*OFFICIAL THREAD: Nokia N97

Services?

You mean the 13 some-odd disconnected and half-working services? The services run by different groups of Nokia that don't talk to each other? That require you to create a new login/password to use?

Nokia doesn't know what they are doing anymore. The people in charge are living in 1999. This is 2009.

Attempting to cling to Nokia and cover their *** for them is just showing your fanboyism. A Nokia fanboy is just as bad as an Apple fanboy.
 
As I said earlier, I played with a HTC Touch Diamond 2 this past weekend. It uses a resisitive screen and it was incredibly responsive and sensitive. As good, if not close to as good as the capacitive screens of the iPhone and G1 (the only capacitive screens I've used).

So I don't think the fact this device (N97) has a resistive screen should automatically negate a potential purchase for someone. I personally would wait for the reviews with the final production software to see how well Nokia has implemented their Touch UI in terms of sensitivity and responsiveness.

I also don't buy that multi-touch is an absolute must. I don't find pinch to zoom to be that key when it comes to web browsing. Opera 9 doesn't have it and my experience zooming in and out isn't hampered by the lack of multi-touch.

I do agree with the keyboard but once again, good software makes this a non-issue IMO. I use a Samsung Omnia (not HD, the original) everyday and while I am not as fast as on my E71, it's not a pain to compose messages and e-mails on a non-multitouch virtual qwerty (in landscape mode).


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The Reuters app looks very nice.
 
It would seem as the the pre order did not garner the intended result, so they lowered the price. :2thumbs: I wonder if this doesn't work would they lower the price again?
 
Below are a few comments from "All about Symbian" on the SE 12mp phone in comparison to the N97 that I think should be cross posted to this thread but isn't so i am pasting it here.
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"FaizDaDon
This makes the n97 look very outdated.
malerocks
Quote:
Originally Posted by FaizDaDon View Post
This makes the n97 look very outdated.
Not just this. Also the Samsung Omnia HD a.k.a i8910
Unregistered
It would be a major bonus if you guys could do a gallery that didn't require a full page reload on each new picture display - plenty of free javascript around for this sort of thing.

On the phone itself, it is VERY telling of the press attitude towards Symbian, iPhone and Android that prior to the announcement Ewan Macleod of MobileIndustryReview and mobiledeveloper.tv and also no less than the Times online tech support blog, both had excited speculation about the fact SE were announcing some big new handset, that it was probably Android, and that certainly the Times at least (and Ewan gave this impression too) were going to cover it in depth as soon as it had been announced. When it turned out (horror shocker) that it was 'only' a Symbian based phone, we have heard not a peep from either outlet, despite their promises. This just shows how ingrained the unfair geek-love driven bias is against Symbian (which powers most smartphones in the world) and in favour of iPhone (0.5% of all phones) and Android (unmeasurably small and only on a single crap handset).

Interestingly both leading mobile industry discussion groups in the UK - Forum Oxford and Mobile Monday London notably failed to come up with any comment from any of their members about the Ovi Store launch the other day too, but both positively wet their pants with joy when iPhone and Android stores were released. How terribly, terribly lame.

Clearly there remains a strong need for Symbian/S60 faith and evangelism to our fellow blinkered mobile enthusiasts, both professional and not. iPhone has a better UI and Android is technically very good, but Symbian is the way forward - and I say that as experienced cross platform developer and mobile industry consultant, not inexperienced Symbian fanboy.
Unregistered
When is Sony Ericsson going to start integrating a 3.5 mm headphone jack ON the phone itself? Are they waiting for the next century?
kevininsetereo
n97 beats the sony:
1. sony can't use the widgets
2. camera optics are probably not better than n97 (even though it has more mpxls)
3. no physical qwerty on the sony + the virtual qwerty looks awful
4. customizable front screen on n97 makes the phone.
Tzer2
Quote:
This makes the n97 look very outdated.
Well, the N97 is out (almost), the Satio won't be out until the end of the year.

Who knows what else Nokia will have announced and released by then...

But you're right, Sony Ericsson is really giving Nokia serious competition in the Symbian world, and that's good news for all Symbian users. If we can get a three-way battle between Nokia, Samsung and Sony Ericsson, then Symbian should be getting some pretty darn good handsets as they fight for each others' customers.
Unregistered
"When is Sony Ericsson going to start integrating a 3.5 mm headphone jack ON the phone itself? Are they waiting for the next century?"

+1

the 3.5 mm jack is a key seller for me. And for all those saying 'just use an adapter', my phone goes everywhere with me, (n95), and JUST my phone. I lose my keys on a weekly basis, the adapter would be gone a lot quicker.
rvirga
Quote:
Originally Posted by Tzer2 View Post
Well, the N97 is out (almost), the Satio won't be out until the end of the year.

Who knows what else Nokia will have announced and released by then...
SE has told the press that the Satio will ship in October. Considering that it hasn't even shipped the N86 8MP yet, if you believe that Nokia will announce and ship a 12MP phone by October, then I have a bridge to sell you.
Tzer2
Quote:
SE has told the press that the Satio will ship in October. Considering that it hasn't even shipped the N86 8MP yet, if you believe that Nokia will announce and ship a 12MP phone by October, then I have a bridge to sell you.
I don't think Nokia will ship a 12mp phone, but they might ship phones that are impressive in other departments.

But yes Sony Ericsson are definitely going to turn some heads with this model. I know a lot of people noticed the N95 thanks to its 5mp camera, the Satio might get the same sort of attention.

