10 Things Nokia Should Fix with the Nokia N97 Firmware Update

June 29th, 2009 • Mark Guim • Filed Under •

When people ask me about the Nokia N97, I tell them I love it! It meets my needs better than any other devices currently out there including other Nokia phones or competitors like the Apple iPhone. That said, nothing is perfect. Here’s a list of 10 things I think Nokia should address in the upcoming firmware reported to come on July 1st.

Nokia n97 sad

1. The keylock has a mind of its own. Sometimes, it requires two slides to unlock the phone.

2. Photos in the gallery are lower-resolution versions of the actual photos. Zooming in shows ugly pixels.

3. When Nokia Messaging goes down, the phone becomes unusable if you have the widget on the main screen. I had to take the battery out 4 times to restart the phone until I realized to act quickly and remove the Email widget from the main screen.

4. I sometimes get weird grey bars showing on photos I upload using Nokia Share online. Here’s an example.

5. The Share Online widget only shows photos from OVI service. I don’t like being misled. Flickr is a service included within Share Online and a service that I use more often. This widget should have Flickr photos too.

6. Does the compass really need to be calibrated each time we start Nokia maps? It looks funny if we do it in the middle of the street.

7. Typing numbers can’t be done by long-pressing a button. This is available to other Nokia Qwerty phones like the Nokia E75 and E71 as well as every T9 phones we’ve had!

8. Microphone input volume is very low in video recording. Here’s a sample video.

9 and 10. Above are eight bugs and issues I’ve found while using the Nokia N97 the past two weeks. The title of this post says ten. The other two (or more) come from other Nokia N97 owners!

If you have the Nokia N97, what other issues have you found that Nokia should fix in the upcoming firmware update?

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jayakrishnan

good suggestions.Nokia should also look into providing

1.shortcut for copy & Paste
2.More choice for keylock screen
3.option to uninstall default applications like boingo

regards
Jayakrishnan

Erik

One more thing: When dialling a phone number, I want to see the keypad with the letters also next to it (i.e. 1 abc, 2 def, ...) just like when writing an SMS.

Euan Andrews

I have compiled my own wish list for the Nokia N97, found here:
http://www.geekzone.co.nz/TheBartender/6668

AJ Farrar

9- sms threading. it's not that hard, all the new phones have it, wtf? and there need to be shortcuts to get to messaging, I'll forgive the admittedly boring UI but when it's not as accessible and at times very slow...I got rid of my g1 for a phone that cost me 600 dollars more, and simple things like this piss me off.

10- instant messaging apps. why are there none associated with this phone? even if I get an app to address this issue, it's not tied to the phone so I see no homescreen icon if I get a new message. this means I have to constantly go back and check the app. VERY annoying since most of what I tended to do before I got on this phone was text and IM

lastly, the apps are ridiculously expensive and sparse. 10 dollars for a twitter app, are you kidding me? the service itself is free, why am I paying 10 dollars to access it on my phone? I had an app that was just as good on the G1 and it [and most other apps] were completely free. after experiencing that and having sms threads available when opening the box of my G1, tell me how a buggy, poorly developed sms threading app that costs 14.99 would sound appealing to me on my 700 dollar N97...ugh.

I like the phone, it can do a lot that other phones cannot do, but it also neglected some very simple firmware issues that are common to other devices. and the keyboard is HORRIBLE

bieber

Whether using the recorder or the video, my n97's audio playback starts off loud and then progressively gets softer and softer. The only partial solution I've found was to save the media directly to the "phone" memory (not mass memory or memory card).

Erik

Some more things to improve for the next firmware update (that were missing on the 1st of july):
1. kinetic scrolling everywhere!
2. eliminate double tap as much as possible. Currently, often single tap followed by 'Options' is used to get a context menu (e.g. single tap selects). However, since opening an item is the default, single tap should open an item and long tap should show a context menu. The double tapping behavior is also inconsistent with what is mentioned in the manual as double tap is required in many more locations.
3. on screen qwerty keyboard
4. out of date notifications. E.g. receiving a mail while inside messaging, opening it, and then getting a notification about a new message the next time the home screen is shown.
5. annoying popup when making a call ("diverts are active"), preventing me from pressing the button to activate the speaker until the popup is gone.
6. Dialled numbers not showing call duration of every call (need to open a separate application for that)
7. Restore of a backup not restoring changes made to the folder structure for applications.
8. WLAN giving bad gateway after some time.

sim

there is another bug in zooming in photos. When I zoom in, it sometimes exit out to the home screen. And sometimes after i zoom in, it keeps staying in the full screen resolution (blurry), it doesnt come up the actually resolution after I have zoomed in, looks like it is not working at adjusting photos resolution.

That is a point which disappointed even i have updated the newest firmware.

