Hands on with Nokia's N97 superphone - hits and misses

At $1799, the new N97 sits at the very top of Nokia’s food chain.

It’s been released at a time when a new hero handset is being released seemingly every week. Last month we had the HTC Magic Google Phone. On Friday the iPhone 3G S hits our shores.

If you’re familiar with Nokia’s high-end range, forget the N97 having any similarity to the N96 or N95. With its full Qwerty keyboard, the N97 is better thought of as a Nokia Communicator slimmed down, and gone touchscreen.

But while the Communicator was a shoe-phone, the N97 is relatively svelte. Its front-face dimensions are very similar to an iPhone, although its slider keyboard means it is, unsurprisingly, chunkier (see full tech specs here).

At time of writing, I’ve only had the N97 for around 24 hours, but here are some first impressions of its hits or misses.

MISS: Price
A lot of people won’t be able to get past the sticker price: $1799, off-contract.

The bus just doesn’t go out that far.

Nokia says you get a lot for your money, including 32GB of memory, a 400MHz processor and a big touchscreen - but the iPhone 3G S offers the same, plus a 600MHz processor and will sell for $1379, backed by frills like 3GB of data free for three months - and is likely to sell in much higher volume, which turn will likely lead to a bigger handset subsidy.

Is the N97’s Qwerty keyboard and higher-rez camera (5mP to the iPhone’s 3.2mP) worth the extra dosh? It’s borderline, especially when Nokia recently released another model, the $999 E75 (reviewed here), which also offers a horizontal full-Qwerty keyboard (if no touchscreen), making it similarly useful as a laptop substitute for short jaunts.

MISS: One carrier
Ouch. The E75 and is on both Telecom XT and Vodafone 3G. The N97 is Vodafone only.

In Australia - land of multiple carriers for every handset - the N97 is selling for $A1199 ($NZ1440) on Vodafone.

Nokia said today that Telecom chose not to sell the N97, leaving assembled media to mutter about the price being too high - though a spokewoman for Telecom subsiquently told NBR it was because simply because there is no 850MHz option at this time, in this part of the world (although there is in the US and elsewhere; as with the E75, Nokia is definitely manufacturing two variants. Anyway.)

More than one carrier is a good thing, as we’ve seen across the Tasman where Apple’s three carriers (Vodafone, Telstra and Optus) are trying to out-bid each other for iPhone 3G S customers’ attention with $0 up front deals on plans from $A69 a month.

2degrees has yet to say reveal any of its handsets, but it’s safe to say the $1799 N97 is not at a supermarket-friendly price-point. [UPDATE: just got word that one of Nokia's demo models at the launch was connected to 2degrees, but this could be the result of a confused Australian visitor latching their N97 to the first network that appeared onscreen as much as an indication of future carrier partnerships.]

Officially, the N97 has been available in New Zealand since June 30, but the handset has yet to make it to Vodafone’s website.

How did Nokia fall so far down the pecking order?

A Vodafone rep said the cheapset upfront N97 option would be $1179, but with a reasonably robust monthly plan price. That’s what you get, I guess, when your single carrier’s sandwiched you between Google phone and iPhone releases.

HIT: Excellent hardware design
The screen slides up to reveal the Qwerty keyboard with a satisfying thwock. And it feels like it could do it many more times. Although plastic (with metal edging), the N97 feels solidly engineered, only let down by the cheap and brittle battery cover.

The keys are too small for touch-typing, but their wide-spacing and rubbery, tactile feel makes them great for double-thumbing.

There's also a rocker control to the left of the keyboard that's a boon when cycling around or selecting web content.

There’s a physical key on the side for locking or unlocking the screen, which is a really nice touch, and one that should be copied by every other model of cellphone, bar clamshells, immediately.

Aside from the green and red call buttons, there is only one physical button on the front face, a la the iPhone. Even though they crimped the screen a little, I found the HTC Magic’s five buttons made for more user-friendly experience overall.

You get a 3.5mm standard headphone jack, mounted top and centre (again, why can’t all phones do that?) and a microUSB power adapter - soon to become the universal standard for mobile chargers.

HIT: Call quality, call handling
Calling quality on Vodafone's 3G network was excellent, with a clear signal and excellent volume. Onscreen icons make it easy to mute, hold or otherwise manage a call, taking full advantage of the roomy touchscreen.

For going off-net there's 802.11b/g wi-fi support (though at the N97's price-point, support for the newer, faster 802.11n would have been a nice touch).

HIT: the 5 megapixel camera
It shoots great pics and video and - unlike the sluggish N95 or N95 - has a snappy shutter speed.

The iPhone is only 3.2mP. Adding that extra bit of resolution means you can leave your standalone camera at home and use your N97 on many occasions. Cheaper smartphones do offer 8mP, but this N97’s a good all-round package, with fast picture processing speed, and colours that match snaps taken on a standalone camera. You also get a physical shutter over the Carl Zeiss lens - rare on a phone.

HIT: Removable battery
All models of smartphone from all makers only just make it through the day. A removable battery is a nice touch (the iPhone’s is sealed in).