As I said before, I hope Sony Ericsson do well with the Satio, it would be really healthy for Symbian as a whole and it would give Symbian users more choice."
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I hope these comments help you make a decision if you are still sitting on the fence.
 
I also called and got verification of my order too. NOKIA USA Customer Service gave me the telephone number of BRIGHTPOINT who are the people that you need to call to get verification of your oder. Brightpoint is the exclusive distributor warehouse for NOKIA USA and they are located in Indiana. They are the ones who get all the phones from the Nokia manufacturer and who package and ship each and every order that is made thru the NOKIA USA website. Their telephone number is: 1-888-888-9562 and they are open until 8PM EST. Give them a call if you still need verification for your order. I just finished doing the verification for my order and they said that everything went thru okay and that my entire order (Nokia 5800 & N97) will be shipped out whenever they get the N97 in stock which will be sometime in July.
 
I used my qwerty e71 for 6 months and now am back to t9 and love it. The n97 is so appealing cause it has both options! I'm so undecided, n86 or n97.
 
I really hope, I really do.


Just minutes ago, to see what I am talking about I switched on my 5800, and boy I just can't get with it at all.

I went into search and each time I needed to hit exit a minimum of 2 times to actually exit. I can replicate this behavior again and again. I just updated to V21 a week ago.

Also in the calendar i can click on a to-do item and sometimes it pops up a submenu allowing me to delete, send, or mark as done and sometimes it just opens the item in which case you must then hit options and then mark as done.
I could not consistently get one or the other to happen. I tried again and again and it is pretty random about which action it executes.

The zoom bar in the browser does not even follow your finger properly, the phone keeps vibrating as it is trying to replicate "stops" as you move the bar but it does not keep up with your finger. So if you move ahead you will zoom more than you intended. The bar is also 1/3 the screen height so there is very little "resolution" in that bar. It is very hard to get the exact zoom you want. Unless you use the stylus.

I think S60v5 itself is very unrefined and frankly it's just bad IMHO. If I paid $200 for it I would live with the flaws, but I only have room for one device in my pocket and really no amount of savings is worth dealing with this. I will admit that over 2 weeks you can get used to it but the sacrifices are many. If inconsistent behavior in a device frustrates you, then it isn't for you. If you have a lot of patience you might be able to work it.

And it really isn't as fast as people make it out to be, S60v3 can be significantly faster on E-series devices.

If you live in NYC I can demo the device to you and you can see first hand how it behaves.
 
For the billionth time about the capacitative vs resistive screens: Nokia has a HUGE marketshare in Asia, and thus handwriting recognition is a priority. Samsung obviously doesn't care about Asia (just as Apple doesn't), and thus had the luxury of using a capacitative display. That one has nothing to do with technology and everything to do with priorities.
 
I just feel especially looking the active standby screen of the 5800, that I have at my disposal more pertinent phone information than if I used those widgets to do the same job. Some of that information is important to me, far more than internet data. To recreate the data I get from Active Standby would take most of the space of the screen.

But if someone makes a widget that displays exactly what I want in about 2 widgets (I don't think the N97 has the top right drop down shortcut bar of the 5800 either) I still only get 3 widgets of my choosing and that is optimistic in itself. I could more have data sources by getting custom widgets with 2 or 3 data sources in the space of one but I would be dependent on someone to put the right ones together.

Also merging 3 into one effectively makes them shortcuts to websites or maybe applications. There isn't enough space for any real information other than maybe a single number or color. So I could in theory have 15 updating shortcuts.

But really you have to agree the elegant solution is to simply give is an extra page. This phone's whole point is to showcase those widgets. We are trying to customize these widgets to fit the little space they gave us.

You said you could make your custom widget in 2 hours. If could even do it and do it in 2 hours, then I would again in theory spend 10 hours customizing my widgets. What is the point of custom widgets and page customization if I need 10 hours of work (for me it will probably be 20 hours - I have no programming experience) to get the result I want?

I thought the whole point of this was to easily seek out your important data sources amongst hundreds available and have them on your screen in minutes. To have to program your own individual widgets is too convoluted and reduces the benefits of this system greatly. The whole point is to be able to change them around easily as opposed to putting hours of work into them.

It was a bad design decision anyway I can look at it. I don't even think issues of memory and CPU even come into play because even with space for 5 widgets you can make it pull 15 data sources. I'm sure the RAM is sufficient for that too. So why can't we have space for 15 full sized widgets? At least then they won't be reduced to glorified icons.

The lack space for this platform is like being given a nice sports car in the middle a jungle with no paved roads.

I couldn't stand how adamant that guy in the video was when he was asked TWICE whether you can have widgets on the second page. He just dismissed the question with "no" with a tone like the guy was crazy. It was the obvious question to ask at that point in the interview. Anyone with S60 experience or knowledge of Nokia's widget plans would have asked the same thing at that moment.

Now that they've watered down the whole widget system with this decision, I cannot be sure if the one thing that was meant to make this device compete the fresh thinking behind devices like the Pre or even iPhone 3.0 or the new WinMo is potent enough to keep it in the same league.

I'm sure for Nokia newbies, the 5MP camera, 32GB flash and all that is a novelty, but for Nokia users, all that is old hat. I gave all that up for the E66. As did many users who gave up their N-series phones for E-series phones. We did because E-series were definitely more usable phones. many of us gave up the "standard feature list" - the same one is on the N79, N85, N96, N95, and N82 with variations on the same theme.

I feel like my response to that list is: "been there done that," and the only thing drawing me to this was the widgets. As powerful as the concept is in theory, the execution was compromised by the lack of space for a significant amount of them.

Let's see how it goes. I think $454 is a fair price for it though.
 
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