Nokia N97 Review

The long waiting time is over and we can finally say something about the so much acclaimed N97 smartphone – the iPhone's main rival suggested by Nokia. At first glance, besides the innovative design, the new top of the line touchscreen smartphone manufactured by the Finnish giant has been gifted with almost the same features as the older Nokia 5800 XpressMusic handset. That means it includes the same operating system, processor, HSDPA 3.6Mbps, Wi-Fi, built-in GPS receiver, and the list can go on. Still, the main things that differentiate the two handsets are the full QWERTY keyboard of N97 and the bigger touchscreen. If Nokia 5800 XpressMusic was released as the first Nokia smartphone to feature a touchscreen and an updated Symbian operating system that could go with it, the N97 should have been a piece of art from this point of view.

There were lots of bugs present in 5800's platform and the OS seemed rather rudimentary, but Nokia managed to solve most of them by a wide sequence of firmware updates. Still, the graphical interface, as well as the basic control of the menus remained the same. This shouldn't be that bad, but when you intend to compete with one of the most successful smartphones on the market, the iPhone, you must provide something that has at least equal value. Either Nokia managed to do that with the N97 or not, we will see in the following review, so read and judge for yourselves.

Nokia N97 was announced in November 2008, but managed to hit the shelves only in June 2009, after almost seven months of struggle. The smartphone is available in two classic colors: Black and White. Currently, it can be bought for around 600USD, depending on the location and plan.