Lets start with the history of my nokia smart phones. It started 4 years ago when the choice was symbian or windows mobile. I opted for the symbian 3230, a phone crippled by network butchering. This was a lesson learnt and I vowed never to get another nokia phone after no support from nokia or the network with regard to the bugs created by network added software, but after doing the unmentionable to fix the problems, it turned out to be quite a good introduction to smartphone applications. A couple of years later, Nokia announced the N95 with revolutionary features that offered me everything and more from a smart phone, this phone changed my view of nokia, I became quite a fan of S60 and recommended it to everyone. 2 years on and I still like the phone.
This brings us to the n97, since the n95 a lot has changed in the world of smart phones, apple showed the world what can be done with an operating system and educating its users with the possibilities of adding applications and Google is hot on apples heals with Android.
Nokia have had 2 years to study how the competition is taking some of its share in the smartphone market and the device Nokia choose to fight back with is the N97.
So onto the review. First I backed up my n95 expecting the transfer everything to the N97 via the memory card but after inserting the card, I couldn't figure out how to do this, so I tried the switch option in the n95, I selected transfer everything. Only half the contents transferred and no contacts! The only way I could get this to work was to do one thing at a time! Not the seamless start I was hoping for! Next came connecting to the net. This seemed a bit better than with the n95 but after clicking on the boingo application I found the network settings had a new access point that was locked into the number one default, it seems the only way to remove this is to factory reset the handset! I don't want to use the app but i'm prevented from removing it? During the set up, I was prompted to download a new email app, so I did, only to find the homescreen email widget defaulted to the dated pre installed client, it took me 13 days before I found out how to get the new email client onto the homescreen widget. The widgets themselves I really like and the option to add 4 top friends to a widget it great, you can simply call or text with just a couple of clicks.
The major selling points for me with this phone is the compass and fm transmitter, firstly the compass is great for navigating on foot, but there's a big problem here, the handset needs to be swung round in a figure of eight direction to calibrate the compass! What better way to highlight the fact you're carrying an expensive handset worth stealing! The fm transmitter was also a let down for me. My car aerial is positioned on the back of my car and no matter what frequency I chose, I couldn't get a decent sound. Maybe it'll work well with the the aerial at the front of the car?
The web browsing is a lot better with th N97 over the N95, I like the way its possible to flick up and down a page and see it scroll by, this works well in facebook too (accessible from a homescreen widget with live feeds). One of the inconsistencies with the N97 is although it features the ability to scroll through pages in this manor is it doesn't work the same way for everything and a lot of the older parts of the UI require the need to drag the scroll bar up and down on the right of the screen. Another inconsistency is the single click double click issue! After 2 weeks I still didn't get my head round what I was supposed to be double clicking on or if it was just the touch screen that didn't react to my first click!
After a couple of days of using the phone, nokia released its first over the air firmware update and I have to say I was impressed with this, it all went well and it restored all my data without a problem. The whole process was a lot faster than updating my N95 via the pc.
What I found odd was the fact the new ovi maps 3 wasn't included in this update as it came out a day or two later? This lead to another problem, I drove to wales for the weekend and on setting off I searched for the postcode but at every turning the voice wanted me to turn round. On stopping, I discovered my starting location was the first destination in the list! Not the most straight forward experience getting the new ovi maps to work!
Usb charging, sounds great! As I have a usb car charger, I didn't bother taking the mains charger away for the weekend but not long after setting off, I noticed the charge light was off, after an hour and a half I checked the battery level and it was fully charged which was a relief as I know how the gps kills the battery in my n95. But an hour later the battery died! My N95 does this, showing a full battery then dyeing without the indicator droping one bar! On ariving at the B&B, the owner was on her laptop and luckely she let me plug in for an hour or so. But nothing! I later discovered that usb charging from a pc/laptop doesn't work if the battery it totally flat! Aaahhhhhh.
VoIP, Nokia seemed to of only included the sip profile in this phone with no option to make a internet call. On emailing nokia care I was given nonsense instructions as if they hadn't actually read my email, I replied and heard nothing, I emailed again and still nothing!
The full qwerty is quite good and the space bar being off to one side didn't bother me. Using the touch screen for typing was a better experience than I imagined, but having said that, switching back to my N95 proved just how fast I can text on 9 keys and the full qwerty was of no real advantage to me.
Now if I had purchased this handset myself, i'd of spent more time configuring everything just as I like it, no matter how long this took, I don't mind putting in a bit of effort to learn and make things work as they should but I guess only having 2 weeks to get the most out of the phone made me use it more like a non tech savvy user. Once the everyday user finds something not to work right, then that'll be the last time they'll try and use it. First impressions are what counts, if its not easy to use, the general user isn't going to use it. This leads on to who nokia is marketing this handset at? Symbian fans will adjust to the quirks and love what it offers but I cannot imaging anyone new to smart phones will share in the same love shown by iphone users for its simplicity. I recently emailed a friend of mine to ask how she's getting on with her 5800, she's had at least 3 symbian phones to my knowledge so its fare to expect she likes them and knows how to get the most out of them? So the questions were:
1: how easy is it to add applications?
Never tried..
2: have you used the nokia Ovi store?
what's that?
3: how do you get on with nokia maps? have you used the voice guidance?
maps not great, not enough detail, does it do voice guidance, didnt know that.
4: is transferring music easy? do you use the supplied pc software?
not done any yet.
I feel this is typical of most nokia users, Nokia used symbian for the first time 8 years ago yet the public seem to think installing apps is something apple invented 2 years ago? I feel nokia has done a really poor job of promoting just how much their phones can do and this is being hampered by buggy software and a confusing UI? This is changing but is it too little too late? When I look back to my first smart phone and think how much has changed, well, its not really that much. Improved features but still the same frustration trying to get things set up!
It reminds me of the days when Sega ruled the videogames world, they seemed unstoppable until the big boys arived in the form of Sony with its playstation. Where is Sega now? Reduced to a software developer! But nokia don't just have apple to deal with, there's Google intent on making a big dent in Nokia's smartphone market.
My final problem is with the N97's camera lens cover, but that's a whole new discussion of its own!
Nokia lumia 800(3 UK payg)
Support
