Nokia N97 US User Reviews

angelsmile5 posted on 03 Feb 2012, 16:30

5

So regret buying this phone!

angelsmile5 has owned it for more than one year before publishing this review

Crash and close my apps on its own when run out of memory. Often when i want to check photos, it close everything to have photo open. Open websites slowly. can't turn camera sound off. Too expensive for its quality.

good camera picture quality (with good lighting)

Build quality 6/10 the paint on the edge wears off. I have a white version. On the back side of the front metal, there's a white line in between the plastic and metal. This white line is easily scrap off with a nail and turn black. C drive is sooooo sssmmaallllllllllllllll!!!!!!

Reception 8/10 soso?

Call quality 7/10 Although i can adjust the volume i wanted to hear, I had to repeat my words to the other side many times.

Internet 4/10 so slow!!!!

Multimedia 8/10 does have a lot of features in multimedia.

Camera 8/10 quality is great but i cant turn the snap shoot sound off. I have to turn flash off every time i want to use it.This is very annoying. When i wanted to take a close up shoot, image became very blurry.

UI speed 5/10 it crash my apps constantly. When i turn another direction, the phone respond slowly.

Everyday usage 3/10 sometimes when my phone ring, its not recognizing my swipe to pick up the phone. Sometimes I charge my phone with an outlet, my phone think its connected to a computer...

Text input 5/10 has a qwerty keyboard. the input that comes with the phone, i can't see the message i am responding to. (takes too much space)

Display 5/10

Battery 5/10 it was ok at first, then less battery over time.

Pros

• camera picture quality (with good lighting)
• has qwerty keyboard
• front camera
• different sensors.
• Nokia turn by turn navigation

Cons

• symbian store app
• C drive very small
• had to adjust flash everytime
• sometimes it act crazy
• can't delect some apps that came with the phone

Ervin posted on 15 Feb 2011, 12:58

4

N97 Top-end Trashcan

Ervin has owned it for less than 3 months before publishing this review

Was very happy when i bought it. Later was extremely disappointed with its performance. Never buy this phone even at a steal price. Its such a headache to charge it. The phone has hardware charging issues which wont resolve even with the latest firmware. Even if u repair it, the problems show up again just because it charges off its micro usb port. An individual charging jack is missed & its the biggest design flaw.

Build quality 9/10 Micro USB port is what destroyed such a to-be successful device.

Reception 10/10 Excellent

Call quality 10/10 Excellent

Internet 10/10 Easy to use over WiFi or GPRS

Multimedia 9/10 No cons by far

Camera 8/10 Flash has a design problem

UI speed 7/10 Slow if MMC used

Everyday usage 3/10 Battery wont last

Text input 10/10 The best feature in the phone

Display 10/10 Brilliant!

Battery 1/10 No power for such a nice device. Battery doesnt last at all

Pros

• Camera
• Keyboard
• WiFi
• Fast GPS
• Brilliant Display

Cons

• Micro USB charging
• improper flash design
• Battery backup
• Mermory issues

Brainless posted on 09 Nov 2009, 14:33

9

What's up with the bad reviews??

It'd be quite interesting what version of the OS all you reviewers had when you made the reviews.I've owned the N95-NAM  for 2 years and got the N97 about a month ago. When I got it, it was on V10.x firmware, and granted it was a little slow. Upgraded to V20. about 2 weeks ago and speed is almost no issue. This phone makes the N95 look like a fat dog, and I loved the N95. The only thing I miss is the media buttons and the shortcut screen from the N95. But those can be easily replaced with widgets on the N97's main screen.The Accelerometer could use a little boost as I think it's not sensitive enough and isn't triggering portrait/landscape mode fast enough.The A-GPS is a good 3 times faster getting to a GPS than the N95. I can also get GPS connection in my house when I couldn't with the N95. Coulds are also no longer an issue.Not sure what the gripe is about the camera. I used to be an amateur photographer and tend to think I know something about photos. Camera has, in my opinion more features than any other phone and takes very good quality photos for a phone and there is only a handful of phone that has a 5m camera as of now (And, no: I don't think the Iphone's camera is anywhere close to this one). Of course can't compare it with any DSLR cameras out there, but can definitely beat quite a few "point'n shoot" digital cameras out there. The only issue I found with that camera is the beveled piece of plastic right...  

