marxistvegan on 8 June 2009:

Not to ask too much but would it be worth putting up a spec for spec comparison between the N97 and the 32gb Iphone 3GS? it'd be nice to see

Shawlar on 8 June 2009:

Iphone upgraded their internal storage and they have all the cool features but it is the most overhyped phone they still only have 3mp camera. the fact that they insist on making it available exclusively to ATT bothers me. I like my cheap sim-card tmobile service..it gives me the chance to buy expensive phones like N97!!! and really I think $600 through amazon is a great price considering it being unlocked and the amazing features! I just hope the ovi store can match the iphone app!

Al Pavangkanan on 8 June 2009:

No Pre option?

Asad on 9 June 2009:

offcourse iphone 3gs. nokia n97 cant compete with iphone.

RobertH on 9 June 2009:

@seaotter…..are you serious with that comment of the iphone camera being better? or are you just having a laugh?
i do agree with your e71 comment….the camera was horrible!! but then again its an eseries and not expected to be a multimedia device (still no excuse)

@al pavan…..im sorry but what does the palm pre bring to the table? i looked at the specs and nothing to fuss about…..
honestly think this poll should be palm pre vs iphone 3gs as they are more similarly spec'd

a good poll would be N97 vs omnia hd
now there is a good competitoon!

i cant wait to june 19th is that the release date for the iphone in the uk?
as its also the release date for the n97……
the apple and nokia stores here in the uk are DIRECTLY opposite each other in london on regent street……..
its gonna be a great showdown…..come the 19th

Scott on 9 June 2009:

$700 vs $200?

PV on 9 June 2009:

Let's clear this up:

iPhone 3GS:
You'd really need to talk about the 32GB version… which means that it's $300. But that includes a 2yr contract for a *new* AT&T customer… If you're upgrading from another phone, it's actually $700 *with* a 2 yr contract…

Nokia N97:
Only available Sim-Free in the US, is $700 from NokiaUSA (or $680 if you get the $20 warranty extension which throws a $40 discount — basically – Nokia's paying you $20 to get an extended warranty) And that doesn't even count the 'free' bluetooth headset…

AT&T:
Now – say you are going to use this on AT&T, and the 2 yr contract doesn't bother you… That's fine too… Let's compare the devices based on data pricing alone.

iPhone 3GS requires AT&T's iPhone plan – which is $30 a month… on a 2 yr contract that's $720 over 2 yrs, and mind you – that's *just* data, and it's *required*

N97 doesn't require a data connection – so you could save that $720, making the net cost for the phone $680 over 2 yrs vs. a iPhone3GS… Of course, now you're gonna say 'but why would I buy such a phone without the data plan?' A valid argument… So let's add a data plan to the N97 – the $15/mo media net plan is available for this device… over 2 yrs that's $360..

TCO:

iPhone 3GS for new customer: $300 phone + $720 data = $1020
iPhone 3GS for everyone else: $700 phone + $720 data = $1420

N97 thru NokiaUSA: $680 phone + ($360 optional data) = $680 or $1040

So – taking the opposite bias of your initial post, the question is more like:

$680 vs $1420

Happy now? Glad I could correct that…
—

As for my opinion to this poll:

For me – there's no contest: I need a touchscreen *and* a physical qwerty… I couldn't go to anything else after over 5+ years with that setup…

Rob de Knegt on 9 June 2009:

have you ever compared the camera of the e71 to a N-series phone with 5mp like the n95 or n79. the difference between the e71 and those is mind blowing. i think the purple tint is also partly a limitation of the small 3.2mp sensor of the e71. There's just a limit to the quality of pictures in low light, especially with smaller camera sensors (like the e71) i think the iphone 3gs will have this same problem even with (better than nokia…?) software optimization.

no i'm definately going with the n97, cant wait until I receive mine.

James Burland on 9 June 2009:

The N97 is certainly the phone for you Mark. I've been very impressed with it so far. The industrial design is superb.

seaotter02 on 9 June 2009:

I am, somewhat. My premise is basically wherever Nokia can screw up software, they will, including the camera photo processing, which can largely negate the hardware advantage. And I don't put it past them to further screw the software up in later firmware releases, as they did with the E71.

I'm not saying it's the case yet, but I am keeping an open mind and waiting for sample shots from both cameras in various lighting conditions. Does one handle white balance better, auto focus better, does the Nokia up the ISO rating while the iPhone tweaks the aperture or shutter speed?

