With the release date of the Nokia N97 coming nearer and nearer, I tried to do the unthinkable – to try and find reasons for not buying this phone, a phone which I consider to be the Lord of all mobiles.
Obviously, it was a tough job. Here I present some reasons that work against the N97 – reasons that potential buyers may look in to before making the decision.
The most important reason is the touchscreen technology in use in the N97. The N97 has a TFT resistive touchscreen. One of the advantages of resistive touch screens is that they respond to either a finger or a stylus. Another advantage is that resistive touchscreens are sealed and not affected by dirt. Despite these advantages, the resisitive touchscreens have some disadvantages like being easily susceptible to damage. The screen display quality and brightness is not as good as in capacitive touchscreen technology as seen on the iPhone. The touchscreen will also not be as responsive as those found on the iPhone (since the iPhone has emerged the top touchscreen phone, am making my comparisons with that phone. Readers be aware that the N97 has so many advantages over the iPhone, but that’s not the topic of this post).
Lets move on. The iPhone has great multi-touch system under its hood. It is so responsive. From my experience in using the Nokia 5800, I really feel that the touchscreen technology in Symbian OS v9.4, Series 60 rel. 5 has some way to go. The technology has been improved in the N97, but still it cannot match the brilliance offered by the iPhone.
Coming to the user interface, Apple has always been known for their user-friendly and intuitive UI. The iPhone has a major selling point in the fact that kids or nannies, anyone finds it easy ot operate the iPhone. The S60 UI from Nokia is no pushover, but it is definitely not as good as the one in the iPhone. The S60 UI requires some level of technical knowledge to use it well. Moreover, the S60 rel. 5 in the N97 is relatively new and the touchscreen UI still has to be improved. It is not intuitive ( like highlighting an option with one touch and touching it again to activate it), but with software updates, this can be improved. The bottom line is, the UI is relatively sluggish and has a learning curve greater than that of the iPhone.
The N97 looks better than many of its N-series siblings, but the iPhone still has the edge. The phone has a “premium” feeling and no one can match Apple when it comes to creating such a “classy” feel out of a phone that doesn’t have features even the S40 variants from Nokia have. The N97 is a “Nokia-ish” phone and it definitely cannot boast of the classy feel that the iPhone has. Nokia phones dont generate the “I want one too” hysterian that Apple products get.
And, um, why not the Nokia 5800? The phone is pretty cheap and at that rate, the 5800 can really face the competition from the iPhone and the N97. The features of the 5800 are comparable to the N97 once you keep the cost high on the priority list. A cheap variant from Nokia is another factor against the N97. And, if you are one of those who look towards photography and want all the megapixels and the best in mobile photography technology from Nokia, there is the Nokia N86, an 8-megapixel cameraphone.
Phew! I think am done and am sweating. There are really some reasons for not buying the “true lord of all mobiles”, after all. But hey, do mind that none of these reasons will stop ME from buying this phone. It has too many great features to be pulled down by these reasons. But, I have always been an S60 user and the N97 is a natural upgrade for me. But if you are one of those who are looking to make a move in to the world of Nokia’s S60, you may very well take a close look at the above reasons.
