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

+ This phone looks gorgeous and im a sucker for a new gadget. Ive been after a phone that competes with the HTC TOUCH HD that i had before. This phone has it all! The htc i found difficult to navigate at times and didnt have many of the things the nokia n97 has. I love going back to old nokia! The phones touchscreen is briil The camera, photos oh and the painting applicatioon i got is BRILLIANT, keeps my children busy for ages!

- Qwerty keyboard hard to get hang of but it comes but if you dont like using it its very simple to use on screen predictable text as on a normal phone. Do not like screen locking device. It plays up and i find myself touching it three times to get my screen open and bright. Maybe im doing it wrong! Theres not much else to criticise, internet is fast, nokia maps better than before. CANT KNOCK THIS PHONE REALLY.

+ Really nice phone, top camera, loads of memory and solid as a block as you would expect from Nokia. The full qwerty keyboard has a really nice feel, and the touchscreen responds better than the iPhone's when wet which makes it much more useful when listening to music in the gym.

- There is virtually no mac support for this product and the operating system is really buggy. Also, because it is sold with a seriously underclocked cpu it can be really laggy when handling processor-intensive tasks.

+ QWERTY keyboard, app downloads, design

- Far too many software glitches

+ Not a lot good about the product - It looks quite good. It's not an iPhone which is an advantage I guess! Sorry, but finding it hard to be positive about the phone. The camera and music player are 'average' at best.

- Most things - it's fiddily to use and slow. Finding anything is a nightmare. It doesn't switch between WAP points unless you switch it off and on. The Nokia music software supplied is hit and miss. Manual is a waste of time.

+ nice looking phone

- most of the internet applications do not work 80% of the time, things like acu weather bloomberg facebook ap news and others fail to load and make the phone very slow to respond to commands. the applications are the main reason i purchased the phone and I am very upset that they never work how they should.. connection errors and errors downloading are a daily occurance, me and several others are having exactly the same issues

+ a typical 5800 style symbian - it has everything you'd need in a smart phone

- touch screen is VERY immature, you have to press pretty hard and clunkily... the keypad is so difficult to use... the whole OS is pretty slow in comparison to my new HTC.

+ the different ways you can text you can either do the on screen keyboard or the qwerty keyboard. The camera even though it is only a 5megapixel the pictures are always print worthy.

- Reviewer left no comment

+ Plenty of features, stacked with gadgets. TV Advert makes it look brilliant.

- The software to run the features & gadgets is rubbish unfortunately. Front screen widgets barely work, emailing on the phone is horrible compared to my old SE C905, battery life is very variable - the battery meter is wildly inaccurate. Slow to do anything, the key lock button still refuses to unlock properly despite the firmware update.

+ Nokia design following their own original function menu, making it easy to adjust to a new phone as long as you are a previous nokia user of course! Touch screen works well.

- this is the third phone i have had and it looks like there might be a fourth!! Different problems keep arising making me suspect that there may have to be a second generation N97 once these are ironed out!!

+ Great phone- looks good and touch screen makes easy to navigate.
Rotates as you use.
Big screen is great for watching films etc and memory capacity to store a good amount!
Customisable front screen can add contact icons and other menu functions of your choice

- When unlocking keys backlight doesnt come on fully and so cannot see front screen properly! Sometimes have to flick switch 3 times to get front screen lit. Email also not as user friendly as iphone or ipod touch. Can be slow to access and not easy to read.
Same with internet - good once set up but again not as user friendly as iphone

+ I would highly recommend this product because of its sleek design, high usability, quick web browsing (tested against the my friend's new iPhone 3Gs) and because it's not an iPhone, it's not cliched and so understated with a strong sense of quality. Its camera is surprisingly good and the ability to upload to facebook almost immediately after the photo is taken is the easiest photographs have had it since the Polaroid camera. Brilliant.

- Like with most Nokia's the battery life isn't amazing however acceptable. The speaker is also fairly standard and not up to scratch with Nokia's Xpress Music touch screen phone. Considering the n97 is now Nokia's flagship model, you would think the speaker would be the best available to them.

