New N97 reviews I agree with and disagree with
While lying in bed in the trailer this morning I was browsing my RSS feeds and found a couple of Nokia N97 reviews from sites I enjoy reading. Eric Zeman posted his N97 review over on Phone Scoop while ZOMG its Cj posted their first impressions. As I explained earlier in my first week with the N97, I have most all of the same thoughts as the ZOMG its Cj article.
I have to say I was a bit surprised by Eric’s feelings regarding the hardware, in particular this paragraph:
The fit, finish and materials of the N97 don’t live up to the $700 price tag. Truth be told, I’d be ticked off if I paid $700 for this phone, at least as far as the hardware is concerned. The plastics are thin and feel cheap. The battery cover feels downright flimsy. There are odd gaps where the two halves of the phone meet. Frankly, I am stunned at the poor craftsmanship. Nokia can do better.I actually think the plastic is very high quality and while the back battery cover may be flexible it feels like plastic that can take a beating and never break. I like the matte finish of the plastic used on the N97 too (seems completely scratch proof) and to me it feels like high quality plastic. I also have no odd gaps where the two halves meet and it is consistent and perfect all around (even after my big 4 feet drop). I honestly think this is one Nseries device that has an outstanding build quality similar to an Eseries device and find it to be well worth the price, in terms of hardware quality.
Eric does cover the entire device in detail and he writes there is a lot to like in the N97, in particular the outstanding phone call quality. He concludes by saying it is a device for those who want the latest and greatest and since that is me I guess it confirms that I made the right purchase decision 
The recent firmware update fixed my issue with the keylock and at this time the only real issue I have with the N97 is the low amount of RAM.
7 Comments to New N97 reviews I agree with and disagree with
Yeah, I was also pretty surprised when I read Eric’s thoughts about the hardware. While I don’t think the N97 is quite up to the quality of recent E-series phones, I DO think that it’s the most solidly constructed N-series phone I’ve ever used.
After trying out the Nokia N86 8MP, I would say that the N86 is the highest quality Nseries I have tried to date (this includes the N97).
JimJuly 3, 2009
While the battery cover ITSELF seems like fairly good quality plastic the way it attaches is garbage and will break in no time. Even when i purchased it from the Nokia Flagship store in Chicago the guy FLAT OUR WARNED ME and showed me how to properly take off and install the battery cover because of how many people were breaking the little tabs (Noah from phonedog even did on his review model). Also from removing the battery cover often in my week with it before i returned it i removed/installed it a lot as i was switching my sim from iphone to n97 and even just from a week of doing that it didn’t seem to “snap in” as well anymore. I think over the long haul you will just have to be careful with it. Other than that it is an extremely QUALITY piece of hardware which i loved and while S60 is a great OS, it is just a little too much “function over form” for me.
SamJuly 5, 2009
I don’t think any phone is worth more than the price of a laptop. It is ridiculous the prices consumers are charged for phones because people actually believe a phone is worth this price. A laptop has as much sophistication in it as any of these phones when it comes to the internal components. There is no reason for these high priced smartphones. Manufacturers need to trim their product lines. Look at Apple (I don’t own an iPhone and probably won’t). Samsung has more Windows Mobile phones than they need. Not sure any of them are great. The Epix is horrible despite a 600+ MHz processor. The idea that they need to make so many phones to suit consumer tastes is ridiculous. Consumers either want a simple phone that works (i.e. different form factors) or a smartphone. Enough of my rant on the pricing of phones.
SantiJuly 5, 2009
To Sam. I don’t know what you are talking about. Laptops might have higher specs. But they are way larger, so it’s easier to pack those specs there. Part of what you are paying for in a phone is miniaturization. Also, items manufactured in volume are cheaper, and laptops have reached the point of having lots of default pieces that you can reuse. Thus, they become cheaper… most components in phones are custom made…
SamJuly 6, 2009
Santi, Not really try to argue here but you should look into what it costs to manufacture a phone vs what is costs to manufacture a laptop or any other device. In the sense that a phone’s parts are customized then so is a laptop. You cannot use a keyboard from one laptop in another. Nor are screen all interchangeable. If you look at the volume sales for some laptops vs say the iPhone or BlackBerry’s I doubt many laptops sell as many units. A phone manufacturer still buys off-the-shelf components from all the leading manufacturers – Qualcomm, Samsung, etc. The phone design, the OS, etc. may be custom but very few of the components are. Check out this link: http://www.isuppli.com/NewsDetail.aspx?ID=20398 or Google “isuppli iphone”. You can see how much an iPhone costs to build. I find it hard to believe that an N97 costs a whole lot more.
If you still believe that any phone justifies a price point beyond a 100% profit then we will just have to disagree.
It is consumers that are driven by a need to have the “latest and greatest” that justify the cost of these items. Fundamentally, what the market will bear. Nothing wrong with that but I was only responding to the article which was talking about the build quality of the phone and saying that the high price was justified. I completely disagree with that logic.
I’d be happy to be practical and spend money on used phones instead of spending $700 on this one…
July 3, 2009