Labs Gallery: Nokia N97 Is One Feature-Packed Smartphone

by Jason Brooks

The N97’s input options, which include a touch-sensitive display and a slide-out keyboard.

For good measure, the N97 sports the dynamic duo of a handwriting recognition application and a tiny stylus.

The N97 offered me the option of installing applications and storing data on either the unit’s 128MB of RAM (the C: drive) or its 32GB of flash storage (the E: drive).

The screen-grabbing application I used to create this slideshow only appeared not to detect the N97’s large E: drive. As it turned out, I was able to save my screen shots in the E: drive by choosing “storage card” in the app’s configuration dialog.

I used the N97’s GPS-A radio and built-in mapping software to determine my location and pull up spoken, turn-by-turn driving (orwalking) directions.

The N97’s Flash player didn’t work with the music site Pandora.com, but it did allow me to view our Flash-based slideshows (and advertisements) at eWEEK.com.

I was able to sync mail, contacts, calendar and task items on the N97 with my Exchange mailbox.

Support for multiple application channels, in contrast to Apple’s tightly controlled App Store model, can be a real benefit for the N97, but I’d like to see Nokia do a better job presenting trusted software channels to the user.

The N97 packs several demo or trial applications. I’d prefer if these teaser apps were confined to the Ovi Store, rather than scattered through the unit’s application menus.

The copy of Quickoffice that shipped with the N97 prompted me to purchase a license when I set out to create a document.

I spent some time testing Nokia’s new Ovi application store, but found that the majority of the applications that I ended up installing were not available through that channel.

One the free applications that I did find in the Ovi Store was TweetS60, a Twitter client.

As a phone, the N97 performed well, with easy-to-use controls and good voice quality over the standard earpiece or headset.