+ Apps. You can do anything you want with this basically. I use mine primarily as a mp3 player and the FM transmitter is a lovely little surprise. I also use an app that lets you use it as a very good ebook reader.
The sat nav is pretty good as well.

- Other sausage finger sufferers like me will have trouble with the keyboard and the touch screen is a bit annoying at time (you have to double tap to open some things but not others)

+ its a very good fone but am not happy with the screen.. despite using the stylus u gave me the screen is already scratched and it looks like an old phone already.

- touch screen scratched already.. not impressed .. looks like an old fone..

+ Lots of features and functionality

- Extremely buggy and unreliable

+ I love the keypad and the ease of use, I havent had a nokia for years but I love this phone

- Only bad point is BATTERY LIFE as the phone is so hi tech and mine is connected to the net all the time battery life is about 28 hours which is not long enough.

+ -The phone itself is nice to use
-The features are plentiful and good
-The touch is very user freindly and accurate
-The phone fits nicely into the hand and the keys are well laid out

- -Battery is limited to about 1 day and a half with mild ussage
-The software still needs some creases ironed out, but is to be expected with the release of new phones

+ Easy to use, fully featured, some good software out there already, excellent maps applicaton, good GPS, all - in - one piece of kit, touch screen though not the new kind like the iPhone is very responsive, is getting better with the software update and future ones that Nokia are releasing.

- QWERTY keyboard takes a little getting used to, oncreen touch keyboard is currently only predictive though rumours are that nokia will add an on screen qwerty in later firmware updates as the product demoed at various phone shows had on screen qwerty. no skype built in as yet though this is also expected to come in later firmwares - nimbuzz software does skype and msn yahoo etc at the moment and its free.

+ all round a good phone

- not happy about ovi program works sometimes and not others not sure if its conflicting with other programs would`nt work when i had n series on my comp

+ looks good

- doesn,t work properly and reacts slowly.my assumption is buy an iphone instead.

+ Qwert hardware keyboard is great. Slider is also very good, firm.

- software is still in its infancy. Camera slider scratches the lens under normal use. If this persists i will be returning the phone.

+ Reviewer left no comment

- Being a previous Blackberry user, the main reasons I bought this phone rather than the iphone were the Qwerty keyboard, and because I was told that the Vodaphone network is better than the O2 (i.e. available in more areas). However, the keyboard button are not raised sufficiently (like the blackberry) to make them easy to use, and I do not find them significantly easier than the touch screen. So, the product is bigger and more fiddly than it needs to be. The reception has not been as good as the network that I was on before (T-mobile). In addition, the phone does not interlink with my mac (like other Nokias) so I cannot synchronise music, photos or contacts. Worst of all is the battery. It seems to be fine (several bars showing) and then within no time at all it has run out completely, apparently with no warning (other than a beep just at the moment it runs out). I am very disappointed, as the phone had rave reviews. All in all, I wish I had bought the iphone.

+ It is easy to use, stylish and when it's working correctly it has pretty much everything you need

- the screen is pretty much destroyed already from scratches and i only use my finger or the stylus provided with the phone. The internet keeps cutting out on the applications if you use the email auto retrieval feature and when it goes back on you keep getting a script error so have to turn the phone off and back on to correct it. So i've just stopped using the auto retrieval feature which i find a pain as it was very handy when it worked.

+ Screen and keyboard

- difficulty of answering incomming calls - screen remains locked and green icon is not responsive - I loose almost al incomming calls

+ looks good, plays music well

- software is awful, keep crashing, locking up, absolute rubbish!!!!

+ everything is good about this phone apart from the battery life

- just battery life

+ great for web surfing fast access to web pages easy to scroll back to previous pages.

- bad reception. Its difficult to unlock the phone when receiving a call.

+ the phone offers excellent all round facilities and is great for everyday use as well as being one of the best technological phones of 2009 definitely a must have

- theres only one and that was the software that came on the phone but nokia offers software update straight away which is fixed any problems from the first and is so easy to update just click in the apps. menu and select software update thats it your done

+ you dont need a laptop/netbook, to surf the net and watch films.it also has full handwriting recognition, fm transmitter for music in the car. and the video playback is awesome, along with the amazing quality video you can record.
was starting to get fed up with disappointments of new phones, being not very good, then this came along. simply the best phone i have ever used in my life, ever.
it does so much, and does it well.

