Nokia has announced that the follow-up of their 5800 XpressMusic touchscreen phone. The Nokia N97, a 3.5-inch touch screen and sliding keyboard querty used.

Appearance

The overall design of the N97 is not unique, similar to a Google G1 and Apple iPhone Lovechild, comparisons were also drawn to the AT & T Tilt, and rightly so. Despite the absence of the Nokia N97 the imagination is a beautiful thing, except for a small button at the bottom left corner of the 3.5-inch touchscreen dominates and looks elegant and well designed.

When the keyboard is slid querty the screen at an angle, looking remarkably like the HTC TyTN. The N97 is wider and thicker than the iPhone, which itself is not exactly inconspicuous, allowing the N97 feels a bit too much, especially for people with small hands, despite the N97 looks and feels solid and well made.

Unlike most mobile phones with a keyboard querty into their design, the keyboard is querty itself a complete success. Despite the room occupied by a directional pad on the left, the buttons are well distributed, so that even those who are more fingers will not end with two or three at a time.

Performance & Interface

The N97 has a very good memory of 32 GB, beyond what can be closed with a 64 GB microSD card for more. Anyone familiar with recent Nokia phones will be aware of the Symbian S60 OS, the N97 has been revised for the fifth time, but unfortunately, not entirely successful. There was a significant improvement in the N95 and N96, but the return of delay and navigational errors leave behind the iPhone waxed. The cause is probably the lack of power by a 500 MHz processor in less than literally a computer handy.

The N97 has a redesigned home screen contains a number of widgets to select, which automatically align portrait to landscape mode. Fans of the 5800 XpressMusic will be glad to hear that the N97 many features of the 5800 home screen, what is most important is the ability to choose your reserves four favorite contacts.

The default widgets N97 is not a bad choice and consist of shortcuts, Facebook, your favorite contacts Clock Function and Accuweather, but are added to a variety of widgets. Not all widgets are available, even if successful, what matters most is the Amazon widget, as far as I could tell only displays articles randomly. This standard widgets is the first thing you see when you turn it on, and were the first thing around me played with, and unfortunately, they have shown that the lack of power and apparent bugs with the N97, which tends to bit erratic. The Facebook application that most frustrated me that it has taken me go … repeatedly.

Other features include TV out, WiFi, GPS, Bluetooth, GPS, FM radio and a 5 megapixel camera with Carl Zeiss lens. The Nokia N97 runs on GSM networks and supports quad-band 3G/HSDPA.

For some reason I can not quite, the N97 has been designed with a resistive screen, understood in contrast to the capacitive screen of the iPhone. It is very reactive, the combination of larger buttons and sliders, virtual make navigation incredibly simple, despite its relatively small body.

The Verdict

Me realize that I was a bit harsh on the N97, but I was expecting great things, a true challenger to the iPhone, so how did things happen?

I loved -

The build quality is very good, the joint does not feel like it came from the hand and touchscreen is rustic. The look is a success, the N97 is … I dare say, better than the iPhone.

The huge amount of memory in something so small is a big plus in spite of minor falls Ovi Store, its existence opens the door for application upgrades without end, to help fill this large memory.

The battery life was good, and if so, will be loaded in about two hours.

But for me, the most successful of this phone is the keyboard querty, when combined with the screen tilted HTC TyTN, because it is perfect.

I did not -

Although the 3G connection is an annoyance that I could live with it, the main problem I have with the N97 still frustrate me … Why Given this huge amount of memory and a processor to manage so small. This leads to another tern falls, including annoying delays and hangs.

Would I buy one?

Overall I found the N97, despite its flaws, it is the best Nokia ever. But with a price of free SIM card is about £ 500 I decided on an iPhone … No, I’m afraid there’s just too annoying factors that need to be addressed.

“Nokia – a big effort but could do better”