I have no idea – but I'm certainly not ruling the n97 a winner just based on the hardware spec win. Hell, if Apple were to even let those settings be manually controlled (very unlikely given Apple's history), that'd be a huge win even w/ the limited hardware and it's even plausible that an app can do that.

BTW, I'm writing this from a US perspective too – there's a bit of a stigma here owning a Nokia phone because they have a tendency to screw over their American users. Very few in this country still consider them a relevant phone manufacturer, and deservedly so for past performance.

seaotter02 on 9 June 2009:

The difference in 3.2 mp v 5 mp is negligible – the quality difference really comes down to the optics and the processing used. I had a 8 year old, clunky as a brick, Canon p&s that shot at 2 megapixel and put out better color reproduction and clarity than some of their newer 7 mp cameras. In the case of the E71, the terrible quality is all software-related. You can even see some of the improvements made in the E71x, which to my knowledge has the exact same hardware, but somewhat fixes the excessive noise and purple tint issues.

I did own an n78 for about 2 weeks before returning it – which left a bad taste in my mouth for all N-Series phones – horrible build quality, dozens of bugs, slow, poor camera quality – overall a piece of junk.

I admittedly have been seriously tempted by the n86 – 28 mm equiv would be nice on a phone – but find it hard to trust Nokia not to screw the phone up in other ways.

RobertH on 9 June 2009:

as you may imho the iphone is utter garbage….
it reminds me of the craze that surrounded the motorola razr……(the original v3)
everyone had to have one…from hollywood stars to the man on the street… then there was the v3i that added a memory slot then v3x….you see where this is going?
admittedly the razr was a very smooth “fashionistic” phone….all beauty but no brains….such is the iphone…..very pretty device….but what can it REALLY do for a real phone user? rotate the screen? pretty animations? and?
so this new iphone added a 3mp camera,multitasking,mms and video recording….
(which in point 3-4 year old devices did this….we call that standard features…which ARE expected in what i at least consider a device touting itself as a “smartphone”….can the iphone send/receive files via bluetooth with this new version? or is that feature for the iphone 4?….i personally find it ridiculous that people have fallen prey to a marketing gimmick 3 times….and whats worse is that actual proper devices are being thrown by the wayside for the iphone….then you hear with every perspective device coming to the market it gets compared to that nonsense device! what will it take for people (especially in the US) to realize that the iphone is 3-4 years late in features? and actually behind time rather than in front?

Madoda Hlongwane on 9 June 2009:

Definitely the N97

Greg on 10 June 2009:

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mike on 16 June 2009:

the nokia n97 has a max of 48gb wen you buy memory stick with out it has 32gb

Conrad on 18 June 2009:

I'll give you $600 for your 3Gs just let me know, conrad at burn tek dot com

cmcken1 on 20 June 2009:

I have the N97 and, it's fatser than an iPhone…in fact, I was way surprised to feel how fast it is for only having one CPU and that large of a display. But, it's not slow and clunky- those videos may have been made with old beta or even alpha software and who knows what rev the hardware was at. This new N97 is very good. The only thing is the keyboard layout is different from what normal phones that feature a full qwerty board have. The space bar is placed all the way to the right and there are no dedicated number keys but, other than that, it's very nice to use. I am going to compare it today against the new iPhone and see how it compares. The touch screen is amazing on it. It works very well despite it being a resistive screen. It works and, in fact, that last gen iPhone hosed up when I was using the touch screen to type into a search box- it froze up on me. So, I don't care what technology is used as long as it works reliably.

Yuhann on 24 June 2009:

there's handwriting recognition on the iphone, and works ok. (I've got extremely bad and inconsistent handwritings)

MivO on 14 July 2009:

Copy & paste is a very useful feature of the new iPhone, I feel. But the N97 doesn't offer that, does it?

NokiaMakesAppleJuice on 15 July 2009:

Apple is over-rated. The iPhone is a piece of technological joke, you may ask why. Well, think of this in a simpler manner, how many phones manufacturer dare to release a phone with no flash?