- Reviewer left no comment

+ Good looking, compact, ease of use, and in my opinion better than a blackberry.

- Battery runs out quickly when you are browsing, emailing, etc. But having spoken to friends with blackberry, N97 lasts longer.

+ The nokia n97, looks really nice and I love the keypad and the way it slides out. I think the phone is easy to use and has a simple menu structure.

- I have had 2 n97's my first one started, freezing, not recieving text messages and sometimes when you tried to open something from the menu, it wouldnt open the page for up to 5 minutes at a time, this was all happening when the phone was only a week old. My new n97, has been working fine y I so far, I have had it for 10 days, so hopefully, I won't have anymore trouble with this phone.

+ Usability
Camera
Querty keyboard

- Browser doesn't display full web page - only in sections
Had to apply Software Update to fix locking/light issues
Messaging inbox always says memory full and have to hard reset so loose all settings/contacts!!!!!!
Default app's fail to connect to internet and refresh (Bloomberg/Accuweather...)
Not enough "useful" app's available to download
Battery Life is very very poor

+ Just look good

- A lot ... battery life is max 2 days,the software is VERY SLOW,even after the new upgrade It's still SLOW,the most of application doesn't work correct,the keypad maybe will be suitable for a child but definitely It's not for a old person.

+ The memory - great

- the software s60 v 5 seems way below the usefullness ( application s in particular) Th camera lens scratched after only 1 week

+ It looks fantastic, the screen colours are vibrant, it has huge internal memory and it is very easy to use. It has everything you need on one compact phone. I personally believe it is brilliant and stylish. I can't find no major foughts with it. The battery life is good but always could be better, I don't use the kepad keys on the qwerty keyboard as they are quite small so I use the touch screen, but every person is different I suppose. The camera is also decent. It isn't as heavy as you would think it would be either. It is good for someone who basis most of there life on the run socialising with there phone, because it has everything on the phone that you would need to connect to if you were out and about, i.e weather, email, internet etc.
Overall very neat and stylish, brilliantly finished and the software is amazing.

- None really, battery life could be better I suppose, and I find the lock key at the side of the phone very finicky to use, apart from that thats all really.

+ I love the fact its got a qwerty keyboard, its really easy to text...it also has the option of texting on the touch screen too if you prefer.
The applications are really good too...lots of choice.
The sound quality is brilliant too...get free speakers too.
The internet connection is pretty good...hard to get in the obvious places e.g. on a train haha!
No chance of unlocking itself or connecting to the internet itself.
Camera/photo quality is brilliant for a phone!
The phone is a really top quality phone.
Definately recommended.

- The lock button sometimes takes 2 pushes to unlock.
If you buy music from the music store its protected so you cant use it as a ring tone.
You have to get used to all the applications.
The nokia software didnt install properly on my computer but that could have been a problem with my computer not the software...

+ Great features ease of use and looks great

- NOT MAC COMPATIBLE!!!

+ excellent little phone. I say little, because I cannot fathom how many things were put into such a small package. It's great! The camera is superb, the diary is very simple and easy to use but packed with features, texting is a doddle (although I do keep hitting the "sym" key instead of the space too often for my liking). Surfing the net is good and quick. Emails are easy to download and respond to.

- Battery life. with most of my features switched off, it tends to last a day and half before on the last two bars and needs recharging. If it could last 3 days or more with things like my "get email " function switched on, then I would be happy.

+ vastley improved on the n95.easier to use and a more subtle appearance.The wlan scanning is still a function that work's so well in nokia's with the simplest of ease.

- unfortunatley the battery life is still short but in retrospect with all the phone's function's it is still quite good.

+ the Qwerty keyboard is very good and easy to use, web browing, email and watching videos are also very good with the big screen.

- occasionally the screen takes a few seconds to turn once the phone has been turned, texts can take a little wile to send and the on screen widgets sometimes take a wile to load if at all.

