The Phones Show: Episode 82 – Nokia N97 video review/how the N97 could have been improved

Steve Litchfield of AllAboutSymbian has recently published Episode 82 of the ever popular , “The Phones Show”

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pm0VVEI0P04]

Topics covered:

• iPhone 3Gs announced
• Nokia Ovi Store – better than “downloads” app but still has a long way to go
• S.E. Xperia 1 – new firmware
• Opera Mobile Update – v9.7 – uses turbo which boosts rendering speed as much as 25%
• Most of the video though is about the Nokia N97 review

In the Video review of the Nokia N97, There’s an overall sense of disappointment which I somewhat agree with. Whilst being a great handset, the N97 could have been the ultimate smartphone (at least hardware wise) had Nokia put more effort. i.e.

How the N97 could have been improved

• If you’re going to add a camera – give it xenon flash (maybe bump up the MP)
• if you’re going to add a keyboard, give us an excellent configuration with minimal compromise (don’t cram into three rows where numbers share the top letter row)
• If the d-pad is for N-gage gaming, give us dedicated graphics processor with more RAM to actually play decent games (maybe even bump up the processor)
• If you’re gonna want us to multi task, give us more RAM
• If you’re gonna add a touch screen; optimise it for finger use and give us capacitive display – the whole glove issue/handwriting advantage with stylus is outweighed tenfold by the advantage of having a slick, super sensitive, super responsive touch screen (than can also potentially support real multi touch)
• [The UI itself requires a completely new post for discussion – as well as a general overhaul]

But such additions would have come at a price; probably a price too steep given the N97’s intended longevity (or lack of) and mass market target.

Nseries (and Nokia in general) have a  habbit of announcing a successor only months after the release of the predecessor. In the UK, the N97 will end up on 18/24 month contracts, which means through the contract route, customers will most definitely meet several N97 successors but (being trapped in the contract) will not get the chance to upgrade.

In this “current economic climate” where contracts are 2 years long, phones should also have a longevity of about 2 years – which the N97 could have achieved, had it actually received the aformentioned suggested changes.

But as long as Nokia want users to regularly upgrade, that’s not going to happen any time soon. Furthermore, with Nokia’s continued strategy of appealing to wide variety of markets, they inevitably lose the focus to create one amazing phone; instead diluting resources and making several “nearly there” killer smartphones.

The N97 is essentially one of the best “Jack of All Trades…” smartphones, giving you pretty good performance in every feature it has, but as the phrase continues, “… master of none”, being trumped by other handsets (HTC Touch Pro2 – better keyboard/Satio – better camera/i8910 – more RAM and faster processor and capacitive display)

via 3lib

Tags: 5th Edition, Apple 3GS, Episode 82, N97, Nokia, Nokia N97, OVI, S60, Symbian, The Phones Show, Touch

Category: 5th Edition, Nokia, Nseries, S60, Symbian, Video