Besides that, the iPhone's battery is a bloody annoying thing to replace. Would you actually spend a week or two just to get your battery replaced? Or would you purchase a new N97 battery at any Nokia shop? I have no comments if you are saying Nokia phones are tend to be slow and laggy, I've held the Nokia N97 today with my hands. As I was browsing through all the applications, it was smooth and the camera is much faster compared to the current N95 that I'm using.

iPhone, I've used it before and honestly.. I'm not impressed at all. Sure, you have all that touchscreen gimmicks but really.. is that all you got? I've tried to send photos with iPhone and I'm telling you, it's probably one of the dumbest software design ever. So, yeah.. I actually read that some of you did mention that Nokia's software technicians are amateurs to Apple's software technicians.. Guess what?.. Apple didn't have the brain to implement proper connectivity software program into the iPhone.

So, please.. If you actually even thought of placing N97 below the iPhone, it just shows you don't really know these phones that much. Nokia has been a trusted brand for so many years, the hardware being used in the phones are obviously way better than Apple. IMHO, Apple will never come close to Nokia phone's reliability.

cmcken1 on 16 July 2009:

It's times like these where I had to go put things into perspective. I did so by dropping in over at AT&T. I spent all morning in there trying the new iPhone 3GS. Doing so made me glad I stuck with Nokia. Despite all the bugs we are having now- I would still choose a Nokia over an iPhone and here's why:

The iPhone still has issues with rotation which, my buggy N97- fairs better than the iPhone. The keyboard does not rotate on the iPhone as advertised. When I finally did get it into landscape mode, I could not find the commas, periods etc as they are on another menu- another screen. Who was the programmer that came up with that? Talk about no flow when typing. Their whole speech is about “flow” but here we have to go to another sub menu just to enter a period? WTF is that all about? Talk about impeding your workflow. Nokia's full qwerty keyboard burries Apple's in my opinion as it's all there laid out in front of you. No sub menus just to get a punctuation mark. Not well thought out at all.

Safari vs. Opera Mini. Here's some perspective that I found shocking. After I struggled two times to enter in a web address on Crapple's horrid iPhone virtual keyboard that refused to rotate by the way again when using Safari- I finally hit enter and got an error message. Ok, what happened? The address is correct when input but, at time of enter- their software cut the address thus resulting with an error and no web page. I got the address in on my second attempt vs. flying through it with the N97s full qwerty board with ease.

I hit enter on both devices and Opera pulled the site faster than Safari. Now, here's the kicker: The N97 is running in EDGE / GSM only- as I am on T-Mo and they don't support 3G so, anyway, the N97 burried the iPhone for pulling in the web page. I did this a few times to make sure it wasn't a cached page in one device and not the other. Now, whether there was a network issue on the AT&T iPhone or whatever- I don't know but, the bottom line is that I found the iPhone to be so much slower to get around on than Nokia's N97 and Safari is not that impressive as they make it seem in ads.

Contacts: On the iPhone, some genius put the search function as part of the scroll page so, if your at letter W and you want to start a new search, you have to scroll back to the top of the list just to get the search window. That doesn't make sense to me at all so, I began thinking logically that there must be another way to jump to that search window but, I could not find it nor could the sales person. It's not intuitive to where this function might be. Nokia has a fixed search window so that no matter where your at- it's there when you need it. Again, I like the N97 over the iPhone for contacts and faster workflow. As neat as they are in the iPhone and how the GUI has that “pop” I don't like it one bit to use. To me it's good to look at but, not to use. More bling bling than functionality. It may have a faster processor and way more ram but, in the end, it's real world use that proves that the iPhone is not as great as people make it out to be. It is way overrated.

The user can also use the N97 like a laptop whereas, due to the curved back of the iPhone, it's simply not possible without it wobbling all over the place plus, you can't see the screen as good as on Nokia's N97.

The camera is also better on the N97 and so much easier to use. All you have to do is open the lens cover, point aim and shoot. Then, right on the screen, there's an option for emailing the photo, using MMS, Bluetooth or Upload- way easier than on the iPhone. There's no menus to scroll through, no menus to click, it's right there as an icon on the camera screen to the right. Great workflow and, it takes better quality pics than the iPhone. I didn't test video but, pics were way nicer on the N97.

I also prefer the narrower width of the N97 as the iPhone is too wide in my opinion.

Lastly: what's the battery life on this new iPhone 3GS? I get three full days of use out of the N97 so, chalk up another point over Crapple's iPhone.

