Todays & Tomorrows Technology

Specs

Form the Nokia NSeries comes the Nokia N97. It is equipped with a 434MHz processor, and a 128MB RAM

Keyboard

The N97 is fitted with a horizontal hardware keyboard that is quite easy to use. However, the top row of buttons is a bit too close to screen which, unfortunately, cannot be adjusted.

Its keys are too flat to type comfortably, and the layout can be a bit disorienting, with the spacebar shoved down to the lower-right corner. Overall though, the N97's keyboard is better than other Smartphones with hardware keyboards.

Home screen

The N97's home screen features widgets that update you (in real time) right on your home screen so you won't have to open another app to retrieve them. The N97 features Facebook, MySpace, your personal e-mail, music player, favorite contacts, and date and time widgets. However, most aficionados agree that the Accuweather widget is the best. It utilizes the N97's built-in Assisted GPS and automatically updates the temperature on your home screen when you travel.

Multitasking

The N97 allows you to manage your open apps by pressing Options in the lower-left corner and selecting Show Open Apps, but doesn't have a notification system. Although some info such as your Facebook account, does get updated in real time via the widgets.

Over at our sibling site PhoneMag they’ve posted the full Nokia N97 review, and if you’ve been as eagerly-anticipating this smartphone as we have then you really need to read it. On paper, the N97 ticks just about every box you could hope for, but when it comes to usability and overall polish it seems that Nokia may have dropped the ball.

The QWERTY keyboard earns much of the N97 dismay, with poor tactile feedback, shallow travel and a frustrating layout, but S60 5th Edition, despite Nokia’s work to integrate touch-control, must share the blame. Compared to rival devices, it seems a lazy implementation, while the resistive touchscreen feels like old technology compared to the iPhone 3GS, Palm Pre or BlackBerry Storm.

There are positive points, including strong multimedia performance (though ugly, basic apps), the homescreen widgets and plenty of onboard storage, but the overall feeling is that the N97 simply arrived too late to capitalize on its potential.

We’ve been singularly cellularly obsessed here at SlashGear over the past seven days, and it’ll come as no surprise that the run-up to the iPhone 3G S has occupied much of our attention. The new Apple smartphone may not look much different to its predecessor, but if our hands-on first impressions are anything to go by, Cupertino have done their best to make the user-experience as polished as the casing. Still, it’s not just shiny Apple hardware that’s caught our eye this week; Novatel Wireless’ GSM MiFi 2352 piqued our interest when we talked to the company themselves on Monday, and then proceeded to impress us considerably in our full review.

Elsewhere, Nokia’s long-awaited N97 finally reached North American customers’ hands, ours included, and you can find our unboxing and first-impressions here. It’s a decent smartphone, and understandably the flagship of Nokia’s line, but can it hold up in the face of iPhone’s upgraded OS 3.0 software? We’ll have our full review this coming week.

If it’s a QWERTY keyboard you’re after, but you prefer your phones berry-flavored, then the news that both Verizon and Sprint would be offering the BlackBerry Tour 9630 in the near future will probably come as some relief. 3G, GPS, for all the specs check out the official RIM video. Finally, Samsung took the wraps off of the Omnia Pro B7610, complete with a glorious OLED touchscreen display and slide out ‘board.

It’s not all been smartphones, though. SlashGear sat in front of a small screen, in the shape of Fujitsu-Siemen’s Amilo Mini Ui 3520 netbook, and a big screen (albeit a virtual one) with the Q-London 3D 80″ Video Eyewear. Oh, and in the name of extreme destruction, we watched Lenovo’s ThinkPad T400s go head to head with a 26,000lb DOW truck. If you want to see whether a slender ultraportable notebook can cope with getting comfortable between rubber and gravel, check out the video.

Finally, Microsoft confirmed that the Zune HD PMP will use NVIDIA’s Tegra chipset, making us even more keen to see what this potential-iPod-killer (yes, we know, a cliché if ever there was one) brings to the table. And for your high-definition home entertainment, PopcornHour delivered their C200 Blu-ray ready media-streamer. If you’ve ever looked at your media collection and wished there was a set-top box that could handle it all without breaking a sweat, this is the gadget for you.

Chalk this one up under the “big rumor” heading for the moment, but a moderator at the Vodafone View forums has claimed that the carrier will be releasing a “Nokia N97 Mini” in Ireland later this year. The phone is described as “competitively” priced, which the moderator suggests will “appeal to a wider segment of customers”; as such, the Nokia N97 will not be launched in Ireland.

No other details regarding the “N97 Mini” have been disclosed, but if authentic it is presumably a simpler version of the N97 which has just launched in the US. You can see our video unboxing and hands-on gallery of the Nokia N97 here.

The moderator goes on to confirm that Vodafone Ireland will not be be offering the Palm Pre, due to another carrier having exclusivity. It’s unstated, but previous rumors have tipped rival O2 as clinching the Pre. Finally, it’s confirmed that the BlackBerry Storm 2 is coming to Vodafone Ireland as well, though there’s no word on exactly when that might happen.

You wait for a high-end Nokia phone and two come along at once. Nokia’s N97 has been a long time in coming, but the North America version of the touchscreen QWERTY smartphone should be reaching buyers today; at the same time, the company has announced that their N86 8MP cameraphone, unveiled back at Mobile World Congress, is also now shipping globally.


Pricing for the N86 8MP is yet to be confirmed; it’s not even up for preorder on Nokia’s webstore at time of writing. As for the N97, that’s listed for $699 unlocked and contract-free.

For hands-on video with the Nokia N86 8MP, check out our demo video here; there’s also a full live gallery here. As for the Nokia N97, head over to our demo video here.