This review maybe a little late but I had to wait for Nokia to officially launch the N97. I like doing things by the book. But for this particular review, I decided to be a wee bit unconventional, so I'm writing it from the handset itself. These notes will be emailed to my editor from the phone.
Form Factor
Let me just get those off my chest - I was a little skeptical of the N97's 3.5-inch resistive touchscreen working out too well. For the record, it's brilliant. It's as responsive as any other touchscreen handset out there.
The simplistic singular button for accessing the menu is just that... Simple. The touch sensitive call keys, on the other hand are just a little too closely spaced. It took a little while to get used to but the UI compensates with onscreen options. The front camera and light sensor work without a hitch.
The slide out QWERTY keypad and screen angle are every bit as great as any ad or image you've come across. There are arch-sliders and then there's the N97. The keys are a bit small, but I'm quickly getting the hang of it. I found the on-screen alphanumeric keypad extremely handy as well for quick one handed typing with its large keys.
The N97 may not be a sleek handset and it is just a little bit on the hefty side, but its weight seems well adjusted for comfort and portability. It has a 3.5mm earphone socket built in and one on the handsfree as well. Didn't care too much for the bundled earphones. A micro USB is located on one side. It doubles as a charger port as well. A screen lock slider switch is right next to it. A set of volume/zoom keys and a camera button are on the other side.
The 5mp camera with a dual LED flash is at the rear behind a slide protector. My one main issue is the lack of a hot swap slot for the microSD card, then again with 32 Gigs of space, it's no big deal. The rear panel had a problem sitting back into the grooves. I didn't want to force it any more than i did. It stuck out a bit ominously though.
All relevant accessories are included with the packaging. All in all, the N97 is a trendy well designed handset. I like it so far. On to the next section.
Features and Performance -
UI
The Symbian OS version 9.4 with an S60 UI coupled with an ARM 11 434MHz processor makes for speedy usage and virtually no lag while multi-tasking. It's at least a couple of levels higher than the 5800's. There's a smooth flow to the system and a quickness that accompanies it when it comes to opening apps like the N-Series video browser section and files that I've normally had issues with. Touchscreen navigation is no problem either. Like i mentioned earlier it's quite responsive but not annoyingly so that it'll activate features if it grazes your pocket or any other surface.
The desktop can be customized to include all relevant short cuts to various options, settings and features. It's called 'Live Desktop' as you can stay connected to Facebook etc. all the time and access it from here. With a flick of your finger you can easily hide all of the options. In some ways though, the 5800's desktop is better. The History for contacts option is not available here in the N97 for some reason. That was rather helpful to keep track of in coming and outgoing contact with a specific person.
Media
The N97 is definitely equipped with one of the better music players in Nokia's multimedia range of handsets. The tones are clear and quite well balanced. The 8 band graphic EQ and presets with Stereo Widening only make things better and provide for a richer audio experience.
The lack of a Visual Radio application was quite a disappointment. I was expecting it to be part of the feature set as it showed up in the specs all over the place. It does have an FM Transmitter though. The FM radio with RDS was just ok and in no way anything to write home about.
Sadly, Nokia still didn't find it necessary to include a few relevant codecs like DivX and XviD for video playback. Having a great widescreen like this feels like a bit of a waste in this case. So you'll still have to get a hold of a decent converter to alter your videos for the N97 to MPEG4 and 3GP. The ability to Copy Paste videos would have made this handset so much more appealing.
Podcasting, a voice recorder and a quick link to YouTube are available. The games are not impressive so no big deal. A few editing options are also present for pictures taken via the camera. It all supports AV out but no cables have been included.
