Nokia N97 Review

Interface:

Symbian S60 5th Edition is made for touch sensitive screen phones and can be found on other popular devices like the Nokia 5800 XpressMusic, Samsung OMNIA HD i8910 and Sony Ericsson Satio.

The Nokia 5800 XpressMusic is the first attempt of the manufacturer at the touch sensitive screen phones market and has been quite a success this far. In terms of interface options, the operating system has been improved and the Nokia N97 brings out several novelties and new personalization.

Home screen has gone through major changes and now features the all popular widgets (up to 5). They are arranged one below the other, can swap places and some of them may be removed. They totally replace the well known home screen themes of the operating system and can also be hidden, although not entirely removed.

There are no many available widgets and we find the Facebook, music player, Shortcuts I and II and the email more interesting than the other. You have the option to download more, but it gets you straight to the manufacturer´s online store, Ovi Store, where there is no widget section! We were stunned to find this out, but still downloaded several free apps to check if they would appear with their own widgets. Unfortunately, we didn’t luck out.

There are three static elements at the top of the home screen that cannot be moved or removed. These are the analog clock that gets you to world and alarm clock menus, date leading to the phone calendar and a ringing profile selection box. They are semi transparent just like all on screen widgets, so you are able to see the wallpaper behind them.

As a whole, the main menu doesn’t feature any changes. It can appear as either 3x4 icon grid or vertical list and in the latter case you select items with double clicks that are typical of this version of the operating system and pretty much the same as on other cell phones running it.



Contacts and Dialing screen:

In the phonebook, selecting a contact also requires a double click. You can save as many as you like, with an option for multiple numbers per contact. Moreover, each of them can be assigned dedicated ringtones, pictures, spouse names, birthdays etc., with the only restriction being the free memory of your handset. Searching contacts can be done by either dragging a finger up or downwards or through a text search box. When you select it, a keyboard pops on screen that features a layout much like the one on navigational systems (A, B, C, D, E, etc), so searching feels both logical and easy. Initially, the first letters of all entered names will appear in front of you and as you keep punching in letters, the ones you need will remain visible as if the phone thinks ahead of you and knows what you are looking for. Like we said before, searching based on this particular method is really fast and easy.



The novelty feature here is an additional view mode to see any information entered on any given contact. It shows less information – a picture (if one has been previously assigned) and options to call the contact, send a message, email or video call the person. We do like the function, because it seems optimized for touch sensitive screen use, looks unsophisticated and cool, and makes working with contacts way easier.

If you are being called and screen and buttons happen to be locked, two sliders appear on screen, one on top of the other. First is used to answer the call, while the other unlocks both the screen and buttons. It´s made to help prevent you from accidentally taking a call while the phone is in your pocket. Not that we are complaining, but it would have been better if the second slider was used to just reject the incoming call.



There is nothing new to entering or dialing phone numbers. Numeric keypad is called up by tapping an icon on the home screen, looks completely ordinary and sports large buttons that allow even people with thicker fingers use it without any issues. There is a nice, useful function to mute the volume by turning the phone face down while you are being called or your alarm is going off. Actually, this is made possible by the built-in accelerometer that also allows switching screen modes automatically when you turn the phone to its side. This takes about a second and there is no visible delay or lagging involved.


Organizer:

Organizer is not any different from what you will find on other devices running the same operating system. Your calendar shows events in monthly, weekly or daily view and you have the option to call up all your To-Do notes at the same time. The first two now display the next four timeslot events, scheduled for any given day.



Calculator doesn’t offer added functionality and aside from it you also have unit and currency converter. If you feel like rummaging through your directories directly, you can do that using the same file manager we know well from other Symbian S60 phones. The backup option is also here and it comes in pretty useful since you don’t need to connect your device to a computer to back it up.


Software:

Office documents and PDF files are opened with QuickOffice and Adobe Reader LE 2.5 respectively, but the former is just a trial version that expires in 15 days. Reading even larger Office 2003 files is not a problem at all, the thing is you will have to get a paid software update or switch over to another program if you feel like editing documents or happen to need Office 2007 support. In real life, you won´t be able to get down to working with office files the minute you take the phone out of the box. Rather, you will have to either shell out extra cash or look for other software.



As we mentioned, the Nokia N97 comes preloaded with several applications that are equipped with their own widgets. The most interesting is Facebook. Fans of the social network service will definitely like this one, because it allows you to see your friends´ online status and change yours, send messages, poke people, add friends etc. We find it even more thrilling that you have the option to upload and tag pictures.



The other preinstalled apps are rather boring and most of them are to do with news. Here is what you get – Amazon, Bloomberg, AP News, QiK, Boingo, AccuWeather and Hi5. You will also see a YouTube app that simply takes you to the mobile version of the website. It is a good thing that other apps are easy to download from, say, the recently launched Nokia application marketplace, the Ovi Store.

There are no preloaded games on our unit, but the N97 fully supports N-Gage, so you can have fun playing games.