Nokia recently revealed the 5800 Tube and we all thought thats the best Nokia could manage against the iPhone! But Nokia took the tech world by surprise when they announced the N97 touchscreen recently. This comes even before 5800 is fully rolled out. N97 design is inspired by the communicator series and the Sony Ericsson Xperia (No we are not saying its copied!).
Instead of a compass box design that we are used to see, this times its a slide up like the TYTN II; with a touch screen on the top. So is the N97 the real iPhone Killer?
In my opinion, Not really (only)!
The charm of the iPhone still is the touch gestures and the whole premium feeling it holds. Wherin Nokia is always meant for the masses (not implying that its not good). And thats what Nokia has done again with the N97. It counters a big list of devices like the Xperia X1, G1 – Android, Blackberry Storm, Samsung Omnia, Windows Mobiles and YES the iPhone 3G aswell.
Though we don’t really know yet how well 5800 did against the iPhone, but its cheap price tag will make it a hit. However the N97 is business class; it competes with the titans. Lets take a quick look at the N97 features (vs the iPhone):
Nokia N97 leads the race with amazing features. A 5MP camera vs the iPhones 2MP; A physical keyboard, 32GB internal memory with additional MicroSDHC option vs the iPhones 16GB max; N97 also dual LED flash, Video recording (16:9 ratio), SMS forwarding, option to Copy / Paste text, replaceable batteries and more.
Having used the Nokia N97 keyboard, I need to say this that – NOKIA has SCREWED up big time. Firstly the keyboard layout is not consistent with its previous E90 and 9000 series communicators, its highly frustrating using the keyboard – and getting used to the same would be a real pain. Add to that the small size of the Qwerty, the space could have been used much better. Though I am not a big fan of onscreen keyboards, but Nokia needed to do better here to beat the iPhone onscreen qwerty.
The Nokia N97 browser supports Flash and video but we are sure the Safari will still provide a better internet experience. Its not just the features that makes a mobile, its more than that. And Apple seems to have got it right. The biggest advantage that Apple has is probably the Mac OS on the iPhone. Its super smooth, fast and user friendly. The touch operation on the iPhone are unmatched; though some touch gestures and accelerometer is also adopted by Nokia. For some reason no matter what Nokia and WM do the touch features on the iPhone remains iconic.
Another mass feature that Nokia fans would love over the iPhone is handwriting recognition. Nokia has included this feature in all its touchscreens. With a ready base of users ready to upgrade from N96, N95 and E90 – the N97 banks heavily on Nokia fans. It beats the iPhone in some common things like deletion of songs from mobile, bluetooth file transfer, memory card addon etc. This would please most of the Nokia audience, who are yet to taste the iPhone’s sweetness.
N97 won’t be a cheap touchscreen like the 5800, it is expected to cost approx US$ 700 (Rs 38000 in India according to us). Also I am sure Apple would have announced atleast something new for the iPhone, by the time we see N97 in the markets.