Criteria
Comments
Rating
- Reception and call quality Reception is superb, but the earpiece is very weak and it's hard to hear it in noisy environments.
- Display nHD is a pretty good resolution and it looks pretty good in terms of colour and contrast
- Battery life The battery barely lasts a day on average smart-phone use.
- Camera No comments
- Ease of use The interface is great and offers lots of features that didn't hit the iPhone wtill iOS 4.0.
- Design and form factor The keyboard and lens cover are great. Plus, the hinge makes it super easy to watch video or browse with the phone on a desk.
- Portability (size / weight) A bulky and heavy device. Not very comfortable in your pocket.
- Media support Out of the box it supports most of the codecs you might need. But if you want more, there are lot's of players you can download. Plus, there's flash.
- Durability The device fell a few times and the important bits stayed secured well. However, the metal ring around the display detaches easily.
- Ecosystem (apps, accessories, etc.) There's a lot of great apps for Symbian and there's nothing yo can't get.
Detailed review
As my first touch phone, the N97 was quite a big leap for me. I bought the device when it first came out here back in August 2009, and in the beginning it was quite a raw device, with no kinetic scrolling and virtually no free ROM. After two quick Firmware updates though, it became a great deal faster and functioned much better.
The OS itself is a bit different to most touch systems, because it attempts to take a non touch interface and implement touch on it and the result is inconsistent. But as a jump from a non touch to a touch Symbian device, for me, the transition was seamless and smooth, as the menu system remained much the same.
I could go on forever about the fun times I had these past two years, but I would just like to point out some important features and problems:
32GB of internal storage seem endless, plus there's a micro SD slot.
The camera is a little noisy, but produces great results and good VGA video.
The sound quality is phenomenal (it was my primary music player for 2 years).
Installing and managing installed software is super easy with the app manager.
The keyboard is just excellent, well spaced and with a nice rubbery feel to it.
The browser is simple, but it works and even plays flash.
Battery life is way to short.
Despite having the most internal memory any phone has ever had, the system partition was too small and fills up very quickly, which slows down the device.
The plastic screen is much less durable than glass.
The earpiece is very week and hard to hear.
Most after-market headsets don't work with this device.
You need to install an app store update way too often.
Well, those are the important points for me, but no matter what, I will always be fond of this device and I enjoyed using it for two years.
The OS itself is a bit different to most touch systems, because it attempts to take a non touch interface and implement touch on it and the result is inconsistent. But as a jump from a non touch to a touch Symbian device, for me, the transition was seamless and smooth, as the menu system remained much the same.
I could go on forever about the fun times I had these past two years, but I would just like to point out some important features and problems:
32GB of internal storage seem endless, plus there's a micro SD slot.
The camera is a little noisy, but produces great results and good VGA video.
The sound quality is phenomenal (it was my primary music player for 2 years).
Installing and managing installed software is super easy with the app manager.
The keyboard is just excellent, well spaced and with a nice rubbery feel to it.
The browser is simple, but it works and even plays flash.
Battery life is way to short.
Despite having the most internal memory any phone has ever had, the system partition was too small and fills up very quickly, which slows down the device.
The plastic screen is much less durable than glass.
The earpiece is very week and hard to hear.
Most after-market headsets don't work with this device.
You need to install an app store update way too often.
Well, those are the important points for me, but no matter what, I will always be fond of this device and I enjoyed using it for two years.
good review!
0 people find this review helpful