- Pros Huge memory. Combines touchscreen and QWERTY keyboard. Great screen.
- Cons Looks a little chubby. No Xenon flash
PREVIEW
It's been a vintage year for smartphones. The T-Mobile G1, Sony Xperia X1 and BlackBerry Storm have all, with varying success, taken a swing at the iPhone 3G. But the showdown wouldn't be complete without a new flagship Nokia Nseries and, right on cue, the Finns have announced the N97.
The big news is that the N97 combines an iPhone-matching 3.5in touchscreen with a slide out QWERTY keypad. In theory, this will provide the best of both worlds - a tactile experience for typing, and a swish, buttonless screen for everything else. Let's hope the practice is a little better than the 5800 XpressMusic, Nokia's first touchscreen phone.
Monstrous memory
Elsewhere, the feature set is, to put it mildly, comprehensive. There's 32GB of memory, which can be expanded to an iPhone-drubbing 48GB, and you get Wi-Fi and HSDPA connectivity.
We're not overly disappointed to find that the camera resolution has remained at 5MP, although the lack of Xenon flash may see it struggle to compete with Sony Ericsson's Cyber-shots in the snapping stakes.
Juiced up
Other compromises? Well, it looks a little chubby at just under 16mm thick. But at least the N97's battery life doesn't seem to have suffered too badly from bundle of features – it'll apparently keep going for 37 hours of audio playback, 4.5 hours of video or 400 hours of talk-time.
Nokia is also proud of its new 'social location' feature which, using the on-board compass and AGPS, will keep your mates informed of your movements. And if you want more serious business extras, there's push e-mail and Nokia messaging.
The N97 certainly looks formidable – we'll bring you a full review and video soon, but in the meantime check out our 5 things you need to know about the Nokia N97.
It's been a vintage year for smartphones. The T-Mobile G1, Sony Xperia X1 and BlackBerry Storm have all, with varying success, taken a swing at the iPhone 3G. But the showdown wouldn't be complete without a new flagship Nokia Nseries and, right on cue, the Finns have announced the N97.
The big news is that the N97 combines an iPhone-matching 3.5in touchscreen with a slide out QWERTY keypad. In theory, this will provide the best of both worlds - a tactile experience for typing, and a swish, buttonless screen for everything else. Let's hope the practice is a little better than the 5800 XpressMusic, Nokia's first touchscreen phone.
Monstrous memory
Elsewhere, the feature set is, to put it mildly, comprehensive. There's 32GB of memory, which can be expanded to an iPhone-drubbing 48GB, and you get Wi-Fi and HSDPA connectivity.
We're not overly disappointed to find that the camera resolution has remained at 5MP, although the lack of Xenon flash may see it struggle to compete with Sony Ericsson's Cyber-shots in the snapping stakes.
Juiced up
Other compromises? Well, it looks a little chubby at just under 16mm thick. But at least the N97's battery life doesn't seem to have suffered too badly from bundle of features – it'll apparently keep going for 37 hours of audio playback, 4.5 hours of video or 400 hours of talk-time.
Nokia is also proud of its new 'social location' feature which, using the on-board compass and AGPS, will keep your mates informed of your movements. And if you want more serious business extras, there's push e-mail and Nokia messaging.
The N97 certainly looks formidable – we'll bring you a full review and video soon, but in the meantime check out our 5 things you need to know about the Nokia N97.
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