Good lord, Nokia's done it again... and no, I don't mean that in a posititve way. The led flash is a step backwards from the beautiful N82 xenon flash.

fusiongt

A gorgeous phone to be sure, but I have a few hesitations. First, the thickness of any slider phone is always what ends up killing it for me. I want the keyboard, but I don't want it to be thicker than an inch. Second, the screen is a little disappointing. I would hope for more of the Nokia N800 style screen with a res of 800 wide. Third; Symbian OS? Why not make the full leap into Maemo Linux? Sure Symbian already has a lot of apps and it's familiar to a lot of folks, but it's getting a little long in the tooth. Fourth, no WiFi or WiMax? Shocking. Hopefully that'll change in the final build. Finally, and this is a gripe about all cell phones not just this particular Nokia; do these things really need to retail for $500 or $600? After all the cost breakdowns I've seen, phones are no more expensive to manufacture than PDAs, and the price should be more like $200-$400. I understand that putting a high list price allows mfrs to lock in a favorable, exclusive subsidized price but I thought Nokia was going the opposite direction and offering more phones directly to consumers. That should translate into reasonable list prices, but apparently not.

weatherman

@armendni: The article says no US 3G, since this is the Europe version. I highly doubt it'll be released without 3G, seeing as even the free Nokia phones have 3G now.

Also, the reason it's lacking Wi-Fi is probably because the version Giz played with isn't a finalized version. All N-series have Wi-Fi... it would be silly if this one didn't.

da-vid

and WLAN = Wi-Fi. Did you handle a prototype or didn't it just have wi-fi configured? I got the impression from the article that it doesn't have wi-fi which isn't correct.

Ezzy77

Nokia World speaker just made fun of Gizmodo for not getting the scoop.

iamnotdrtran

Why did they have to make the keyboard so small, though? Why did they make the space bar so awkwardly placed?!

da-vid

No 3G or wi-fi?? and $700? Yeah I'm gonna pass on this one. Cell Providers probably won't carry it anyways ala the N95 that still goes for around $500.

armendni

Gotta love the boastful press release.

I looks cool, no doubt.

However, my general feeling, besides towards the amazing storage capacity is "meh".

Clancycoop

Wow. I love the white one. It looks like the N79, but that's a good thing. But I'm not too fond of the dark-ish one that you're holding in the first pic. Maybe it's just the lighting, though.

Also, I love the new interface. It's a huge improvement over the current non-touch S60 devices. Also, 32 GB of storage?? Holy shit! I may even consider getting Nokia phones again.

da-vid

@Dafrety:

All those widgets on the main screen are customizable like Android.

iamnotdrtran

WANT! I love my old fart of a Nokia phone (3220). I wish they still made them as customizable as that. Now once you buy it you're stuck with it.

Dafrety

Is the main display a OLED?

erik1974

Looks good! $700. Better start saving my pennies.

iamnotdrtran

Yay, it's an Xpress Music 5800 with a chintzy, three row keyboard! Looks like crap.

captain.obvious

I love the Nokia phones, but I feel they came up short here.
And as weatherman stated, I like the fold out keyboards but I hate the thickness that they require. It ruins everything about it

efenili

@iamnotdrtran: I know, but what I'm talking about is the phone itself. I can pop the case off of mine exposing the guts and replace it with a different one. I've got white, black, wood grain, and a black rubberized one. The black and white ones have an window in the back too, you can print out designs and put them in there.

Dafrety

@erik1974: I hope so but it might not be... it could just be similar to the N810 tablet

fusiongt

@da-vid: Well, at least my N73 doesn't have WiFi

beakerbreak

@armendni: Uh that's just the test model that was stripped down for show... of course it will have wifi and 3g (though US 3g might come later or not at all)... hell it might even have wi-max

fusiongt

@da-vid: That's really unfortunate, because the e90 actually had a really nice keyboard. You'd think they'd try for improvements, not make it worse.

captain.obvious

@armendni:
RTFA...it says it will support services for sharing "over HSDPA and WLAN".

net_addict

@da-vid: A huge improvement? Weird, I fail to see any real difference, besides the widgets they've added to the standby screen (which other platforms already have).