It'd be quite interesting what version of the OS all you reviewers had when you made the reviews.I've owned the N95-NAM  for 2 years and got the N97 about a month ago. When I got it, it was on V10.x firmware, and granted it was a little slow. Upgraded to V20. about 2 weeks ago and speed is almost no issue. This phone makes the N95 look like a fat dog, and I loved the N95. The only thing I miss is the media buttons and the shortcut screen from the N95. But those can be easily replaced with widgets on the N97's main screen.The Accelerometer could use a little boost as I think it's not sensitive enough and isn't triggering portrait/landscape mode fast enough.The A-GPS is a good 3 times faster getting to a GPS than the N95. I can also get GPS connection in my house when I couldn't with the N95. Coulds are also no longer an issue.Not sure what the gripe is about the camera. I used to be an amateur photographer and tend to think I know something about photos. Camera has, in my opinion more features than any other phone and takes very good quality photos for a phone and there is only a handful of phone that has a 5m camera as of now (And, no: I don't think the Iphone's camera is anywhere close to this one). Of course can't compare it with any DSLR cameras out there, but can definitely beat quite a few "point'n shoot" digital cameras out there. The only issue I found with that camera is the beveled piece of plastic right next to the flash. That piece reflects the flash back into the frame and over exposes the whole right side of the picture. Careful cutting with a Dremel tool will fix that. Another issue with the camera is its cover: if you don't have it absolutely clean everytime you open/close it, it WILL scratch the protective screen of the objective.And how can someone compare the true widescreen with the puny little N95 screen???As far as getting the "face detection" (review #6). That's the Accelerometer's job. I've never had an issue with it (again: been using it for at least a month).No one's mentioned in any reviews the FM transmitter included in the phone. I don't know of any phone that has that. Tested it in 3 very different cars and had no issues.This is my 2nd full qwerty keyboard phone I've owned. Someone was griping about the small buttons: I'd hate to see you own a Blackberry. Very sensitive and responsive. Using the keyboard in conjunction with the touch screen makes it extremely easy to send text/MMS's. Texting without the keyboard is comparable to using the N95's number pad. The phone is smart enough to know you need T9.Granted there are a few little quirks Nokia could be working on. What phone doesn't? All in all, Worthy of it being called the flagship AND the hype (being all true). Expremely happy customer so far.I my humble opinion, Nokia's shipped too many faulty handsets that would result to those of your who griped about it and I'm hoping thei QA team is fixing that. They don't do that: they will no longer be one of the largest cell phone manufacturers.

Design 8/10

Features 10/10

Performance 9/10

Pros

• - Feature packed phone.
• - Good variety of software available
• - Ease of use
• - Similar features from previous NSeries gives previous owners an extremely low learning curve
• - Faster connection to GPS
• - Capable of charging via USB

Cons

• - Camera flash over-exposes the right side of the night photo.
• - Phone design seems to be a little more fragile than the N95
• - Video and photo features use up lots of battery

Jonathan Martin posted on 31 Oct 2009, 15:53

9.7

I very proud to own one!

This phone is one of the best phones out today in my opinion. The version 20.2.019 update has really improved  my experience with this phone. I'm an Art student and I have take great photos with this phone that I have used for Design/Photograph class. The camera works terrifically and with the version 20.2.019 the kinetic scrolling photo gallery greatly improves navigating through my photos. The memory on my hard disk alone is massive and I never have to worry about not having enough memory for my images, music or videos. I can run multiple Apps and manage my open apps with one push of a button from anywhere on the phone. Performance is good now. It used to lag at times but that seems to have been improved by the 20.2.019 update. N-Gage Gaming is a great smartphone, especially with the offset keyboard. I am a very satisfied customer and I love my Nokia N97 I would recommend it to anyone looking for a great all around smartphone.

Design 10/10

Features 10/10

Performance 9/10

Pros

• >Great 5 Megapixal Camera
• >Run Multible Apps
• >Video Calling w/ seconday camrea
• >Easy Navigation
• >Very easy to Update
• >Fully Customizable Home Screen
• >DVD Quality Video
• >Very Durable

Cons

• > Slow out the box without update

Ba posted on 22 Sep 2009, 03:32

9.3

Best phone

Best phone I ever have. Good design, I love the keyboad and tilted screen. handle 32G of music and video with out and problem. Minor software problem at the initial launch with version 10. No problem after upgrade to firmware 11 and 12.

