Nokia N97 video hands-on!
By Joshua Topolsky 
posted Dec 2nd 2008 8:58AM
posted Dec 2nd 2008 8:58AM
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Drita sounds so adorable!
More importantly, this phone is sexy fabulous.
Are you sure that's more important? ;)
I'm pretty sure the woman talking is Finnish with that accent. The refection doesn't look like Drita.
@Tes: That is a bad photo. You need to look at her other videos to really see how fine she is...
http://www.viddler.com/explore/drita/videos/
HOT.
Think I might be wrong
She mentioned Ovi icons, so she actually knows/cares about Nokia/S60
yess, finiss acssent.
The UI seems complicated, busy, and requiring too much configuring. Even adding top contacts seemed like a chore. Top contacts should be there automatically by default.
I'll need to see more, but it looks like the iPhone UI still wins.
Tes, OMG, you choose the worst ever photo about me! that's really cruel! :-O
Anyway, phone is more important. That's a technology blog.
@ Tes
That is a really mean comment regarding Drita. Put up a photo of yourself and let us all critique your appearance, let's see how you feel about that.
@Tes -- You're an incredible jerk. If you feel this kind of garbage is acceptable on our site, you can expect to be promptly banned. Feel free to apologize to Drita at your earliest convenience.
@ Tes
Who the fuck does that man? Like seriously linking images of other people so people behind a computer screen can bash all they like.. was that your goal?
People like you make me ashamed of being a nerd at times..
Drita! I just want to let you know that I think you are super cute and you would totally be in my Top Contacts widget :')
Ignore Tes; I think he's just jealous of how fabulous he isn't in comparison to you!
Johan S,
You're nothing but a whining troll making up imaginary critique towards anything Nokia. You've been doing it for ages.
Absolutely nothing in the video is "complicated, busy, and requiring too much configuring." like you whine about it.
Official laughing stock. You. Enjoy.
@Tes: Go fuck yourself. Because of the society we live in, girls in particular are very sensitive when it comes to appearance. And you know it very well. So, repeat the first sentence at you.
This phone is going to be a nice seller for Nokia. Well done, well made and on the spec sheet....32GB of onboard memory with microSD expansion (for up to 48GB total capacity)? Can't say that with the Storm or iPhone.
Fo shizzle! Say hello to my next phone. I'll wait, it's worth it. Just hope I can tether it!
lol tes got pwnd. anyway, phone looks neat, but it seems like the interface is a little crowded after adding widgets and what-nots to it.
When are you anti-Apple zealot idiots going to start complaining about the REFLECTION? Oh that's right, this isn't an apple product.
Selling my N95... cant wait for N97 yahoooooooooo
THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK!!
I might be doing the same, out with the N95, in with N97!
Nice, looks like a very responsive OS
yes...it really does not look responsive...
good to see the innovation in the mobile phone platforms... i'll wait for version 2
It's almost as slow and flickery as the good ole N95 8GB. Nokia produces top notch hardware but their OS just isn't competitive any more.
Oh right. So you've used S60v5 then?
*Sigh*
What's the CPU on thing?
If you watch out for it .. you can see quite a bit of lag actually. Especially when new screens are being drawn. Even the video clip when there was a scene change there was some drawing issue that slow computers have.
Look at any of the iPhone demos on youtube, you will not see this lag.
@johan s:
If you like your iphone so much, why dont you marry it??
And I, for one, welcome my replacement for my good ol' reliable N95-3.
Almost every Nseries I have seen had some slow UI with the first firmware, but nokia always managed to get it faster, and better (and also improving the battery life like in the case of the N95).
My $0.02.
the iPhone does have lag... and the demos are cut.
@ Linux
Very powerful :)
The demos for the iPhone might not lag but mine does and so do most of my friends' iPhones. Spec wise the N97 is better too but we'll have to wait for it to come out en masse.
Yupp id def switch from my $50 Sprint bill to GSM for this phone. Hopefully Tmo 3G svc is much bttr for NYC area in Q1 2009.
wait a sec...are you saying the N97 is compatible with T-Mo's 3G bands?????????????
@zbot No, it will not be. Any Nokia phone that was not released explicitly for t-mobile has never supported their 3G bands here in the states, I highly doubt that will change.
I want one now!
I love everything about this phone but one thing is kind of strange: Sometimes they double click on stuff and other times it's one click. Isn't that little confusing for the user?
