Details are in, Nokia has a new flagship phone. The N97 packs a 3.5-inch, 640 x 360 pixel (that's a 16:9 aspect ratio) resistive touchscreen display with tactile feedback and QWERTY keyboard into this sliding communicator with an "always open" window to favorite internet or social networking sites. Nokia calls it the "world's most advanced mobile computer." To back up the claim they've dropped in HSDPA, WiFi, and Bluetooth radios, A-GPS, a 3.5-mm headjack, 32GB of onboard memory with microSD expansion (for up to 48GB total capacity), and a battery capable of up to 1.5 days of continuous audio playback or 4.5-hours video. 5 megapixel camera with Carl Zeiss glass and "DVD quality" video capture at 30fps, too. The specs are certainly impressive, let's see if the S60 5th Edition OS can support it. The N97 will launch with a retail price set at around €550 ($693) excluding subsidies and taxes, phone to ship in H1 2009.
Update: Hah, Nokia just boasted on stage at Nokia World that the N97 was the scoop "
Engadget didn't get." O RLY??? Sure looks like the device codenamed Eitri that
we broke to the world last month.
Update 2: Video demonstration after the break.
Update 3: Thanks for the widget love, Nokia (pic after the break, and thanks
Eric).
Read -- Press Release
Read -- A bit more detail
Read -- Even more detail
posted December 2nd 2008 3:16AM
...how do you know about the quality of the camera on this device?
Because flagship Nokia's have always had the best cameras?.......
More thoughts:
1) Nokia is very resourceful: basically copying a successful competitive form factor.
2) Thickness is great - same as iPhone, but it has a bloody QWERTY. Thank goodness.
3) I like what Nokia is doing - combining successful HTC-esque with Nokia multimedia.
4) Pricepoint is actual quite reasonable - 500EUR.
5) Battery is decent 1500mha.
On the camera, info from http://www.allaboutsymbian.com/news/item/8590_Nokia_N97-Nseries_with_QWERTY_.php
1) 5MP, Carl Zeiss lens
2) Nokia cameras generally better than HTC cameras.
This means a camera better than HTC, and the N96 already has something similar, I believe. I doubt they'll suddenly fuck it up with his phone.
Ahh, you know about the camera because you have a link to the page with info on the device.
Thanks for link!
*nudges Engadget* Feel free to post the link YpoCaramel provided as the read link (crediting him, of course, but I know you know that). Also, while I'm making requests, if you'd turn off the light in the living room, that'd be much appreciated. kthnxbye
this may also be my next phone!! Initially i thought that it will not be better than a XPERIA (which i was definately getting) BUT THAN I READ THE SPECS!! 5megapixel camera is excellent lets hope the lens is Carl Zeiss's best and 32gb of memory WTF? that sounds epic all I need now is DivX support.. anyone?
There's (free) third party software for DivX, yes.
omg... looks very promising so far!
Until you realize it has an off-center space bar and resistive touch screen.
Lets just hope they don't pull a "storm". The specs are very nice but I'll wait for a review before putting in my pre-order.
My Kaiser shakes and it's not from an incoming call...
@redringofdeath
For thumb typing, an off center space bar can be more useful as it's easier for the thumbs to get to. You want the keys pushed most often the easiest to get to.
Resistive gives feedback, which some prefer. The advantage to capacitive is with gestures/swiping inputs, but this works fine with resistive with as long as the surface is smooth. That can be accomplished with a good screen protector.
I've sworn to move on from Nokia for my next phone, but this is certainly the sexy.
I wish people who harp on about resistive touchscreens not being as good as capacitive touchscreens would actually have the decency to understand what they're talking about because you can actually implement both really well or really badly and they both have their uses.
Capacitive touchscreens are generally a bit smoother but they're rubbish for character input, for example. For me a good resistive touchscreen is probably the better bet because you can do more with it.
Beautiful!
Thank you!
Nokia countdown website fail. It just says "Discover more".
simply awesome........................................!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I cant wait to get my hands on this phone, when my dad get me one for free
Well you deserve it dude, after all you gave him 'it' for free.
RofLInMyMao
see you later iphone
Oh yes, we all forgot, any phone with a touch screen is automatically an iPhone rival because, obviously, the iPhone was the first device ever to have a touch screen. People, please high-rank this man.
