 redpepper007 |
Date: Tuesday, 07.09.10, 20:51 | Message # 1 |
"Chuck Testa!"
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Recently, Engadget editors Thomas Ricker and Chris Ziegler received Nokia N97s just days apart from one another. Already established pen pals, the two immediately began to correspond across the Atlantic via carrier pigeon, discussing their very different experiences using Nokia's most powerful smartphone to date. This is a recounting of those letters.
Thomas,
I hope this letter finds you well. I understand that you've received an N97 from Nokia Nederlands recently and was wondering what you thought of it? As luck would have it, I've happened across a unit myself -- the US was the first country to get them, interestingly, which is really big deal for a company accustomed to delivering its best hardware early and often to Europe. I've been flogging it for a few days now, just enough time to form some opinions.
As you might recall, I thought very little of the 5800 XpressMusic, Nokia's first S60 5th Edition device. I've always considered S60 a benchmark for the way non-touch, keypad-equipped smartphones should look, feel, and operate, and I felt that the experience didn't translate well to a full touchscreen at all. Basically, it seemed as though Nokia had done as little work as possible to shoehorn touch support into the platform, and all they'd actually managed to do was deliver a mediocre product and sully the good name of a legendary, time-tested operating system that has served tens (if not hundreds) of millions of people over the years. S60 has been too good for too long to deserve a fate as an also-ran in the iPhone-vs.-everyone battle, and Nokia had no one to blame but itself for trying to put itself in that arena with the wrong phone.
That said, I had high hopes for the N97 when it was announced. I think everyone did, and realistically, it's the device Nokia should've used to introduce the world to S60 5th Edition. It's a showcase phone -- a "hero device," as they say -- whereas the 5800 was marketed from day one as a mass-market play with limited sex appeal. The N97 simultaneously attacks several really important, lucrative market segments: the full touch crowd, the QWERTY people, the amateur photographers, and the unlocked, unbranded enthusiasts, and I'm going to go out on a limb and say that it's the most important smartphone Nokia has ever made (for the record, I would argue that the most important phone Nokia's ever made is probably still the lowly 1100, but I digress).
Anyways, back to the N97: I knew I was dealing with a special phone the moment I saw the box. The understated matte black packaging is a marked departure from the bright white and orange schemes of recent Nokias -- an homage to HTC or Apple, possibly -- and while it's a little larger and more lavish than the company's recent eco-friendly push would allow, I'm cutting them some slack with this one. After all, it's not like we're going to be throwing this awesome stuff away and clogging a landfill, right?
 The first thing that caught my eye upon opening the box wasn't actually the phone, but the curious little tethered stick stowed next to it. "Is that some sort of useless, souvenir novelty pen? A charm, maybe?" I asked myself. Thomas, friend, imagine my surprise when I realized it was a stylus! I thought these were going the way of the dodo and pink Lacoste polos, but I should've known better -- the 5800 comes supplied with an equally (if not more) odd pointing tool in the form of a translucent guitar pick, and like the 5800, the N97 uses a resistive display that can detect a stylus tip.
Of course, just because it can detect a stylus doesn't mean Nokia should expect you to use one, especially now that capacitive displays, finger-friendly UIs, and one-handed operation (even among non-touch smartphones) are becoming the norm. I found that the 5800's 3.2-inch display made certain S60 visual elements too small to reliably and accurately press without the aid of the plectrum or an equivalent tool, and the thick plastic lip around the edge certainly wasn't helping matters. Happily, the N97 is better in every respect here: it may have been my imagination, but it felt like bumping the screen to 3.5 inches makes a world of difference in usability, and the lip -- while still present -- is much less prominent. The screen also seemed slightly more sensitive, requiring fewer uncomfortably hard presses and uses of the fingernail to get my point across. Don't get me wrong, I'd still prefer capacitive -- but barring that, I think this is about as good of an experience as you can get running S60 5th Edition on a resistive display.
But I'm getting ahead of myself -- it's the hardware I really want to talk about first. Somewhere around the launch of the N81 -- the last time Nokia made a major shift in design direction -- build quality seemed to improve immensely. Don't get me wrong, the N95 is a legendary phone in many ways, but no one will accuse it of being built like a tank, if you know what I mean; it wasn't out of the ordinary for the slide to be creaking the moment you pulled it out of the sealed box and turned it on for the first time. I've found that the N97 is as solid a phone as Nokia has ever built, especially considering the somewhat complex tilt-slide mechanism that reveals the keyboard and moves the screen up at a 30-degree grade -- perfect for watching video or using the music player with the phone sitting on your desk, and probably more practical than the kickstand employed by phones like the N86 and N96.
Needless to say, the attention to detail on this phone's construction was not lost on me. The keyboard -- a major concern for everyone prior to launch with the left-aligned directional pad and right-aligned spacebar -- turns out to be a joy to use in practice, with plenty of tactile response, and I found that it really took me no time at all to get fast on it. In fact, it's as good of a landscape QWERTY keyboard as I've ever used on a phone. Some will complain that the numeric keys would be better served in a traditional keypad pattern instead of being lined across the top row, but once you get past that, you're good to go.
Along the left side, as you've probably noticed, you find speakers at both corners -- it doesn't seem like optimal placement when you're holding the phone in a portrait orientation, but then again, you're less likely to care about stereo output when you're holding it that way. The speakers are actually designed to shine when you've got the phone sitting on a table with the screen tilted, so that the sound's being projected straight at you and the stereo separation is as good as it could possibly be considering the phone's dimensions. Though plenty loud, I thought they were a little tinny; sure, you can't expect any speakers this small to deliver world-class sound, but a number of recent multimedia-centric phones have delivered a surprisingly passable boombox-style experience, and you're really not going to get that here.
