Nokia N97 Slide Phone Touchscreen 3G mobile phone handset reviews and tariffs

+ This is my first smartphone and touchscreen phone. I had weighed up the iPhone vs N97 and decided to go with Nokia as I have always had Nokia in the past and have always been impressed. The touchscreen is great (took a little getting used to) and the ability to get e-mail, web, music and video all in one little device is amazing! I am please Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync is functional on this phone as that is the system we use at work for e-mail and calendar syncing. Also impressed with the music player, GPS, video. And since this is a phone afterall, let's not forget the voice side of it. I have great signal reception almost everywhere (including in some well insulated buildings) and the voice clarity and touch sensitive screen are great.

- The downside of this phone is the same complaint with any new phone ... there are bugs still to be worked out and I would recommend people wait until the first revision of this model. There has already been one software update (although I have not noticed much improvement myself). The list of failings below will, I suspect, all be sorted out in the next release of this phone as they are simple fixes.
1. Only able to have ONE Exchange ActiveSync account on the phone at a time. Bad planning, considering most businesses use this system AND Gmail (a very popular personal e-mail provider) now also allows this form of access.
2. Syncing contacts between multiple sources while also using Exchange ActiveSync was a nightmare because every system had its own field codes and I lost several important notes I kept with some of my contacts.
3. Choosing between Contract Internet, Contract WAP and Wireless is MOST frustrating. Part of my frustration with web access on the phone might just be Vodafone and not specific to the N97, but I am forever having to force the switch between these sources of internet to get my phone to access the web. And getting BBC iPlayer to actually play when not using wireless internet access is almost nil!
4. The accelerometer (screen orientation sensing) is pathetic and the screen layout totally screws up every time I turn my phone around (unless I am using the keyboard, and then the screen layout is perfect).
5. Since this is a new phone release, the most important accessory for any touchscreen - the peel on/off screen protector - should have been the first thing Nokia makes available ... but NO. Only generic touchscreen protectors are available from Nokia and third parties and since the face of this phone is unique with buttons, camera and sensor eyes, this is a disappointing oversight on Nokia's part.
6. Not being able to lock the camera slide cover is annoying.

+ stylish phone , easy to use and navigate. had the n95 8gb phone before and this is much better. like the touch pad on front of phone and also the qwerty keyboard accessed by sliding phone up. excellent storage for pics, vids and music

- only bad point (which really isnt one ) is the mirror effect front of phone easily gets fingerprinty

+ I like just about everything on this phone. It looks great, has a great feel about it and is relatively easy to use. I especially love the qwerty keyboard.

- Battery life is atrocious when you have anything open on your phone. Should really provide a car charger or bluetooth with the phone at this price

+ Well featured, stylish phone with a large screen and full qwerty keyboard. Well implemented web browser and generally highly intuititve interface. Build quality seems high all-around, and using the N97 is a most enjoyable experience. I would definately recommend this phone.

- Even after several weeks, I still find the lower right section of the keyboard (space, symbol key, etc) difficult - i tend to press these at once, repeatedly. Some more tactile feedback from the keyboard would be most welcome. Scroll bars can be slightly cumbersome - I repeatedly find myself wishing I could use the volume rocker to scroll. Camera key means that care is needed when placing in an in-car holder - if this key is pressed, the camera application opens, even when the primary lens cover is closed. Speaking of the lens cover - I much preferred the mechanism on the N95, and repeatedly put my thumb on the lens when opening the camera cover.
The method for answering the phone while locked took some getting used to, not helped by sometimes strange behaviour of the unlock key seemingly needing pressed twice - though this has improved (but not gone away entirely?) in the V11 firmware update.

+ The phone looks great and the slide mechanism is solid and feels nicer everytime you open it. The touch screen is responsive and accurate. The camera is easy to use and integrates really well with networking app facebook, which comes pre-loaded. The slide out keypad was the main reason I went for this over the iphone and makes texting, emailing and web browsing so much easier. There are lots of little things that add to the phones charm and innovation, such as a swipe to answer function when the keys are locked. The sat-nav is AWESOME!