Not a whole lot of innovation coming out of Espoo these days.

captain.obvious

I dunno. Looks big n' chunky, both of which aren't good adjectives for phones. Guess I'll be waiting for the N-series version of the 5800.

USB_Humping_Dog

a video of it here

[www.nokia.com]

Digitallysick

@armendni:

Software:

* Runs S60 5th Edition. You can read more about S60 5th Edition in our Nokia 5800 preview. However, the N97 will have the Nseries version of S60, which means there will be a number of extra applications including Internet Radio, FM transmitter, Home media (UPnP) and Photos.

* The home screen can be personalised with Internet-aware widgets (based on WRT technology). Examples included in the press photos include weather forecasts, social networking (Facebook, Friendster, My Space) status summaries, and media collections. There are also indicators for time, profiles, email, application shortcuts and so on.

* Text input is via on screen keyboard (full screen QWERTY, pop-up QWERTY and alphanumeric), as is standard on S60 5th Edition, or handwriting recognition or via the QWERTY keyboard.

* Fully compatible with Ovi services including Maps, Music, Share and Games. Nokia Music store can be accessed from the device (touch optimised version) or from Nokia Music for the PC (an iTunes -Windows application). Nokia Maps now supports high resolution satellite imagery, 3D buildings (selected buildings) and richer map meta data. Pedestrian route finding and turn by turn, voice guided car navigation, are available as premium services.

* Internet focus with WebKit based browser, comprehensive RSS feed support and runtime technologies including Flash, WRT (widget).

* Introduces the social location (So-Lo) concept; the N97 has software that allows you to automatically update and share your location with friends and popular social networks.

* 'N-Gage compatible' device, which indicates that the N-Gage platform will be touch enabled by the release date of the N97.

The devices being demoed at Nokia World are running an early version of the software. In the six months leading up to the release date it is likely to evolve considerably.

N97 touch deviceHardware:

* Physical dimensions: 117.2 x 55.3 x 15.9 mm (18.25 mm at camera area), and weighs approximately 150g.

* Tilt form factor with horizontal slide to reveal full QWERTY keyboard. The upper half of the device slides away from the bottom half and moves upwards in a diagonal direction. The slide is impressively smooth and when closed feels very solid in the hand (so much so its not immediately apparent it is a horizontal slide device).

* There are three keys on the front of the device: send and end keys and a home/menu key. On the left side of the device there is a slider lock and a microUSB port, on the top of the device is the power and 3.5mm audio jack and on the right hand side are the volume keys and the camera capture key.

* 3.5 inch, 360 x 640 (nHD) resolution 'conductive' touch TFT screen with 16 million colours. The device can be driven using finger touch or stylus, or from the QWERTY keyboard.

* Haptic feedback for screen touches. This is provided via general vibra feedback, as on the Nokia 5800.

* 5 megapixel camera with Carl Zeiss optics and dual LED flash. The camera is covered by a sliding lens cover similar to that found on the N85 and N79.

The camera is also used to record videos at VGA at 30 frames per seconds, but I've seen a demo of it recording and playing video back in a 16:9 resolution mode (also as on the 5800). The usual Share online application is present for uploading images and video to online services such as Flickr and Share on Ovi (available services likely to be expanded before launch).

* Integrated A-GPS and compass sensor (magnetometer) means that the N97 'intuitively knows where it is' and this is used by Nokia Maps, and for social location; also embeds location information into images and video.

* 3.5 mm audio jack (also used for TV-Out) and built in stereo speakers. Music playback time of one and half days (36 hours). There's also an FM radio and FM transmitter.

* microUSB jack (USB 2.0 HiSpeed) and supports charging over USB

* 32GB of internal flash memory

* microSD card slot with support for SDHC cards upto 16GB in size (giving total potential memory of 48 GB)

* WiFi, 3.5G (tri-band HSDPA - 900, 1900 and 2100 Mhz), quad-band GSM and Bluetooth connectivity (various profiles including HID, SAP, A2DP and AVRCP).

* 1500 mAh battery (BP-4L - the same monster as that used in the E71, E90, 6650 and N800).

* There is no stylus built into the phone, but one will be included in the box.

* The Nokia N97 is expected to ship in the first half of 2009 (presumably in June) with an estimated price of 550 Euro before taxes and subsidies.

Songoman

@erik1974: What do you mean with main display? It has only 1 display.

Songoman

@Songoman: Thanks for that! Still not paying $700 for a phone :) but hey I'm just a poor college kid. Impressive specs I stand corrected *Inserts foot into mouth*

armendni

@weatherman: The phone isn't thicker than an inch. Not even the N95 is thicker than an inch. This phone is something like 65% of an inch.

da-vid

Meh. Wake me up when this is an E series communicator, with two screens that properly flips open. The stupid sliding mechanism eats up enough space for TWO FULL ROWS of keys.

davekaybsc

@weatherman: Compared it to my N81 (which is about an inch thick) by using the height of the miniUSB-port as a measuring lenght and I'd say it's pretty much exactly as thick as my N81. So it should fall within the max 1 inch category.

Maemo Linux? If you ask me Symbian (which is specifically designed for cellphones) is still a better alternative.

No Wimax or WiFi? Are dyslectic or something?

Its hi-end phone you know, for people who actually need a querty keyboard. If you're not intrested in this phone becuase of the price I think the 5800 is more for you. Also, the majority of cellphones, specially in the U.S is sold by contract, for instance in most of the countires that sell the iPhone it's contact only. So it's pretty logical that Nokia goes for the largest markets, the cheap people who think the're getting a cheap/free phone with their binding 2 year contract.

L_A_G

@beakerbreak: Oops, lol. I was thinking of the newer ones. Like, even my N78 has WiFi.

da-vid

@armendni:

700$ unsubsidized, its the same as an iPhone.

This phone is made of pure gold win.

Turbostraw

Holy crap that thing looks like a certified asshole. a 3 row keyboard? Holy shit! A stylus? WTF is that? Might as well include a 5-1/4 floppy drive while you are at it. Hey, does this thing use a serial mouse, too?

OMGWTFLOLMAO!!1!!!!11!11

Nice screen.

Stacky Botrus

@captain.obvious: There is definitely a huge improvement. I own an S60 device that came out this year. There's a huge difference. For starters, it no longer looks like crap.

da-vid

@USB_Humping_Dog: This is the N series of the 5800.

diabolusunknownTheSecond

@Stacky Botrus:

resistive touchscreen (there, as always, to ensure character recognition via a stylus for Nokia's Asian market)

diabolusunknownTheSecond

[sizeasy.com]

diabolusunknownTheSecond

@L_A_G: Whoops, sorry, directed to the wrong person. I meant to @weatherman.

da-vid

@L_A_G: Quoted from the PDF Data Sheet:

Connectivity & Data Services
•WLAN IEEE 802.11b/g with UPnP support

[events.nokia.com]

Therefore, it does have WiFi.

da-vid

@strider_mt2k: Excuse me, N810.

strider_mt2k

No thanks.

My M810 experience has left me not so into Nokia.

strider_mt2k

I guess the video is pretty nice. But one question, is there NO other way to make a calendar icon than to rip off iCal? I think everyone uses that Day calendar with the red Bar across the top now.

dallasmay2

so..... its a souped up n810? oh hrealy?

takemetoyourtoaster

This is a bad idea for Nokia. Honestly, if I were them I would just duck low, and stick with low grade feature phones for a while. Nokia does not have the fanboy following that Apple does, is not going to give the freedom for Apps that Google will, and doesn't have the business lock in that Blackberry has. Nokia is fighting three HUGE players here.

I guess that Sprint could sign them up and make this their #1 phone, but I doubt that Nokia is even that smart.

dallasmay2

@erik1974: Would not be cost effective to outfit a com with a touch-screen OLED.

kazemizuhi

You can see they're not very proud of their touch-screen - It's only mentioned briefly in the beginning of the press release :P

Still, first N-phone to have QWERTY! Might be my next phone. If the touchscreen doesn't suck too much.

