?Is it a cell phone with a built-in laptop or is it a midget laptop that also doubles as a full-fledged cell phone?? Well! I am talking about the Nokia?s new flagship called ?N97?!
In its out of box avatar, it looks like any other touch screen smart-phone with slimmer looks and sleeker lines. Just slide the QWERTY keypad out and you are holding a miniature laptop in your hands with the screen sitting gracefully at a very sweet and comfortable angle.
The N97, with its 3.5? and 16:9 wide-screen TFT display (16 million colours and resolution of 640 x 360 pixels) set in an ash-black bezel with chromium trimming and just one physical menu-key, looks every bit a worthy flagship candidate. The call-receive/end keys are virtual (touch) keys.
Surprisingly, N97 have just four other keys and two ports on the outer shell. A power-on key on the top, a lock-switch on the left panel, a volume/zoom key and another camera capture key on the right panel. A micro USB port for charging and sync, on the left panel and a 3.5mm AV connector port for headset, headphones and TV-out, on the top panel.
As you slide the display panel up to unveil the QWERTY keyboard, it makes a rather snappy but very reassuring muffled ?clang?, as if a solid hydraulic lever gliding in to its groove in one smooth motion. The complex slide mechanism that Nokia engineers have deployed has just one tilt angle. An option to adjust the tilt to personal liking would have done the trick. The keyboard sitting underneath the display is backlit and well laid-out, but the ?space? key ? has been moved out of place to the right. One has to get used to it.
The flat tips of the keys may also raise a few eyebrows; I would personally have preferred a little spherical elevation in the keys as in ?E71?, for better separation and tactile feedback. The same is true for the ?D-pad?, the directional ring is too narrow and close to the OK button that the whole thing feels like a big square button under the thumb, forcing perennial wrong clicks. But one can always use the touch screen and the nice flat stylus for accuracy.
The snappers among us will specially like the 5 mega pixel camera with a sliding cover, on the back of the N97, and another front facing camera for video conferencing. The Carl Zeiss lens and a powerful LED flash of the main camera will not disappoint you.
Inside this elegant body, a massive onboard storage space of 32GB (expandable to 48GB with the help of micro SD memory card) will satiate the most demanding needs. This storage space will come very handy when you download all that music from Nokia Music Store and YouTube contents utilising the connectivity options of this Quad-band phone supporting 3.5G, WiFi and Blue tooth 2.0.
In case you wish to play that music stacked in the phone?s mega memory over the car stereo system, well it has an onboard FM transmitter for that too. Isn?t it great? But wait till you hear this! Underneath this superlative hardware runs a miserly 434 MHz processor (ARM 11, 434MHz). Tap a couple of applications together and the phone starts running out of steam and hangs. Nokia should have ?served? its flagship with a bit bigger portion of the silicon, specially keeping the competition in mind.
The preloaded Symbian 60, fifth edition OS manages to just move the system around, not glide. And the same is true for the touch based input responsiveness. It, at best, is very basic and just functional. Absolutely, no treat to eyes or threat to the iPhone.
However, I like the widgets on the home screen, keeping all the important information and applications such as messaging, Facebook, Nokia maps, weather forecast etc within your finger?s reach. You can also download more widgets from Nokia?s Ovi store, some for free and some paid for.
Die-hard Nokia fans might love it despite the MRP of 36,119.
It?s a ?Love it, Love it not? proposition.