Many people are excited about the upcoming release of the Nokia N97, saying it’s the most powerful Nokia phone ever; but is it really good enough to become the phone of the year?
Nokia N97 – what makes it so special?
The Nokia N97 shocked a great many people when it was announced at the tail-end of 2008, and the main reason for the excitement it’s generated is that it’s the second mainstream touchscreen phone Nokia have ever made (the first being, of course, the 5800). Like the 5800, the Nokia N97 uses the sleek, intuitive Symbian S60 Touch interface, making for a touchscreen experience that is both simple, and entertaining. Unlike its predecessor, however, the Nokia N97 also includes a full, slide-out QWERTY keyboard, so that after you’ve navigated through the cool menus, actually typing that text message or email is going to easier than ever.
Nokia are billing the N97 as a true mobile multimedia computer, a view backed up by the keyboard and incredible interface. However, the Nokia N97 also has its fair share of features to earn that title. You get a 5 megapixel camera for pin-sharp photos, you get a superb multimedia centre, that makes music and movies so compelling, and best of all, the Nokia N97 has a massive 32Gb of built in memory, in order for you to actually store all your photos, movies and music. You also get HSDPA internet access, at true broadband speeds, and GPS.
However, as you’re about to see, if the question’s whether the Nokia N97 is the best phone of the year, Sony Ericsson may have put a fly in the ointment of those aspirations…
Sony Ericsson Idou – the N97’s greatest enemy…
The Nokia N97 may be the most powerful phone ever made by the Finnish manufacturer, but the fact is that the upcoming Sony Ericsson Idou not only beats it in certain key areas, but absolutely trounces it in one of them. The N97 from Nokia, and the Sony Ericsson Idou both share the Symbian S60 Touch interface, but on the Sony, they’ve added a custom front-end, that’s designed for direct multimedia interaction, combined with luscious, flowing visuals. In terms of the interface, the Sony Ericsson Idou is easily the more visually impressive of the two, and although it lacks a keyboard, it makes up for that shortcoming by being fast, compact and incredibly sexy. And, to top it off, the Sony Ericsson Idou has one feature that the Nokia can’t even touch: its camera. There’s a simple reason for that, as the Sony Ericsson Idou is the first UK-announced phone to have a 12 megapixel camera. One thing’s for sure, though… the fight between these two heavyweights is going to be one worth watching!
The specs of this device are truly mesmerising and the critics were calling it the best Nokia mobile phone till date. However, the spirit and the curiosity of a human mind is not easily satiated. After toying with nokia N95 for more than a month now, the users are now looking for a better instrument, much better than N95 which can again enthrall their imagination.
The scientists at Nokia factory are indeed clever and they probably had anticipated the reaction and the expectations that might crop up after the debut of N95. So, the market is now cooking up the idea of a mightier instrument all over again, that had been in news around this time. The gadget that is being talked about is Nokia N97, which will succeed the throne of Nokia N95, whenever it is launched. Not very long ago, Nokia N97 was termed as a hoax and a mere rumour. However, with the arrival of N95, the speculations are on about the official launch of the powerful Nokia N97.
You must be thinking about the ‘x’ factor that is encompassing the whole N97 news. To tell you the truth, there isn’t much information available about this gadget and whatever little is known, intrigues the mind of the user. Nokia N97 is an amazingly superb device that is known to have 20 GB of internal memory space in it, making it comparable to any mini computer, Further, the gigantic memory is also expandable in case you feel that it is insufficient.
The camera of Nokia N97 is believed to be high resolution 5 Mega Pixels that wouldn’t surprise you as you have already had the taste of it in Nokia N95. But its 20x zoom would surely bamboozle your imagination. Further, the display of Nokia N97 is 3 inches, which makes the whole experience even more delightful than before. The battery of Nokia N97 is known to provide up to 400 hours standby time. And then, the standard high end features like FM radio and digital music player with surround sound experience are also other inclusions in this colossal handset.

It is just too early to speculate about this mighty device. But we cannot rule out the possibility of its arrival in near future. Till then, all we can do is to anticipate the launch of this handset.
