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Irony: Nokia N97's designer is Japanese
Just days after announcing its full withdrawal (well, Vertu excepted) from the brutally competitive domestic Japanese phone market, what does Nokia do? It goes and announces a phone fully capable of hanging with the very best that the home field players like Sharp, Casio, and Toshiba have to offer on their own turf. That alone is kind of funny -- but the real irony here is that the N97's designer, Shunjiro Eguchi, is Japanese. We've heard of "if you can't beat 'em, join 'em," but we're not familiar with the "if you can't beat 'em, quit 'em and steal their talent" tactic. Pretty sneaky, Nokia -- pretty sneaky indeed -- but we've got to wonder why you think this beast of a phone wouldn't fly in Tokyo.
Nokia N97 video hands-on!
Once again Drita from Engadget Spanish has swooped in a caught some fantastic video of Nokia's new N97 in action. There's no point in beating around the bush -- just check out the device doing its thing after the break!
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-38327%[Via Engadget Spanish]
Nokia N97 vs iPhone... Fight!
Now this is a fight worth waiting for.[Photo courtesy of Robert Scoble]
Nokia unveils flagship N97 phone [update: video!]
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).%Gallery-38314%Read -- Press ReleaseRead -- A bit more detailRead -- Even more detail
Keepin' it real fake, part CXXXIX: who cloned who?
Well, this is new and fresh, as while we're used to seeing cloned handsets wandering our way from China, this time they've maybe beaten Nokia to the punch pre prototype-style. At first glance, this handset appears to be a pretty decent knockoff of the 6 or 8 megapixel N85 -- or something -- we mentioned some months back. But the fun twist here -- see what we just did there? -- is that the CECT K898 was spotted a year ago, and Nokia's prototype only in the last few months. We're not strangers to the good folks at CECT's cloning shenanigans, but we'll admit that they're likely a little chuffed at the prospect of beating somebody, anybody, to the punch in the design department. Sadly, like a year ago, we still kind find even a hint of what the specs may be, but we're ok to simply sit back and watch the lawsuits fly, and this time maybe in the opposite direction.[Via Unwired View]
Nokia N97 debunked; fanboys in mourning
Sorry folks, it was too good to be true. With a spec sheet that read like something straight out of our wildest dreams -- 20GB hard drive, 3.2 megapixel cam, 3-inch high res display, FM radio, and an alleged 24+ hours of continuous music playback -- we wanted to believe that the Nokia N97 was real. Alas, it turns out that a member of Nokia's developer forums dreamed up the superphone; the rest, as they say, is history. Hey, at least we still have the N95 to look forward to, right?[Thanks, Tyler]
Nokia prepping N97 "multimedia computer"?
As much as we love to give Nokia crap for calling these S60 smartphones of theirs "multimedia computers," it's getting harder and harder to argue with the moniker. The purported specs on Nokia's upcoming N97, supposedly pictured above, include a 20GB HDD, "3D stereo speakers," 3.2 megapixel camera with flash and 2.4x optical zoom, 15fps video recording, a 3-inch screen, FM radio, miniSD, 400+ hour standby time, 4+ hour talk time and 24+ hour music playback. There's no real confirmation of all this, and the original source is in Hungarian -- always a shady sign -- but the truth is that it's really going to take specs like this to even register interest in light of its predecessor, the crazy-decked N95.[Via Electronista; thanks Jonathan]