MrThunderfield

@dallasmay2:

Nokia is a HUGE player, commanding 40% of the world market.

Blackberry for example has sold something like eight phones outside US. Actually I'm not sure if they even exist in non-US markets. I've never seen one, that's for sure.

niz

@dallasmay2: Well, mabe in the US but doesn't Nokia pretty much rule Europe? They know what the market is like in the US and that's why they don't put too much effort with most of their phones (ie: no US 3g support for lots of phones, even good ones like the N82). Even the N95-3 took a year to come in the US after it was released in Europe. Chances are this N97 may or may not come to the US with 3g support.

fusiongt

Competitors like Nokia, Microsoft Windows Mobile, and RIM are rapidly losing smart phone market share to Apple's iPhone. They've been pressured by their cell phone network customers to get an iPhone 'knock-off' into the market and to do it quickly.

But inferior products, rushed to market, like the Blackberry Storm and the Nokia N97 will do little but provide unfavorable comparisons. iPhone has built-in WiFi. iPhone has the amazing App Store with thousands of third party applications available for download now (many are free). iPhone has a real computer operating system at it's heart. iPhone provides a great users experience. iPhone wins hands-down.

davesmall

They had me at N-Gage.

Jk.

b-radicate

@dallasmay2:

Sorry, but Nokia is fighting your HUGE players in the US only. Everyone else is TINY on a worldwide scale compared to Nokia. A 40% Market share should say something (with the next competitor at 15-ish%)

The fact that Americans are just now starting to come out of the dark ages in mobile phones doesn't mean that the US is the market leader etc.

Ezzy77

@davesmall: iPhone also doesn't have a real keyboard. Have you tried typing on the iPhone/iPod Touch keyboard? It's a pain in the ass if you type quickly. The autocorrect function is also a bit wonky.

ocdude

@ocdude: The keyboard on the N97 looks pretty much like junk.

DjCytosol

Am I the only one disappointed by this phone? Resistive touchscreen? ew

DjCytosol

@iamnotdrtran:

Haha oh this phone is funny ;]

iAirmanshirk

this looks way better than the iphone. and i have an iphone. so im not just saying that lightly.

pardyhardy

@dallasmay2: Concurring with the others here. US =/= World.

onydchic

@Turbostraw:

Will be interesting to see if Nokia can work the same deal as Apple to get the subsidized price to below $300.

dogcow

@dogcow: the high end N9X series has never been tethered to a provider in the US and i doubt this one will be either. it sucks that it won't be cheaper than $700 anytime soon, but it does have its upsides. for example, the provider can't cripple the thing like they do for damn near every other phone. it also eliminates that chance that verizon is going to fuglify your phone with that shitty skin they use for every one of their phones.

stre

Nokia Ducks
Nokia makes damn fine rubber boots is all I can say!

+ Watch video

ANoel

@davesmall: Apple is hardly the end all phone. It actually sucks....as a phone. Nokia as many have stated OWNS the world cell phone market by a large margin. Will people like Apple/Android challenge that? Possibly...but its not there yet

efenili

@DjCytosol: somebody else said that apparently this works better with a stylus, needed for asian character writing.

Zlevee

@dallasmay2:

I have more turn by turn apps on my Nokia than Android and iPhone combined.

iamnotdrtran

@davesmall: Inferior? does your iphone have a 5MP camera with LED flash and Carl Zeiss lens? expandable memory? A full keyboard in addition to the touchscreen? All of the features of your iphone (even downloadable apps) are available in this thing, plus additional ones. Show me something the iphone has that this lacks.

Zlevee

@fusiongt: I've seen a bunch of Nokia's with 3G at AT&T. Most Nokias, even the simplest ones, also have FM radios (in addition to MP3 players), which is something not many other manufactureres put in.

Zlevee

it looks like a good start for Nokia.. but kinda late

sarwatmj

32gb + mem slot, wi-fi, triband utms, 5mpxl cam, dvd quality video recording, copy/paste, removable battery, turn-by-turn nav, can run apps in the background, over 20,000 symbian apps, same price as a unsubsidized iphone, real qwerty, not tied to itunes for syncing, over the air updates, unlocked, a2dp, video chat, you can tether it, supports flash, works good as a phone.

