Nokia’s “Big” Announcement Is Phenomenal: N97 Rocks Nokia’s World!
Let’s take a minute to cue in screams of joy and laughter. Done? Ok then, breathe in, breathe out. Let’s go! We already brought you news of the Nokia countdown timer that was hinting at a big announcement today during Nokia World, but of course we had no clue it would be THIS big. Right now, Olli Pekka Kallasvuo and Anssi Vanjoki are announcing the new Nokia Nseries flagship that will leave thousands of people drooling in front of their screens. The Nokia N97 is here, and boy are we excited to see it! The N97 is so many “first”s for Nokia that I really don’t know where to start from.
It’s the first Nseries QWERTY device with a slideout QWERTY form factor where the screen tilts when the slider is open to make it easier to read. It also gives the N97 a laptop-like look, meaning that you can put it on the desk and work on it like you would with a normal laptop or watch videos with it sitting still.
It’s the first Nseries touchscreen device sporting S60 5th edition and all its goodness. The videos we’ve seen so far show that the screen is pretty responsive, which is inline with my last encounter with the 5800 XpressMusic. Also of notice is that the N97 won’t ship with a stylus in some countries, meaning that Nokia is focusing on the finger-based interaction with tactile feedback.
It’s the first high-resolution screen Nseries device with a 3.5 inch 16:9 TFT display that supports 16 million colors and what Nokia likes to call an nHD resolution of 640×360 pixels. We’ll finally see an end to all the moans of people asking for a higher-resolution screen on Nseries!
It’s the first Nokia device to have built-in 32GB memory as well as support for microSDHC cards. This means that the N97 will be able to run 48GB because 16GB microSDHC cards are already available, and even 64GB of memory when the 32GB microSDHC cards hit the market! 64GB is more memory than the laptop I replaced 4 months ago had!
It’s the first S60 5th device announced to feature N-Gage. We still don’t know if this means that N-Gage touch games will be available for the N97. We would bet that they’re coming at one point, but we still don’t know if N-Gage on the N97 will be touch-based or rely on the QWERTY keys.
As far as I can tell, it seems to be the first ScreenPlay enabled device and this is the one I’m the MOST pumped about. ScreenPlay was announced at the same time as S60 5th, and was promising to give users overlays and transparency to be able to run AND see simultaneous applications at the same time (see video demo). ScreenPlay is the reason I’ve been excited about S60 Touch for years even before it was announced: I wanted a customizable homescreen, I wanted to be able to choose what I see on it, to add things to it, and to see developers make use of it, I wanted the versatility of the Today screen on Windows Mobile with the stability of S60. And the N97 delivers! It has support for customized widgets on the standby screen. The operator, date and profile seem to be standard, but you can add to them application shortcuts, an Ovi widget, weather, email, calendar, RSS feeds, a quick 4-contact link like the Contact Bar on the 5800 XpressMusic, a Friendster, Facebook, MySpace widgets, with any 5 of these available at the same time. You can move these around, remove the ones you don’t want, create your own widgets… Finally, it’s the era of Standby Screen freedom on S60! I can’t repeat enough how excited I am about this!
Edit: the N97 doesn’t have ScreenPlay, this has just been confirmed to me. Although this is a big letdown for me, I’m still excited about the customizable homescreen.
Even though the list of “first”s is done, there is a lot more to say about the N97. It features a 5MP camera with Dual-LED and VGA recording at 640×480. It has A-GPS enabled and an electronic compass that is always aware of your location: Nokia is focusing on the Social Location aspect of this, or “So-Lo” as they like to call it, which seems to be an oxymoron slogan for it, since this is supposed to be less solo and more sharing your location and whereabouts with your friends. The N97 also features the whole Ovi services package, sports built-in stereo speakers as well as a 3.5mm plug and bluetooth with A2DP for your music enjoyment. It has TV-Out and WiFi. It also picks a few things from the N85 where it has microUSB charging as well as Hi-Speed USB 2.0 data transfer through the same port, and it comes in a tri-band HSDPA flavor of 900/1900/2100 which means that it will work on European and American 3G! Under the hood is the best battery in the world: the BP-4L 1500mAh battery. For more information, you can download the Data Sheet and the Press Release here (PDF warning).
The N97 is expected to start shipping in the 1st half of 2009, which is pretty vague since it can be anything between January and June (we’re betting on May/June/July), it will retail for 550Euros before taxes and subsidies which is the same retail price of the N96 when it was announced.
Now sit down and let it all sink in. A handset, ONE handset, that offers all of that, in a 117.2 x 55.3 x 15.9mm package, a package slightly taller and wider but thinner than the N82!
Stay tuned as Ricky brings you more live footage of the N97 from Nokia World, with hands-on pictures, comparison shots, and even videos. We’re pretty excited about this handset and we hope you are as well. For now, we’ll leave you with some press shots of the N97, as well as some very cool raw sketches of the N97’s design.
I thought this was a fake one when I saw it on the discussion,But now its authentic.Thanks for the fast info.
Here I'm thinking about the slight upwards angle of the screen and qwerty keyboard.
(Of course you could also say it's the same case with HTC phones, but Xperia was the closest example I had in mind)
Indeed there is many things to be enjoyable about, but the form factor looking and the angle of the screen doesn't look like it would be too comfortable to write on the device while it's laid on a table. (At least not for a long time)
That of course remains to be seen.
Other than that still a bit disappointed that they don't combine LED and Xenon while Sony and Motorola already have devices that have both.
The fact that the N97 tries to be a mini computer remains to be seen how successful that is. Both the S60 webbrowser and the Opera Mini have minor features of what a desktop or laptop have on their counterparts.
