The Nokia N97, as flagship device of the entire Nokia range, is a mixed bag: but for this reviewer it ends up being a bitter disappointment.

by Michael Primero

nokia n97 is permanently in unsafe mode

I have been trying to live with the N97 for months now, and many of the efforts that I have made towards amicable co-existence have been met with a bitter rivalry. Nokia could have had everything that it hoped and hyped for in this phone, if it had merely offset the introduction of the phone by perhaps just a few more weeks in prototype/design phase in order to iron out the glitches. However, they did not, and I the only conclusion that I can draw are that related to pure manufacturer irresponsibility. To leave so much in the realm of public "beta testing" of software, as well as hardware incompetence and/or failure, is a gross negligence.

I have had this site quiet for a while now whilst busy with other things: but I am so pissed off with this phone that I have just had to pen a quick rant on this device, to add to the myriad of other bad reviews that the N97 has now (at the latter stages of 2009) gathered in it's wake.

The Principal Offences against the N97 consumer

•  Handsfree speaker function simply does not work. Click here for a Nokia forum discussion on the problem.
  
  Riddle: When is a phone not a phone? When it is an N97, and one of the principle supposed functions of this technologically jam-packed device, is to make telephone calls. Let's held it as a given that virtually no mobile phone manufacturer can actually meet its own quoted SAR ratings for its devices, unless the test is done in a dodgy manner, and the rating for the phones are taken with the phone held at least two or more centimetres away from the "test skull": so you would think that--for those who are either "electrically sensitive" or for those who are aware of the neural DNA damage (etc.) that can be caused through microwave frequencies-- they would have put an imperative upon the proper functioning of the hands-free speakerphone. But on this phone, you do not have that option. The slightest noise in the background of the other side of the line will cause the N97 microphone signal to cut out, hence leading to the reception of the N97 by the other party as being chopped up, often to the point where a conversation cannot be held. This point alone makes the N97 utterly unacceptable. The only thing that allows Nokia to get away with this is that people have varying degrees of understanding of the danger of the microwave signal adjacent to their heads, and hence (shudder) use the inbuilt speaker next to the ear, or use conductive headset lines, or bluetooth, all of which can (and largely do) contribute to the bombardment of the auditory parts of the head and the brain with Electromagnetic Radiation (EMR).
  
  
• Had Nokia not previously cemented the concept in their partron's minds, now--with the N97--the Nokia "White Screen of Death" will cement the phenomenon with the infamy it deserves. In the time that I have struggled with it, I have had my entire phone setup totally erased more times than I care to remember thanks to the unstable OS/hardware of this phone: installed software,themes, settings, contacts, emails and messages, organisational data such as meetings, todos etc... all gone in a single fell swoop by the refusal of the N97 to boot from the white screen of death, with anything other than a hard reset. This is despite implementing every soft & firmware upgrade of the device made possible by Nokia. In fact, the latest crash was likely precipitated by the installation of either the latest Ovi store or Maps upgrade.

Regrettably necessary keys on an N97

• The earlier versions of the N97 engage in self-harm, as the sliding camera lens cover was not built with enough clearance and the lens gets scratched. See the petition here . Or just google "n97 lens scratch".
  
  
• The earlier versions of the GPS do not work properly. Likewise, don't take my word for it: google "n97 gps problem".

• The FM music transmitter was a great idea to implement on board of the phone, rather than another phone add-on. Shame it does not work either. Not on three car radio systems, two home stereos, or even a fm receiving ipod kind of device, all tested in the closest proximity possible and with differing frequencies. There are reviews around raving about this (albeit low quality when it does seem to work) feature: but after my phone carrier totally replaced my N97 unit due to problems mentioned above, I still have the same useless FM non-transmitter. And yet for around fifty bucks or less you can go and purchase a small after market device from an array of manufacturers that plugs into any 3.5 mm port and does the job more than admirably. Keh, Manuel?
  
  
• Software gripe: having to pay for quickoffice (but it's free on E series devices) and worse yet, for adobe .pdf reader. Whilst I relented and shelled out for Quickoffice, I simply refuse on principle to pay for a reader that should be free on every platform, and is on most. Nokia should have worked out some deal for what is purportedly their flagship phone, rather than skimping on such a small detail as this. Talk about tight.

The above list does not include a vast array of problems that others have complained about, and that I have experienced intermittently myself, such as widget freeze, lack of memory, problems charging or display problems transferring from landscape to portrait and vice-versa, etc. etc. etc. ad nauseum.

As a final statement I just had to byline this review with the comment about it being such a shame, because the N97 comes in a lovely form factor, with a great QWERTY slide out function that has presented the best browsing and document editing experience that I have ever had on a mobile phone. There is presently no alternative for the market demographic that I represent, as an iphone does have significant shortcomings (such as not properly multitasking and having battery life problems, combined with the inability to change batteries, as well as totally inferior camera/video compared to the N97). The N900, besides still being inexplicably and incoherently unavailable in the asia/pacific region (I have given up waiting), is still in a very early phase insofar as software development and availability of apps, and hence also does not offer a real alternative.

It's just a great big shame from something that could, with just a little bit more effort on the part of Nokia, been so much better. And the smartphone market numbers, along with Nokia's and Apple's bottom lines, are indeed reflecting this shame.