Nokia N97 Preview
May 21st, 2009 | This article was viewed 2,177 times so far...
What a privilege it was to be able to have a preview of the upcoming Nokia N97, the preview session was held just last night at Alexis Gardens over at The Gardens, Mid Valley City.
It was a really small event, heck I wouldn’t even call it an event. It’s a nice private little session with the people from Nokia, having a bunch of us privileged people to have fun with the N97.
We had a good meal there as well, details of the food will be published on my food blog in a week or 2. 
Articles have to wait in line.
My Thoughts
I am well impressed by the N97, it certainly is way more advanced than the N81 8GB I’m using.
Here are the N97 units side by side – I could’ve taken a few more units to have a bigger group photo but I think 2 units would suffice.
Here’s what the keypad looked like….
It’s not like the E71 or E75. In fact I’ve used the E75 and I didn’t like the keypad as much as the one on N97. I like that they’re well spaced away from one another and they felt nicer to the touch too.
It comes with a 16:9 ratio screen, which is what most people like nowadays for viewing wide-screen (read HD) media. (Look guys, I’m sure you could get the tech specs elsewhere, I’m just sharing what I like about the N97 during the short session.
As you can see from the screen, I’m on FACEBOOK. And it’s not on the FB site itself but rather I was in the Facebook widget for the S60 OS. I love how you could install widgets and get it to work with the main screen and all.
I also tested the camera and I was well amazed at how close I could snap, it’s not exactly macro yet but it’s still pretty close.
You won’t believe the number of people who were amazed by the close-up shots I took. Not at me of course, but at the phone’s capability. I’m just a guy who so happen to have pushed the camera capabilities that the people in the room never expected it to have. I wish I had the chance to give it a daylight experiment. 5MP camera with Carl-Zeiss lens – I wish it was on the N81. The settings available for the camera was certainly impressive and even when flash was used in close-up, it turned out quite alright and in fact much better than many other Nokia models when flash is used.
Overall – I look forward to own a unit, if I could. The best description I could give about this phone, is that it’s a combination of the E75 and the X5800. A winning combo!
The Nokia N97 is to be launched in June, no details on the pricing at the moment.
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May 22nd, 2009 at 10:00 am
Hey goldfries, nice meeting you at the event, sorry didn’t have a lot of time to chit-chat! Love your macro photos!
BTW, did you notice that there’s no “.” key on the keypad, which makes it a pain in the behind when you are typing short sentences, SMS and website addresses?
In case you’re wondering, I was the one sandwiched between Glenn and ShaolinTiger in the your photo above
Man, I look so tiny next to ShaolinTiger, or was it just an optical illusion, hahahaha!
May 22nd, 2009 at 10:49 am
IMO, 3 rows of key will not fit in all the keys in a full qwerty keypad. So some of the keys will have to sacrifices. Xpreria has 4 rows, however, some of the keys are still not convenience for a web browser activity. You need to press additional FN key to reach that key.
May 22nd, 2009 at 1:01 pm
This type of mobile phones are beyond my reach. So sad but this is true.
May 26th, 2009 at 6:38 pm
Lovely photos for a lovely phone
May 26th, 2009 at 10:46 pm
Wow, this will be a nice phone.
I wonder if anyone will give it to me as a bday gift?
Wakaka!
May 27th, 2009 at 8:21 pm
@joshuatly,
Come come, I give you one. Dummy set.
May 28th, 2009 at 11:17 am
nice review.
June 4th, 2009 at 1:33 pm
when the launching event?
is it true there will be an event for n97 on 5 june in klcc??
June 4th, 2009 at 1:33 pm
a
June 4th, 2009 at 2:47 pm
@mytechnews.info – actually there, just not indicated. have to combo press to get it.
@sam – thanks for info
@hehe – you did the contest for N97 or not? aiyah even if you did also you not in Top 10.
6 of 10 are getting their N97 today.
@joshua – too bad
@h3nry – 5th June, but I have no idea where.
October 22nd, 2009 at 10:46 am
the Nokia N97 for me is the best phone that i bought. it is definitely a bang for the buck phone. nice features and cool looks.
November 3rd, 2009 at 11:39 am
the Nokia N97 is super cool and very stylish. i bought two N97s, one for me and one for my sister. you cant find a phone that is more stylish than N97
December 15th, 2009 at 11:09 am
i bought two units of Nokia N97 because i like the style of this phone and also its features. Best phone i have ever used.
^
February 5th, 2010 at 2:36 pm
Nokia sure makes the best and ergonomic phones in the market today. the Nokia N97 have very good ergonomics and is very user friendly