I Don't Know Why, NOKIA ?!
First thing I thought of for a title was “N97 a major fuck up” then I thought I should leave my feelings aside when reviewing this handset, which I was loving three months ago.
What everybody should know that web reviews that talk about a new handset, specifications wise, hands on wise and performance wise all are related to reality but not the reality itself.
In each time I decides to change my mobile, I do a good research, I surf the web reading all articles, reviews and forums to know what will it really feels to have a specific mobile model. Articles are mostly press releases based information, when you read it you only get to know what happened in the world and what that mobile makers were doing in the past what-so-ever time span. Specs usually talk utopia, you get to know what the manufacturer used to make your device costs this much or looks that shiny (or crappy). Reviews which I depends on when taking the final decision, reviews are made by mobile experts, wither they are technical persons, business development experts, or just mobile fans whom have the ability to show people what they must expect from this or that device.
In all cases not every thing you read on the web are the truth, or let’s say the complete image.
After waiting so long for an N-series touch device, it came along, the N97 which was everything you will dream of from a Nokia N-series touch enabled device. 3.5” resistive touch screen, 5MP Carl Zeiss optics, QWERTY keyboard and a brand new Symbian (assumed checked) OS. That what the Specs said, and beautiful on paper. First impression --- Excellent.
Then I went to the best of the best in the field of mobile phones reviews, I am a Nokia fan and am a lot into these handsets, but the hands on impression must be 75% of my opinion, and as I can’t get that feeling without buying the device I went to the review sites to have an idea of what they did feel about it. Impressions were all in the good favor of the N97 except minor concerns about the touch screen responsiveness which for me was not an issue at all, as I have an idea how resistive touch screen works in hardware, and in algorithms. Hands on impression --- Very Good.
Before the N97 hits the regional market I had already took my decision, am getting that phone.
Now after almost 5 months of heavy usage of this device, this is how I feel:
- The design and keyboard mechanism is beautiful and surely they did a good work in that part of the device.
- The touch screen responsiveness was as all reviewers expected, it still has some issues, and by the time I am writing this it went worse update after the other.
- OS stability is the worst ever I experienced with Nokia devices, after switching from E-series E71 to N97 you can feel how Nokia does not give the same effort it does in the E-series OS. My device crashed many times, I don’t remember how often it did, but am sure more than all Nokia device I had did in the past 5 years. Sometimes during a web browsing session, it just blank out and restarts, sometimes it restarts and stuck on the Nokia logo.
- Worth to note that in each time Nokia publish a software update, it writes in the description “to enhance OS stability …” and it keeps getting worse.
- USB connectivity is something unpredictable, I don’t know what to say, it is just unpredictable.
- The only thing I enjoy in my N97, and I mean the ONLY thing I enjoy is my camera, I don’t want my N97 to be only a Digital Camera !!! but what to do ?!!!
As if anyone from Nokia will read this out, you should do something serious about N97, it is a beautiful handset, and I will regret to replace it with any other. Consider getting N97 a new OS. Or an improved one that will keep it stable. For me I feel I have been fraud by Nokia with this N97, and I don’t like this feeling at all !
