The Nokia N97, the Finnish company’s much-hyped crown jewel, has finally made its way into Indian stores.
Since the timing of Nokia N97’s launch in India has coincided with the launch of Apple iPhone 3GS and the fact that there's a software upgrade available for the older iPhone 3G (and iPod Touch), it is inevitable that we end up comparing both (we don’t have the iPhone 3GS in India yet). The Nokia N97 is also the first device to ship with the Ovi Store, best described as an online appstore for applications such as games, videos, podcasts, productivity tools, web and location-based services. Similar to Apple’s AppStore, Ovi Store, too, has paid for free content from content providers and developers that offer applications for Facebook, Hi5, Twitter, city maps and documents.
Hardware
The N97 is powered by a 434 MHz processor and 128MB RAM compared to the rumoured 600 MHz processor and 256MB RAM on the iPhone 3GS. If this configuration of the iPhone 3GS stands confirmed, then it clearly sets the N97 a step back. Add to that, the Symbian, the new S60 (5th edition) operating system on N97, looks achingly old-fashioned and sluggish when compared with the older iPhone 3G.Too bad that Nokia decided to go with the resistive touch screen instead of the capacitive one on the iPhone that makes its touch operation unmatched. Though the N97 has some touch gestures and the accelerometer, we have to admit that touch features on the iPhone remain iconic despite all efforts by Nokia and Windows Mobile.
Noticeably, the huge 1,500 mAh Li-Ion battery gives the N97 an advantage over iPhone 3G. Also the built-in 32GB internal memory and the microSD card slot are big positives when compared with iPhone 3G, which has 16GB internal memory.
Design
A slide-out 3.5 inch touch display along with a Qwerty keyboard and a fully customisable home screen makes the Nokia N97 look really elegant. The slide-out keyboard on the phone begins to feel very useful after you have written some emails and text messages on it. It’s not perfect, but it gets your work done faster.
But for average users, Nokia N97 is better positioned as a touch screen N-series device that happens to have a D-pad for gaming and a miniature Qwerty keyboard for ad hoc use .
Multimedia & Other Features
We liked the active home screen on the Nokia N97 as well as the phone’s ability to organise the widgets on it. Not to forget, Nokia widgets are really amazing, making the home screen the most usable page.
The N97 obviously takes a lead with its 5 megapixel camera whereas iPhone 3G sports only a 2 megapixel lens. The two stereo speakers, located along the left edge of N97, are the best set of speakers we have heard on a phone. They clearly put iPhone speakers to shame. Bundled features such as handwriting recognition, Bluetooth file transfers, FM radio and video recording on the N97 clearly put the message out loud and clear — it’s a great multimedia device.
Though scrolling through webpages isn’t as smooth and fluid on the N97 as on the iPhone (which has the Safari browser), yet the pages render quickly.
And...
The Nokia N97 is expected to retail for around Rs 36,119 in India (official prices not yet announced) while the iPhone 3G is sold for about Rs 29,000 (the 8GB model)
PROs
Battery life of up to 7 hours
Hi-end camera and video features
Fantastic home screen widgets and variety of apps from Ovi Store
CONs
QWERTY keypad; navigational buttons need time to get used to
The multi-touch feature seems sluggish
Relatively lower RAM causes slowing down while running with multiple applications
Priyanka... This does seem a pointless comparison...iPhone ought to hv been compared with a HTC Touch HD or similar...
Posted by: priyanka
June 30 , 2009, 13:34 IST
why it OUGHT to be compared with HTC Touch (a slightly older release) we have just compared the most touted touchscreen devices. HTC, in past, we have compared with iphone (sometime last year). Please check our archives
any day i would prefer Iphone. I have seen the home screen of N97 and does not look great as it has a scroll bar on the side... not very professional. the touch screen is ok but not as good as an Iphone.. which uses a totally different techonology... of electomastatics and n97 user pressure sensors. games like termimnaor and assasins creed make the iphone worth buying and many more to come...
The point being Ravi, Nokia does not have an answer to Apple iTunes store. Hundreds of thousands of applications with 1Bn+ downloads!!!! It's hard to match up. All in all, go iPhone :)
You still havent compared the fact that iphone comes with a heavy contract. A contract that will completely offset the initial expenditure and pressure us more on the long run when nokia will surely turn out to be the cheaper option.
This is one of the most sluggish reviews i have ever seen ... QWERTY keypad is listed in cons, I am not sure if they know what Qwerty key pad means.
QWERTY keypad is considered as one feature which is unique and N97 stands ahead of Iphone.. for its Qwerty keypad.
I would appreciate if you can read few reviews from the net and then post the same on your website.
I wish magazines could find someone who better understands the gadget spec sheets than just compare numbers. I hope they have some knowledge about ram usage and that symbian os stands 40% efficient than the apples one. Also that megapixels doesnt matter unless you are going to take a wall size printout and stare it at a cm distance. What matters is how the device handles autofocus, its shutterspeed and does it has a better flash. So please stop publishing amateurish reviews
Posted by: Dev
June 30 , 2009, 13:32 IST
no one is comparing specs here ravi. this is a review for average consumer to see how the Nokia N97 matches up to iphone 3G. autofocus and shutter speed (by the way) are not what average cosnumer asks at shops. he asks if the picture will look good! stop being a cynic
Posted by: aditya
June 29 , 2009, 17:09 IST
both the phones are very costly in comparision of others likr htc.
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