Couple of weeks with the Nokia N97, and Nokia Maps
Posted 21 Jul 2009 by Akinwale Ariwodola
After months of waiting, patiently, I finally picked up the N97 on the 7th and I have to say it's a lovely device. It's not without its quirks though, but overall it's pretty good stuff. My main grievance initially was with the keyboard, but as most reviews online have already pointed out, you get used to the layout after a while. However, I had a very serious case of user error. I looked all over the keypad for the comma and full stop characters, but I couldn't find it. It just got pointed out to me yesterday. Apparently, I was looking in the wrong place (the blue characters which are access using the character shift key on the right of the keypad). The phone feels very solid to hold and due to its size, it's harder for it to slip through my hands - I have this thing with dropping small phones almost every time.The software is nice, but performance can be a bit of a mess, sometimes, even with the v11.0.021 firmware update which I installed the next day. I've had Nokia Maps crash on me once, and a few other times, the software on the phone becomes generally unresponsive. I suppose this is mostly due to the limited amount of memory available for the apps. I also don't like the transition from portrait to landscape or vice versa. It would've been nice to have a smooth animation similar to how it's done on the iPhone instead of a blank screen. There are also times when the screen backlight doesn't come on when you unlock the screen/keys using the unlock switch in which case I have to press every button I can think of (Ok, I only use the menu button, but still) before it comes back on. In any case, there's nothing software-related that can't be fixed and hopefully Nokia will address these issues with the next firmware update.
I gave Nokia Maps a shot and I was actually impressed that it worked. The N97 I got came with a free 30-day turn-by-turn navigation licence and yes, I can actually use GPS here in Nigeria. The maps aren't very complete, however, but it turns out they're rather adequate. There are a number of streets that are missing for example, a number of places without names (case in point: Festac) and a few similar issues. As stated earlier, I've had the application crash on me twice, and it's also made the phone rather hot when I got stuck in traffic (Orile sucks) this one time. I'm not sure if it's because the GPS signal kept dropping and reconnecting or if it's because I had the application running for too long. Ultimately, Nokia Maps is very neat.
The much hyped Facebook application that comes with the phone is absolute rubbish, as far as I'm concerned. It actually does Facebook-related things quite well, but whenever it experiences an "internal error," it requires you to restart the phone. In this day and age, an application that cannot handle errors gracefully and clean up after itself properly is absolute rubbish, but this is just my opinion.
The default application for reading emails and text messages is rather alright. I did download Nokia Messaging however (as some of the reviews I've come across state that this is better) and it's very good. The only problem I have with it is I am unable to set which connection it should use to sync my email.
Concerning the other usual suspects, video and music playback is nice. Call and sound quality is nice. Overall, the Nokia N97 is a great device which has a small number of annoying software quirks, but software can always be fixed. Let's just hope Nokia do release firmware updates that address the issues. Note that I'm not exactly what you'd call a Nokia fan. I initially gave Nokia a shot by switching to the 5610 XpressMusic from a Motorola L7. I was rather upset that the screen died on me within a few weeks of purchase. One year after I got a free replacement screen thanks to the warranty, it died again (rather convenient considering the warranty period ended a week before)! And then I read that the some of phones in the XpressMusic series are rather low quality devices. Seriously, Nokia?
A few other notes about the desktop software. I had to download the Ovi Suite web installer which had to download about 4 other components to install. Then I had to download Nokia Software Updater to update my phone's firmware. Then I had to download Nokia Maps Updater to update the Nokia Maps application and Nokia Maps Updater to download the files I needed (Nigeria's map data and the English female voice) for navigation. It'd be nice if Nokia could provide a unified package for all these things. Also, dear Nokia, resume support for large (or any size for that matter) downloads isn't hard to implement. Plus it'd be nice if you guys modified your desktop software to make use of native UI elements. Kthx.
The good thing is I haven't had any hardware problems with my N97 so far and the build quality is great. I also don't get why people are complaining are the resistive touchscreen. The screen works fine for me, thanks (and I have used an iPhone). My verdict? If you're considering picking it up, go for it. Firmware updates will fix the software issues, hopefully. Next up: SimpleIRC and my experience so far with publishing to the Ovi Store.
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