Design 10/10

Features 9/10

Performance 9/10

Pros

• Good design, I love the keyboad and tilted screen. handle 32G of music and video with out and problem.....................

Cons

• Minor software problem at the initial launch with version 10. No problem after upgrade to firmware 11 and 12...........................

Anonymous posted on 08 Sep 2009, 17:35

10

Great phone. I love the keyboard and the screen is also very good. Not a big fan of resistive, but in this case, it's no big deal since there is a keyboard. The d-pad is a bit redundant, but good for games. Overall this is a great little phone. I can't wait for what follows in it's footsteps.

Design 10/10

Features 10/10

Performance 10/10

Anonymous posted on 07 Sep 2009, 00:52

9.7

Beautiful phone with 32GB of media memory. Querty keyboard is excellent. Software is a little stale, but does it's job fairly well.

Design 10/10

Features 10/10

Performance 9/10

Pros

• Good screen
• Large built in media storage
• Great QWERTY keyboard
• Just the right size

Cons

• Software could be better

E.D posted on 25 Aug 2009, 06:45

10

Best one

The best cellular ever. nice features great GPS. nice keyboard. great size in hand. great material.

Design 10/10

Features 10/10

Performance 10/10

Anonymous posted on 20 Jul 2009, 08:43

1

touchscreen is not all that efficient on this phone especially when typing on the touch screen i must always resort to the qwerty keyboard. also it doesn't seem to have the great face detection, i mean when your face is close to the phone it sometimes leaves the touch screen running. Nokia needs to improve and that's something they just aren't doing. the spearkerphone is too quiet even at max volume i can barely hear it. and the headphone jackphone doens't deliver great. sound
i called nokia about the sound issue and they told me to get hearing-aids and they called me old. i'm offended. Nokia U.S is insolent and shameful.

Design 1/10

Features 1/10

Performance 1/10

Pros

Cons

• speakerphone is quiet
• headphone jackphone doesn't deliver great quality or loud sounds.
• touch screen is rather annoying sometimes
• camera freezes a lot
• one of the LED's already died on my phone
• Nokia's employee's are very insulting towards their customers.

DontHateOnS60 posted on 18 Jul 2009, 12:08

8

The flagship of the Nseries, but not quite the ultimate.

It looks to me as if there are a bunch of people here who simply want to drag the rating down on a phone that is nowhere near as bad as they claim it is. This is from someone who actually has the phone and has been using it for two weeks now. This has been the phone I've been waiting for from Nokia, although it's certainly not everything I want. I've always been a fan of S60 since my N75, and the only thing that I was waiting for was Nokia to turn it into a touch interface and put it on an Nseries. Now I finally have it, and while it's certainly not perfect, it's close.
The keyboard which has been a huge topic of conversation is perfectly fine in terms of layout. I have no issues going from this to my E71. My problem however is the fact that for some odd reason the top and bottom row have a completely different feeling than the middle row, which feels perfect. It's going in under warranty, and hopefully they'll fix it. I had no software issues with mine when I first booted it up, like a number of people had. I am now running v11 firmware and things everything works well 95% of the time. I really like S60 5th. The slider design I think is absolutely brilliant and is very well built. I really have to hand it to Nokia for the size of this device. Someone else in a so called "review" wrote that this has a bulky design. I completely disagree. Considering the fact it has a full keyboard and a camera that sticks out, it's perfect, and I like how it sits perfectly flat on a surface....  

