Details are in, Nokia has a new flagship phone. The N97 packs a 3.5-inch, 640 x 360 pixel (that's a 16:9 aspect ratio) resistive touchscreen display with tactile feedback and QWERTY keyboard into this sliding communicator with an "always open" window to favorite internet or social networking sites. Nokia calls it the "world's most advanced mobile computer." To back up the claim they've dropped in HSDPA, WiFi, and Bluetooth radios, A-GPS, a 3.5-mm headjack, 32GB of onboard memory with microSD expansion (for up to 48GB total capacity), and a battery capable of up to 1.5 days of continuous audio playback or 4.5-hours video. 5 megapixel camera with Carl Zeiss glass and "DVD quality" video capture at 30fps, too. The specs are certainly impressive, let's see if the S60 5th Edition OS can support it. The N97 will launch with a retail price set at around €550 ($693) excluding subsidies and taxes, phone to ship in H1 2009.
Update: Hah, Nokia just boasted on stage at Nokia World that the N97 was the scoop "
Engadget didn't get." O RLY??? Sure looks like the device codenamed Eitri that
we broke to the world last month.
Update 2: Video demonstration after the break.
Read -- Press Release
Read -- A bit more detail
posted Dec 2nd 2008 3:16AM
I think this seems to be Ivalo,not Eitri.
Twice as thick as E71 is.
Hi,
Do you have the whole presetation? I was at home but my connection was not good, so I listened to the press release. Could you send the vidoe to my e-mail (albertpassos@yahoo.co.uk) or a link where I can download it?
Thank you in advance,
Albert Passos
amazing! cant wait to get my hand on one of these!
Amazing device! cant wait to get my hands on one of thesE!
Looks sooo last generation HTC!
But, based on the coverage they got in this morning's WSJ, Nokia (and Apple and Google), while lacking many capabilities out of the box, have the single most important ingredient for success that HTC hasn't: BRAND AWARENESS.
Just like the way ahead of its time and long lost Psion range, HTC - at least here in the USA - doesn't register. And this, in a country and world that buys shirts because they have horses embroidered on them...or phones wearing fruit.
Brand Recognition is very much last year. If the carrier pushes it, and gives it a cute name, people will buy it.
Nah, Nokia and Apple have another thing over HTC: A history of creating great devices. I have been waiting for Nokia to do the touch thing because - despite their crap Symbian OS - if there is one company that can pull a serious iPhone contender, it's Nokia.
Unless you live outside of the US. Then the Carrier's power to shove devices down people's throats becomes somewhat limited compared to the US.
Thank you Apple!
for making this happen :-)
I hate Apple, but yeah their iPhone forced these pinheads to realize people want more advanced phones. However, I think the G1 would have pushed this forward anyway considering it was in development Hell forever with its current spec (minus CPU, as that wasn't available at the time).
More bizarre is that my G1 has really made me lament how slow Windows Mobile is, even on the same chipset. It's a shame, considering the lengths MS is going through to integrate support in its main OS.
I am a long-time Windows Mobile user, and really appreciate the flexibility the OS affords. That said, Nokia/S60, RIM/Blackberry, Apple/OSX seems to be the way to forward, with a very tight integration between the OS and the hardware. Even with the best WM devices and even with the G1 the OS seems almost tacked on to the hardware.
@ZSX
So basically you are saying, out of the five phones you mentioned, the only two OSes that feel "tacked" or locked onto their phones are the only two OSes that actually support multiple phones from multiple carriers and multiple cell phone makers? How does that make any sense at all?
OSX is tied to the iPhone... and always will be.
The Blackberry OS is tied to RIM phones... and always will be.
Symbian is currently tied to Nokia phones... might be released to other manufacturers later.
WinMo is currently on about 20 different phones on every single carrier in the U.S.
Android is currently only available on one phone, but it's design and purpose is to be on every phone and carrier it can attract.
WinMo and Android are both designed to be able to adapt to many different phones and platforms, especially Android which is even designed to work on many "dumb phones". So, if anything, I'd say Symbian, OSX, and Blackberry are all tied way too much to their own hardware, not the other way around.
@Geoff Gibson - Uh, UIQ?
tactile feedback is the one thing that is missing on every touchscreen so far, this could be a great change.
and the rest of it, i love, everything the iphone has plus everything that is missing on the iphone.
Unfortunately Nokia missed the boat in North America (and possibly Europe). Who in their right mind are going to pay €550 for a device in this economy?
Me? BlackBerry Storm for $49. And it's unlocked GSM to boot (locked CDMA of course).
Many others? iPhone.
Do you honestly think this won't be severely discounted and rebated?
discount and rebate are two things unseen or heard of for a new N series phone in the U.S. Not to mention a home on a major carrier. Holding ya breath would be a form of attempted suicide concerning this matter.
I would definitely sell my iPhone and Nokia N95-3 to purchase this baby.
Heck. I'd sell plasma to get that but I agree that it's set at an exorbitant price. I'll wait for the prices to come down. I don't care if it's twice as thick as the E71 cause it's twice as slick!
Hope you are interested in review
http://tinyurl.com/5uy7p3
wow that thing is slick. ive never had a Nokia (though alot of my friends had them back in the day) but i wouldnt mind giving this one a go.
Engadget last month: "... and the "Eitri," a monster QWERTY candybar with a 640x350 display and 5-megapixel camera..."
So, I wouldn't say that Engadget got it right...
The Touch HD trumps this device and is available now. The N97 will drop probably by summer '09, by which time HTC will most likely have pumped out 2 or 3 new phones. This thing reminds me of an AT&T tilt with a facelift.
TouchFlo and windows mobile 6.1 are shit
I love S60. Nokia does it right.
If only we could get decent GSM phones with subsidized carrier prices. But the mass want's cheap phones. SO we get cheap phones.
@Geoff Gibson
What a load of crap - Symbian OSes run on Samsung and SE phones as well as Nokias - kinda blows a lid on your whole post
We clearly have different interpretations of the phrase "tacked on". "Tacked on" to mean certainly does not mean "locked to". My intention was more along the lines of "to put together loosely and arbitrarily" and I hope it makes sense in that context!
http://www.thefreedictionary.com/tacked+on
What I guess I am trying to say is that a company which designs both the hardware and the software as in Nokia, RIM and Apple, can tailor both to suit each other perfectly. This theoretically leads to a smoother user experience. In the case of Windows Mobile you do often get what is a powerful OS running on underspecced hardware, which can lead to instability. This sadly, taints not only that device, but all devices running the OS.
I am very tolerant of the vagries of WM and Android, but fear that I am very much in the minority.
This is a awesome as phone and has all the feature you would want in a smart phone to have, well at least for now. It has some great things on it.
There are some video of it here as well
http://www.nzmobiles.com/phones/34-nokia/61-the-new-nokia-n97-.html