You click once to select the option then again to confirm OR if you don't click again it automatically clicks again after a very small amount of time. Plus Its buggy software so there is always a chance it's by accident.
Notice how they dont show the browser.. THATS the main thing..Bet it kinda sucks.
Then you can replace it !!
For the love of STEVE don't you americans own computers ?
I though you were pioneers...
One app doesn't meet your needs you change it ffs !
No wonder you still have 80 of IE users....
And No wonder you like Apple too.
It's not because nokia made a browser that you have to use it, and Nokia understood this very clearly letting you remplace it.
(contrary to the iPhone)
Which brings us back to the 10,000 apps of the app store : 0 web browser am I right ?
No you call this app store amazing I call this game and gadget = useless.
Nokia's web browser is based on the same technology as Apple's. Except that Nokia's browser supports things like Flash and has a funky visual preview of your browsing history when you hit the back button.
Slow interface, is symbiam, is nokia
for a prototype! thats darn fast! loving the Ovi icons.
Am I the only one who thinks this place is raided by Nokia PR team? How can a comment like this get high ranked?...
Taking a page out of Apple's book?
(This is so seriously gonna get lowest ranked :P)
Hmm I literally just switched to AT&T yesterday (thanks to T-MOs slow 3G rollout) and I got the HTC Fuze despite my slight hate for Windows Mobile. This N97 though... mmm!
I wonder how long we have to wait for the N97-NAM version.
Drita
< 3
You guys are joking right?
http://www.viddler.com/explore/drita/videos/17/251.729/
Less iphone, more Drita please.
fantastic crap
...yes you know meeeeeeeeee
What happen' to the TouchHD :D
I love the Finnish. No one does rock like em. You can tell It's early software because that video looked bad. Everything else looks good and can only get better by the time it gets released. I can still remember the Nokia 3310. Black and white screen and everything. Just gos to show how all technology is moving forward.
@Thi mam(kris120890) I still have and use the 3310. The things indestructable. Had to replace the battery but after about 7 years of constant use, Im not complaining.
Great demo, the UI is surprisingly slick and looking good for s60!! Might have to upgrade to this once its out on contract :-P
My N95 contract is coming to an end in 4 months or so. This is the first one that would be a worthy successor. :)
come on? Xperia is not even 'worthy' ?... unless you were only referring to Nokia's?
Obviously not in you case but in terms of reliability Nokia is one of the most brought back phones on the market? I do not mean to 'phone bash' i hate cell phone fanboys.
God i'm loving this phone ! I'm definitely selling my beloved n82 for this the moment it comes out.
On a side note. I sure do hope that they have improved the build quality. I mean the paint has started peeling off my 2 month device which i have kept as if it was my child.
How much?
Nokia N97, We love you long time.
The phone looks amazing, but Q2? :(
Who knows what HTC is going to offer at that time. Would be great if it were available now.
Oh, god! I think I'm gonna cum! LOL!
Anybody remember this two years ago.
http://www.engadget.com/2006/11/17/nokia-prepping-n97-multimedia-computer/
Wow.. 20 gb hard drive and a commenter saying.. where is the number pad?
Times have changed!
for a while now i have been hoping and praying for an excellent touch-enabled nokia device... honestly speaking i was on the verge of considering a winmo fone simply becuz i wanted touch and a smart device.... but it would seem that my faith in those crazy guys in Espoo has paid off... now i can get the one UBER device that ive always wanted.. :-)
I agree. I mean, they had me at the new standy-screen. Touch and qwerty is just icing.
Don't be fooled by all the hype and razzle dazzle!!!
I implore all Americans to refuse to buy this product, BUY AMERICAN and support your economy!
The hungry execs and ceo's in Cupertino need to eat too!
You're Canadian. You ruin everyone's day.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BwfYLWFL4Ys
Go buy a pair of iPhonies and strangle yourself with them... Dont remember to lick Steve Mobs pee from your (m)iPhone while you are at it...
Um, I moved from the US to Canada long ago... But funny how I seem to love the 'ol flag more than some Americans who actually live there now...
"You're Canadian. You ruin everyone's day."
And you are Anti-american...
Someone call Homeland security! we got a live one here
USA! CA-NA-DA! USA!
i live in cupertino. things are actually ok here. you really gotta buzz off
Help economy? Its rubbish talk like 'buy american' which will makes things worse. Heard of economics, look up Comparitive advantage. Jeez.
