NOKIA N97

NOKIA N97

Nokia have announced the N97, its flagship N-series S60 smartphone. Including both a 3.5-inch 640 x 360 resistive touchscreen with haptic feedback and a full QWERTY keyboard, with a slide-and-tilt mechanism that brings the display up to a 30-degree angle. The S60 OS has been further tweaked to better make use of touch input, bringing it up to version 5, and includes many of the 5800 XpressMusic’s features such as the quick contacts bar and desktop widgets.

Demo video of the Nokia N97
There’s also a 5-megapixel autofocus camera with Carl Zeiss optics and an LED flash, A-GPS with Nokia’s Maps 3.0, and 32GB of integrated storage (with support for microSD cards up to 16GB in addition; not 64GB as mentioned in the launch demo). Connectivity includes WiFi, Bluetooth and HSDPA. There’s also a digital compass and accelerometer for screen rotation, plus a full internet browser that can play YouTube and other online videos. The battery is good for up to 1.5 days of continuous audio playback.

Nokia have also included a dynamically-updating map, using data from Navteq, as well as information uploaded from individual users.

An always-connected social networking window can be placed on the homescreen, giving a permanent view of Facebook, MySpace or another network. There’s also the ability to follow specific people. The N97 will go on sale in Europe and Asia first, in the first half of 2009. It’ll be priced at €550 ($695) unsubsidized. A US release is planned after that, though no specific dates have been given.

Press Release:
"Desktop. Laptop. Pocket: The era of the personal Internet dawns with the Nokia N97
Tilting touch display, QWERTY keyboard and personalized home screen - a true mobile computer.

Barcelona, Spain – Nokia today unveiled the Nokia N97, the world’s most advanced mobile computer, which will transform the way people connect to the Internet and to each other. Designed for the needs of Internet- savvy consumers, the Nokia N97 combines a large 3.5” touch display with a full QWERTY keyboard, providing an ‘always open’ window to favorite social networking sites and Internet destinations. Nokia’s flagship Nseries device introduces leading technology – including multiple sensors, memory, processing power and connection speeds – for people to create a personal Internet and share their ‘social location.’

“From the desktop to the laptop and now to your pocket, the Nokia N97 is the most powerful, multi-sensory mobile computer in existence,” said Jonas Geust, Vice President, heading Nokia Nseries. “Together with the Ovi services announced today, the Nokia N97 mobile computer adjusts to the world around us, helping stay connected to the people and things that matter most. With the Nokia N97, Nseries leads the charge in helping to transform the Internet into your Internet”.

The Nokia N97 introduces the concept of ‘social location’. With integrated A-GPS sensors and an electronic compass, the Nokia N97 mobile computer intuitively understands where it is. The Nokia N97 makes it easy to update social networks automatically with real-time information, giving approved friends the ability to update their ‘status’ and share their ‘social location’ as well as related pictures or videos.

The home screen of the Nokia N97 mobile computer features the people, content and media that matter the most. Friends, social networks and news are available by simply touching the home screen. The 16:9 widescreen display can be fully personalized with frequently updated widgets of favorite web services and social networking sites. The Nokia N97 is also perfectly suited for browsing the web, streaming Flash videos or playing games. Both the physical QWERTY and virtual touch input ensure efficiency in blogging, chatting, posting, sending texts or emailing.

The Nokia N97 supports up to 48 GB of storage, including 32 GB of on-board memory, expandable with a 16 GB microSD card for music, media and more. This is complemented by excellent music capabilities, full support for the Nokia Music Store and continuous playback time of up to 1.5 days. The Nokia N97 also has a 5- Megapixel camera with high-quality Carl Zeiss optics, 16:9 and DVD quality video capture, and support for services like Share on Ovi for immediate sharing over HSDPA and WLAN.

The Nokia N97 is expected to begin shipping in the first half of 2009 at an estimated retail price of EUR 550 before taxes or subsidies.