Nokia N97 sees the light of day
December 2nd, 2008Following hot on the heels of the Blackberry Storm Nokia has at last released details of its first QWERTY sliding smartphone in the form of the N97 which builds on the standard Symbian S60 OS with a UI layer optimized for touchscreens and some surprise features which put it ahead of the competition.
Nokia claims that the Nokia N97 will have a browser which can display Flash animation and like the Nokia 5800 will support Flash Lite 3.0 and Flash video. The Home page also includes widgets for storing favourite web services and social sites making them more accessible from its 16:9 screen much like the Nokia Internet Tablet OS. The widget system is open to third party developers so we could see a marketplace for Nokia widgets open up much like Apple’s App Store.
But the Nokia N97 is not so heavily invested in touch technology as, say, the iPhone: the QWERTY keyboard is a slide-out panel beneath the main body rather than an on-screen virtual keyboard.
The Nokia N97 seems to be a compromise between traditional slider phones and a tentative step into touchscreen waters. To be considered a true competitor to the iPhone I think Nokia is going to have to bite the bullet and invest in enhancing the UI touch input technology further and ditch the hardware keyboard.
Don’t expect to see the Nokia N97 until the end of first quater 2009 and even then it will probably be Europe and Asia first.
Here are the basic specs:
- Size: 117.2 x 55.3 x 15.9 mm* *18.25 mm at camera area
- Weight: Approx. 150 g
- Memory: Up to 48GB (32 GB on-board memory, plus 16GB expansion via microSD memory card slot)
- Display: 3.5 inch TFT with up to 16 million colors nHD 16:9 widescreen (640×360 pixels)
- Talk time: Up to 320 min (3G), 400 min (GSM)
- Standby time: Up to 400 hrs (3G), 430 hrs (GSM)
- Video playback: Up to 4.5 hours (offline mode)
- Music playback: Up to 37 hours (offline mode)
- Image capture: Up to 5 megapixels (2584 x 1938) JPEG/EXIF (16.7 million/24-bit color)
And here’s Nokia’s full press release:
Desktop. Laptop. Pocket: The era of the personal Internet dawns with the Nokia N97
Tilting touch display, QWERTY keyboard and personalized home screen – a true mobile computer.
Barcelona, Spain – Nokia today unveiled the Nokia N97, the world’s most advanced mobile computer, which will transform the way people connect to the Internet and to each other. Designed for the needs of Internet- savvy consumers, the Nokia N97 combines a large 3.5” touch display with a full QWERTY keyboard, providing an ‘always open’ window to favorite social networking sites and Internet destinations. Nokia’s flagship Nseries device introduces leading technology – including multiple sensors, memory, processing power and connection speeds – for people to create a personal Internet and share their ‘social location.’
“From the desktop to the laptop and now to your pocket, the Nokia N97 is the most powerful, multi-sensory mobile computer in existence,” said Jonas Geust, Vice President, heading Nokia Nseries. “Together with the Ovi services announced today, the Nokia N97 mobile computer adjusts to the world around us, helping stay connected to the people and things that matter most. With the Nokia N97, Nseries leads the charge in helping to transform the Internet into your Internet”.
The Nokia N97 introduces the concept of ‘social location’. With integrated A-GPS sensors and an electronic compass, the Nokia N97 mobile computer intuitively understands where it is. The Nokia N97 makes it easy to update social networks automatically with real-time information, giving approved friends the ability to update their ‘status’ and share their ‘social location’ as well as related pictures or videos.
The home screen of the Nokia N97 mobile computer features the people, content and media that matter the most. Friends, social networks and news are available by simply touching the home screen. The 16:9 widescreen display can be fully personalized with frequently updated widgets of favorite web services and social networking sites. The Nokia N97 is also perfectly suited for browsing the web, streaming Flash videos or playing games. Both the physical QWERTY and virtual touch input ensure efficiency in blogging, chatting, posting, sending texts or emailing.
The Nokia N97 supports up to 48 GB of storage, including 32 GB of on-board memory, expandable with a 16 GB microSD card for music, media and more. This is complemented by excellent music capabilities, full support for the Nokia Music Store and continuous playback time of up to 1.5 days. The Nokia N97 also has a 5- Megapixel camera with high-quality Carl Zeiss optics, 16:9 and DVD quality video capture, and support for services like Share on Ovi for immediate sharing over HSDPA and WLAN.
The Nokia N97 is expected to begin shipping in the first half of 2009 at an estimated retail price of EUR 550 before taxes or subsidies.
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Tags: blackberry, flash, iphone, n97, Nokia, qwerty, s60, smartphone, storm, symbian, touchscreen,
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