- The Ovi store leaves a lot to be desired, I have an ipod touch and the two are poles apart, the app store is smooth, slick and works all the time. The ovi store looks dated, sticks, doesn't work and is poorly put toghether, not to mention the gap in quality of the majority of apps themselves. Battery life isn't great, but there are a lot of draining features. Not to harp on about apple, but the touch syncronises automatically, and is so simple to use my tech illiterate grandmother could put her favourite chopin tracks on the thing. You need a masters degree in all things complex to get your music onto the device - even with the 'easy install' software.

+ The memory size & style

- Everything else !! Not user friendly, the phone lock is unrelaibel, unable to answer calls easily. Overall disappointed but now stuck with it for the duration of my contract :o(

+ Reviewer left no comment

- Awful bugged software even after a firmware update.... poorly tested product in a race with the iPhone but sadly let down by so many bugs and problems.

+ Looks good, fairyly easy to use

- sometimes freezes and needs switching off and back on to kick it back into life!

+ It's a stylish, nice looking and fairly easy to get to grips with

- The battery runs out pretty quickly because of all the applications running at once...

+ I absoultely love the look of the phone and the easy of ease. The features, camera and web browsing are all really good.

- The battery life. I have to charge my phone everyday and I wish the phone came with a memory card.

+ Qwerty keypad is a nice size making messaging alot smoother than a touch screen. The build quality is excellent with the design and feel of the device is worthy of being a flagship product for nokia.

- Lots of bugs to iron out yet. more software updates are needed

+ the software is great, once the firmware updates get rid of the little problems anyway.
looks great, the slide out keyboard is a ncie touch and makes typing in general easier and faster.

- the handsets are generically faulty, the camera's sliding cover scratches the camera lens with every slide.
after a few days the handsets develop a rattle-ing noise.
a good 20% of the handsets have a bad signal.
and my first handset had battery problems, the phone wouldnt last 6 hours with no use, my replacement however is much better, but i will be getting it exchanged soon because the camera is yet again.. ruined.

+ -Full range of features
-QWERTY Keyboard (bit fiddly at first, but I can now do something that is almost touch typing)
-Big Screen
-Wifi
-3G
-BBC iPlayer
-3mm Headphone socket
-Micro USB charger

- -Touch Screen not sensitive enough
-Screen does not auto-rotate smoothly enough
-Screen is not multi touch
-Flash is not great compared to some other recent Nokia's, e.g. 6220 Classic
-User Interface is not as slick as leading smart phones
-Having to decide between surfing the net or watching the telly on the train! ;-)

+ Really sexy looking phone, I was so excited about it. The qwerty kepad is great although the space bar is in a weird place. Comes with a stylus for those of you with fat fingers. Vibrate when you hit the touch pad is really cool.

- Only had it 2 days and a fault kept occuring - I had 8 texts in my inbox but I got an ERROR Memory Full and could only fix it by taking the battery out and putting it back in. Do you really want to do this to a phone that's 2 days old?? There is a slide button at the side of the phone to lock/unlock the keys, 50% of the time you press it to unlock the keys the backlight doesn't come on and you can't see anything so you have to spam the unlock button until the screen lights up. There were a few other small problems with the phone, such as the apps on the home screen freezing. Very annoying and the software update only just came out so I suggest you should check to see if all the bugs are fixed in it before you buy this phone. Huge disappointment because it looks so good and has huge potential.

+ Availability of apps for the phone, through Ovi and otherwise.
nice design, keyboard is good, feels sturdy, the resistive screen is as good as the capacitive.
quite a few built in apps out of the box.

- you need a nokia account for push e-mail to work.
GPS seems to lag a bit, ie i drive past a turn off and the GPS says i havent passed it yet. i have tested this on nokia maps and garmin XT, its hopefully going to be a software fix.