+ stylish and very easy to use, it looks like a phone but acts like a mini laptop
best phone ever

- battery life not that good

+ Caters for every type of user input (keypad/touch screen/stylus). Home screen can be modified to suit your needs. Upgradable with extra applications.

- Not found any so far in 3 weeks.

+ Everthing is good a real business phone

- Battery life, sometimes freezes

+ Looks great!
Once you're acquainted with the new interface and have personalised your settings navigation is good.
Connects to web fast.
Excellent camera and music player!
Main screen widgets very useful, so you can add links to your most used apps.

- When you're used to using a normal keypad to text, it really throws you having to use a qwerty keypad, but hopefully this will, in time become easier.
Sometimes the screen doesn't light up when u activate the keypad.
i have only used the phone for around 7 days as was on holiday and didnt take it with me, so given a bit longer i hope to master fast text on qwerty!

+ for what it does its very small

- you cant protect ur vidoes or photos on privacy
you cant keep certain photos and delete the others
broadband is slow
battery life is poor

+ No longer need to use my laptop. Everything I need for keeping in touch.

- GPS takes too long to find it's location.
Web is great but the phone can't play video from some sites
Needs turning off and back on again every couple of days as web/iplayer/facebook stops working

+ internet is easy to use

- its broke afta 1 month

+ The keyboard is fantastic for texting and email.

- The battery life isnt too great. The initial firware (v10) on the device is a bit laggy and buggy. The recent firmware update (v11) fixed some of this.

+ As novice to this kind of mobile i have found it relitively easy to use

- Still cant work the GPS/map function

+ it is a very good phone all round very easy to use and type messages the internet is quick and the camera takes good photos

- phone keeps turning itself off every now and then when it has full battery and changes your ringtone when it feels like it

+ I like the whole design of the phone, I like being able to change what apps I display on my screen.
There is a wide range of apps and tools to use on this phone. The sliding keypad is a great facility for those who would find it difficult to text using the touch screen Camera and video quality is excellent!

- I sometimes find answering the phone difficult when trying to remove the lock and answer before the phone cuts off.

+ Good camera, easy to use and looks good

- listening to music the sound is not good qulity and takes ages to load.

+ Touch screen is good, basic design is very good, let down by details but I suspect the firmware updates will get rid of most of those eventually. Music player is good, camera good, had an N95 before and in some ways its harder to do things with the N97, things that really should be easier.

- Screen lock is clumsy and inconsistent even with latest firmware update. Bluetooth is awkward and I cannot export my contacts to my car kit. Very difficult in some cases to make apps run smoothly, exploring the phone for files is almost impossible.

+ good all round device

- firmware is unstable

+ i really like this phone it took me a while to get used to it and still am doing, but once you get the hang of it its really good and loads of cool stuff to do on it overall i am happy with the phone

- i really like the phone but i think the battrey life is very short, but id say its understandable as the size of memory and all the stuff it does, overall i would recumend to a friend

+ hsdpa conectivity, internet tethering - althou very easy to be charged aloy of money unless your careful...

- it is quite clunky, and the music player isnt particularly easy to navigate, andit doesnt play.avi's

+ easy to use/web browsing/music/social networks enabled/touch screen/key board/email/wifi

- not good camera just so so/youtube akhh not like iphone/ ovi too confusing/ slow internet i mean very slow but dont know who to blaim voda or this phone.

+ Lovely looking phone. It will take some excellent pictures but remember it's still a phone! Easy to set up and use once you get used to it; hotmail/facebook work easily, all you do is input email & password. Loads of features. GPS works well.

- Although battery does well considering the phones features and spec, it does drain very quickly after 36 hours or so. Apps/email aren't as slick as (I hate to mention it) the iPhone. Bottom line: If you like what this phone can do, your better off with an iPhone. However, it is a VERY, VERY good phone.

+ I was after the most advanced and recent Nokia and that is what I got. It surpasses any Nokia I've had in the past. Any other manufacturors' phones don't quite provide such an easy experience. Anybody can pick up a Nokia and know how to use it within minutes, whereas if you pick up say an Ericsson, it takes days to get your head around. This idea of touch screen just makes the Nokia experience EVEN EASIER. The buttons are big and chunky for people with bigger fingers, yet at the same time not making the display look idiot proof and childish.