In complete seriousness, though I'm sure you meant to be completely sarcastic, your words are actually right. Saying the work iPhone around here is as serious an offense as a hate crime, but any finger-input driven device will be compared to the iPhone. This is what happens when you innovate as the iPhone did. I'm not saying the iPhone has cured cancer or can cure the economy, but let's all admit it, how many mainstream finger-input driven devices were there before the iPhone? (Also, TOUCHSCREEN DOES NOT EQUAL iPHONE, it's gotta be finger-input driven!) Seriously. I'm not even going to get into that debate again. But yeah.
I was able to use my former dell axim x51v with my finger two years before the arrive of iphone.
Touchscreen IS EQUAL to finger screen or whatever you want to call it.
The innovation in the Iphone is the multi touchscreen.
Looks pretty. Not a big fan of Nokia, so they'll have to make this phone a cut above everything else for me to be interested.
Link from http://events.nokia.com/countdown/ aint working for me, anyone got a source link?
nokia website FAIL
NEEED!
Looks like a bag of win to me.
I love it. I want it.
I MUST HAVE IT.
Nokia on top of the world apple iphone make way or better drop dead
nokia for ever
byebye aging iphoney.
5mp camera with Dual LED. FAIL.
I wanted xenon.
Screen is same as 5800.
32 GB on board storage with 16GB card = 48GB total
countdown site is screwed
They have a live streaming feed of the event at http://events.nokia.com/nokiaworld/home.htm but since I found that page they haven't said a word about this new device... yet...
Isn't this exactly what people have been asking for from Nokia?
Yes. I was eying the N95, but really wanted more than 8GB of space.
@Thomas Ricker
Would have been nice if you included the links:
http://www.nokia.com/A4136001?newsid=1274500
http://www.nokia.com/A4136001?newsid=1274512
Yes the links above have more detail.
Sorry had to double poste: Just read this:
"The Nokia N97 supports up to 48 GB of storage, including 32 GB of on-board memory, expandable with a 16 GB microSD card for music, media and more. This is complemented by excellent music capabilities, full support for the Nokia Music Store and continuous playback time of up to 1.5 days. The Nokia N97 also has a 5-Megapixel camera with high-quality Carl Zeiss optics, 16:9 and DVD quality video capture, and support for services like Share on Ovi for immediate sharing over HSDPA and WLAN."
Holy Cr*p! 32GB onboard, expandable to 48GB with 16GB microSD.
5MP Carl Zeiss and widescreen video capture (judging by other nokia phones the camera should be fairly good).
Looking forward to see more.
OMG there is a facebook ad on it, fuck that site ..
high Five Saad
Pure win. And those who are whining about the camera part it will be better than any HTC, Apple will ever have. Nokia, SE and Samsung are restling in different league with cameras than those i'm afraid. All N series phones got CZ optics so so will this.
Damn. Did i say amazing!
http://conversations.nokia.com/home/2008/12/nokia-n97-marks-evolutionary-milestone-for-nseries-and-mobilekind.html
Right off the bat, I can say that keyboard layout isn't going to work for me. Let alone the navigation pad on the left side instead of the right. Form factor is too fat. Well, I guess we will have to wait until a video review comes out to get a verdict on how well the S60 UI holds up against the iPhone. Until then, I don't really see why this phone deserves the "flagship" designation.
What about the spacebar being off center and off to the left, that is craziness. That may be the worst keyboard layout I've ever seen.
The spacebar is off center because it'll be more easily accessible with the thumb... the device is meant to be held in your hands, not like a laptop...
Probably good hardware but the touch layer is just piggy-backed on an 8 years old obsolete OS/UI, it's a mess. Nokia should have designed a new UI from the scratch, developers must update their old S60 apps anyways.
How the hell do you know.
Ever used it?
Even the iphoney's OS is OSX squeezed down to fit on the thing. And OSX didn't have a touch layer, did it?
The iPhone OS X has a new UI you cretin, or do you see the same global menubar, windows etc.? The S60 v5 has just a piggy-backed touch layer, moron, it's the same left/right softkey, Option menu crap like in 2000, dumbass.
welcome back to the party nokia.
What's the resolution of the screen?
640x360.
It's not a common one, but hey, at least it isn't QVGA.