. :wink:

[ravman]

Here are some apps:

http://symbianapplications.net/
http://www.clickapps.com/go_symbian.htm
http://symbian-freeware.blogspot.com/

Not sure how good they are compared to iPhone apps though?

This phone reminds me of the AT&T Tilt. Would be good if they could offer 2 versions of this. One with a keyboard (business) and one without (personal). But I guess the keyboard also contains other components.


That keyboard is a common thread here. I just like a touch keyboard better.

[monkeysrock0622]

I love the specs of this phone, especially the camera and storage. I like the slid out keyboard, but I don't think I will be able to type very well on it. Whenever I use my friends' phones I can't type half as fast or accurate as I can on my iPhone. It is a bit thick though, and Im not sure but I think I would be able to get used to such a thick phone. I'd have to see it in person though. The main thing I dont like about this phone is the interface. Its okay, but compared to the iPhone it's horrible. Plus there is no app store, yet, and even if there is one eventually, it wont be as good most likely.

[Twinnie]

A lot of people know how to program Symbian, but there's only been one Symbian Touch phone so far and that wasn't even a high-end phone, more of a case of Nokia testing the water (though I do hear the internet was supposed to be pretty good, better than Android but not quite as good as the iPhone). I'm sure Nokia will be improving their version of the App Store, whatever they call it now but whereas the iPhone is designed more as an all-in-one standalone device, Nokia smartphones have always been more reliant on connectivity with computers so they've got a bit of catching up to do to match the iPhone on it's own terms.

If you look on YouTube there are videos of live demos of this phone and no, it doesn't look as good as the mock-up. Then again, it's not out for ages so I'll gve them some time to sort it yet. Also worth remembering though is Nokia don't have a great reputation with slider phones, they always just seem to be pretty poor build quality. I hear the N96 was better, but still feels a bit tacky. I like the solid feel like you get with the iPhone.

[JoeT]

NOKIA N97!

FLASH Supported Browser!



It CAN'T have a browser that supports Flash; everyone knows that Flash won't work on a mobile platform.


Steve Jobs said so. :laugh2:

[Hawk]

Btw way, Not saying that the iPhone is superior, but you would think that the battery life would have been better on the N97. It should have the room for a bigger battery to say the least.

[Hayesimus]

Okay. Here's my input. I love the "look" of the phone. At least the white demo one, not the black one that was used in the video. I LOATHE a physical keyboard. I mean seriously, GET WITH THE TIMES! That's like going to get a VCR for you 54" Plasma TV! Physical keyboards are a thing of the past. Get over it and get with the program already! Learn to like them. And it IS thick. It doesn't matter if its .01% thicker. Its thicker-PERIOD. That's one of the reasons I don't like the 3G's, they are THICKER than the previous versions. (thinner at the edges but bulging in the middle!) And yeah, I'm skeptical that it could overtake the iPhones smooth interface.

Now what I like. I LOVE the better camera,(COME ON STEVE JOBS!) and I love the huge memory capacity. But that's not enough. If they would just make the iPhone with a 5megapixel camera and at least 32 GB of memory then I'd totally be in heaven. :p

[Twinnie]

Yeah but there's the freedom you get with a Nokia to consider, they really are designed to let you do as much as possible. None of this Apple crap of locking you out of the file-system, forcing you to use iTunes or only letting apps run in little sandboxes. Nokia allow and actively encourage you to do as much as humanely possible with your device. I mean, most iPhone owners want OTA syncing, well Nokia allows syncing via cable, bluetooth, wifi and even infrared, you don't even need to have Nokia software installed to do basic stuff because it supports mass storage profiles over the cable and bluetooth (don't know about wifi).

As for the battery life, post 2.1 I'd say the N97 will be worse than the iPhone 3G. You can replace the battery and get (much) bigger ones but I've found that third party batteries are never that reliable and if you want a good one you're gonna have to pay through the nose. And the GUI; it will be smoother than those live demo videos that are out, even Nokias current offerings are smoother than that so it's just not finished yet. On the other hand it won't be as good as the iPhone but then I don't really expect anything to ever be better than the latest iPhone offering, that's what Apple do best and they're the kings of the interface. If you fancy giving the N97 a try but need to lower your standards in regard to the UI may I suggest the Samsung Omnia, that phone's interface is ****ing horrible. It's got a tacky unresponsive finger based touch screen that reverts to the old WinMo UI when you dig in too deep but doesn't actually include a stylus so you're sat there trying to touch tiny little button with big podgy fingers.

[danipoak]

I love the look of this phone. I like my virtual keyboard but I like having the option of a physical one when I type out the long emails. You have to at least have the option of a virtual one now though I think. I've always liked nokia phones though, easy to use interface I have always thought. Plus they are incredibly robust. I once ran over mine with my truck and then it sat outside in sub-zero weather and was snowed on. I found it when I shoveled the driveway in the morning. It still worked. The screen just had a slight crack in it. Every other nokia phone I have had hasn't gone through anything like that but has lasted 2+ years without a problem.

[TarekElsakka]

Yes, sir. The N97 is the way to go. Here I am saying it again, I LOVE IT.

Hopefully going to buy it as soon as it comes out, but let's hope it's not going to be sold for $1081 after taxes and stuff :(.

[Hondamaker]

Yes, sir. The N97 is the way to go. Here I am saying it again, I LOVE IT.

Hopefully going to buy it as soon as it comes out, but let's hope it's not going to be sold for $1081 after taxes and stuff :(.Good, now you can hang out in the N97 forums! :tounge:

[TarekElsakka]

Did you see me saying I'm going to sell my iPhone? I will be here forever. Muahahaha!

[dturner]

4041........

[Napoleon_PhoneApart]

Did you see me saying I'm going to sell my iPhone? I will be here forever. Muahahaha!

"You have your finger in more pies than a leper in cooking school..."

I just had to use that quote; I got it from an episode of the UK version of "Life On Mars" that I just watched a few minutes ago. I have both seasons and am almost through the second. Great show!