Everything you wanted to know about the N97, in one review

Thanks for checking it Out Matthew

would agree if you can try and defend the snags / bugs / shortcomings on the nokia n97… thanks

34 reasons why not to buy NOKIA N97 !! TOPIC: Ver 12 N97 Fails !! Nokia Does not Keep Comittment…

Hi! Check this out ! Request for inputs, from all…and comments if any NOKIA Fan would you like to defend the list of snags/shortcomings with solutions?

Phone History… Purchased on : 16th Aug’09 – India First Repair on: 25th Aug’09 Ver 12 was installed. Second Time Given to Nokia Care on: 31st Aug’09 Promised Delivery Date: 17th September (commitment not kept) Revised date (after much persuasion): 30th September 2009.

List of Issues/Questions:- (Points 15 & later deal with Issues specific to issues encountered post Ver. 12 update)

1. First things first! How to request for & get refunds for a Nokia N97 Phone in India.
2. Is there a touch querty for n97 as an input method? Like windows mobile? Request Know How. I now seem to agree to the feedback on one of the Blogs… that nokia designers feel that the average size of user hands Would be that of big people & fingers like a Japanese teen. The Physical keyboard does not seem to offer any additional functions Other than text input!
3. Predictive text for n97 where in the touch screen Menu, the words don’t get auto completed. This increases the number of Taps/input strokes. Is the n97 intelligent & learn words from SMS, Contacts, emails. my blackberry does so. Request Know How & any Options to edit custom dictionary. Auto Punctuation? Am I expecting too much already ?
4. Single hand use of n97 phone impractical using touch pad t9. Entering alphanumerics on the physical querty is a nightmare… Request Know how on tips & tricks.
5. Green tick yes or v button on top left of the text input screen n97. friendly again only for big handed people. Could this have been at bottom right. Is alternate screen for text input touch t9 available? Requested Know how.
6. Unnecessary taps additional taps almost in all menus…for e.g… Sending a biz card from n97 requires 5 taps… in the other mobile Phone systems it can be done in 3 taps. Requested Knowhow for Shortcuts.
7. Can In a nokia n97 we get a view of the entire events as single Thread…. No Provision for search display against keywords upon I can get call logs, messages – Here in Nokia, no search filters / advanced Search and all searches results plotted to applications vs Person/events. Requested Know How if it can be done like blackberry / windows mobile.
8. Copy & Paste across applications in n97. eg. Select text from web page. copy n paste on message application…. possible on Nokia…? Requested Know How
9. Call& Event Logs e.g Missed calls in n97. If there are 5 missed calls the Log will show the last called time only. In most other mobile systems Blackberry, windows each event is logged against a user. Requested know how on how this is handled in Nokia.
10. Lag in picture display upon call in n97. Number displays first and after few seconds lag the pic pops up. Is this normal & acceptable? Other windows / rim devices show it instantly.
11. When will Nokia enable usage of Native clients like google talk, yahoo like blackberry, iphone for n97 ? Any know how on possibility of release. Any equal alternatives suggested for n97. Tried Nimbuzz, Fring, Ebuddy. Miss the chat message notification icon on home screen, notification on the chat messaging icon, sound, breathing lights.
12. Is there any planning for better email client for n97? Likely Release dates?
13. The Java App for GMAIL on blackberry shows an indicator on icon in addition to customized alert setting tone & breathing light for new messages. Retrieving Emails is consistent & auto on other devices. The Nokia Does not seem to auto refresh + No Notification. How is it handled on Nokia n97 ?
14. Can user friendliness be something where we can do actions with a contact or on contacts screen single view… e.g see contact on google map, Help on contacts screen/n97 help, lookup contact on server, filter by category. new address, new group, view, edit, delete, activity log (incl sms, mms, email, calls), call, sms, mms, email, send as attachment, send as im, add a custom ring tone, add picture, options – sort by, separators, sync settings, actions, switch applications, exit. We have seen it on inexpensive phones. is it possible to be done on Nokia n97 flagship?

SOME OF MY STILL UNRESOLVED PROBLEMS Post upgrade to ver 12.

