Straight from the Horse's Mouth!

This is what Axel Meyer, Head, Nokia's design team, has to say about the almost perfect mobile computer: the Nokia N97. He clearly mentions how quality was a big parameter, and how the focus was not on Nokia connecting people, which it does nevertheless, but was on People Connecting People. The sharing of applications made by people themselves, the sharing of multimedia, is of course brilliantly facilitated by Ovi as an interface and a platform. The focus also is on 'Your' phone, 'Your' web as he emphasizes. And the widgets are definitely going to go a long way in Nokia's futuristic outlook in the next few years!

Ovi: The Future is Now..!

Ovi is the name for Nokia's "umbrella concept" Internet services. Centered on ovi.com, it will market as "personal dashboard" where users can share photos with friends, buy music and access third-party services like Yahoo's Flickr photo site. It has some significance in that Nokia is moving deeper into the world of Internet services. Check this really amazing video about Ovi and the power that comes with it.

Maps on Ovi: More than Just a Mapping Tool
Maps on Ovi is the first free service that allows people to pre-plan their journey at home on their PC and synchronize with their mobile, giving access to pre-planned routes and favorite destinations while on the move. Over the coming months, Nokia Maps will become a destination for people to save and organize places, pre-plan trips and post-edit them. People can share their location and all their personally and socially meaningful content with friends, inviting them to join in activities. And heres another amusing video about Nokia's vision of 'Maps on Ovi' which almost made me jump of my bed, am sure it will intrigue you as well.

Mail on Ovi and Nokia Messaging: Mobile Email for the Masses
Some 75% of the world's population has not yet used email. Many of these people will have their first email experience will be on a mobile phone, not on a PC. Mail on Ovi, together with Nokia Messaging which mobilizes consumer email and instant messaging on Nokia devices, brings mobile email to everyone and not just for a privileged few. With Mail on Ovi, users will be able to create and access email online portal as well as on their mobile device. Nokia Messaging, on the other hand, will give consumers access to their existing email and instant messaging accounts from Yahoo! Mail® and Yahoo! Messenger®, Windows Live Hotmail, Gmail and Google Talk, and AOL Mail

Features Galore: The beauty in White!

Software:

• Runs S60 5th Edition. However, the N97 will have the Nseries version of S60, which means there will be a number of extra applications including Internet Radio, FM transmitter, Home media (UPnP) and Photos.
• The home screen can be personalized with Internet-aware widgets (based on WRT technology). Examples included in the press photos include weather forecasts, social networking (Facebook, Friendster, My Space) status summaries, and media collections. There are also indicators for time, profiles, email, application shortcuts and so on.
• Text input is via on screen keyboard (full screen QWERTY, pop-up QWERTY and alphanumeric), as is standard on S60 5th Edition, or handwriting recognition or via the QWERTY keyboard.
• Fully compatible with Ovi services including Maps, Music, Share and Games. Nokia Music store can be accessed from the device or from Nokia Music for the PC. Nokia Maps now supports high resolution satellite imagery, 3D buildings (selected buildings) and richer map meta data. Pedestrian route finding and turn by turn, voice guided car navigation, are available as premium services.
• Introduces the social location (So-Lo) concept; the N97 has software that allows you to automatically update and share your location with friends and popular social networks.

Hardware:

• The N97 (117.2 x 55.3 x 15.9 mm) is larger than the 5800 (111 x 51.7 x 15.5 mm). Compared to the iPhone (112 x 56.9 x 12.5 mm) is a little taller, but slightly narrower. Quite impressive given the inclusion of a QWERTY keyboard.
• 3.5 inch, 360 x 640 (nHD) resolution resistive touch TFT screen with 16 million colours. The device can be driven using finger touch or stylus, or from the QWERTY keyboard.
• Haptic feedback for screen touches. This is provided via general vibra feedback, as on the Nokia 5800.
• 5 megapixel camera with Carl Zeiss optics and dual LED flash. The camera is covered by a sliding lens cover similar to that found on the N85 and N79.
• The camera is also used to record videos at VGA at 30 frames per seconds. The usual Share online application is present for uploading images and video to online services such as Flickr and Share on Ovi (available services likely to be expanded before launch).
• Integrated A-GPS and compass sensor (magnetometer) means that the N97 'intuitively knows where it is' and this is used by Nokia Maps, and for social location; also embeds location information into images and video.
• 3.5 mm audio jack (also used for TV-Out) and built in stereo speakers. Music playback time of one and half days (36 hours). There's also an FM radio and FM transmitter.
• MicroUSB jack (USB 2.0 HiSpeed) and supports charging over USB
• 32GB of internal flash memory; microSD card slot with support for SDHC cards upto 16GB in size (giving total potential memory of 48 GB)
• WiFi, 3.5G, quad-band GSM and Bluetooth connectivity
• There is no stylus built into the phone, but one will be included in the box

What Nokia N-97 has and 'The Phone' does not!

So here is what 'The Phone' has:

• Touch Screen
• Accelerometer Sensor for Auto Rotate
• Bluetooth - Headset support only
• 2 MP Camera
• Built in GPS Receiver
• Audio/Video Player

And what is missing?

• Push mail: Push Mail's 'always on' capability is the most important feature of any business phone!
• Video Recording: No multimedia phone is complete without video recording!
• Sharing files using bluetooth: Works with only a few wireless headset and does not permit sharing files and pictures!
• No external memory: Well, am sure you will say you just not need it, so do with the 'limited' space you have!
• Non removable battery: After a year or two, battery capacity reduces, but a change is just not possible!
• No cut, copy, paste: And how do you think you will edit documents?

And there is more:

• Cannot be used as a wireless modem
• No speed dialing
• No SMS forwarding
• No MMS sending

And what does Nokia N97 have? All this, and when I say all this, I mean EACH and EVERY feature I just mentioned, and much more:

• Does not just have a video recorder, but the camera is 5MP, carl zeiss optics, autofocus with flash, plus a secondary videocall camera
• Does not just have external memory compatibility upto 16 GB, but has 32 GB of internal memory too
• And did I mention a QWERTY keyboard other than just the touchscreen
• SMS forwarding, MMS sending, Speed Dialing, and yes, can be used as a wireless modem
• Nokia is known for its batteries, and yes, unlike 'The Phone', they are removable
• And bluetooth is not just for its own headset, but you can share all you want

Need I say more? Or is there even a need to justify or argue which one's better, and why? I guess smartphone users are smart enough to make their own choice! As you can see, I have made mine...

PS: People who had difficulties in identifying 'The Phone' can go bite raw apples, as for them, the grapes are sour!

The Power of Touch

Touch, one of our vital senses. Beethoven played music through his touch, even though he was deaf. Blind can read through touch. Nokia N97 is definitely the perfect phone, with all the features one can dream of in a single device, based on the same vitality: TOUCH!