I have just launched a website to say how much grief this phone has given me. Please visit www.dontbuyn97.com

N97-Customer Review
I was about the first set of persons to have received the N97 from Vodafone in the Uk, ill want to inform every one of the reality of this phone, it is not a good phone as we all thought, first this is the fourth replacement, Problems with the handset:

(1) Internet connectivity- It does not have as fast as expected connectivity when compared with the iphone which my friend has, this wasn’t even the latest of them but the version of iphone before the most recent

(2) Signal- I have never experienced any Nokia phone with such poor signal strength, even at a spot its signal fluctuates as if you are in a vehicle on the motor way, this was surprising to me as i had previously, had N95 8GB and the N96, which is even far better than the N97, yes they did not have as much of the modern features, but all their applications worked properly without defects.

(3)Speaker- This is also extremely disappointing, the output is just too low for such an expensive handset, the N95 8GB speaker is 3 times more powerful than the N97, you cannot enjoy music on this phone, and this is why they had put in the "useless AAA battery powered speakers in the package", I call it useless because (a) in this century why would Nokia include a speaker that cannot be powered by an inbuilt rechargeable battery.

(4)Tripping off- this phone sometimes trips off when it’s on charge by itself, what amazes me is that this is the phone Nokia calls its flagship model and secondly this phone has been in circulation in the US for almost year, since 2008 and it came to the UK with all these problems, I had gone online to see other reviews and I realised that there was none simply because it’s a new handset in the UK.

(5) There is also the issue of EXITING programs to save battery life whenever you finish using an application. This was an issue with the N95 8Gb, which I thought Nokia should have found a new way of EXITING programs once you click on the RED BOTTON or using a sort of TIMER MODE, but to my surprise this issue was never resolved and is now part of the way N97 is operated. You had to MANUALLY EXIT every application if not when you have about four applications ACTIVE, and you try to open a fifth one you get a message stating that your MAXIMUM application has been exceeded please exit applications, before you can continue with the new application.

(6) Freezing applications- At first I thought I was just a one-off event, that usually happens rarely with handsets, but this is not the case, the N97 from time to time freezes on its own, with the fourth replacement handset I have at the moment, within two weeks it has frozen its application three times especially with the FACEBOOK and ONLINE applications, you need to take out the battery then put it back in.

(7)Typing message in the calendar- when typing maybe a reminder of an event into the calendar, sometimes mistakenly you hand hits a button maybe, like the “RED end-call button” and the calendar closes, remember you had not finished typing, I expected whatever that was typed to be automatically stored into that calendar entry, so you just needs to open that date and continue with whatever you were typing but this is not the case, everything you where typing gets lost , you would need to star t all over again, to be frank this get one frustrated.

(8) Software- I think the software on the N97 is sort of defective, I can’t place my hands on what exactly is the issue but there is something not right with the way the software interacts with some applications.

Conclusion- (a) I am really disappointed with what Nokia had done with this phone, meanwhile they keep praising the phone and comparing it with the new iphone-S and the blackberry, really I have never used either the iphone or the blackberry so I cannot comment on there functionality, but what I can say is the phone is not as good as many people hoping to purchase it think.
(b) Nokia should have used the technology in the N95 8Gb and directly improved on it (like: Speed, certainly modern applications) without having to design an entirely new software.
(c) Nokia should have kept the existing speaker on the N95 8Gb in the N97, they might say the N97 is slimmer so it cannot accommodate that sort of speak on its side as with the N95 8Gb but it could have be placed at the back, with its existing speakers on the side.

To be fare, (1)The qwerty key board working in consonance with the full touch screen operation was a brilliant idea that was one of the reasons i actually purchased this phone and it proved very functional. (2) The external design(looks) is a brilliant idea and the slide effect is very innovative ant they used a solid raising mechanism which would be put to test over years.(3) The handwriting functionality for several operation is brilliant.

Finally: This is an expensive handset so price should not be an issue when designing a flag ship model; i would try to get this my finding into Nokia’s website so they know what their future users of this handset would face and the issues that would arise with time.
Henry.

N97- Battery Issue
The battery is not really poor, it is simply because with this phone every time you finish with an application, you'll need to click on the EXIT BUTTON before closing or clicking on the RED BUTTON if not the application would still be active and running at the background thereby discharging the battery very fast, most people do not know about this.

I was about the first set of persons to have received the N97 from Vodafone, ill want to inform every one of the reality of this phone, it is not a good phone as we all thought, first this is the fourth replacement, Problems with the handset:

(1) Internet connectivity- It does not have as fast as expected connectivity when compared with the iphone which my friend has, this wasn’t even the latest of them but the version of iphone before the most recent

(2) Signal- I have never experienced any Nokia phone with such poor signal strength, even at a spot its signal fluctuates as if you are in a vehicle on the motor way, this was surprising to me as i had previously, had N95 8GB and the N96, which is even far better than the N97, yes they did not have as much of the modern features, but all their applications worked properly without defects.

(3)Speaker- This is also extremely disappointing, the output is just too low for such an expensive handset, the N95 8GB speaker is 3 times more powerful than the N97, you cannot enjoy music on this phone, and this is why they had put in the "useless AAA battery powered speakers in the package", I call it useless because (a) in this century why would Nokia include a speaker that cannot be powered by an inbuilt rechargeable battery.

(4)Tripping off- this phone sometimes trips off when it’s on charge by itself, what amazes me is that this is the phone Nokia calls its flagship model and secondly this phone has been in circulation in the US for almost year, since 2008 and it came to the UK with all these problems, I had gone online to see other reviews and I realised that there was none simply because it’s a new handset in the UK.