Technical Overview:
The Nokia N97 mobile phone combines a large 3.5? touch display with a full QWERTY keyboard, providing an ‘always open’ window to favorite social networking sites and Internet destinations. This mobile phone looks set to be the number one must have phone for 2009 and could pose a threat to the iPhone or the Google G1
Nokia’s flagship Nseries device introduces leading technology – including multiple sensors, memory, processing power and connection speeds – for people to create a personal Internet and share their “social location”. “From the desktop to the laptop and now to your pocket, the Nokia N97 is the most powerful, multi-sensory mobile computer in existence,” said Jonas Geust, Vice President, heading Nokia Nseries. “Together with the Ovi services announced today, the Nokia N97 mobile computer adjusts to the world around us, helping stay connected to the people and things that matter most. With the Nokia N97, Nseries leads the charge in helping to transform the Internet into your Internet”.
Nokia N97 Sensing your ‘So-Lo’
The Nokia N97 introduces the concept of ’social location’. With integrated A-GPS sensors and an electronic compass, the Nokia N97 mobile computer intuitively understands where it is. The Nokia N97 mobile phone makes it easy to update social networks automatically with real-time information, giving approved friends the ability to update their ’status’ and share their ’social location’ as well as related pictures or videos.
Nokia N97 Mobile Phone With Widescreen – Internet and entertainment
The home screen of the Nokia N97 mobile computer features the people, content and media that matter the most. Friends, social networks and news are available by simply touching the home screen. The 16:9 widescreen display can be fully personalized with frequently updated widgets of favorite web services and social networking sites. The Nokia N97 mobile phone is also perfectly suited for browsing the web, streaming Flash videos or playing games. Both the physical QWERTY and virtual touch input ensure efficiency in blogging, chatting, posting, sending texts or emailing.
The Nokia N97 Mobile Phone 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.
Announced in late 2008, the Nokia N97 is one of the most spectacular mobile phones the Finnish manufacturer’s ever come up with. Let’s take a look at this awesome device, and see why it’s so special.
A potted history of Nokia touchscreen phones
Most people seem to be under the false impression that the Nokia 5800 is the first touchscreen mobile phone Nokia have ever made. It isn’t. The opposite’s true, because there have been a few touch-based phones to wear the Nokia name. Beginning with the 7700, the world has seen a couple of Nokia mobile phones that are controlled by you pressing directly on the screen. They all had reasonably big (for their time) screens, but the other feature they had in common, unfortunately, was that they were irredeemably hideous. Just one of those mobile phones, the 6708, displayed any promise, but that was destined solely to be sold in China, and so, we never got to play with them in Britain. The mobile phones WE got were, and I use this phrase with much feeling, utter, utter bobbins.
However, those unpleasant memories have now been firmly erased by the launch of a new Nokia mobile phone, which comes with a touch-sensitive display, and which is much, much nicer…
Bang up to date with the Nokia N97
One glance at the new Nokia N97 is enough to confirm that this is one of the most beautiful mobile phones Nokia have ever made. It’s not just the sleek, sexy body that gives the Nokia N97 its charm, it’s also that enormous touchscreen on the front of the phone, coming in at 3.5 inches, with a widescreen resolution. The fact that it’s a full touchscreen adds a whole new dimension to the Nokia N97, as well, allowing you to interact with your phone in a far more direct and exciting fashion. That’s aided, of course, by the interface in the Nokia N97, a new extension of the S60 Touch interface soon to be seen in the Nokia 5800. Suffice to say, the Nokia N97, being a far more powerful top-end mobile phone, takes it far further than its mid-range sibling, making the N97, by a considerable margin, the best touchscreen phone Nokia have ever made.
Into the future with the Nokia N97
In fact, no previous Nokia phones can match the Nokia N97 for power. Opening the list of functions and features is a superb 5 megapixel camera, so that you can snap some truly gorgeous images with the Nokia N97. Needless to say, they’ll display in luscious colour on the phone’s touchscreen, and with the built-in GPS, you can even add location data to them. As well as GPS connectivity, the Nokia N97 comes complete with a raft of internet connectivity options, including HSDPA and WiFi, which, in conjunction with the web browser, provide an internet experience that’s reminiscent of other Nokia phone, whilst being far more compelling. In terms of multimedia, you get top-end gaming, video and music, and a massive 32Gb of memory built into the phone, expanding its range of roles to include mobile phone, mobile broadband internet device, sat-nav and portable entertainment centre. Essentially, it’s very hard to find anything the Nokia N97 won’t do, and because of that, it seems likely this will easily be Nokia’s phone of the year!