When you first look at the new flowering in the N Series, the N97, it looks like a phone, a real phone. It’s only when the keyboard slides out that it starts to look like a small laptop. The N97 is a telephone that is true to its roots but that also offers some of the most complete functionality around; 3.5 compatibility (up to 3.6 Mbit/s) and wifi, good for both business and personal use.

So who is this little digital bomb with 3.5 inch screen aimed at? How well does the Nokia touch screen work? And is the N97 really, as its creator claims, the most complete phone in the world?


A typical Nokia look

You can easily recognise a Nokia by its spare old school style. Nokias stand out from the market, as was already the case with the N78 or even the N96. Naturally some like it and some don’t.

As far as we go the plastic used for the casing looks a bit too, well, plasticky. Why not a more luxurious finish for this top end phone to match it up to the E71, say, or the E75?

We also have reservations about the white model that we tested. It has a varnished casing that, in spite of the matte finish, picks up a lot of marks.


A little too thick perhaps but with nice handling all the same. Not as wide as the iPhone, it has the standard mobile phone format. A panoramic touch screen and full physical keyboard handle all the features. Only one physical button, that gives access to the main menu, is accessible from the top of the phone. A practical, lock/unlock button is situated on the side of the device.


The N97 has a robust finish and having to slide the keyboard out regularly doesn’t pose any problems in terms of fragility.

The only drawback… yet again, is that you can only access the memory card by opening up the bonnet.

A convincing keyboard

Staying with the design of the product, you have to say that the keyboard is very practical (with real separate keys!) to key mails and texts; it takes just a little getting used to.


A bit of digital contortion is needed to gain access to the space bar, that you'd expect to find in the middle but which is placed over to the right, and the little blue arrow (far right of the keyboard), used for numbers and various punctuation marks. After sending a few messages you get used to it, however, and the keyboard becomes pleasant to use. We also like the directional pad that you can use instead of the touch screen for navigating the menus.

Personalisable home page: permanent access to your web preferences

This is what Nokia wanted to achieve: much facilitated web access. The home page, that you can make appear or disappear by sweeping your finger across the screen, can be customised a bit like Netvibes, so you can gain faster access to your web favourites. Several spaces are available to the user for the placement of applications of choice (still not very numerous). This feature includes real time info from web apps.


Take Facebook as an example: from the small window (which nevertheless has very good visibility), that we chose to dedicate to the famous social network, you have access to the status of your "friends". The same goes for the weather or your emails. This home page gives the N97 a really practical touch and is a breath of fresh air for the touch screen that is not yet truly "general consumer".

The touch screen: a big step forward but…

Now we move on to the touch screen. The first Nokia touch -- the XpressMusic 5800 – that inaugurated the touch interface and the fifth S60 version of the Symbian OS didn’t fully satisfy. Some applications weren’t well optimised for finger navigation and the device was a bit slow. The N97 has definitely received more attention.

Navigation in menus and applications is more fluid, though still some way behind the iPhone. You have to click or double click depending on the features. This is a little confusing at first.

Some features are still a little slow. The N97 sometimes seems to have a life of its own, quitting one app to open another or reacting slowly on one page before opening another. It does have a simpler, more intuitive design but is still behind the iPhone or the Android, both of which are more "general consumer" and nicer to look at. This shows that Nokia is now not only thinking technology, but also increasingly usage too.

Multimedia

The N97 will likely please business users and technophiles who are used to Symbian but it hasn’t neglected play either.

Navigating the net with this little laptop is not disagreeable. The default display however, on the 16/9 screen, means you have to zoom out quite a bit to gain an overall view of the page. The zoom – easy to access – is luckily very precise and with many stages. Pages load no problem but for most of the ten sites tested, it was a good few seconds slower than the iPhone 3G S.


As a camera, the N97 is a step on from its predecessors. Good results, even in low lighting and easy manipulation of phone mode (rapid to take a shot and you can take several shots one after the other). The video function, excepting use of the zoom which spoils the image when pushed to full, gives similarly good results: films are nice and fluid.

The sound quality for audio with the N97 is very much what you’d expect for an N series model: a standard mini-jack, hands-free kit with interchangeable headset and a not exceptional player (below the performance of some Sony-Ericssons). The speaker is average for the current market. We appreciate the inclusion of FM radio, far from universal on high-end phones.

The Ovi Store for more apps

There are now many apps for the Symbian OS. However, you have to go on several sites and check out the forums to find them – they aren’t all available in the same place. This is something Nokia are trying to change with their Ovi Store. Access to this platform from the N97. Once you’ve joined up you get pretty rapid access to the catalogue.

Nokia are going to have to work hard to give a bit of substance to the store, especially when it comes to "leisure" apps, and multiplication of apps designed for the touch experience.

The N97 has pretty good battery life, lasting almost 2 days.