- If I turn the phone on and don't touch it for it's standby time, the battery will last a couple of days, however if I use it as I would any other phone for light texting and calling and use some of the features, the phone can be dead within 12 hours!!

+ i am 52,ive always had a nokia upto date mobil,but this 1 is fantastic it does everthing,im so in pressed,

- the battery life is nt that good ,n95 better than n97,well i cant have everthing,and the touch buttons when u make a call,and they ask to put extension in,its so difficult when u dont turn it to the side to use,computor pad,

+ keyboard is very good. screen size. style.

- screen scratches easily. connection not always strong. television picture quality not that good. tips/warnings appear more than once.

+ There are so many good points about this phone. You can personalise almost everything with such ease and the touch screen is very responsive. The slide out qwerty keyboard is surprisingy easy to use, however if you're just looking to fire away a quick text then a touch screen keyboard is also available in a simple click. Web browsing is fantastic as is the various applications available from the nokia ovi store.

- Cant say there are any! Little bit chunky but this is to be expected due to the keyboard and large screen.

+ good design

- slow response from touch screen. poor sound quality during calls. takes long time to load screen to screen. so bad iv went back to my old phone

+ Looks good - stylish desin

- Camera is not very good

+ 32GB Hard drive

- Touch screen, software, applications

+ i think that the phone looks good and has many good features

- the sound is to low when listening to music so you have to put your speakers in it

+ facebook - love it! drawing function its soo much fun, great memory, looks cool, slides well!

- battery life is terrible, is ok if its on stand buy, but if u actually use the functions on it it dies soo quickly, and its doesnt always response which i cant work out why, the unlock the phone button doesnt always work n u have to do it a few times for the screen to light up - strange

+ good for servin the internet..

- volume on music it could b louder

+ Most things I have looked at so far are fantastic. I'm not very good with computerised things so I know there is a lot more this can do.

- Not really found any yet.

+ Lots of memory

- Software is terrible, crashes all the time - I have had 2 N97's and both were terrible.

+ love the key pad/side kick lay out and touch screen ofcourse. battey life is amazing
oh and maps is very good

- dooesnt have a fully operation al light..... but thats about it

+ Well what can i say about this brilliant piece of equipment its a little difficult to get your head round at first but its great most of the features are top notch and wont be beaten for quite some time the memory is huge which is great for holding your tunes or holiday snaps and video's the music player is brilliant this is an all round marvel from nokia

- The only bad point about this phone is the touch screen not that the phone is touch screen but having to touch everything twice to open a feature

+ Storage, camera

- Screen, keyboard very bad

+ Reviewer left no comment

- freezes all the time

+ lots of application, camera quality is superb, classy and rich look

- battery life is not upto the mark , as nokia is known for
also phone jack 2.5mm is nt responding (headphone)

+ its easy to use. i love the slide out keyboard. the big screen is a bonus too, the bigger the better :)

- i had a problem with my first handset when using the touch screen but i got it replaced and all seems fine now.

+ i dont know

- is some bug on phone, but may need wait for new firmware....

+ Its neat and the keyboard is great

- Havent found one yet

+ Its very clear to understand like the touch screen points

- Battery life seems to be poor

+ I love the phone. Everything about it is great apart from the 2 points below.

- Only 2 bad points. No screensaver
No emoticons/smilies on text messages

+ Full qwerty keyboard is great and easy to type with.
Web browsing is great and easy to use!

- battery life a little bit short but still good enough!!!

+ perfect phone no faults

- Reviewer left no comment

+ keypad

- sound quality and screen not good as expected

+ Reviewer left no comment

- the processor is too slow

+ huge memory. large screen, easy menu, very good concept, fantastic camera.

- battery life, shortcuts on the homescreen is misleading as you can not change them, some application do not load such as AP news, Reuters Slideshow, accuweather which renders the concept useless.

+ Technology is excellent - so many features in one device.

- Completely unusuable. Constantly asks pointless questions. Browser has not been properly tested and debugged - even after upgrade to latest firmware. Very unintuitive in use. Wish I had gone for Blackberry.