Cell Adictus

Things to love and hate about the Nokia N97

There are things we all love and hate about the devices we buy, no matter how awesome they are. At first you read that I was pleased with the N97, but not overwhelmed. I plan to post soon my 1 week thoughts on the N97 and have to say I am much more impressed with it than when I first started using it. Our Nokia Experts buddy, Ricky Cadden, received his white N97 this week and put together things he loves about the N97 and things he hates about the N97.

I agree with all of the things he loves and could include several more as you will see in my one week with the N97 post. I also completely agree with items 1 (this is my MAJOR pet peeve), 2, 5, and 6 of his hate list. As the flagship product, priced quite high, I would not expect to see a few of these things listed in his hate list and hope that Nokia addresses some of them soon with updates. My fear is that those of us with NAM devices will continue to be left behind with updates, but since we actually saw the N97 available before most of the world maybe Nokia has changed and their updates will come to us in a timely manner as well.

Any readers with a Nokia N97 care to chime in with your love/hate list?

Nokia N97 vs. HTC Touch Pro2 comparisons appear

Now that Nokia has the N97 rolling out around the world I think one of the first things prospective buyers will do is look at what available options there are for these QWERTY devices. HTC has been making these side slider QWERTY devices for several years and they have been quite successful. Nokia started with the E75, but the N97 is the first with a touch screen as well. I took a look at the N97 and HTC Touch Pro2 on ZDNet and now Steve Litchfield posted a comparison between these same two devices. Steve doesn’t seem to like Windows Mobile as much as I do, but I can completely understand his thoughts on inconsistencies between what HTC has done and the Microsoft OS at the base.

After using the Touch Pro2 for a couple weeks, with the rumors of it coming to T-Mobile USA, and with my usage of the Nokia N97, I don’t think I am going to pick one up like I originally planned to. The keyboard on the Touch Pro2 is fantastic, but I am finding the N97 to be just fine for what I need on the go and actually enjoy using my T-Mobile G1 Android device with my T-Mobile SIM.

Nokia N97 call management animations are cooler than the iPhone

I mentioned that the UI isn’t everything in a mobile device and even though Windows Mobile, RIM BlackBerry and S60 do not have the latest and greatest eye candy they are quite functional. One area where the UI is very slick on the iPhone and Palm Pre is when calls come in (not on the Pre), when calls are made, and management during a call. On the display you will see some large buttons for easy call management of functions such as speakerphone, mute, dialpad, etc. I decided to do another test on my Nokia N97 and was quite surprised by the very cool blue and green slider functionality very similar to the iPhone and new HTC Touch Pro2 appear right there on my Nokia N97. I will be taking a video later tonight of this and more functions on the N97 to share with you all, but captured a couple of screenshots of the slider animation in action.

When a call comes in and your N97 display is off you see a green arrow animation (moving left to right) for answer and a blue one below it (moving from right to left) for unlock. After you answer a call you have large on-screen buttons for mute, hold, activate loudspeaker and end call. There are also left soft keys for Options (include some of same big button features) and Dialer. If I call the Palm Pre there is just an option to answer, with nothing to ignore the call.

Hmm, seems to me after a bit further investigation and thought that the S60 UI may not be quite as dated as we all may assume. I plan to put together some more detailed thought on this soon.

Nokia E72 announced with 5 megapixel camera, updated keyboard, 3.5mm headset jack

So we posted on the E72 video just a short while ago and now All About Symbian has all the details on the upcoming Nokia E72. I love my E71/E71x and now I am really lusting after this device and am not sure I can resist this bad boy.

The E72 comes with S60 3rd Edition Feature Pack 2 (just like our AT&T E71x folks), awesome E75-like Nokia Messaging client (Nokia needs to make this available as a download for ALL E71/E71x owners!), 5 megapixel camera, slightly redesigned keyboard with a smaller space bar, 3.5mm headset jack (finally!), compass, and more improvements. It is an incremental upgrade, but a mighty fine one that I think may be added to my collection in the future.

Any other Nokia E71/E71x fans think this looks like an attractive upgrade option?

CTIA 09: Hands-on impressions of the Nokia N97

My posting on CTIA was a bit lighter than planned because my wife’s 90-year old grandmother passed away and I had to leave a day and a half early to fly home and attend to matters. That said, I am trying to catch up and post thoughts on things I saw that are related to Nokia and the S60 platform. I was able to get my hands on the Nokia N97 a few times and I have to admit my desire for the device has cooled a bit, while my enthusiasm for the Nokia E75 has increased so let me explain below.

The Nokia N97 is not a shirt pocketable device, but that isn’t a criteria that I personally care too much about as I want a device that pretty much does it all and can be carried in my pants or coat pocket. The N97 has a very nice display and like most all Nokia products is very well constructed. I am not really sold on the value of the widgets available on the Home screen since there is very little information that is actually viewable in the widget itself. It is a nice way to quickly see if something has been update and to quickly launch the full widget for more details, but I prefer to have a home screen like I what you see on the Nokia E71 or E75 with upcoming appointments, email status, notification pop-ups, etc. and find this type of information more valuable than 4 widget status updates.

I am pretty adaptable to most QWERTY keyboards on mobile devices, although I think the one on the Nokia N810 is pretty poor since I constantly hit the wrong key or multiple keys when entering text and it is too closely mounted under the display. I have only spent about 15 minutes total with the N97 keyboard, but overall I am not impressed with it. There are only three rows of keys and I personally consider four rows the minimum, with five rows the optimum for fast text entry. With only three rows you are going to be using the Function and Shift keys a lot to enter punctuation, numbers, and other characters. I also find the right side placement of the space bar a bit odd. Unlike the FANTASTIC keyboard on the upcoming HTC Touch Pro2 (this device will be mine) the QWERTY keyboard is also laid out a bit strangely with the Q directly above the A which is directly above the left shift key. HTC is now getting it right with their keyboards that have offset QWERTY keys similar to what you find on a real keyboard.

One thing I did not know about that I discovered at CTIA is there is currently no support for software keyboards like the two found on the Nokia 5800 (mini QWERTY and full screen QWERTY). This means that you will have to open and slide the keyboard out to enter any text on the device, similar to what we see on the Palm Pre. I would rather see Nokia give the user the flexibility to use software keyboards and keep the device in closed mode if they desire. I think there were a couple of options (handwriting and a phone keypad) that were supported though and am now wondering if the particular software build on the devices I saw just had the two other keyboard modes removed or if this is what we will see when the device ships out in a month or so. I’ll have to keep my eye on this functionality. There is no stylus silo on the N97 either so it seems Nokia hopes you use your fingernail for navigation and keyboard for text entry.

Check out my full first impressions of the Nokia E75 to see why I am really enjoying this device. The device is zippy and responsive, while also giving me just about everything I could ask for in a smartphone. The Eseries all have excellent quality and the E75 continues that tradition with an exterior that makes you want to hang on to it all the time.

I am also really liking the Nokia 5800 and think this can easily fill the role of a touch screen Nokia device rather than paying double for the Nokia N97 with keyboard I really don’t think I will like. The 5800 display is beautiful and this last weekend I watched an Amazon Video On Demand movie, Office Space, that played flawlessly on it. The retail box is packed full of goodies and you should really consider this device if you are looking for a touch screen Nokia. The camera is not that great though and I am actually finding the E75 camera to be quite good. I plan to post up comparison shots of the E71, E75, and 5800 3.2 megapixel cameras here in a day or two.

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