Nokia N97

Full Review

The flagship and top-notch model in the N-series, the Nokia N97, reached our lab amidst much anticipation and we just we just couldn’t wait to get our hands dirty.

Features & Design

We were quite impressed with the overall design and the superb build quality. It’s not the slimmest and lightest handset and feels a bit heavy at 140g. Its 3.5-inch resistive screen with 640x360 pixels resolution is bright and crisp. Its front  has just one chrome menu button, two touch sensitive call handling buttons and sensors for ambiance and proximity. The slide-out QWERTY keypad has a sturdy mechanism that assures lasting build quality. The screen tilts roughly at 40 degrees while the keypad is opened. The rubberized keypad worked better than the E75. The back has a dark matte finish battery cover with a 5MP camera powered by Carl Zeiss lens. It has a dual LED flash as well. On the sides, we found a camera key, volume rocker, power/sleep button, our favorite 3.5mm headphones port, microUSB port and hold switch. The N97 is packed to the gill with features. It is powered by ARM 11 434MHz CPU, and has 128MB RAM with an enormous 32GB of buit-in flash memory for storage apart from supporting upto 16GB of microSDHC card. It also has 3G with HSDPA and Wi-Fi connectivity. GPS with A-GPS support and the pre-installed Ovi Map that offers three months of voice-guided navigation complete the package. Like the Nokia 5800 XpressMusic, the N97 uses Symbian OS with S60 5th edition interface. The Home screen filled with widgets is fully customizable and provides up to date information right at your fingertips. However, we wished the N97 and the Ovi Store came with more applications.

Performance & Usability

We have no doubts that the N97 is a snappy handset when it comes to multitasking and getting the job done. But the obstacles lie in its design, for example, you need to slide down the hold switch button and drag the icon on screen that did not appear instantaneously- this was irritating. Further we found many inconsistencies in the interface design. On the plus side, the phone responded without hanging after getting the latest firmware update but the base design still left a lot to be desired. The screen provided good viewing angles and responded well to the touch. Call quality is loud and clear while the loudspeaker sound is quite passable. Audio playback via our in-ear headphones was rich and clear with good dynamics. Video clips were played back with good refresh rate but no support for Xvid or DiVX was a bit of a let down considering many phones already supported this. The 5MP camera worked well and we could take a lot a impressive images outdoors while low light images despite the dual LED flash still did not make much impact. VGA videos captured were as good as what we recorded with N85. Online experiences especially via those Widgets ( NDTV, Accuweather, Facebook etc) were good and browsing on its NetKit browser is satisfactory and we liked the Flash Lite support. E-mailing worked well after we installed the Nokia E-mail client. The 1500mAH Li-On battery lasted us for one and half days under rough usage.

Bottom Line

Despite all the premium offerings, many quirks in the interface design and less apps availability stopped the N97 from being a winning high-end phone.