HIT: 32GB of onboard memory, SD upgradeable
32GB is a really decent amount of storage for a handset. Sure, the iPhone 3G S matches it, but the N97 also has a microSD slot, though which you can add another 16GB for a total 48GB.

HIT: 3.5-inch touchscreen
The N97’s touchscreen matches the dimensions of Apple’s iPhone 3G S. It’s as easy to use as an iPhone 3G BlackBerry Storm or HTC Magic. And from my anecdotal experience it’s got faster auto-rotate than any of its competitors - often times it seems almost instant.

It’s reasonably immune to smudging, and you get a similar repotoire of swipe and finger scroll commands as the Storm or the HTC Magic, if not the pinch and other multi-touch gestures that are proprietary to Apple.

The screen tilts up on an angle whereas the E75’s touchscreen slides down flat. The angle definitely makes the N97 more useable. You can’t adjust the angle of the tilt, but I found it fine.

HIT: Speedy software
I’ve previously groused that the N96 and N95 were way too sluggish. You always had to wait a beat for a menu to unfurl or a page to redraw. The N97, which is pretty much redesigned from the ground up, is snappy.

Personally, I don’t care if the processor is slower than the iPhone 3G S’s. It’s a matter of how well you marry the software to the silicon, and in this case it’s a well-engineered match - and certainly it’s all the processing power you need for music, photos and video.

There’s been some grousing online about the fifth generation of Nokia’s Symbian 60 software. The underlying objection, perhaps, is that it’s not the iPhone OS. But different doesn’t mean worse. I find Symbian easy and logical.

MISS: Nokia Maps 3.0
Version three of Nokia Maps uses technology that Nokia acquired when it bought Navteq for $US8 billion. It’s solid, speedy and user-friendly. But you only get three months’ free use, after which you have to pay around $15 a month for a walk and drive license (you pay in Euros, and the amount varies with the exchange rage, and with the duration of the license you take out).

Few are going to pay that when the mobile version of Google Maps is free to download. Google may lack turn-by-turn voice instructions, but it offers extra frills like Street Views.

HIT: Nokia Messaging
The N97 is one of several high-end Nokia phones that comes with the companies new push-email service, called Nokia Messaging.
Essentially, it provides free IBM and Microsoft middleware that gives you the same ability to sync, in real-time, with your office email as if you had a BlackBerry.
Nokia has also wangled things so that you can access your ISP’s web mail (most providers are supported) by simply entering your user-name and password, no mail server or other fiddly settings required.

I’ve set up Nokia N series and E series for both TelstraClear and Gmail accounts, and it is as easy as advertised. There are many ways to get email on a cellphone, but with Nokia messaging you get easy set-up, instant push, and support for up to 10 mailboxes (if that’s not enough, the company’s now also offering an Ovi mail account).

In short, Nokia Messaging is very nicely done.

A BlackBerry can do a lot more than receive push email, of course, but if you only use your BlackBerry for email, you should check out Nokia Messaging.

Nokia Messaging is also one of the strongest reasons to buy a Nokia Symbian phone over rivals from the likes of Motorola or Sony Ericsson. In the smartphone wars, it's shaping up as a big deal.

HIT: Mini widgets
I like the layout of the N97’s touchscreen, which displays a customisable series of “mini widgets”. My N97 came with Facebook, and Flicker widgets, plus a weather feed (which uses the N97’s built-in GPS to auto-sense your location; nice touch). You can add or subtract a widget with a couple of taps.

Tapping one of five mini widgets visible on the home page explodes it into a full-screen view. It’s a nice way of arranging interactive data.

The widgets update even when they’re in their mini form on the home page, though to be honest it’s a bit tricky to read a scrolling Facebook update at what must be the equivalent of two-point type.

MISS: No Twitter widget, no local widgets
There is no Twitter widget, no MySpace widget; and no local widgets (Aussie punters have a selection of localised news widgets). Nokia says this is a temporary glitch: Twitter and MySpace widgets should be available within weeks, and a selection of local widgets is in the works.

MISS: OviStore
More power to Nokia for deciding it needs to be as much a software and services company as a handset company. It’s heading in the right direction. But it’s no their yet.

The Apple world is simple: there is (bar incremental upgrades): one iPhone, and it can suck down any piece of software from AppStore.

But only a few of Nokia’s higher-end phones can access the recently-launched OviStore, and even within the chosen few there are nuances, necessitated by the fact that different phones have different features.

On the ovi.store.com site, you can enter your Nokia phone’s model number to see a list of compatible programmes - which simplifies things. Or oversimplifies them, in the case of my N97, for which a single piece of software was listed: a game called BlockGo. This aint no AppStore.

For the moment, Ovi is too messy a proposition, with its multi-model mayhem, and failure to match free apps on other services (such as that glaring Twitter client omission) let alone sporting unique software or content.

But it’s early days. Nokia is throwing huge resources behind Ovi, and it will get better - and when it does, the N97 is well crafted piece of hardware that will be able to take full advantage.