Nokia N97 hands-on

If you're like us, you haven't seen nearly enough of the N97 yet... right? Well fear not, faithful reader, as our intrepid comrade from Engadget Spanish, Drita, has nabbed a tasty hands-on with the phone in question. As you can tell from the pics, it's not quite as thin as its nearest competitors, but fairly sleek and stylish all the same (metal bezel and all), and that QWERTY keyboard looks practically edible. We're salivating at the thought of getting one to thoroughly put through its paces, but until then, let's all just sit back and soak in the handsome gallery below.

Update: Make sure you check out Drita's video hands-on as well!

Gallery: Nokia N97 hands-on

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[Via Engadget Spanish]

[Samboini @ Dec 2nd 2008 7:18AM]

Splurge!

[Esat Dedezade @ Dec 2nd 2008 7:47AM]

DO WANT!!

The phone that is.. not the splurge....

[projekt84 @ Dec 2nd 2008 10:34AM]

WHY WHY WHY chrome border?

UGH, just screams bad design.

[alan @ Dec 4th 2008 10:30AM]

doesn't an iphone have a chrome border?

[chefgon_ign @ Jan 5th 2009 8:03AM]

I have to agree, that chrome border is extremely hideous. Unfortunately, most tech reporters will label any new phone as "clunky" or "ugly" if it doesn't have a chrome border. I can't be the only person who thinks chrome in all its forms is extremely tacky looking.

[thedesolate1 @ Dec 2nd 2008 7:20AM]

Looks like Nokia listened to my post here:
http://www.engadget.com/2008/11/24/nokias-qwerty-slider-e75-spotted-in-the-wild-again/
That was fast!
Ok we love you again. Thnx Bye.
Xenon flash I guess I can live without.

[Michael @ Dec 2nd 2008 7:20AM]

This mobile's so wasted with symbian.

[NickNick @ Dec 2nd 2008 7:52AM]

I know right! with Maemo 5 i'd be king...

[Vianon @ Dec 2nd 2008 7:21AM]

Not to start bitching but it does look fairly thick: http://www.engadget.com/photos/nokia-n97-hands-on/1196876/ . I was already glad to switch from my old Iphone to a E71, I don't want to get back to bigger, even if I pretend I don't care :x

[crescentdavid @ Dec 2nd 2008 7:32AM]

It's amazing how many people look at a a phone with an actual, physical qwerty keyboard and then say something infinitely dense like ... gee, it's disappointing it's so thick. It's really a simple matter of material physics ... add a physical keyboard and the phone will be thicker by the factor of the physical keyboard. The observation that it's thicker is gratuitous and besides the point. Of course it's thicker, it also has a physical keyboard. //end rant.

[eGGnext @ Dec 2nd 2008 7:46AM]

It's thick because it has a physical qwerty keyboard. In fact, for a device that has such a keyboard, it's really thin.
On the other hand, the width of the phone (not the thickness) is really nice and makes it stylish. Look at the pictures.... it makes the iPhone look kind of fat (again, I'm talking about the width, not thickness).

[Nathan @ Dec 2nd 2008 7:50AM]

iPhone: 11.5
Motorola Q: 11.8
Blackberry Bold: 14
Nokia N97: 15.9
Google G1: 17.1

So overall not bad but not great. And I don't buy this crap about it has a physical keyboard so must be thick nonsense. The Q has a keyboard and is about the same thickness as the iPhone.

[eGGnext @ Dec 2nd 2008 8:02AM]

@Nathan

Come on! You know I meant slide-in keyboard, not ugly-as-hell-in-the-front-keyboard that don't leave space for a big screen (just my opinion).
And people shouldn't just consider the width, but how many features are crammed in that space... more like a "feature density"...
(for example, If I have to carry around a separate camera to get decent pictures, that makes the whole package thicker and heavier).

[Vianon @ Dec 2nd 2008 8:31AM]

Who who no need to get on your high horse here, I simply said it is too thick for me, now if you want a nice large keyboard this phone is definitely a nice option. And really I find your comment quite aggressive, "look at this guy, he said the phone is thick, he probably didn't understand there is a keyboard in there"...

I love the keyboard on my E71 (although I realize the screen size is no where near that one) but I didn't mind the keyboard on the Iphone, but I am not saying this phone is crap, just giving my honest opinion on it, so take it easy crescentdavid.