Summary: the only clear advantage that is really obvious with the iPhone in general is it's display and touch screen and it's GUI. It is very clean, sharp, crisp and clear. Even with the bright control dimmed it still looks better than the N97 set to full brightness. But, aside from that- it's a no brainer for me as to what device works better for me. Even knowing how many bugs are present in the N97 at current- I would still choose it hands down over the iPhone for ease of use, it's intuitive design and faster work flow.

cmcken1 on 16 July 2009:

And when it hangs, how's that doing? Not too good. Especially when the battery is not removable. My brother has one and it's a HUGE PILE. He hates it and wished he'd never got it. He gets two calls around the same time, call waiting, he goes to answer the second caller and it froze up solid on an incoming call. The reboot power down…how did that work? Not too good, in fact, it didn't work at all and, as a result, he had to let the battery die in order to recharge and reboot. Now, that's something no one has to deal with other than iPhone users. The only great thing about it is the touch screen technology that Apple ripped from someone elses design. That was around in the military touch screens that I worked on years ago that have capacitance touch screens ALONG with the two finger pinch zoom in / out. A friend of mine codes for the iPhone and, in no way does it blow away anything. THe screen gets stuck, or, it doesn't rotate at all, slow and crash happy browser. Apple had no clue about making web browsers. Hell, they don't even do Java but some ported C-object code that's a Java substitute so, what you see on the screen is not even what the web site looks like sometimes but how they code it to appear. Then people wonder why it crashes. Well, make the code standard and compliant with Java script and maybe it will work as good as Opera. Opera blows Safari into a ditch for speed. Safari is integrated with all the other apps and that's a great thing for interoperability but, that's about it. I found the screen to hang and not be able to type out a message when on the web client email site. The board got stuck. I had to gently tap it on the table to free it up. Sure, the scrolling is the best as is how it responds to touch input. That device was designed as a multimedia box with the radio X-mitter as an afterthought. Even the 3G models were so badly designed it was dropping most of the calls due to a lousy arse radio. Now, the new ones are overheating and discoloring. Decent phone? I would have to say no based on all the factual evidence of real world users who are in the majority of disappointing with the device overall.

MaillList on 5 August 2009:

I agree to your post and based on these factors even i got a N97 instead of iPhone

danielfarinha on 14 August 2009:

Hello everyone

I just read the review and I'm kinda surprised what I was reading. I have an n97 and I had an IPhone 3GS 32 gb which i exchanged with somebody for the n97. The Iphone is a better quality phone why? well because:
-the screen is much better, the n97 looks kinda cheap and the colours ar not very nice
-the navigation works. Nokia's nav is crappy be honest people nokia maps it's not that well.
-the touchscreen is very responsive to the commands given the n97 touchscreen is terrible because of the ammont of force you have to put on the screen.
-the widgets are nice but the widgets from the iphone are better by far.
-itunes store has more to offer than ovi
-games are great on the iphone
-email on n97 looks cheap
-browsing is terrible on the n97 and gets worse with the stupid little arrow ( same as on the e71)
-commands don't always respond to the action given
-the camera from the n97 looks terrible I expected more from a 5 mp carl zeiss lens camera.
-the whole phone (n97) looks good when you hold it in your hand until you turn it around. C'mon people it looks like a knock off very cheap compared to the housing of the iphone, bb,e71.
-the sound is terrible the Iphone beats nokia every day of the week
-headphones from nokia are bad.
On the good side for nokia

-Battery life is super. I had to charge my Iphone twice a day
-The keyboard is great far better than the iphone because when your typing it doesn't eat letters or change words.
-the thing I like about nokia is that they are easy to use.
-It doesn't blow up or get overheated. I bought my Iphone at t-mobile but within a week returned it because it got so hot that I couldn't even hold it in my hands. I got a new one btw
-Not so expensive as the Iphone but not worth the price.
- The storage is great extra trunk space for your junk lol, sorry apple better luck next year
-You get more out of the box than with the iphone.

this phone doesn't live up to the hype. I couldn't wait to get my hands on it and now I have one but think to myself this was the dumbest trade of my life.

this message was posted on the website for e71 fanatics.

nick on 16 August 2009:

I understand you're mostly just trolling, but you should really look into some of these, they're wrong. Adding a period while typing on the iphone you just hit the spacebar twice, also holding down letters gives alternatives, so to get a tilde over an n just hold down on the N for a second. To scroll to the top of a page/contacts you just tap the top of the window… as for internet speed I can tell you my 3GS is worlds faster than my 5800xm was at browsing the web, including opera mini, in fact, it's not even close.

