Finally, Nokia N97 Launching This Month

Nokia have announced that N97 will go on sale worldwide this month. No word on pricing yet for the 3.5-inch touchscreen handset, nor specific availability dates, but UK will apparently get it unlocked and SIM-free from Nokia in June 19.



SIM-free, the N97 is priced at around £500; that will be followed by a June 26th launch on the various carriers in the UK, with no word on pricing but a clear possibility of picking up the N97 free with a sufficiently expensive tariff. The N97 is already available to preorder in the US, priced at around $455 after discounts.

Your money gets you a slide-out QWERTY keyboard, S60 5th Edition OS, WiFi, GPS, HSPA and of course that 3.5-inch resistive touchscreen. However we’re also wary of the potentially low-powered CPU Nokia have fitted the N97 with; we’ll have to wait for the final model to see if that undermines the smartphone.

Official Nokia Press Release:

Nokia N97 mobile computer to begin selling worldwide in June

Espoo, Finland - The highly anticipated Nokia N97, Nokia’s flagship mobile computer, will begin selling in June in more than 75 countries. Along with a tilting 3.5″ touch display, QWERTY keyboard and a fully customizable home screen, the Nokia N97 will offer instant access to the full range of Ovi services.

“The Nokia N97 is an important step towards our vision of delivering a highly personalized Internet experience,” said Jonas Geust, Vice President and head of Nokia Nseries. “Fuelled by a multitude of music, maps, games, media and applications via Ovi, the Nokia N97 transforms the Internet into an experience that’s completely tailored to the tastes and interests of its owner.”

The Nokia N97 is Nokia’s first device to feature a personalizable home screen, which can be customized with a range of widgets which bring live information directly to the device. These widgets include key social networking destinations like Facebook and Hi5, news services like the Associated Press, Bloomberg and Reuters, as well as shopping and weather information. The Nokia N97 is the first device to ship with the Ovi Store, which offers easy access to applications, games, videos, podcasts, productivity tools, web and location-based services, and much more. Ovi Store has paid and free content from a range of global and local content providers and developers, including Paramount Pictures, Facebook and Qik, as well as a selection of Twitter applications.

Enjoy your upgrades
The beauty of this Nokia device is that taking it out of the box is just the beginning. As with any computer, people can constantly improve and refresh their Nokia N97 with new features, functions and fixes so they can do even more with the device. An exciting roadmap of new features and functions is planned to roll out in the second half of 2009.

Entertainment ensured
The Nokia N97 also has direct access to the huge catalogue of music in the Nokia Music Store. With multiple high-speed connectivity options and 32GB of storage (up to 48GB using a microSD card) it is possible to directly download and store tens of thousands of songs on the handset. And you can listen to your favourite music on the Nokia Bluetooth Stereo Headset BH-905, which Nokia also launched today. This headset brings crystal clear sound, eliminates background noise, and is the ideal accessory for listening to music and making calls on the Nokia N97, as well as being compatible with a diverse range of other mobile and music devices.

High-quality images and video clips at 30 frames per second (fps) can be captured using the 5 megapixel camera with integrated Carl Zeiss optics. Images can also be geo-tagged to specific locations and shared instantly with friends or uploaded online via Ovi Share, Twitter or Flickr.

About Nokia
Nokia is a pioneer in mobile telecommunications and the world’s leading maker of mobile devices. Today, we are connecting people in new and different ways - fusing advanced mobile technology with personalized services to enable people to stay close to what matters to them. We also provide comprehensive digital map information through NAVTEQ; and equipment, solutions and services for communications networks through Nokia Siemens Networks.

Nokia N97 to Hit the Market this March

Nokia’s latest touchscreen N97 is said to hit in March this year. It’s a touchscreen like 5800 Xpress slapped on a Nokia N Series mobile. May not be attractive as you might imagine it, but when Nokia does it, you get a shiny piece of beauty that is the N97. A full QWERTY keyboard slides out from under the 3.5 inch touchscreen so you can conveniently type at a whim.