1. Contacts inaccessible – “Memory Full Error”. No other applications were active at the time of the error. Just unable to reach any of my 3500 contacts through the contacts options & do anything. (update 16th Sept: Unofficially though a nokia rep confirmed that any user having 3000+ contacts are likely to face such issues)
2. Pbk2 error n97 upon selecting contacts in the messaging application.
3. Audio Delay in n97 upon receiving a call. No Sound upon connection of incoming call. Especially if picked up too fast.
4. Shows as searching for network constantly many times a day. We have 2 n97s & observed that both n97 almost have similar timing of network loss. Whereas, our other devices like blackberry do not show any weak signal signs.
5. GPS Lock failure in n97. Keeps searching for GPS locks constantly i.e Drops connection to GPS network frequently.
6. Un-predictive battery talk time n97, standby & required Charge time.
7. Voice inaudible at other end from n97, when using loudspeaker & especially during calls from moving vehicle.
8. n97 Camera: a. Picture clarity issues. Secondary camera highly pixelated. Primary camera shows light flooding on pictures. Clarity Missing. b. Erroneous Time stamp on images. c. Lens Cover Started to show minor scratch pressure.
9. n97 Ovi Suite recommends erroneous updates for E.g Maps 3 ( as of 31st Aug’09)
10. n97 Text Input touch t9 screen freezes / Hangs, especially when entering special characters like period(.), comma(,), exclamation (!) etc
11. n97 Selectively & at random contact Name not displayed on Caller ID (sometimes)
12. n97 Selectively Message & Message delivery display number, instead of stored contact names.
13. Sync Issue, All contacts not synced always. How to sync “categories” field as stored in outlook or how to map custom fields to Nokia n97.
14. Format Mass Memory error n97, Unable to format. Unable to delete specific files.
15. The auto lock n97… When attempted to unlock with querty out .. it still opens in portrait mode ?
16. n97 SMS Logs Not updated. e.g any sms sent before storing a contact…. after storing or adding contact the number does not get automatically updated to the name. It reflects the number still in the logs./ Logs do not get updated.
17. n97 Picture caller… The face is half cut ..Looks weird on most images… as the number is not transparent. In landscape mode there is enough space on the screen to put up the answer or reject buttons and displaying the numbers.
18. n97 primitive Browser will close on its own & return to menu or home screen. thanks in advance for your time to stop & read. Pls do send any information that you think will be useful to me for making the n97 do some work.

NEW additions: (14th Sept)

(tested on our second n97)

1. n97 Predictive Text: Usage for auto word completion only on physical keyboard, when the Dpad down key is used it throws up options but the way the scroll is designed you can not see the full word and one makes mistakes. How to see the full word & edit custom dictionary.
2. Another strange behaviour is on the n97 text input on browser… this was on an email i was trying to reply. The stylus touch will paste the last keyed in word!! We wonder why.

Nokia this is a big let down…

Still, i would like to be optimistic. I think its not a nokia product failure alone, but a marketing overdrive which has led to very high expectations of a un-finnish-ed kind of device. Lets be optimistic.. drop in your wishlist of wanted features & irrtants on your current n97 to me at n97fix@gmail.com. As a unified list let me try if my persuation with Nokia can get us something that we expected from the device….

Thanks for your time.

Cheers!

PS. Ver 2 – though too early to comment just from the video, but apart from Kinetic Scrolling, new music app – not much… maybe some future version may make it today ready

PS2: One of the other blog moderators shouted at me for making this post under a wrong thread… Joseph Jonny.. would have appreciated if the blog moderator could have helped with any answers to the multiple issues on the n97!!

hi im wondering if you can send a text message with an on screen touch key pad, or do you have to use the qwerty slide out mini key board? thanks

can you download from rapidshare using N97 mini

On receiving a call on N97, the incoming call notification shows both the Name & number of the caller. Is there any way that it should only show the name & not the number ?

my n97 went silent has no ringing or sound on any incoming call,sms alert or even clock alarm…what should i do…

Well, upgrade your firmware to v20 or later and most of these issues will be resolved.

I got my N97, 10 days ago. It is annoying. I upgraded from N958GB, everything used to work fine. I too have had problems like flash whiting out photo half of the picture I take in low light. I used to be able to take pictures in dark with the N95, this camera seems not as good.

I just discovered the contacts in my N97 don’t have any home numbers syc’d via mail exchange. I dug out my old N95 to find a home number! I searched and found FAQ from Nokia, the document says the number fields on the phone contact and the exchange server does not match, meaning you will miss details. They give no answer.

I am disappointed!

Also, when it asks you for the domain, it is limited to 15 characters, so if your domain name is longer, you need to just put in the fixed number of letters no more, otherwise the device will not syc, and an error is shown.

I feel like Nokia has betrayed us by releasing such **** software.

I spent about 15 hours calling my 3 Support and Nokia support!

Very annoyed.

I just bought an n97 after my e90 it’s defective. But for my surprise i cannot edit the tags of the phone numbers, this is a very very very important for me, what can i do?? nokia officialy say it’s in some models and we don’t have a date to fix it. I have contacts with 20 phone numbers, now i’m lost because i don’t know who the number is. Are any solution? A firmware update or backdate?? A third app?? Somebody has found any solution?

Não sei como trocar os contatos favoritos do ecra, na tela inicial, como posso editalos e colocar outro contato no lugar?

i need it i am realy want nimbuzz flood sms application in which my nokia 97/32 gb

Hi, i broke my flexiglass screen thing yesterday, and now the touch screen is very unresponsive… i can get all the way up to the sending of the text part, where it’s impossible to touch the send button. I was wondering if there’s any other way to send the text without using the touch button to send it?

Thanks for this informative and helpful review! This type of a one with an additional keyboard is actually my favorite one. I guess it’s even more suitable for me that a touchscreen phone. I love it, it looks like a tiny notebook:) I’ll definitely buy one!

Nokia N97 being in my use since last 4 years ,None of any problem i have faced mentioned above.It is everbest handset overall.One should know how to operate it .For example one can use “Mobile guard”to close all open applications and to remove temp junk files