As the iPhone attack seemed to be more serious than any other mobile phone makers could predict while struggling to came up with an answer, Nokia, being the biggest of them all have came up with another super multimedia phone to kill off the Apple iPhone march towards world domination. OK, I’m exeggarating but as Apple iPhone seals 30% of the mobile phone market share, while Nokia losing 20% - something drastic need to be done!
And the Nokia N97 is supposed to be the answer. With a size slightly bigger than the N95 but thinner, is where it tries to accomodate the 3.5-inch TFT 16 million colours touch screen that is very responsive and easy to navigate with the finger. This Nokia’s second touch screen phone and just like the first touch screen phone, the Nokia 5800 Music Express, it comes with a nHD 16 : 9 screen (640 x 360 px) - a 1/9 of the original HD resolution of 1920 x 1080 pixels.
The Nokia N97 is a great multimedia phone that offers great connectivity, multimedia and business applications
Nokia N97 Key Features
- WCDMA 900/1900/2100 (HSDPA), EGSM 850/900/1800/1900 MHz
- Camera - Carl Zeiss Tessar™, 5.0 MB still image capture, MPEG 4 VGA (640 x 480 px) video capture
- OS - S60 5th Edition
- Screen - 3.5-inch, 16 million colours, nHD (640 x 360 px) touch screen
- Memory - Potential 48 GB | 32 GB on board memory + 16GB SD support
Multimedia Playback
With the cool nHD screen, enabling it to play scaled down HD video files, with various supported media format - AAC, WMA, MP3, eAAC etc, definitely it needs a large memory and a potential 48GB on memory is sufficient or what? The BP-4L, 1500 mAh battery provided, allows approximately 4.5 hours and 37 hours video and music playback respectively in offline mode. The Bluetooth 2.0 also enables a bluetooth stereo headphone be connected to it.
Connectivity
The phone is quipped with a standard WCDMA, HSDA connectivity for fast data transfers, and also WLAN IEEE 802.11b/g Wi-Fi connection. It has Bluetooth wireless technology 2.0 with A2DP stereo audio, enhanced data rates (EDR) and also support AGPS built-in.
Image Capture
The Nokia N97 comes with a cool 5 MB pixel camera for still image capture that allows up to 2584 x 1938 pixels of JPEG/EXIF (16.7 million/24-bit color) format. Pixel does not ensure picture quality? Well, a Carl Zeiss Tessar™, with double LED flash, aperture of F2.4mm and 5.4mm focal lenght might. It also allows video capture up up to 30 fps, in MPEG-4 / SP and MPEG-4 AVC/H.264.
Verdict
The phone is great. Despite its size, which is slightly bigger than the Nokia N96 and almost tablet like, it has great features of a phone. A little overkill with all the features to compete with Apple iPhone, but will most probably appeals techies and loyal Nokia supporters. The advantage it has over iPhone is the QWERTY keyboard which glides smoothly out. However, I’m not sure about the Symbian OS though which serves to be at a disadvantage for this phone. Maybe Nokia could consider to strategically get Windows Media to support the phone - Windows Mobile 7 could make a big difference if the features offered lived up to its hype.
The unsubsidized and unlocked phone will costs about 550 euros or US$700 dollars which costs more or less like the iPhone in Europe, but 75% more expensive as compared to the Nokia 5800 Music Express. It also lacks AT&T 3G supports. All that apart, the features it offers is makes it a great phone and possibilt can challenge the Apple iPhone. Next hardest part - marketing and support.
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Latest I heard it’s gonna be sold for about RM2,500 in Malaysia.
i really wanna talk against u - cuz nokia owns most of the mobile market and it doesnt need touch screen phones just to kill or rip baby i phones , the only phone that is made by apple is the i phone yet nokia is the only company who provides mobiles from the low end devices upto high end devices completly , nokia 5800 xpress music with its so much capabilities and with the best prize tag for a touch screen is a good eg for my answer . and this is not the first time nokia came with touch screens incase anyone havent heard - In 2004, the Nokia 7700 was announced, a Nokia Series 90 device that was cancelled before it reached the market. This was followed by the Nokia 7710 which was an upgraded version of the 7700, which became available during 2005. Nokia also produced the UIQ-based Nokia 6708 phone in 2005, but this was not an in-house development and was bought in from Taiwanese manufacturer BenQ.[11]. Nokia have also produced a range of Maemo-based Internet Tablets which have a touchscreen interface, however these are not mobile phones.
so stop calling n97 or the 5800 i phone killers cuz they dont have much time to think about i phones and yet nokia dont have time to waste they only have time to make newer mobiles for better prize tags unlike some other companies tries to suck the blood out of the customers by selling there so called touch devices .
Hey there Gayan! Nice to find a tech enthusiasts who knows better than me. This blog however, is trying to elaborate each product in a very minimal technical terms.
As far as your facts highlighted, all of them never made it to the shelves for consumers to see. Hell, they can create a paper phone for all they care, but if it’s not on the shelf, then I would consider them non-existence. Maybe not you, who I reckon take great effort to know in depth about technology.
Like I said, this blog is for people who only cares on what is available on the shelf, what benefit does it give its users and help them in whether or not to make the purchase. Prototypes that you mentioned, are not available for purchase.
Thanks for the great info anyway. I’m not really shock to know about these prototypes as of course it is a regular practice to come up with prototype models. But the fact you knew the model in details is commendable.
As for the iPhone comparison. People, at least around me is so tempted to buy the iPhone. Therefore a comparison with an iPhone can’t be avoided. If you go through various blogs, they will try to compare and find an iPhone killer. Because that is what most of the people, non-techy folks would want to know.
Please come again, Gayan. I really enjoy the facts. Please email me to suggests if there are other things that is worth mentioning. Really appreaciate that