So what else is packed inside this killer phone? Aside from the 3.5-inch 640×360 touchscreen display with tactile feedback, it also comes with a 5-megapixel camera with Carl Zeiss glass lens, HSDPA, WiFi, Bluetooth, A-GPS, 32GB internal memory upgradeable to 48GB via microSD (a space of about 12,000 tunes), and support for additional storage of up to 16GB via microSD. And introducing SoLo or Social Location, a social networking cum mapping software. SoLo sends your location to friends using GPS where you can attach pics and videos. It does lack DVB-H technology that’s found in the N96, I’m sure most users wouldn’t mind that small feature for the N97’s existing feature set.The Nokia N97 could so far be the best N Series yet.

Nokia N97 and iPhone Duel



Look & Feel

The Nokia N97 measures 117.2 (L) x 55.3 (W) x 15.9mm (D) compared to the iPhone 3G's 115.5 (H) x 62.1 (W) x 12.3mm (D); the N97 weighs 150g compared to the iPhone 3G's 133g. All pretty similar. The N97 obviously has the slide out QWERTY keyboard and features a tilting touchscreen, whereas the iPhone 3G is a single, static unit.

Screen

The iPhone 3G's 320 x 480 3:2 ratio screen is eclipsed by the Nokia N97's true widescreen (16:9) 640 x 360 pixels. Both measure 3.5 inches diagonally. Nokia definitely wins on this one, as not only will TV/DVD based widescreen movies fill the whole screen, but there's more resolution.

Camera

Again, the N97 wins hands down on the camera front, offering five megapixels, Carl Zeiss Tessar optics, and a LED flash / video light. Yes, video. The N97 will shoot video at DVD quality (30fps). The iPhone 3G, by comparison, has no video functionality and a paltry 2MP camera with no flash or focus.

Multimedia

Both handsets are heavyweights when it comes to consuming multimedia content, with both phones loyal to their companies' services - the iPhone 3G obviously has access to a huge range of content via the iTunes Store, with all other content having to go via iTunes. The N97 has access to the Nokia Music Store.

Both can play a wide variety of audio formats, but the N97 manages WMA on top of MP3, AAC, eAAC and eAAC+.

Both play variations of the MPEG4 video format, but the N97 also supports Windows Media 9 and Flash Lite/Flash Video via the Internet browser.

Navigation

The iPhone 3G utilises A-GPS and Google Maps, plus any third-party applications which use geo-location data, while the Nokia N97 has A-GPS and an electronic compass and uses Nokia Maps.

Google Maps offers 3D views of selected cities, driving, limited public transport and walking directions.

Nokia Maps offers multimedia city guides and navigation services, voice-guided car navigation, pedestrian-optimised guidance.

The N97 wins on navigation functionality, as the Nokia Maps system does seem to offer a wider range of options, however individual usage will vary depending on location.

Communications

Both phones offer HSDPA and Wi-Fi connectivity. The N97 has the full Bluetooth 2.0 A2DP implementation whereas the iPhone 3G has only basic Bluetooth.

Web Browsing

Both handsets offer full access to Internet web sites, but the Nokia N97 offers support for Flash Lite 3.0 and Flash Video, so will be able to render pages more fully than the iPhone which doesn't. It's not immediately clear from the specs whether the N97 offers in-browser Java support, the iPhone 3G doesn't.

Operating System

The initial Nokia N97 specifications don't explicitly mention which operating system is being used, but I presume, as an NSeries phone, it's Symbian-based. The iPhone 3G uses OS X.

Storage

The iPhone 3G comes with either 8GB or 16GB of fixed storage with no external expansion. The Nokia N97 comes with a whopping 32GB of internal memory plus up to 16GB of microSD expansion.


Applications

iPhone 3G users have access to the standard range of useful applications plus a host of free and pay-for applications in the iPhone App Store via iTunes.

Assuming no restrictions, users will be able to install Symbian-based applications onto the Nokia N97.


Pricing & Networks

Pricing and networks have not yet been announced for the Nokia N97, thought it's expected to have a pre-subsidy price of €599 (about £465).

Conclusion

Technically, the Nokia N97 beats the iPhone 3G in nearly every area - screen resolution, camera, web browser, video capability, storage - but of course it's an ewer handset.

Don't be surprised to see Apple announcing a third generation iPhone soon.

There's a lot of buzz surrounding the N97, and rightly so, but will its superior specs beat the "I want one" iPhone factor?

Time will tell. Do you want your phone to be Apple-flavoured or Nokia-flavoured? And what about the price - both are going to be fairly hefty and/or require a serious contract.