Oh, and it doesn't have a good app store, but that's a little gimmick to get you spend money or download free apps that do the same thing as a web page.

The iPhone is cool, but the n97 is a real gadget.

kevininstereo

@kevininstereo:

iPhone = entertainment phone, nothing smart about it until it has even the basic feature of multitasking.
n-series = smartphone

and until Apple makes an iPhone that is to cellphones what iPod Touch is to mp3-players, it will remain a niche market phone compared to the big boys.

It's a gem to look at, but that's it. And that's pretty much what it's used for atm, raising your self-esteem and being hip. Sad World.

Ezzy77

DROOOL! I'm so saving now to get that the DAY it's available here in SA. This is what I've been waiting for, for like 5 years. *Tear*

DJTripleRRR

I own a n95 8gb and thought the n96 was a HUGE disapointment. The n97 will most def be my next phone, this thing has it all!! I use my current phone to take decent photos, record vids, listen to music on the loud and clear stero speakers. I connect my phone to my car via aux to listen to my music. I connect my phone to my tv to watch vids. I laugh when iphone fanboys talk about their phones as if nothing else existed before it. No it doesnt have a neat interface but given a choice I'd choose the N series over an iphone any day.

hihai411

This is a great phone and good comp for apple. I cant wait to buy it. You can get some video of it here as well http://www.nzmobiles.com/phones/34-nokia/61-the-new-nokia-n97-.html

SarasiBia

Pretty nice. Interface is pretty good looking, but a lot of the highlighted screens in the video look cluttered. Also needs to be thinner. The ID on this thing is horrible.

And why, like Android, do these companies insist on a ginormous ANALOGUE clock on the home screen?!

jinushaun

@Songoman: I like the cut of your jib son.

admoseremic

@armendni: wow.. read carefully buddy... euro has euro 3g and the pre-production model didn't come with wifi.. wait for the us spec to have north american 3g

noservice2001

@iAirmanshirk: why?

skyline6

@diabolusunknownTheSecond: Seems more like the replacement for/spiritual successor of the E90 than what I hope is coming out.

I want a pure touchscreen phone, period. No keyboard :D

USB_Humping_Dog

@stre: Not every phone, my dare is free of the defacto verizon ui.

loudambiance

i wish the us would subsidize nokia smart phones :(

rudez90

Wow. This is a nice phone... I can't wait to get my hands on it to put it through my series of tests. I hope it can pass so I can make it my secondary handset or maybe, just maybe, my first... $700 is a lot of money right now though. So it better be worth it.

Mr. Hi-Definition

aggg what an ugly User Interface. They need to take their own class in UI Design.

vgart

@dallasmay2: Sorry, but the US is not the world. I have a Nokia phone. My dad has a Nokia phone. My mom also has a Nokia phone. Nokias are so ridiculously popular here.

Some people did a poll at my school (I live in Asia). Something like 70% of all students with a phone have a Nokia. And I go to an *American* school. Therefore, I conclude that the only reason Nokia isn't taking over the US marketshare is because none of their modern phones are available at a subsidized price.

da-vid

I wonder if anyone will sue Nokia for deceptive advertising if (when?) the UI ends up being slower than that video implies.

rotorglow

@USB_Humping_Dog:

then you shouldn't be shopping for Nokias... they're known for the keyboard usage for business people

ilves

@Dafrety: dude, go buy some nail polish and have your way with the case it ships with ;)

aetheria

I want! I wish I could afford it.

Atriel

@jinushaun:
You can change the clock to digital.

iamnotdrtran

Nokia is rocking here is similar article.

AureliaJaloofamis

@ilves: The Tube/5800 gave me hope, so I hope.

USB_Humping_Dog

Absolutely amazing!

suland

Hmmm... does anyone know if this phone (given the capability on the carrier) to handle Blackberry / iPhone-style 'push' Email, including through an MS Exchange mail server?

AnastasiaChiron