Cheers

[Aaron @ Dec 18th 2008 7:28AM]

*sigh*

The obsession over thin phones has led to some truly ignorant statements about what a phone should look like, regardless of the technology that's contained within. I don't get how people (read iDiots) can say with a straight face that a physical keyboard won't add to the size of a device. I'd rather take a somewhat thicker device with a physical keyboard over a slim device with a touch-only option that takes up half the screen and is more prone to causing mistakes.

Then again, that's just me. My comments about the phone size vs. capability still stand.

[TareX @ Dec 2nd 2008 1:49PM]

In my eyes, this phone is thinner than the iPhone.
There's no way it would have that battery and resolution, and hardware juice, and be less than 20% thicker. PERFECT ENGINEERING, NOKIA.

As for the gallery, this Phone is an example of perfectionist NOKIA build quality (except for the N95). It looks like a concept Gphone.

Damn you HTC and Google.

[dudi @ Dec 2nd 2008 7:22AM]

oooo oooo ahhhh

Was it good for you to?

[Michael LaFramboise @ Dec 2nd 2008 7:23AM]

As always, drop-dead gorgeous hardware. However after watching the video in the previous post... the OS looks sluggish at best. Shame...

[Tes @ Dec 2nd 2008 7:37AM]

Which video? I'm having trouble finding it. Could you link to it?

[Mr Field @ Dec 2nd 2008 7:47AM]

Slow? If Nokia 5800 UI is faster than iPhone then this one should be even faster. I believe this is using OMAP3 finally?

[MattWPBS @ Dec 2nd 2008 7:59AM]

Think 6 months refinement till launch. I'm hoping for speed improvements, especially when I think to what the N95 was like with the original firmware.

[Tes @ Dec 2nd 2008 7:59AM]

Found the vid; just realised they updated the post.

Just a quick point. Apple has used a small visual trick to make you think the iPhone is snappier than it is.Namely the transitional animations. If I click on the calender on my 2 year old N95 and my iPod Touch, the N95 is faster...but the slight pause between me hitting the key and the calendar being visible makes you THINK it's slower. The iPod Touch (and therefore the iPhone) tricks you into thinking it's in constant movement by laying over a pointless animation of the home screen icons flying off in all directions and the calendar or safari or any other app flying in from the background...it's actually slower but your mind is distracted by all the eye candy. The video I watched was perfectly fine in terms of speed, just the transitional animations were not as smooth if they were used at all.

[Michael LaFramboise @ Dec 2nd 2008 7:59AM]

Tes,

http://www.engadget.com/2008/12/02/nokia-unveils-flagship-n97-phone/

First watch the first video which is basically 100% cg, and then watch the second video where it shows how it really is... Can't really call it "snappy" - looks jerky, rather slow, and nothing special...

[Tes @ Dec 2nd 2008 8:19AM]

I didn't say it was "snappy" just that it was no slower than the iPhone. You're just tricked into believing something is happening when all you're doing is watching a snapshot of the last time you used the app fly in from some cache somewhere.

[superhobo @ Dec 2nd 2008 10:36AM]

Tes:

Thats how Apple works. Distract you from the bad parts with eye candy.

[Vianon @ Dec 2nd 2008 10:53AM]

I would agree with Michael here, there seems to be a little lag when you perform an action on the Nokia, but maybe it's not so bad when you actually use the phone...

As for the eye candy on the iphone, you'll have to consider the fact that playing these animations require processing as well, so the fact that the overall movement (like opening the calendar) is fluid (and a bit sexy) is a good point for the phone, even if it mean 1 more second to open your calendar. Now I really never saw the animations on the iphone as a trick to hide its overall slowness, but I might be too naive!

[Johan S @ Dec 2nd 2008 2:17PM]

Launch times aside, even video playback on the N97 is not that great. When fast scene changes happen you can see the redraw of the screen. It's like when there is a lot of motion the processing can't keep up.

I'd like to see whether the browser's side to side and vertical scrolling is as responsive as the iPhone.

[WickedEast @ Dec 2nd 2008 5:36PM]

I hope the final version will behave like seen in the CG video. Customers love eye-candy and smooth UI animation. It gives the *appearance* that the software is more "polished".

[afgadget @ Dec 3rd 2008 3:37PM]

@superhobo

I believe the trademarked term is iCandy.

