New smartphone Nokia N97, Source: Nokia

This month, Nokia started selling its new touch screen device Nokia N97. In Nokia’s online shop the Nokia N97 is available for 649 euros while German operator Vodafone charges customers a regular price of 700 euros without subscription. With a new 24 months contract Vodafone customers pay between 200 and 350 euros for the Nokia N97. That’s quite a lot of money for a new mobile phone – but is it still a good deal?

Having tested the Nokia N97 the past few weeks I have come to the conclusion that the new flagship mobile phone of Nokia offers a great wide variety of features and applications, but almost none of the features represent state of the art. In addition, the Nokia N97 does not have the high-quality build of other smartphones such as the Nokia E72, the battery cover is made of plastics. The resistive touch screen requires a certain degree of pressure and precision and does not support multitouch like the Apple iPhone. And, after all, it takes quite a while to get used to the QWERTZ keyboard design and the small buttons.

What I like about the Nokia N97 is its widget-based home screen that helps you customize your device, offers you direct access to applications as well as online services and gives you information at a glance. There is also plenty of e-mail support – even though the device cannot show html mails – and business apps such as QuickOffice , a file manager, and other PIM tools. And most important: The Nokia N97 is easy to use.

Product Summary:
Operating system: Symbian S60 5th Edition
GSM networks: 850, 900, 1800, 1900 MHz
Data transfer: GPRS, EDGE, UMTS, HSDPA 3.6 mbps, W-LAN
Connectivity: Bluetooth, USB
Display: touch screen, 3.5″, 360 x 480 pixels, 16.7 million colors
Keyboard: QWERTZ
Camera: 2592 x 1944 pixels, autofocus
Storage: 32 GB (+ 16 GB microSD)

Read more about the Nokia N97 at teltarif.de (in German)