White Nokia N97 Light Leakage Fixed

May 19th, 2009 • Mark Guim • Filed Under •

Readers mentioned a noticeable light leakage on the white Nokia N97 protoypes and this got me concerned. When you’re spending a relatively large amount of money on a high-end device, you’re entitled to expect high quality from the manufacturer even if it means criticizing small issues like the light emitting from the call and end buttons. Fortunately, a recent Nokia N97 from Mobile Review does not show the problem anymore. Has Nokia fixed the issue?

Prototype A

Here are photos of a white Nokia N97 from Eric’s Nokia N97 preview on May 6th.

Nokia n97 Light Leakage 2

Nokia n97 Light 2

Prototype B

Here are photos of a white Nokia N97 from Mobile Review published on May 15th that does not show those problems.

Nokia n97 no Light Leak

Nokia n97 Light None

I’m relieved that the Nokia N97 from Mobile Review does not have that ugly light leakage that showed up on Eric’s post. I hope the production model won’t have that problem because I love the white color on the Nokia N97.

We’ll have to wait until the production Nokia N97’s are available to the public to see if the issue has really been fixed. Anyone switching to the white N97 after reading this post?

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  • DonWood
    Not being able to turn off the keypad lights on a white phone makes it almost impossible to read the characters. Nokia says you can turn these lights off an on by the button at the top left of the key pad. WHAT! the "Q?" That doesn't do it. I cannot imagine what they were thinking by saying that. Help!
  • DonWood
    I have the white Nokia N97 and LOVE IT. However, I'd like to learn how to turn the key pad light off and on. Nokia directs me to the a light key on the upper left of the key pad, but if you look at this picture, please tell me which key that is! I don't get it.
    http://media.share.ovi.com/m1/s/0858/dcc2257329...
  • Jarmo
    Me too would like to know, how to turn turn off phones lights. Battery wont last over night when they are on continously ( not to speak of sleeping disorder )
  • Jarmo
    Yep. The battery went empty. After reboot lights are no more bothering. This needs a reboot everytime when the lights stays on - !!
  • The Nokia N97 is quite a cool and smart device. This is an interesting posting related to the wonderful mobile.
  • N97 Resistive Film !
    Today I went to Nokia flagship store in NYC and asked for the N97, they showed me one prototype N97 that they claimed it can’t be turned on (Just as they told maharlika87)!

    I played around with it and then turned it on!!! It worked and the battery was charged well !! The Menu and the interface looked fabulous!
    After half an hour hands on, I have noticed the following:

    Pros:
    * The phone size looks ok and not as bulky as it looks in the pictures!
    * The interface and menu are great and smooth.
    * The picture viewer is great and better than the one on the 5800 XM, it's smoother and fluid (Just like the Iphone, with picture bouncing effect).
    * The picture resizing is pretty fast, it took less than a second to resize a picture while it takes 3 to 4 seconds on the 5800 XM.
    * The screen sliding mechanism is great and looks solid and durable.
    * The phone fits well in the hand despite its thickness as it is not very wide like Iphone and HTC Touch HD.
    * The black colour looks classy and doesn’t give the plastic feel of the 5800! (I haven’t seen the Wight yet).

    Cons:
    * The QWERTY keyboard buttons are smaller than I imagined! Looks bigger in pictures!
    * The feel of the buttons and the D pad is not as good as the new E75!
    * The screen is more bright than the 5800 but when you look at it from an angle with light reflection you can notice the resistive film dots which really annoys me (Some people doesn't care about it and cannot even notice it while others like myself see them well and get irritated) !!! Nokia should used a better screen type like the new resistive touch phones from HTC which has a very clean screen that you can't notice the resistive film dots only if you turn the phone off and put it under direct sunlight and try to look at it from an angle !!
    * The virtual Qwerty keyboard is removed from the phone and if you want to use the Touch screen for entering text you have to use the Numeric Kepad Style or the Hand Recognition !
    * I have checked the Sales package contents on Nokia USA and it seems that the TV Out Cable is not included and you have to buy it separately (For the 5800 it is included with the sales package) !
  • Yes, its been fixed for the public release. Julien Fourgeaud, from Nokia confirmed this to me on Twitter yesterday.
  • Good to know! Thanks Micky.
  • At the MWC, the N97 product manager told me they'd fix the light leak issue.
  • ok, now i'll go for the white one, if i get it... there's palm pre and next gen iphone to watch out for. yeah, yeah... this is the NOKIA blog.
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