Ms. Jen was one of the fun people I got to meet in real life at SXSW a few weeks ago, and she’s a very passionate blogger who uses her N95 to blog over at BlackPhoebe.com. She’s been keenly interested in getting a new Nseries to replace her aging N95-1 (yes, the original) but requires that the camera be improved before she’ll make the leap. The N82 made a brief stint, but for whatever reason (she told me at SXSW, I think) has been relegated to a relative.
Ms. Jen has been hoping that the Nokia N97 would be able to replace her aging N95-1, and with good reason. The touchscreen interface might make it easier to navigate with, while the QWERTY keyboard would certainly make text input a better experience, specifically for blogging. At SXSW, Ms. Jen got a chance to check out a prototype N97 (why are these things still prototypes? Aren’t they due to launch in a few months?), snapping some photos side-by-side with her trusty N95-1.
I was kind enough to pose for one of these sets of photographs, of course with my trusty hat firmly in place. You can check out the full results at BlackPhoebe.com, but here’s a sample from the N95:
And here’s the sample from the N97:
As you can see, the N95-1′s photo seems to produce more sharp photos, allowing more details on my double chin and 5-o-clock shadow. The colors, however, seem to be roughly the same, which is good considering other early Nseries (and Eseries) have had issues with purple and blue tints in their photographs. Overall, I think the N97 is shaping up to be a quality handset. Upon deeper inspection, I also noticed that the two phones were focusing on different things. The N95 photo has the foreground in focus, while the N97 seems to have focused on the background, for whatever reason.
The firmware that I saw in action at SXSW was much more stable than previous versions that I saw at Nokia World, and more and more social networking services are being included, as well, which will definitely help the N97′s hardware seem more attractive. I was also impressed with the display on the N97. I know it’s resistive, the same as the 5800 XpressMusic, but it felt like I had to apply far less pressure to get it to recognize my touch. It almost *felt* like a capacitive screen. It’s hard to describe, but even in its pre-production state, it was noticeably easier to use than my 5800 XpressMusic, that’s for sure.
What do you think of the N97? Are you already over any phone with a 5 megapixel camera, or do you think that the extra features and integration will lift the N97 to a new level, even with a 5 megapixel camera?