(E.g. try using the hotmail.com website and see what happens after login)
While the web keep moving forward, so does the functions on a webpage, which in terms leave the S60 browser outdated when it comes to functions such as AJAX, scripts and so on. Besides the browser is so slow on pages with lots of images not talking about crashing when there are a lot of flash.
(You can almost not use Nokia's own webpages with the S60 browser, come on Nokia)
Can someone shine light on this issue if this has improved in S60 5th edition?
Don't get me wrong that I'm not excited about the N97 as I like the formfactor. (was even considering buying a HTC Advantage 7500).
I also like that customizing of the 'home screen' is back and bigger memory is always nice (can never have to much)
However overall I'm not that excited as I can see the same formfactor and almost same functions that the other vendors provide with their devices.
After reading The Guru's opinion it seems like the N97 is fantastic,
though I have to see it for myself before judging it too hard.
(And yes, I will wait for it)
In Canada, 1900 has been phased out here in favour of 850. AT&T is doing the same thing. T-Mobile is the only one left at 1900 but they have very little coverage.
This is similar to the situation with the N85. It supports the same set of frequencies, so Nokia has announced a NAM for the N85.
This means that we won't get the N79 till another ~6 months later, and that we will get infrequent firmware updates.
By then, most of us will have switched to a Google phone any way.
I love this device. I think the white looks stunning.
While HSDPA 1900 will probably sufficient for US use, I'll wait the extra month or so for the NAM version.
This is great. I wish I could have been in Barcelona to see this.
Don't get me wrong it looks good but we've waited ages for this thing, it could have been better and to make things worse for Nokia fans Apple and that ponsy iPhone series and Google with that equally ponsy Gphone series are now breathing 'heavily' down our necks. And remarkably Nokia have even let Microsoft catchup with the slighly cool Sony X1 thingy.
Come on Nokia!!!
Also, even though some have been able to use the Euro model N85 on at&t in some areas, remember their bandwidth is part 1900MHz in some areas like large parts of DFW, but other areas have no 1900MHz bandwidth, and need the 850MHz frequency. So at&t subscribers beware. Coverage will be a 50/50 affair.
Something I hope you guys do mention is T-MobileUSA to the Nokia brass. If devices worked on both carriers, prices would drop, adoption would grow, and Nokia could dedicate more ad dollars with a better ROI. Sales would be bigger, and marketshare would grow in the biggest market for growth. If the N85 Euro gets along well with at&t in America, Nokia could make big waves with an 850/1700/2100MHz NAM model. That would allow many big markets to use either GSM carrier, appealing to the original US Nseries user base now 3G abandoned at T-MobileUSA. T-Mobile's system requires both frequencies, while at&t's don't, so why not? No at&t complaints so far...
The at&t dependence in America is part of Nokia's problem here, second to marketing. Can you guys address this more at Nokia events? The American market definitely needs a quadband device. The extra money to build them would be recouped in the lucrative American market. Ability to choose is a selling point.
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Believe me, I made it pretty clear to everyone I talked to that the U.S. gets the shaft, and we're rather ****ed about it. However, they're not going to go into much corporate strategy, specifically when talking about specific carriers and whatnot, and specifically with anyone from the press. There's only so much you can say, and there's so much that they CAN'T say or comment on. Believe me, though, Nokians hear us, loud and clear.
However, to be completely honest, I just don't see getting too many T-Mobile 3G compatible S60 phones, and for justifiable reasons (even though you may not like/agree with those reasons).
Don't get me wrong it looks good but we've waited ages for this thing, it could have been better and to make things worse for Nokia fans Apple and that ponsy iPhone series and Google with that equally ponsy Gphone series are now breathing 'heavily' down our necks. And remarkably Nokia have even let Microsoft catchup with the slighly cool Sony X1 thingy.
Come on Nokia!!!
I've more thoughts on the camera situation coming soon, after chats with a few Nokians about it.
While Xenon flashes are great for still images, as soon as you try to take video in a low light situation you're stuffed.
In regards to the lack of 8MP camera... So what! Don't get fooled by the bigger number, all that allows you to do is print the image out larger or cut and crop closer. It doesn't make the image any better, that is something that you get from a high quality image sensor and lense.
I can understand peoples frustrations at the apparent lack of much movement forward in the camera department, but most of the time that just comes down to lack of knowledge of why etc.
I certainly can't wait for the N97 to arrive in my part of the world and while it certainly shares a few common features with other handset it very much beats them on most!
But all the silence pre N97 proves those Finns are slick, and there could be a T-MobileUSA US exclusivity agreement for all we know. Here's to more patience...
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In Canada, 1900 has been phased out here in favour of 850. AT&T is doing the same thing. T-Mobile is the only one left at 1900 but they have very little coverage.
This is similar to the situation with the N85. It supports the same set of frequencies, so Nokia has announced a NAM for the N85.
This means that we won't get the N79 till another ~6 months later, and that we will get infrequent firmware updates.
By then, most of us will have switched to a Google phone any way.
Nokia N97
2G: GSM 850/900/1800/1900
3G: HSDPA 900/1900/2100
Also 2G 1900MHz frequency is not dying out, it never has been. It will replace the 850MHz frequency as soon as the carries build more towers where they are closer together, cause its better than 850MHz. See, 1900MHz is used in the cities where towers are really close together while 850MHz is used in the suburbs where they have less towers. 850MHz has a longer range than 1900MHz but it's crappier compared to 1900MHz.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cY-DD_fWSHE