(5) There is also the issue of EXITING programs to save battery life whenever you finish using an application. This was an issue with the N95 8Gb, which I thought Nokia should have found a new way of EXITING programs once you click on the RED BOTTON or using a sort of TIMER MODE, but to my surprise this issue was never resolved and is now part of the way N97 is operated. You had to MANUALLY EXIT every application if not when you have about four applications ACTIVE, and you try to open a fifth one you get a message stating that your MAXIMUM application has been exceeded please exit applications, before you can continue with the new application.

(6) Freezing applications- At first I thought I was just a one-off event, that usually happens rarely with handsets, but this is not the case, the N97 from time to time freezes on its own, with the fourth replacement handset I have at the moment, within two weeks it has frozen its application three times especially with the FACEBOOK and ONLINE applications, you need to take out the battery then put it back in.

(7)Typing message in the calendar- when typing maybe a reminder of an event into the calendar, sometimes mistakenly you hand hits a button maybe, like the “RED end-call button” and the calendar closes, remember you had not finished typing, I expected whatever that was typed to be automatically stored into that calendar entry, so you just needs to open that date and continue with whatever you were typing but this is not the case, everything you where typing gets lost , you would need to star t all over again, to be frank this get one frustrated.

(8) Software- I think the software on the N97 is sort of defective, I can’t place my hands on what exactly is the issue but there is something not right with the way the software interacts with some applications.

Conclusion- (a) I am really disappointed with what Nokia had done with this phone, meanwhile they keep praising the phone and comparing it with the new iphone-S and the blackberry, really I have never used either the iphone or the blackberry so I cannot comment on there functionality, but what I can say is the phone is not as good as many people hoping to purchase it think.
(b) Nokia should have used the technology in the N95 8Gb and directly improved on it (like: Speed, certainly modern applications) without having to design an entirely new software.
(c) Nokia should have kept the existing speaker on the N95 8Gb in the N97, they might say the N97 is slimmer so it cannot accommodate that sort of speak on its side as with the N95 8Gb but it could have be placed at the back, with its existing speakers on the side.

To be fare, (1)The qwerty key board working in consonance with the full touch screen operation was a brilliant idea that was one of the reasons i actually purchased this phone and it proved very functional. (2) The external design(looks) is a brilliant idea and the slide effect is very innovative ant they used a solid raising mechanism which would be put to test over years.(3) The handwriting functionality for several operation is brilliant.

Finally: This is an expensive handset so price should not be an issue when designing a flag ship model; i would try to get this my finding into Nokia’s website so they know what their future users of this handset would face and the issues that would arise with time.
Henry.

It's about time Nokia brought a heavyweight to the table. Reading the specs, it looks like they've thought of everything.

Nice review fine my father also using the same mobile which is locked to the T-Mobile US Country he wants unlock it.He found the unlocking instructions in the site http://www.mobileunlockguide.com/@free of cost.

I really hope this is the phone that can finally replace my black N82. I'll miss the xenon flash though, but the new features of the N97 should compensate for me.

It's funny how one can slam the performance of a phone that hasn't even been released yet. I'll look forward to playing with it in the London Nokia Store before deciding.

Not long to go now.

Del

You will miss your Xenon flash and the Dual ARM 11 332 MHz with 3D GL support - Do make sure you run Ngage on it with your N82 running the same app and you will get the point.

look at what goes on with no 3D Hardware http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O6zkJYF1w6A

Cheers.

How was the speed of the device and the responsiveness of the screen?

N97 also very lame, it’s a good job Samsung are doing the better hardware at the moment than nokia or Symbian would sink in it’s new master and keeps cak hardware.

I don’t think Nokia are listening to their customers anymore - a bit like the EU lol!

You will have a poo battery
You will use poor hardware
You dont need a 3d chip (N-gage over and out 3 fps)
You will use 2 year old slow cpu
You will not complain and moan lol!

Yea right………………….. of to the shop for a HTC pro or a google phone with a proper CPU/GPU

I can't judge before it is officially out.

How can you be so sure it will be slow? Current videos show the N97 being snappy. How do you know it will have poor battery life? It has a pretty big battery.

I'm looking forward to this phone, but I also hope I won't be disappointed. If it doesn't meet my expectations, I'll gladly return it to the store within 14 days of purchase.

http://www.gsmarena.com/samsung_i8910_omnia_hd-...

Look and read this before you get sucked into this con job...........

great review thanks for sharing

will this phone be able to have a sat nav installed

Will n97 3G work in Canada??

Here's my question: In the announcement video, the screen rotation was done with a nice, smooth, visual transition - the widgets all rotate on-screen. Yet, in the "hands-on" video we've seen, the screen just blanks out and reappears in the other orientation, taking about a second, and looking very bland.

Are these transitions going to be in the final product, or is this just misleading marketing?

This looks like the phone to have in 2009, its certainly a contender against the iphone

is n97 like LG KC910? have face recognition, smile detection, can record video until 120fps.

if not like that, it just like an ordinary phone to me, like nokia 5700

@idan, yes, the N97 have wonderful video features

@idigital,
can you make more specific about the video features??

i just want to know it more detailed because now i want to choose either LK KC910 or this NOKIA N97...

I agree with the other comments, the Nokia N97 looks brilliant, plus Im a fan of QWERTY keyboards.

pretty pretty, I love it, but sadly it will be released half year from now so, I'm stuck with my current N82 phone.. still I'm waiting in vein

wow sounds really nice! time to start saving money 8-)