It looks to me as if there are a bunch of people here who simply want to drag the rating down on a phone that is nowhere near as bad as they claim it is. This is from someone who actually has the phone and has been using it for two weeks now. This has been the phone I've been waiting for from Nokia, although it's certainly not everything I want. I've always been a fan of S60 since my N75, and the only thing that I was waiting for was Nokia to turn it into a touch interface and put it on an Nseries. Now I finally have it, and while it's certainly not perfect, it's close.
The keyboard which has been a huge topic of conversation is perfectly fine in terms of layout. I have no issues going from this to my E71. My problem however is the fact that for some odd reason the top and bottom row have a completely different feeling than the middle row, which feels perfect. It's going in under warranty, and hopefully they'll fix it. I had no software issues with mine when I first booted it up, like a number of people had. I am now running v11 firmware and things everything works well 95% of the time. I really like S60 5th. The slider design I think is absolutely brilliant and is very well built. I really have to hand it to Nokia for the size of this device. Someone else in a so called "review" wrote that this has a bulky design. I completely disagree. Considering the fact it has a full keyboard and a camera that sticks out, it's perfect, and I like how it sits perfectly flat on a surface. I doubt anybody could design it thinner. I do wish it were slightly wider, but that in no way takes points away from this. The battery was much needed in this device as I can't see how anything less would've kept this thing going for more than a day. It will last as long as 3 days if you really push it and are light on what you do with it, but expect between 36 hours and just over 2 days of battery life on a normal to hard use. You should have no problem making it through the day unless you spend 4 hours browsing the web or something like that.
Nokia had the right idea with this device. Combine a full QWERTY, which it badly needed in an Nseries, with a big touch screen, again which it badly needed, and you’ll have the ultimate device right? Well, sort of. Unfortunately for Nokia the actual execution of the idea still leaves something to be desired. And while some will argue this isn’t a worthy enough flagship, I say, that all depends upon what your definition of a flagship is. If you think a flagship should be the icon of the company that outdoes everything else in the business, then you might be able to make a case. But if you think the flagship is the poster child of the company, then it really is hard to argue against that. This is the best all in one Nseries device ever made, even if it has its downfalls. I really like it a lot, but it still leaves me begging for more, which my N95-3 didn't, and that’s what I’m really looking for. I definitely recommend it to anyone who's looking for a great device.

Design 9/10

Features 8/10

Performance 7/10

Pros

• -The sound quality over headphones is by far the best I’ve ever heard from an Nseries, on par with the 5800.
• - The screen looks beautiful.
• - Widget homescreen is fantastic.
• - Touch screen is responsive for a resistive screen.
• - Call quality is very good as is signal reception.
• - Camera quality is very good.
• - Love the UI despite a few quirky things.
• - The web browser is fantastic even though multi-touch is missing.
• - This is the best built Nseries I've layed hands on.

Cons

• - Can be sluggish at times if you really multitask a lot.
• - Not happy about the mic placement.
• - Stereo speakers have been tuned for voices and not music playback and aren't as loud as the N95's.
• - The double tap isn't necessary everywhere, but is useful in certain menus.
• - Could have used more processing power, more RAM, and more phone memory (not to be confused with the 32GB of mass memory).
• - Needs kinetic scrolling everywhere, not just in certain things.

Anonymous posted on 05 Jul 2009, 20:27

1

i can't believe they launched this phone. what rubbish it is. who even gave them the green light on it's launch? was it a blind and deaf man. this is just cow dung for a phone. sorry nokia but other brands are making better camera phones with better GPS. and on top of that their batteries are better.

Design 1/10

Features 1/10

Performance 1/10

Pros

Cons

• battery
• camera
• GPS told me to drive into a wall O.o

Anonymous posted on 28 Jun 2009, 19:37

1

N97=N95

N97=N95 not much more to. they took an N95 and slapped a touchscreen on it. that's such an apple thing to do. disappointed in this phone. it's not worth buying. might as well get an N95 and save a load of cash. the phone locks up a lot and the receiver is super quiet. it's like it can only whisper. what gives. the screen is sensitive and so are the answer and decline keys. also the slide is made very brittle

Design 1/10

Features 1/10

Performance 1/10

Anonymous posted on 20 Jun 2009, 21:50

1

If nokia keeps this up then they'll go bankrupt

high-end phone my rear-end. this phone has nothing to offer. it's basically what you can find in the N95 & N96. nothing has changed it's all the same and Nokia thinks that the human population is bunch of dumba***s that'll by the samething in a different looking package. way to go Nokia, you're the next Apple. 5Mpx cam and it's more grainy than a sandy beach. dual-led can't flash for the life of the phone yeesh!

Design 1/10

Features 1/10

Performance 1/10

Pros

• large screen

Cons

• it's a N95/N96 repackaged with a touch screen
• Nokia is runner up Apple selling people the same thing in a different design.
• Sony or Motorola is number one and i regret leaving those two companies

Anonymous posted on 19 Jun 2009, 05:34

1

so much hype for nothing

wow i can't believe all the hype over this phone. it's garbage. i regret buying it. wow i can't believe how much it sucks. it's not fast it's slow. it lacks power. the battery isn't great, it runs down fast. the slider is weak, it's just a small piece of plastic. the keyboard is annoyingly small and your fingers end up hitting multiple buttons at the same time.

Design 1/10

Features 1/10

Performance 1/10