Nokia on Tuesday launched the N97, the manufacturer's first smartphone to feature both a touchscreen and a slide-out full Qwerty keyboard. After the Nokia 5800, the N97 is the company's second-ever touchscreen mobile phone.
The device, with its 16:9 ratio, tilting widescreen and heavy social-networking slant, is clearly targeted at the high-end consumer market. However, the N97's employment of Symbian Series 60 v.5, along with the physical keyboard and the fact corporate clients such as Mail for Exchange can work on it, should also make it usable in a business context.
With its full keyboard and appearance, the N97 could be seen to be an unofficial, consumerised entry into Nokia's more business-oriented Communicator series — the last iteration of which came out in 2007 in the form of the E90.
As with very recent handsets such as the T-Mobile G1 Android phone, the N97 includes both assisted GPS (A-GPS) and a built-in compass, enabling what Nokia calls "social location". This effectively means social networks can tell where their N97-toting users are and in which direction they are heading. Widgets for social networks such as Facebook and MySpace are built into the handset.
"From the desktop to the laptop and now to your pocket, the Nokia N97 is the most powerful, multi-sensory mobile computer in existence," Jonas Geust, Nokia's vice president for N-series handsets, said in a statement on Tuesday.
Talkback
The N71 is a flip-phone !
This comment headline says it all, and now so does the story headline!
Cheers for that
Interesting that this combines a full functioning touchscreen with Qwerty in a single device. Suggests Nokia believe you need both so suit all users rather than pure Touchscreen (ie. iPhone) or offering two separate devices - 1 with qwerty, 1 with touch (ie. Bold and Storm) - speaking to business users I have found many find touchscreen only devices to be unworkable for sending longer emails, writing docs, etc... - hence why the qwerty remains resolutely popular with business users outside the design / media environment where the iphone seems ubiquitous.
Also interesting that this is spec-ed and priced as a full on mobile computer rather than smartphone (phone must be increasingly a four letter word around Nokia...). This begs another question...
Would business users rather carry a smartphone backed up by a netbook rather than trust an all in one mobile computer?
Well I can definitely say that an all-in-one would not suit me. You end up with a poor compromise. It's not quite powerful enough compared to a laptop/web book and not as compact or have the battery stamina of a more basic phone.
I know have a smartfone full laptop combo which works for me. The smartphone is capable of email and basic web browsing but if I want to do something more serious I'd only get frustrated with a web-book so use a full laptop which enables me to do my designer/development work.
Unfortunately my current smartphone is an iPhone which has become incredibly frustrating to use so as soon as the 18month contract is up I'll be shopping around.