Published in Mobiles

Nokia launches N97, a possible iPhone killer

by on02 December 2008

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3.5-inch touch screen, QWERTY keyboard

The N97 might be one of the most exciting devices Nokia has launched in a long time and it seems like Nokia is hell-bent on taking on HTC, Apple, Sony Ericsson, et al. The handset that's just been announced doesn't look anything like earlier leaks have suggested and it's easily the most exciting device Nokia has announced this year.

The design of the N97 might bring your thoughts to the HTC TyTN II as it shares the same slide out keyboard and tiltable display, but the similarities end there. The fascia doesn't look that different from the iPhone, albeit in white and having three buttons instead of a single one.

The specifications are truly awe inspiring, starting off with a 3.5-inch touch screen with 640x360 (16:9) resolution and haptic feedback, a slide out QWERTY keyboard, a 5Megapixel camera with Carl Zeiss optics and dual LED flash, WiFi, Bluetooth, A-GPS, HSDPA, 32GB of built in flash memory, a microSD card slot, FM-radio, FM-transmitter (for sending music from the phone to a radio tuner) and a 3.5mm headphone jack, which doubles up as TV-out socket.

The keyboard doesn't look like the best we've seen, but considering that the N97 measures 117.2x55.3x15.9mm (HxWxD) it's not a bad feat incorporating a keyboard, especially when you consider that the iPhone 3G measures 115.5x62.1x12.3mm (HxWxD), which actually makes the N97 narrower, if somewhat taller and thicker. The N97 weighs 150g which is a bit on the heavy side, although the iPhone 3G comes in at 133g, so again, not a huge difference.

Nokia claims the battery is good for 1.5 days of music playback. The N97 uses the S60 5th edition OS, which is the same as the Nokia 5800, but with some N-series tweaks which adds extra functionality. The N97 also supports various on-screen keyboards and handwriting recognition. It also supports Nokia maps and the new N-Gage platform.

The bad news? Well, Nokia is going to charge €550 plus VAT for the N97 and it won't be out until sometime in the first half of next year, so it seems like Nokia still has some work to do. Despite this, it looks like Nokia has an amazing handset with the N97 if it's as good as it looks on paper.

You can find the press release here and some more details here

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Last modified on 03 December 2008
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