Nokia N97 news

Martin Brinkmann
Dec 2, 2008
Updated • May 21, 2018
Mobile Computing
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33

My current cell phone contract runs out in six months and I'm currently looking for options. One of the options is the new Nokia N97 cell phone which was announced at Nokia World in Barcelona.

The cell phone will be the successor of the Nokia N96 which is currently Nokia's flagship product for business users.

Nokia managers call it the Facebook phone. The reason is obvious. Nokia is gearing for the social networking and multimedia crowd as much as it tried to improve the business aspects of the phone.

The main features that make it interesting in my case are the full QWERTY keyboard, the WiFi support and the 640x360 screen. It does come with additional features like GPS, flash lite 3.0, tri-band HSDPA 3G, a 5 Megapixel camera or 32 Gigabytes of memory which will appeal to many users.

No word yet on the important battery component but Nokia claims that the cell phone is capable of 36 hours of continuous music playback. A video of the new Nokia N97 was published on YouTube that showcases some of its features.

A few factors will help me make the decision. The first and most important factor in my opinion is the responsiveness of the cell phone. The Nokia N73 for example is sluggish and slow. The keyboard should be good enough for the occasional article in an Internet Cafe or at a Wifi hotspot.

Lastly the battery should last long enough to survive a workday without recharging. The current suggested price tag without contract is around 550€ ($695) which is quite expensive.

Update: It is four years later and my cell phone contract ran just out. I'm currently planing on getting the new Nokia Lumia 920 when it comes out in November 2012. The phone does not ship with a qwerty keyboard but is packed with features otherwise.

Summary
Nokia N97 review
Article Name
Nokia N97 review
Description
Nokia calls the Nokia N97 cell phone the Facebook phone thanks to the device's integration of social media functionality among other things.
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Ghacks Technology News
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Comments

  1. Richa Dhiman said on November 9, 2011 at 11:31 am
    Reply

    Thank you for discussing a pleasant topic. I think, it was an interesting blog and the topics it has covered are all very impressive for me personally to look through your page. I have bookmarked it and will keep visiting very often.

  2. G mustafa taj said on May 9, 2011 at 8:49 am
    Reply

    Notice of Physical goods and completeness. Try asking the seller to show the contents of these Mobile

  3. murug said on December 23, 2010 at 12:05 pm
    Reply

    did nokia n97 is an 3g supporting mobile?

  4. ashok said on December 23, 2010 at 12:04 pm
    Reply

    did nokia n97 is an 3g supporting mobile?

  5. Atish Nischal said on September 15, 2010 at 4:30 pm
    Reply

    i dont know how much you know about sprint, but there company is inside out and about to go belly up. they are not the leading carrier in the states. in fact they are 3rd, behind att and then verizon. ill be thoroughly shocked if they make it another 2 years without being bought out. plus try getting sprint reception in the northeast…youll pull your hair out before long.

  6. Sammy77 said on December 2, 2009 at 11:49 pm
    Reply

    i really like my Nokia N97. got it for a good price off gsmallover.com. it’s great if you need a phone for social networking. i love the touch screen and it works great for a camera as well!

  7. ryan williams. said on November 22, 2009 at 7:50 pm
    Reply

    I got mine off of ebay! loved it, camera is ridiculous!! also loved the touch screen, flip option. but than 3 weeks later I drpped it into a toilet which is awesome, 600$ mistake. bought one off of gsmallover.com yesterday and i’m waiting for it to arrive. until than, flip phone from 2 years ago will have to do hahaha. anyways love nokia, sold my iphone and bought this one in return.!

  8. abcyesn said on June 2, 2009 at 12:04 pm
    Reply

    “I received a pre-release Nokia N97 from Nokia SA yesterday to take a look at and test for a couple weeks. The version I received is not the same version that will be shipped but it is probably pretty close. In a sense this is a release candidate so there is still a chance the software may be a little buggy and the phone isn’t really supported by 3rd party providers. I’ve noticed a couple quirks which will probably be resolved by the time the phones ship (I understand that the devices will start shipping internationally in a matter of weeks although Nokia can’t confirm any details at this point).” share your views with me at http://www.NokiaN97Forum.com it’s a site for N97 users. see ya

  9. Anonymous said on May 21, 2009 at 5:10 am
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    The N97 looks great. I think it’s better than the iphone 3G and the blackberry storm, and even the palm pre. If you want to see those 4 phones compared, see:
    http://www.clashem.com/phones.php?id1=1179&id2=2&id3=717&id4=1148

  10. mobile phone reviews said on April 20, 2009 at 12:24 pm
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    Brilliant nokia phone but im getting bored waiting, when is it going to be shipped and for sale in the UK?

  11. schiller said on February 8, 2009 at 11:46 am
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    hey guys does N97 have a TV like the N96..

  12. abcyesn said on January 27, 2009 at 1:33 am
    Reply

    The Nokia N97 is expected to begin shipping in the first half of 2009 at an estimated retail price of EUR 550 before taxes or subsidies.

    Express your personal opinions at http://www.NokiaN97Forum.com

  13. AndOne said on January 22, 2009 at 11:31 pm
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    take a closer look at the nokia 5800… i love that phone. got it just a week ago (1 day before release here in germany) and it’s wonderful :)

  14. Patrick said on December 19, 2008 at 12:48 pm
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    I’m just not sure, does N97 have live mobile TV?