Andy Burgin

The N97 is letting alot people down ,as its full of bugs an things not working correctly,i had 3 Nokia N86s in 5 days an All these 3 handsets went faulty so returned it an cancelled my deal,Nokia nowdays only seem to be bothered about competing in the midrange mobiles instead of the Top Class mobile market,Nokia better turn things round or people will start buying alternatives mobiles,an then the sales at Nokia will get worst instead of better

Ahmad

I've done the update yesterday, the photo gallery is little improved and looks more stable but still have the same problems of not showing the high resolution pics ( it works for one or two hours after restarting the phone abd then will turn to show pixelated low resolution images !)

The RAM usage is still the same (my 5800 have more free Ram) !
The free phone memory is 39 MB and will go down more once you put songs and pictures in the MASS Memory!
Still missing real transitions
sometimest the web browser dissapper and all open programs shut down ! I think due to low RAM
Everything else works fine

Douglas

Kinetic scrolling should be available everywhere on the phone. Not just in the web browser. I'm talking from the main menus, to contacts, to especially the music player.

Allow us to custom select how often we want these widgets to keep updating themselves. I'm sick of watching the battery drain with these things running in the background all the time. And that's another thing, does it have to open up the program in the background and keep it there? Can't it just have whats on the widget, and then if I want to see more, I can click it and then it opens up the whole thing?

Double clicking to open practically everything in lists is completely unnecessary. There are instances where this is useful such as in the music player and video player and contacts, but in places like settings, there's no point. Do we really need to have the option to go to help on the outside of the menu?

I'm so glad others feel the same way I do about the keyboard and having to hit the arrow key to get to numbers. It should be like it is in T9 mode on the virtual keyboard. Press and hold to get the number.

jeran

one more thing: try to paste a copied URL in the default web browser of the N97 with the keyboard opened - not possible. you have to close the keyboard to get to the onscreen keypad where you have additional editing options to paste a URL...

I mean - WTF - full keyboard and no copy & paste ?!?

Eckelon

I reviewed de last firmware: really, no major update. When will have a really update?

Martin

I cannot view my photos on the N97, I just get grey icons. I have downloaded a 3rd party app for this and that works fine.
Locking slider on mine takes 2-3 goes to unlock.
Facebook app gets bizarre error messages.
Cant download the update today!

Love it to bits but does the iphone have these release issues. My N95 was bad, the N96 needed a total firmware reformat befire it became usable.

jeran

same here - gallery of the n97 is REALLY lame! Can you please tell me which 3rd party app you are using?

disapointedn97buyer

another thing is why doesnt the american version not a full querty keyboard on the screen! I personally think that is VERY and somewhat faster. People like to have options why cant we have those options GOshDARNIT!!

jeran

9. third application row on home screen

Andre

how do i delete this comment?

Russ

I can't believe that no one has mentioned smart dialing - making a phone call is such a pain in the ass - have to scroll through all the names, select, select the phone number wanted and then choose between a voice or video call - might prove to be a deal breaker for me since I'm on the phone constantly for work...

gdigenis

the phone app needs a smart filter, just like andriod and winmo phones. the amount of screen presses needed to call a contact that is not a favorite is crazy

RobertH

my main greivances with the N97
1.those apps that cant be deleted!(Boingo) Nokia please remove these from the ROM...let consumers choose...if we want it well get it.....dont assume we do....
2. phone memory - i thought it was 73mb however when i scan i see 35mb being used by "other files" which i cant ever locate....so in reality its on 30mb we actually have on the phone memory.....(yes i know i have 32mb mass storage....but im from the old skool where "its better" to install apps on the phone memory lol......)

3. the keylock issue

4. homescreen - going to offline mode causes certain apps to show errors....why cant it just be i go offline and the last bit of info is displayed rather than "you are not logged in/error"

5. please nokia....actual transitions! the transitions are so boring i turned mine off......you can do way better

6. RAM- we could do with a bit more 70mb-90mb on startup would make all users feel a bit more comfy.....we know you can do it nokia

7. optimizations to the battery - find my battery dies quite quickly

8. i keep getting an error when i disconnnect from mass storage mode.....if i go into my messages folder the device prompts me that mass storage is in use and message will be saved on phone memory.....it doesnt ever auto switch back to mass storage when i disconnect....i always have to manually do it......

@ Mark.....your # 7 bug really isnt a bug..... double tap the blue arrow key on the keypad (the one next to sym key) and it gives NUMLOCK....im guessing this is why the long press was removed....a double tap actually saves more time than the long keypress

James

Can we have sms signature? It is quite important as a business user to have signature at the end of each sms.

Harry

May seem like a stupid question, but I do not see the Skype client on my phone (purchased in sinngapore) and do not get the "internet" call option when selecting call type..used to get this on the N95..is N97 supporting SIP ? whats happening ? seems like SIP functionality is worst then the N95 ?