N97 the friendly review

d2 coffee free

I now have used the N97 for 12 days. Have tried all its perks and so I can give a review. Mostly will be comparing it with my old phone which is the N95. If you need specs.. google it up.

I have always wanted a new phone since my N95 that is a powerful device yet has rather poor built was only held together by strips of sticky tape. Imagine every time OH needs my sim card or needs to borrow my phone I have to peel of the sticky tapes and have to look for new tapes to replace them. With the battery getting loose and phone switched of without me realising... etc.

Battery life with N95 has always been on the poorer side however I can manage a day plus if I haven't been bluetoothing, or GPRSing, taking videos.. Otherwise it'll die before I can reach home. During travels, surfing has to be very focused coz the phone might just die out.

OH suggested so many new phones seemed to be quite worthy but none of them can come quite close to the N95 until my attention was brought to the N97 early this year. Not yet launched but was a very promising gadget. Anyways.. OH and I expected that the launching price will be way over our budget and that I need a new notebook (or a netbook now they call it) more than a phone. Which is quite true. We were really surprised with the starting price. it's at least 1k cheaper that what we thought it'd be. So it's either a netbook or N97.. haha. The choice is obvious.

What I think makes a good multimedia mobile phone..

• being a tech girl that I am (or used to lah), I used to carry a pda, psp, mobile phone and a p&s camera in my handbag all the time. A GPS unit in the car during travels which I have to carry with me coz we cannot leave it in the car. Truly inconvenient. I can't settle with <3megapixel camera.. call it ego.. I call it self satisfaction :p N95 solved this problem. Before that it was the O2 mini and the ixus.
  
• Takes decent videos. I dun wanna start carrying a video cam too. But sometimes pictures of Afya won't just do. N95 spoilt me.. hehe
  
• Good basic phone, when ppl calls you, you can answer the call.. like duhh.. (I know for a fact that some mobiles can't even be reliable in the most basic fuction LOL)
• GPS is a must coz I dunno KL roads. Like I haven't been driving much around KL, OH usually does that so I've never paid any attention hence langsung tatau jalan.. and you know how jalan in KL is like.. with the multilevel flyovers n all. Hehe.. I still remember that one time I had to call OH to ask him macamana nak balik rumah (i.e. my parents house).
• 3G, wifi, gprs and all that lah. Been using celcom and been really happy with its coverage. OH said that on the ipoh-kl train the connection maintains almost throughout the journey. RM6 for daily unlimited.. it's a lifesaver.. provided you're in the 3G area lah. I heard maxis 3G isn't so great. Never used it dunno for sure
  
• Symbian is a great mobile phone OS.. Symbian with touchscreen.. even better. PC sync is a breeze, drag drop.. I can even use the phone as a storage device.
  
• Good browser. Opera mini maybe the most prefered, but I'm sticking to nokia browser. I'm just used to it. Since there's not mouse/touch pad with a mobile phone. Touchscreen is godsend. Hmm I'm sure the apple technology is way more advanced than nokia but it's responsive and it does what I tell it to do so it works for me.
  
• Garmin Mobile XT
• QWERTY! which has of late became an essential because I need to send e-mails and texts which requires me to be lengthy.. I can't do with with the typical phone layout. It's too frustrating.

So you can imagine when they announced N97.. I felt like it was made for me!!! Gila over but seriously. It's the phone I've been waiting for.

What I like about it.. apart from all the above,

• the open n shut mechanism is soooo smooth.. it's just too good to be true. The built, very solid, doesn't feel like it's gonna crack. Its weight and its size.. they are all just nice.
  
• The widgets.. you gotta love the widgets.. e-mail and facebook, and thumbnails of your most used applications all on the homescreen.
• The keyboard, it does require getting used to but the buttons feels right, I can type smoothly without accidentally pressing the next button, 
• The touch screen.. the swiping gesture to answer a phone call :D
• Decent battery life. I wouldn't say good coz there had been a few times when I was shocked to see the battery running low.. but this is the first couple of weeks using it.. I've been doing this and that with the phone, basically couldn't keep my hands off so.. I'm to be blamed for draining the battery anyway. With all this unable to keep my hands off (the phone) it still lasts for more than a day and I'm talking wifi connected and bluetooth switched on all the time, using videos, recorders, camera, playbacks, media player with speaker, GPS here n there.
  