  15. Rocci said on December 18, 2008 at 5:30 pm
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    The compass is brilliant indeed, but so is the entire phone. I’m just gonna get the unlocked version these guys are releasing http://www.puremobile.com/Nokia/Nokia-N97-White-GSM-Phone/ The white one looks so much hotter!

  16. Nokia N97 Fan said on December 10, 2008 at 5:27 pm
    Reply

    Im looking forward to the Nokia N97, using the compass to tag location of pics sounds brilliant.

  17. Rarst said on December 6, 2008 at 12:07 pm
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    @Martin

    Browsing regular pages is not very fast – I am using relatively slow EDGE connection and modern Internet can easily be 1Mb per page on some sites. Mobile-optimised pages on other hand are perfect.

    I am usually running native browser (single window), native email client, Pidgin and Mauku (twitter client) at the same time. It has no performance issues with such setup.

  18. Martin said on December 6, 2008 at 11:37 am
    Reply

    Rarst how responsive is your tablet?

  19. Jack said on December 4, 2008 at 3:22 pm
    Reply

    The N97 looks as if its going to be the latest attempt at knocking the iPhone off of its high perch. I have to say i do have quite a bit of faith in it as well due to its many applications and huge memory, also its ability to play flash videos. You can already sign up for N97 release information here…

  20. Martin said on December 4, 2008 at 10:50 am
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    Rupert I only purchase a new phone every two years when my contract runs out. I usually get a nice new phone for cheap if I renew it.

  21. Rupert said on December 4, 2008 at 10:38 am
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    Looks like quite an interesting phone.

    I’ve currently got an N82 – it’s like an N95 but in a candy bar style. It’s got a great 5MP camera, I have used it on holiday a number of times and is great, the only lacking feature is zoom.

    I guess the problem with all these cool phones being released all the time is that, well, I am sure we all have a perfectly good phone now, do we really need to upgrade if our current phone does its job pretty well at the moment?

  22. Nokia N97 said on December 4, 2008 at 6:36 am
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    Excellent Nokia N97 –

    best of the best

    Nokia is rocking

  23. Rarst said on December 3, 2008 at 6:20 pm
    Reply

    @Lt. Dan

    Some people spend with their phone way more time than with their TV… If they even own TV at all. :)

  24. Lt. Dan said on December 3, 2008 at 5:14 pm
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    It amazes me that people will pay as much for a tiny little cell phone as they would for a 47″ flat panel TV! There is a tremendous amount of margin in the phones at that price. I guess it is the price of living on the cutting edge…

  25. Noel said on December 3, 2008 at 10:53 am
    Reply

    You list many features of this phone but honestly tell me which features are you planning to use?
    To me, not a single phone in the market currently does its job well.
    Lets take one by one,
    camera, no matter how many pixel sensor you put, the pictures are worst than point and shoot so I would rather use P&S than using camera phone, why pay for the feature that I don’t plan to use?
    The place where I live, data plans are extremely expensive, like €2 per mb. I can’t afford to use such expensive plan so I won’t use internet either.
    Music phone, so far I am yet to see any phone that has a good music navigation. Sony Ericsson’s Walkman series is wonderful when it comes to sound but not good for navigation purpose that drives me nuts.
    Use of non-proprietary ports.
    Better contact managers, Nokia communicator had good contact manager but don’t know about the latest ones.
    Better screens.
    Water-proof
    Shock-proof
    Reasonable cost.
    This is what I expect out of a good phone, may be you would like to list the features you are interested in.

  26. Rarst said on December 3, 2008 at 8:24 am
    Reply

    @Martin

    Yep, it doesn’t have phone module. Which allows it to be way better at mobile Internet than any phone I had seen – bigger screen, better software, more processing power.

    It’s not an ultimate answer but I like balance of function and price.

    btw my post was for group writing and on freshly bought device, I will do thorough review after month or so of continued usage.

  27. Martin said on December 3, 2008 at 7:35 am
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    Rarst yeah I saw that review on your site. Was not that the one without phone capabilities?

  28. Rarst said on December 3, 2008 at 12:37 am
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    @dip

    N810 has 1500mAh battery – it provides about 5 hours of use (without GPS and WiFi). Big screens eat charge at very high speed.

  29. dip said on December 3, 2008 at 12:27 am
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    It will come with a 1500mAh battery, so there should be enough juice to hold up to nokias claim…

  30. Rarst said on December 2, 2008 at 10:52 pm
    Reply

    That price is before taxes as well.

    I’ve given up on waiting Gigabyte M528 which is taking forever to actually be sold and bought Nokia N810 tablet recently. Moved all my mobile Internet and audio playback tasks from my E60 phone to it and surprisingly for me N810 is very good for video.

    Now I can choose next phone much more freely when my current one dies (it’s in pretty bad shape after two years of heavy use).

    Lately I think high-level techie phones are trying to achieve too much functions at once. Device can’t do everything and have reasonable dimensions and battery life at the same time.

  31. Mirko said on December 2, 2008 at 10:48 pm
    Reply

    Hi,
    i would’nt call the N96 a buisiness flagship. I think thats more the E71 or E90 part. But the N97 will be an interesting thing to look out for.

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