[Thi mam(kris120890) @ Dec 2nd 2008 7:24AM]

Loving it so far but I though QHD stood for Quad HD. I too scared to ask for the asking price when it's released. I hate waiting. These Nerdgasms are just too powerful.

[Tes @ Dec 2nd 2008 7:42AM]

Say's €500 ($632) on the Nokia press release.

[Moonbright @ Dec 2nd 2008 7:27AM]

Just Love It!

[)law( @ Dec 2nd 2008 7:38AM]

I hope they make a thinner all touchscreen version soon after this releases. Also yes I know about the tube but It ain't got shit on this

[Tes @ Dec 2nd 2008 7:48AM]

Apart from a 3.2MP cam and a slightly smaller screen, if you were to remove the qwerty keys this IS the tube.

[superhobo @ Dec 2nd 2008 10:38AM]

What about the THIRTY TWO GIGABYTES of internal memory?

[bachviet @ Dec 2nd 2008 12:16PM]

And the configurable home/active standby screen.

[happyme @ Dec 2nd 2008 7:46AM]

I think my hands are having an orgasm.

[Esat Dedezade @ Dec 2nd 2008 7:51AM]

What's with the ugly, dirty white film canister that they're using as a display stand?

[Silas Miller @ Dec 2nd 2008 1:51PM]

Looks like their hash container.

[Fox McRich @ Dec 2nd 2008 5:50PM]

And is that gum thats holding it there?

[The Realistic One @ Dec 2nd 2008 7:45PM]

This is from Engadget Spanish....... dont expect clean mexican film canisters

[mocax @ Dec 2nd 2008 7:54AM]

dang..... Touch HD or this?
Choice is getting harder......

[Félix @ Dec 2nd 2008 8:57AM]

If I was rich i'd go for my Bold and a Archos 5g for the surfing/media player
But the SFR (that's french vodafone) data plan that comes with the Archos 5g is just plain assrape so, I might consider this N97 a cheaper and therefore better option.
Mail+Surf+media playing all in one. And I get an extra 5mpx camera....

[TareX @ Dec 2nd 2008 4:12PM]

Forget the Touch HD. Why?

1) This one has interactive Widgets which are 100x more functional and interesting than ToucfFLO3D. Imagine receiving Facebook and Engadget feed right on your Start screen.
2) Symbian has always kicked WM ass.
3) While watching a DVDrip on your phone, you won't use the extra 150 pixels on the TouchHD. The N97, however, is tailored for a DVDrip with that gorgeous hi-res widescreen.
4) Symbian has Coreplayer. Coreplayer DOESN'T WORK ON THE TOUCH HD. Big surprise, I know.
5) Oh, and it has a keyboard.

Realistically, I'd "abstain" till I see what Microsoft and NVidia are cooking with TEGRA. 2009 will be a huge year with the likes of the N97 vs Tegra vs iPhone HD vs G2..... lovely.

[thedesolate1 @ Dec 2nd 2008 10:06PM]

This phone is more of a closer competitor to the Xperia. Except it mops the floor with the Xperia's face and it is cheaper too. =3

[gabe @ Dec 2nd 2008 7:54AM]

looks great! i hope it has a good OS - really as much as id love to replace my iphone - it comes down to a nice looking and friendly OS with strong apps

[moe @ Dec 2nd 2008 8:01AM]

unless you are jailbreaking iphone apps are useless. even then the apps cydia has available are all beta and most are not perfected. the iphone is still in the smart phone wanna be category as is ever blackberry on the market.

[Eternal @ Jan 2nd 2009 5:25PM]

I totally agree with you i haven't bought a new phone since my iphone. I haven't seen anything on the market that catches my attention. The Xperia did get my attention but Win mo. is horrible and i wont pay a lot for a phone that will work 1/2 the time, or is mostly unresponsive. I'm really hoping that this is made with 1700Mhz radio and unlocked. If it is solid then i may just retire my iphone.

[ri @ Dec 2nd 2008 7:58AM]

im so gonna get this phone. is looks so gorgeous. soo shiny, so glossy, so high end.

[BigJohnz @ Dec 4th 2008 8:04PM]

You call this design "gorgeous"? I'm liking the internal specs but this is one of the most hideously clunky and uninspired smartphones out there!