A New Era Begins: The N97
The Journey:
I’ve been using my new Nokia N97 as my only mobile device for about 3 weeks now. My overall experience so far has been great I have a lot to report. On launch day, which was July 2nd here in Finland, I woke up early and road my bike to the Loimaa railway station, just barely making the morning express train to Helsinki. The train pulled into Helsinki Central about 10 minutes before the Aleksanterinkatu Nokia flagship store opened, and by the time I had walked to the store it had already been open for a few minutes. There was no line trailing out the door but the store was pretty packed inside, with about 15 people lined up at the register and at least 40 sprawled out around the numerous demo unit tables. I got in line and prepared my cash and EU passport for a quick transaction (In the EU, you generally need to show ID when buying something over €100). When it was my turn I specified that I wanted the black model and the sales person quickly fetched a box from underneath the counter. He then told me that since I had reserved an N97 the previous week, I could chose either an external, rechargeable battery back or a bluetooth headset as a free addition – both Nokia-made accessories which would normally have cost €120 each! I chose the battery pack and completed my purchase, after which another Nokia employee encouraged me to open the box and power up the phone right there to make sure everything worked ok. I did this and the phone worked just fine, greeting me with the classic “Connecting People” handshake animation, which had visually evolved a great deal since I’d last powered up a Nokia smartphone. After briefly testing the phone I packed everything back into the box, left the store and headed back to the railway station. At Central I bought a ticket and boarded a Tampere bound train with a Loimaa connection at Toijala, due to leave in 15 minutes. As soon as the doors shut and the train began to move I pulled down my tray table and opened up the box again. I took my Elisa SIM card out of my old Nokia 3650, which I’d been using in Finland thus far, and popped it into the N97. After that I spent the rest of the one and a half hour train ride exploring the phone. From then on up to the present I’ve used and experimented with nearly all of the phone’s numerous functions.
First Impressions:
The first thing I noticed when using the N97 was the speed of the software. Apps launched instantaneously and felt extremely responsive, both when using physical controls and the touch screen. The N97’s hardware was also very nice, with all the physical controls having logical, convenient placement on the device, as well as being comfortable to use with effective feedback and key travel. The two unique sliding mechanisms of the N97, the main display and camera cover, both felt very sturdy and natural.
A True Freedom Phone:
As I used the N97 more, I rediscovered just how powerful the open-source Symbian S60 operating system is. After organizing the system to my liking on a file/folder level I began to search for apps online. There’re tons of websites hosting and selling S60 apps but I searched mostly on SymbianGear (which I remembered from way back when I used to get apps on their other site, PalmGear) and from the websites of independent developers. I downloaded a bunch of apps including Tweets60, ProfiMail, Shazam, and an awesome app called JoikuSpot that turns the phone into a hotspot, broadcasting its data connection over WiFi. I was impressed by the number and variety of S60 apps that were available, but was really amazed by the capabilities the apps had, thanks to the open-source platform. Installing apps and transferring files to and from the phone was fast and easy, as it shows up as a standard USB mass-storage device when plugged into a computer and apps are composed of single, executables files, much like simpler Mac OS apps. For music and media, the Nokia Multimedia Transfer app syncs my entire iTunes library with the phone whenever I plug it in. Really my only software related gripe about the N97 is that Nokia’s more powerful desktop sync app (which is needed to do firmware updates), the Ovi suite, is currently windows only, although they say they’re working on a Mac version.
Multimedia:
When I bought my N97 I thought I’d probably end up buying an iPod Nano to use for music, but after 3 weeks with this phone I wouldn’t even consider it. The N97’s music player is fantastic – it does everything any iPod does plus more! All the basic functions like shuffle, sorting by categories (artist, album, rating, etc.) and search, as well as advanced features like an audio equalizer and sound check are there! This, combined with seamless iTunes synchronization, gives me no reason to use any other device for media. As for video and still image capture, the N97 preforms fantastically, as with most N series devices. The main 5 megapixel camera is very versatile, with all the options of an advanced point and shoot, including exposure compensation, white balance and color correction. The images are very nice and measure 2,592 x 1,944 pixels. In video mode the main camera shoots at 30 frames per second with very crisp, fluid video, although the 640 x 352 pixel resolution (VGA in 16:9 aspect ratio) is quite disappointing (but to be fair, most smartphones are much lower, including the iPhone 3Gs, which is 4:3 VGA). In addition to the main 5 megapixel camera there is also a lower resolution front facing camera which is intended for video calling (a service that’s been in popular use in the EU since the early 2000s) but can also be used to take photos and video.
Conclusion:
I love this phone and am happy to report that I don’t have any regrets. I thought for sure when buying it that I’d be making a compromise between the usability of an iPhone and the freedom of a Nokia, but its now clear to me that there is no such compromise. I’ve also grown to really love Nokia’s global perspective and attitude toward their customers, best seen in their openness toward the public, the community websites they’ve established and the amazing, selfless innovation that is taking place at the company. The Nokia N97, or any S60 device at that, certainly isn’t for everyone, but for anyone who appreciates the limitless versatility of an open-source OS and the best hardware in the industry, this is the phone for you!
A few photos and a video I shot with the N97:
VR local train, hauled by an Sr1 locomotive, entering Loimaa station:
Click on the images to see them at full size (no cropping or modification has been done):
Taken in Tampere. In Finnish cities you can pay for parking with your GSM:
Some Sr2 locomotives chillin at Tampere station, pantographs raised and ready to go:
The Turku-Tikurilla track near Humppila:
