Nokia N97 Review of a Prototype

January 28th, 2009 • Mark Guim • Filed Under •

Last Friday during the New York Nokia Users Meetup, I played with a Nokia N97 prototype. I’m now giving you my initial thoughts about the device. It’s nowhere near production because it kept crashing. Since the hardware is pretty much what we’ll see when it comes out, this preview will be based on that.

Gwapz and Nokia n97
Erick from MWI with the Nokia N97. Photo by Will Sisti.

Slider

I inspected the sliding mechanism right away. It is very cool! It’s really firm. You hear nice solid clicks when you slide it up or down. The quality was so good that I was constantly sliding it up and down and didn’t notice any wobble to the sides. We’ll have to wait and see if the production models maintain this high quality.

Take a look at the video below and to inspect the slider. Head to the blog if the video is not visible in your RSS reader.

Keyboard

The keyboard layout was designed differently from a typical Qwerty keyboard. The spacebar is located to the right side. It took only a few minutes to get used to, so this is not an issue I’m worried about.

Nokia n97 Keyboard
Keyboard close up

Last Friday, I was concerned that the Nokia N97 was missing a dedicated period button. I told everyone on Twitter that I couldn’t find it! I had to press the Chr button and then click the screen to select the period. A second look at the official press photos and other sources show it being to the right of the letter L. The prototype I played with had the letter Ñ.

I did not have any issues pressing the buttons. All the presses were recognized by the phone. If you were fine using the tiny keyboard on the Nokia E71, the N97 shouldn’t be a problem. The buttons also felt like hard rubber, different from the rest of the phone. The friction from the buttons’ surface helped me feel the separation.

Touchscreen

I’m not sure what I feel about navigating through the menu with the touch screen. For a prototype, the interface was very quick and responsive. My problem was sometimes a menu only needed one click, while others needed a double click. Very confusing, but I’ll wait for the final product to give my judgment.

Scrolling though lists is different from many of us are used to with the iPhone. For example, on the iPhone, you drag up to go down the list. On the Nokia N97, you guide down to go down the list. I hope you can imagine what I just said. We all know that there’s no multi-touch support so we can’t pinch or expand our fingers to zoom in or out of web pages or photos. I will honestly say that with the few hours I spent playing with the Nokia N97, I still preferred the “touch” experience on the iPhone.

Final Thoughts

I’m looking forward to the Nokia N97 because it has great potential. Like what I wrote previously, it could be the answer to my problem. Contributor Renegade Fanboy also chimed in that it will be an amazing device but there could be 5 reasons not to buy the N97. We’ll have to wait for the final retail version of the Nokia N97 to make our thorough review. I really hope Nokia does not disappoint us.

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  • nice post
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  • vaqar001
    N97 is just balls. Biggest example od hardware and software bugs in the history of nokia.
  • Pedro
    Nice blog :)
  • So the second touchscreen phone is here, hoping it is better than the Nokia 5800! Ive heard this should be with us in about 4 weeks for the UK
  • The for market version looks a lot more cleaner than the prototype
  • Andy Burgin
    The Chinese copy people have already made there N97 an its available on tradetang.com,so thats what Nokias got to stop doing announcing there phones to early then copies of there mobiles get released by the Chinese copy makers an the N86 will be the same,so buying a phone on the internet you better check out your buying the original Nokia phone an not the copy one
  • unknown
    which phone will be better de new iphone 3g 32 gb comin out in 2009 or de n97. how much will the n97 cost in the uk.
  • Looking forward to the release of the Nokia N97. Am thinking Facebook or twitter will build an application to use the social location functionality so everyone knowns where you are. Obly thing im thinking about this phone is that nokia should of gone Android!
  • Paul
    I have been waiting for years for a touchscreen nokia & now all I can say is GOOGLE ANDROID. Nokia Nokia who designed the software the scrolling should be the same as every other touchscreen Why WHy Why, I am going to move to Android as they seem to listen to the consumer.
  • That's a good clicky lookin slider!

    It's funny that you can hear Serko raving about the Palm Pre in the background audio! : )
  • @matthew bennett, lol serko was talking about the Pre the whole night.
  • mikeevans
    Mark, what's the keyboard like to use? I notice there's only one shift key.

    This is the same as the Toshiba Portege G910, and it measn you have to get your fingers into all sorts of contortions when you want a capital A, for example, or to use the @ symbol.

    The G910 was the worst keyboard (and smartphone!) I've ever used - is the N97 any better?
  • Solos
    "For example, on the iPhone, you drag up to go down the list. On the Nokia N97, you guide down to go down the list."

    That's terrible. It's very intuitive, that when You want to go down the list, You drag up. It works in iPhone and Android. I hope Nokia will add option to choose how You need to drag to scroll down the list. That would be the best option. Let users choose.
  • Jeran
    I have the Nokia 5800 for about 3 weeks now. Although the issue with having to click 2 times instead of 1 time might be annoying, but you can get used to it...

    All this whining about that mechanism is getting annoying by the time. It's the way it is. It's different to other touch screens, but yeah, Nokia has to maintain a common base for both touch and non-touch phones. Otherwise prices will raise due to developing costs.

    During my 3 (or were they just 2?) of heavy usage of the Nokia 5800 I don't even have to think about if I have to click once or twice.

    This reminds about the discussion of iphone fanboys vs iphone haters where the haters allways come up with: "You cannot even copy and paste with the iphone. the phone is rubbish". That was funny for the first 2 days. Than it was annoying.

    Regards,
    Jeran
  • Toshidude
    Just out of curiosity: did you try the Audio-Player? And if so, do you by any chance remember if the N97 has also only 10% steps to raise or to lower the volume?
  • The UI issue you mention, about menu options sometimes needing one click and sometimes two, is exactly the same problem currently on the 5800 XM. I've had a 5800 for about a month now and can attest that it's annoying. I really hope they address this small usability glitch before the N97 comes out because it's one of those details that seems small but stands out, like sand in your shoes.
  • @Chris Walters, I hope they fix that issue on both devices.
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