Foreword:

The Nokia N97 is Nokia’s answer to the Samsung Omnia HD and the iPhone. Thought the device can be called a good one, it hasn’t reached the level of the competitors. The N97 has a QWERTY slider that produces a snappy “thwack” when the screen slide upwards and this is a really satisfying thing; and gives the phone a powerful, sturdy and smooth feel. As a whole the phone looks pretty stylish, but is predominantly made of plastic components, rather than metal. This devours the device of its luxurious feel.

The N97 sports a 3.5 inch TFT display with 16 million colors and resolution of 360×640 pixels. There is a proximity sensor that is clearly visible on the left of the earpiece; and the video call camera and light sensor that controls the screen brightness are on the right. The Send and End keys on the bottom are touch sensitive and gives a slight vibration feedback when pressed. The 424 MHz processor on the N97 is a setback for the device, and it really slows down and even gets to the extent of hang ups while using a couple of applications together.

There are two cameras in the phone, a 5 megapixel camera with a dual LED flash, and a VGA camera for video conferencing. The photos taken by the camera are of good quality, and it also shoots 640×480 videos at 30 frames per second. Stereo speakers are placed at both ends of the left hand side of the device, with both micro USB slot (equipped with LED indicator) and slider button to lock/unlock the screen in between. The slider button and the camera shutter are very easy to use but the same is not the case with the volume rocker. The N97 has a 32 GB built in memory which will do well to almost all of the media related needs. It is expandable up to 48 GB using micro SD cards.

+Ves:

• 32 GB internal storage memory – The on board 32 GM memory ensures you don’t run out of space for your media related applications.
• Slide out 3-row full QWERTY keyboard – Provides better interface for messaging and mail related applications. How much ever a touch screen improves, a keyboard has its own effect and ease of use.
• 5 megapixel camera with dual LED flash – The 5 MP camera provides crisp and high quality images, and the dual LED flash makes night photography easier and better.
• 3.5 mm audio jack – The 3.5 mm audio jack in the phone enables easy connectivity to most of the devices.
• Stereo FM radio with FM transmitter – The FM radio is a good add on and the FM transmitter really adds value and helps in easier playback while in car or transmission to a group.

-Ves:

• Slow processor – The 424 MHz processor makes the phone extremely slow when using multiple applications at a time, eventually leading to more number of hang ups.
• No DivX or XviD support – This will affect the users by a big margin as a lot of videos come in these formats.
• No smart dialing – No smart dialing options are there pulling it a step backward.
• No office document editing (without a paid upgrade) – This should have come in as a standard package with the phone to compete against the existing ones in the market.

Final Word:

Even though the N97 falls apart in a few of the features, mainly in its processor, the phone catches up in most of the other aspects. The availability of Wi-Fi, 3G, EDGE delivers high quality networking experience without any compromises. The speakers and 5 MP camera are of awesome quality making it an excellent media phone. Some people might face problems with the angle of the screen when the QWERTY keyboard is set out, and in the layout of the keyboard also, but that purely depends upon the person. So the phone is worth a buy if you don’t use many applications together, and focus on one process at a time. The N97 is definitely worth the money.