I'll give you the points about the camera on the n97, though sending videos to youtube or mobile me on the iphone is very easy. I'll will say though, you're post strikes me as someone who has only used an iphone for small amounts of time. I really like nokias, s60 holds a place in my heart, but unless nokia drastically overdrives their mobile OS, and forces 3rd parties to match higher specifications, it's going to be a very tough sell against apple, especially once apple launches increasingly cheaper phones/plans.

nick on 17 August 2009:

To quit safari, just hit the home key and it brings you back to normal app slection home, and caches the safari app along with any open windows you have (you can have multiple). That's what I don't understand about the multitasking arguement, it takes less time for my 3gs to launch an app from cache than the 5800 takes to switch to an already open one. I can maybe understand if you use greater than 4 apps at once, but i don't find that very productive for me, generally just use things like fring + safari or some other combination. I'd like apple to add true multitasking to the 3gs and it will likely come in the 4.0 update if only as an option to keep the bullet point feature comparisons level.

nick on 17 August 2009:

Basically you can't see a list of apps running concurrently since the only certain apps will and generally Apple is using some trickery with storing cache data to make it appear you're resuming an app. Safari is a good example. If you want to use a more Nokia like task manager, just install backgrounder which allows you to run multiple programs concurrently in the traditional sense.

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Jigar on 3 September 2009:

Nokia N97 is the best compare to shit I phone. I Phone does not have caller name say, games, you can't copy music, not memory card, you cant delet music without joinin it with computer… I phone is completely shit phone…

Nrbrhn on 27 September 2009:

So 3gs vs n97. I have to stress that the resistive on n97 is like 3 generations behind 3gs' capacitive.

Games/apps on Apple's appstore are glorious as opposed to Nokia's miserable Ovi, N-gage & JME stuff. Quality & quantity achieved.

Taking photos on the N97 seems like a hassle. 3gs' for simpletons. After a week playing around with the Nokia settings you just want one setting that does it all quickly.

3gs' social apps way more stable and full-featured than Nokia's.

N97 no tabbed browsing, no cut paste on browser text!!! ( opera mini beta 5 does not count yet. not that stable ).

I bought the N97 against bad reviews everywhere. Thank god for keyboard, flexible bluetooth, fm transmitter, widgets, led flash, long battery life..

cmcken1 on 29 September 2009:

The camera on the N97 is stupidly simple to use.

Process:

Step 1: Slide open the camera lens cover.
Step 2: Point, Aim and Shoot
END

Options:

On that same screen, the user has 4 options to choose from and they are as follows:

1. Send by message
2. Send by email
3. Send by bluetooth
4. Send by upload

I compared the amount of clicks and time required to use both the iPhone and N97s cameras and found the Nokia device supporting faster workflow with fewer clicks. No need to wade through any software menus.

There's also a std camera capture button as found on std cameras as a hardware feature. No manual required as it's extremely intuitive to figure out.

Just my thoughts after comparing both devices.

ssaala on 12 December 2009:

i HAVE AN iPhone yaaay me LOOOL

shaylarooooooosa on 25 December 2009:

Nokia N97 the bestt, ive had the iphone and its not that good, and now i have the nokia n97 for a year now and its been working greatt

nokia n97 on 3 March 2010:

nokia n97 is the best iphone sucks.

manik on 24 May 2010:

when it realsed i bought it …i thought it s best mobile and when i using it all rubbish . its better than i phone and htc … i prefer to use best htc and u can get 1ghz processer and makes u satisfied and n97 has 500 mhg processor . why do u want nokia ? chose another and have satisfied/.

cmcken1 on 25 May 2010:

I hate HTC devices due to one reason- it's running THE world's worst OS period- Winblows for Mobile. It's buggy, unstable and simply put, a pile of crap OS made by one of the worst software companies on the planet- Microshaft. That is a joke. Wait until you have memory leaks and the device keeps freezing on you. Wait until IE crashes the entire device or hangs it thus forcing you to remove the battery just to get it back into service.

I have yet to see a solid review on Windows for Mobile as that last version (6) was so bad that many were dumping all over it on the net.

Even Nokia's outdated Symbian is miles more solid than Billyware's junkware. User beware of Billyware for mobile devices.