• The angle.. when flipped opened, it's like you're holding a game console, you can reach everything with your thumbs.. and the screen angle is just perfect.
• Reminds me of T-mobile sidekick.. hehe.. the one phone I wish I can try.
• the very good pictures it takes -- refer to pictures at sarakids, the video is the one of the lower quality option but it's widescreen! hehe..
  
• white, OH has always bought my phone for me.. and he decides most because of the 2nd hand value. this time he lets me choose what I want. Eventhough I may prefer black but white just signifies that it's mine to keep! and that it's more perempuan.. and that it's less popular hehehe. He still won't let me personalise it further though. I'm thinking of putting something at the back of the screen so it can be seen when I flip open the phone.. Afya's face? snuggbaby sticker?
• facebook integration... needless to say.. eventhough I'm not really into facebook to start with.. hehe
• fm transmitter.. I would have treasured this more if I listen to music.. but nowadays.. I love listening to the engine rather.. tried it out and it's awesome.
• single output for charger and usb port. and rechargeable via usb. Since the port is also quite different from other nokia phones, I can still use charger from the older models using the adapter they've included in the box.
• Nokia maps surprisingly is more comprehensive than Garmin and the malfreemaps/malsingmaps. Although my parents' place is non existence but it's easier to search for places in KL. OH n I was looking for a shop in Jalan Ipoh last night and nokia maps found it Garmin is stuck at jalan ipoh kecil in well.. ipoh. This is on 3 months trial thrown in with the phone purchase. I dunno what the rate is like if I were to continue this service. I prefer Garmin navigation though. The british guys sounds to boring and garmin is more colourful.. hehe
• this nifty application called nimbuzz that flawlessly combines all my frequently used messenger i.e. msn, yahoo, gtalk. Banyak lagi but it's those 3 that I frequently use.
• the huge inbuilt memory space! 32gig --- still haven't used quarter of it.. maybe gonna encode some of Afya's fav. and of course you can add some more with microSD slot.
  
• a netbook indeed.. enough said
• I can run multiple apps at the same time, can be sluggish if too many.. but the phone doesn't just give up and hang or die..
• the slider to unlock the keyguard
• the guitar hero like game that comes with it. very primitive but it was really fun for about 10 mins.. hehe
• the pouch is gorgeous and I can attach a wristlet to it instead of the phone.
  

Since I got the launching model and firmware there are also things which are puzzling, maybe bugs hmm I dunno although it hasn't annoyed me so much but it'll be nice if they can justify these on the next firmware update.

• If I'm out of wifi area, the phone will beep every minute or so helplessly informing me that it can't connect to xxx wifi spot. I think I just need to switch of the auto homescreen update but I don't want to have to do that everytime I leave the house.
• video editing is not as comprehensive as N95. Maybe I'm just not used to the new interface yet but it looks like N95 has more features in its video editing application (multi-trim?). Maybe I'm just approaching it wrong.
• the best quality video doesn't come in widescreen.. err.. I dunno why.. but it's not really a big deal though. I can live with 4:3
• sometimes it takes a moment for the backlight to switch on.
  
• the phone vibrates with screen touch. After a day or so, intead of the sweet jitters it gives it turns to scratchy vibration like it's trying too hard. So I turned this off and now the it beeps with screen touch. Much better.
• Not so great pictures low light. very noisy.. Have to still use the flash.
• Takes some time to fully charge. 2 hours i think.
• I can't figure out ovi.. I think they're only for UK users.
• The stylus...? You know how a stylus is always attached to the body of the gadget? but with nokia it replaces the wrist strap.. I appreciate the intention to diversify the design a bit.. but.. hmm.. the stylus is now at the bottom of my side table drawer. There's no need to use it, I prefer a wrist strap btw. I'm guessing it's a last minute addition kinda thing.. since it has handwriting recognition.. but when there's a keyboard.. there's no need for writing true?. The stylus is really cute though.. I'm sorry that I have no use for it.
• I have to be careful not to accidentally press the camera button when removing the phone from the pouch. It's not a problem if I put it in the other way round.. 
• The e button is rather dim. I didn't notice it till someone mentioned it. He shouldn't have mentioned it in the first place LOL!
  

That's it.. the flaws that I found. Gosh... this is a long entry. In short.. this is one of the best moolah worthy piece of gadget that I ever owned.