Is it multi touch, and how is the internet? That is all that matters.
Well for internet you have either the Nokia browser which is based on Webkit, so good :)
Or Opera Mobile which is my personal favourite.
So no worries there.
You'll probably get some Firefox Mobil soon :)
Multitouch I don't know but for the 3 hours I spent on internet on the iPhone 3G is ...a gadget 100 %.
I rather Opera Mobile Zoom.
I don't know why, but I still find myself liking the N95's appearance better. Maybe I'm just old fashioned.
I think thats because the n97 doesnt feel like a 'unique' and innovative design.
i dunno if thats really a bad thing though
That is exactly it. It seems like a design right from the book of HTC.
It actually looks more like their Internet Tablet series.
Saw, makes me regret my iPhone purchase. :c
"Don't be fooled by all the hype and razzle dazzle!!!" Says the Apple fanboy.
Anyways, its cool, but I don't think I'm gonna replace my N95. This one has roughly the same features.
That's what I was thinking.
It's the logical successor to the N95. (N95 owner right here, well, until it got stolen two days ago)
Sorry to hear that :-\
I don't get whats so great about this phone other than lots of hype...
On the other hand I don't get whats so great about iPhone either...
I guess I'm not the hype type...
large touchscreen interface
qwerty
flexible smartphone OS with much readily available software
copious amount of storage/accepts microSDHC
For a convergence user, plenty to gawk at.
I'm in love.
It becomes more an more obvious that Nokia has real problems: their OS is so bad (in appearance AND inner workings) that even with the best hardware they can't compete with the new kids on the block...
OK...what was it you just watched that made you make that statement? And what experiences do you have with S60 that would convince anyone you're not talking rubbish?
Not bad. When my Nokia E71 gets crushed by a meteor I will definitely buy one. But for the time being, I'll stick with my E71.
the OS looks the same on my n95 and is exactly that slow. tech specs are nice, but the software is the dealbreaker
What smartphone OS is faster? Palm OS, I guess?
OS X certainly isn't - it just hides most of the slowness behind transition effects.
hm. seriously.. what did you guys (and ladies ;-)) like soo much about this device? the interface doesn't seem very responsive, neither good looking. what happens on the frontscreen if you have 3 widgets of the contacts-size for example. scroll down? also in the system.. that weird right bar.
actually, i expected a little more from giant nokia. always liked their phones.. solid built.. but they forgot the last years a bit to fund their design-department....
hm.. ok. maybe i shouldn't be too negative. unless we have a real review .. so go engadget, review-it
Could that even be the first phone where you really can blog - meaning really can make blog posts on the go (yeah yeah, you can also have a laptop in a backpack).
Looks very good overall!
Sleekness, responsiveness, 5mb camera, and the keyboard.
I'm changing my iPhone.
After reading all the posts and comments for N97, it's weird that none mentioned the SE Xperia X1. And imo from all the info so far, N97 is trying to compete the Xperia and not the iPhone that some suggest.
Whatever is the case is a very beautiful phone :) I foresee big sales(worldwide) again for Nokia :)
Good point.
Thanks :)
Yeah the Xperia is a beautiful phone, but WinMo? That makes it a non-contender to me at least.
And I don't see how this beats it other than on the storage space. That keyboard layout is horrible. The whole thing looks like something HTC made as a mockup and then improved it into something like the Touch Pro.
And if you think that S60 > WM6.1 then there is no helping you.
WinMo, Android, Symbian, OSX for mobile, they all have their pros and cons. The point to every (imo) OS is how the the company implement them and make stable and enjoyable. After that is up to every person to choose what he or she likes :)
I have the X1 and is my first WinMo, 8 years now i had Symbian phones, i had some problems with the Symbian or sometimes with the devices and i am pretty sure that i will have again probs with WinMo :) . At least i'll say "Mmm shiny device"..something that iPhone users might say :P but they still believe that the OS is perfect :-/ (not all of them, but many) .. Now Nokia users will have their turn to be on this category of people :)
With cool shiny phones waiting for the phone to reboot after they tried to push it to the limits, just to show off to their friends :)
Not bad, especially for a prerelease. Would be nice to bring back some of those transition effects from the other S60 prototypes so people stop whining about speed and realize it's all BS anyway. Still, no T-Mobile 3G, so likely no sale.