The allmighty N97 was released to serve as the Nokia flagship after two years with only one king: the N95 with all its variations from N95-1 to N95-6, but does it really deserve the title, or should be called N95-7 (along with the N96 and some other few phones)? Let’s review the reasons to get it, and reasons to avoid it.
Reasons to give some love to the N97.
I can still remember, it was a cool night when I was sitting on my bed with my old and trusty laptop and I was reading a nokia forum where people were making a poll of what features would you like to see on your dream Nseries phone. People where asking for a qwerty, they were asking for a touchscreen, camera cover, they were asking for many other nonsense stuff. The perfect Nseries was on it’s way. The very day they announced the N97 I was so excited. I can remember it was a December night and I was at my bed watching the phone I had always been dreaming of.
The N97 has the perfect form factor. It has a big touchscreen which you can use it with your fingers, or the handwriting recognition with a stylus, or if you prefer the oldschool you can always use the hardware keypad and buttons. You can leave it at the table while watching a video on the screen and the screen will tilt at a very confortable angle.
Also the keypad is excellent; I have learned to write on it pretty fast. You can hear and feel the keys clicking under your fingers and I find it so satisfactory, and very joyful to use. Despite people saying that the Dpad should be on the right hand, I have found that it is perfectly placed for gaming. Remember the NES dpad? It was on your left hand. The other day I installed a NES emulator and hooked the N97 to the TV and played all the day. I went 20 years back in time.
Another thing that I enjoy with my N97 is the camera. Let’s forget a bit that the cover will actually harm it instead of protecting it (we will get there soon). It takes the most beautiful pictures I have seen on a Nseries (I haven’t tested the N86 
. But really, it is a big improvement from the N95 and the N82. The dual led flash are really helpful on dark environments. Videos are crisp and clear. The only downfall here is that the videos have low volume when recorded, might be because the mic is under the keypad, so recording with the slider open might help.
The phone itself looks awesome. Mine is white, and it just looks very classy. The steel bezel delivers all that bling bling we all need. The big screen is just beautiful, and it is a pleasure to watch videos or pictures on it. Even watching the homescreen is a joy. I have caught myself many times unlocking the phone just to see that pretty screen.
Top Reasons the run and hide from the N97
The flagship is supposed to have the best of the best, the elite phone. Very exclusive and, for sure, very powerful. But as much as I try to get a reason to name it flagship I just can’t. The screen is big sure, the keyboard is handy and the form factor is something fresh, but I just can’t see a reason for such title and the heavy price tag. Almost every feature, every specification that the N97 has, has been used the two last years on different models.
Let’s name a few, dual led flash has been on the N96 since one year, the 5 MPX camera has been in the line since the Mr N95. The ARM11 processor is used by the 5800 and they are now clocked at the same speed. The GPS is also present from two years ago. The N97 has only 128 MB RAM. So I have to conclude that the qwerty, 3.5” touchscreen, compass and the 32GB of memory are the really expensive stuff here, because now I’m sure that Nokia had a drawer full of 128MB RAM chips and had to find a way to rid off them. With this amount of RAM is almost impossible to multitask properly. What were they thinking? Where they trying to copy the non multitasking fruit phone?
The N97 is overall a very solid phone, but has a really serious design defect. The camera cover has been reported to scratch the glass (mine does). So we have a device that will hurt itself just as a mental patient. These scratches will cause the flash to flood the pictures, so you will end with one side of the picture with a white cloud when using the flash. So if you are a big picture fan, this a good reason not to get the N97 right away, unless nokia fixes it.
Another thing that I would like to point out is that the N97 is not a phone, it’s a hive full of bugs. Some are annoying, like when I try to zoom in a picture at the gallery, the app will go to the background and take you to the homescreen. Some widgets would stop working just because. The transitions (theme effects) would turn off by themselves. And sometimes when receiving a call the phone would freeze, giving no option but remove the battery. Once I was watching my phone directly while it was sitting at the table, it was a touching moment between my little device and me, and then suddenly without me doing anything, the Nokia logo comes up, and the phone restarts itself, it was just awkward.
can you hear the bugs buzzing??
We all know that Nokia will release firmware updates very soon, ceasing the existence of such bugs. My inner nokia fanboy tells me that the N97 will be an awesome device in one or two months after some updates and that RAM shortage will be a past thing, Im sure Nokia will do wonders with 128MB in the future, I know we are before the next N95; but my common sense says that two months is an eternity in “gadgetical” years. Hell, nokia will surely release 4 new models in that time, 5530, N900, N97 mini and the E72 are on their way. That makes 4 devices born in the time they make one flagship show all what it can do. Dont get me wrong, the N97 is completely usable, but those random bugs are a big annoying issue.
Get or not?
So finally we can conclude that the N97 is a great device, it has everything you would need in a gadget. But I don’t think there is a good reason to rush out and buy it right away, at least not yet, unless you are digging the form factor which i awesome on its own. It will be a month or so when they release a killing firmware that will make it work 100% flawlessly and deliver awesome features, by then the N97 price will drop and you will be able to get it cheaper than the actual hive nokia sells for a flagship. Just wait and see.
But if you ask me if I love my N97, I strangely would say YES!
David Castro
ps. many thanks to WOM World for taking me into account in the trial a nokia program! THANKS!