You've also got a standard micro USB port for charging and PC connectivity on the left edge of the N97 along with a spring-loaded slide for unlocking the phone. Sure, it doesn't have the gee-whiz factor of Android's pattern unlock or the ubiquity of the iPhone's on-screen slide, but it's every bit as effective and easy to use. One thing that I was surprised not to find anywhere on the phone was Nokia's nearly universal 2mm charging jack -- it seems these guys finally giving in and relying completely on micro USB for power going forward. I don't know about you, Thomas, but I've got a pile about yea high of wall chargers and USB-to-2mm adapters that are going to need a good home now!
The top of the phone gets the standard Nokia power button that you can use to change profiles (though on the N97, this functionality isn't as necessary as it was on Nokias of yore since you can also change profiles from a widget conveniently placed on the home screen). The 3.5mm headphone jack is dead center, which is where I personally like it to be -- I'll never forgive Nokia for putting the N95's jack on the side, which made it much more difficult to drop the phone in a pocket and listen to music. Moving around to the right, even the volume rocker and two-position camera shutter release have a particularly high-quality look and feel.
 Around back, I was delighted to see that there's a legitimate lens cover to protect those precious Carl Zeiss optics. Sure, it's manually operated, but the slide mechanism feels smooth and robust, it's easy to operate, and more importantly, the software can detect when you've opened it, so the camera app launches automatically. A xenon flash would've been nice, but at least Nokia threw in a pair of LEDs to help light the scene. Though it lacks the rubbery feel of a soft touch plastic, the matte battery cover still manages to look and feel like it's made out of quality material, and the curved ridge at the bottom perfectly matches the camera's bulge so that the phone lies flat on a table. Physically, everything just comes together on this phone.
I haven't gotten into software, but I think I've said my piece for the moment -- this is shaping up to be a great phone. Do you agree?
Warm regards,
Chris
Christopher,
A letter from you calls up recollections very dear to my mind. It carries me back to the times when, beset with difficulties and dangers, we were fellow laborers in the same cause, struggling for what is most valuable to man: his right to an elegant smartphone. Having left the combination of HTC and Windows Mobile 6.x for the relative greenfields of Apple's iPhone, I find myself using said device and a dozen or so "Apps" in ways that the Good Creator intended: consuming digital content, gaming, maintaining my social network, responding to SMS and email communiqué, and of course making the occasional call; all accomplished with nothing more than a few exquisite swipes and playful gestures applied to the iPhone's capacitive glass touchscreen. I shall miss such a display on the N97 but my hopes are bolstered by the enhanced sensitivity you've seen. But hear me this, my good man -- I shall never again be lured in by such deception as highly-speced HTC hardware dressed up with sleek industrial design and a TouchFlo UI disguise. In the end, when things get serious, it's just me, WinMo, and that ridiculous stylus after the party-dress falls off. Reminds me of that cousin of yours that I "dated" Chris, what's her name again? What I mean to say is this: I demand good hardware and good software in my smartphone and will settle for nothing less.
Although I've never used a S60 device as a primary phone, I can only say that I have high hopes for this N97 now charging comfortably upon my bureau. Having left the US for a taste of Europe's vastly superior handsets and GSM coverage back in 1997, I fondly remember my first Nokia, a 6110 Ultra, a device that made US cellphones appear infantile by comparison. The iridescent finish was beautiful and the UI intuitive even for first time cellphone mobile (pronounced mo-Biyl) phone owners. So as I look at this N97, this flagship device, this "hero" as you say, I too admit to being taken aback by its industrial design. From the proud listing of its glorious specs across the hinge to the satisfying snap of the display sliding to a tilt above the QWERTY keyboard -- grace, pure grace. But it's the action of closing the device where the brilliant precision is felt and most definitely heard -- a sharp clap that mimics the sound of strength brought together in a single beat of passionate applause. I do declare that Nokia has crafted a superior industrial device. A tactile opposite to the cold simplistic design that infects the me-too hoard of touchscreen slates flooding the market.
Your review of the 5800 XpressMusic aside, I remain optimistic about S60 5th, perhaps dangerously so. I refuse to believe that Nokia, the world's leading handset maker is unable to respond to the iPhone -- two years after its introduction -- with a device that not only matches it in terms of usability but easily surpasses it given Nokia's rich history as an innovator in the mobile space. Besides, with Nokia's marketshare dwindling and smartphones now eclipsing ultra-portable laptops and even netbooks as the must-have mobile computing device, well, Nokia's in no position to rest on its laurels is it? Particularly now that Palm is back and getting ready to launch WebOS devices onto the global stage and particularly Europe, Nokia's own backyard. Besides, I see the 5800 as Nokia's beta device, a chance to work out of the kinks ahead of the N97. Still, I too worry about the inclusion of this little pointy stick that shipped with my euro N97. A "plectrum" I think you called it? That's a joke, right?
In short, I share your enthusiasm for the N97 after admiring the hardware. I look forward to your thoughtful, and expert response as editor for Engadget Mobile. Too bad you couldn't find employment with Engadget, shame about the llama, I assume the stains came out?
Nights of rest to you and days of tranquility are the wishes I tender you with my affect respects.
Sir Thomas, Esq.
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