Nokia N97 Unboxing.

After going through a huge ordeal of waiting for an Amazon preorder to be filled and then waiting for a PayPal e-check to clear, I was finally able to caress my own N97 as if I was Smeagol with his irresistible "precious"!! I had the N97 in the flesh…it was tangible…it was no longer a dream…and it felt oh sooooo good!! The time allotted to me from receipt of the FedEx package to my departure for night school was much too short and didn't even grant me a chance to install the battery! Luckily, I was able to take snapshots with my Canon SD750 digital camera and shoot an unboxing video with my Canon HF100 HD camcorder.

Now that I have gotten the fifth grade euphoria out of the way, I will get to my first impression of this NSeries beauty. Upon first opening of the FedEx seal, I came across the simplicity of a dark grey box imprinted with silver font and embossed with a replica of an open qwerty N97. Once I gained access into the box, I was somewhat taken aback since the device was much smaller than what I anticipated. I thought I clearly understood that the N97 was almost the same size as my E71, but I guess seeing so many close-up shots from online reviews skewed my perception a bit. Holding the phone in my hand did not give me the impression of metallic quality I was accustomed to from a typical ESeries model, yet I could feel that the build was solid nonetheless. The thought of the chrome bordering being nothing more than painted plastic tempted me to judge the N97, but it managed to pull off a striking appearance when paired with the black color. The keys for power, camera shutter, and menu access along with the volume rocker keys also gave a metallic appearance that seemed to complement the black very nicely. I almost found it strange that the spring-loaded hold switch was not of the same coloring as the other keys, but this could have been a for the sake of a uniform appearance. Not one sign of wobble came from the slider when it was closed which caused me to wonder for a couple seconds which way it was to slide open. When the slider did take effect, it did so in a swift manner that was concluded with a most reassuring "click". This gave me the opportunity to look at the qwerty keypad in all of its glory.

Honestly, I was not enthused by the keys as my thumbs pressed each of them. It seemed for a moment that I had to close the slider and reopen it in hopes that what I felt was just a hallucination, but it was not. The N97 qwerty did not feel comfortable whatsoever. Honest truth! I wished that I could feel differently in a matter of minutes as I continued looking over the phone, but I could not. If one didn't know any better, he would almost swear that his fingers were pressing a flat surface with slightly raised bubbles for buttons…the feedback was really that bad! Sadly, I went as far as to conclude that even the horrible rubber keys of the Treo Pro had a better tactile response! When it came to lengthy typing on a mobile, this did not feel like the E71 at all. In addition to the lack of suitable tactile feedback, there was also the extra width to deal with which still was not as bad as the E90 Communicator. The space bar being placed at the right of the layout instead in the center did feel strange at first, but seemed to be nothing that a week or two of adaptation couldn't fix. Despite my initial dislike of the keypad, I figured I had no choice but to give it a try in order to provide a fair evaluation. After all, there were other potential perks to this device that could possibly help me to accept the qwerty in due time.

With my fingertips I noticed that the feel of the back cover was of soft plastic similar to my Palm Treo 750, but they soon noticed something else. Taking the battery door off the back of the N97 seemed like disabling the detonator to a bomb since I was being extremely cautious. Lifting the bottom of a door that began to flex excessively gave me the impression that it was going to snap off, but it didn't. There was a sliding metal tray to hold the SIM card that rested under the area of the camera lens. A port for a microSD card was located to the upper right of this SIM tray. I did have a concern that some inconvenience would come from the card slot being under the battery door, but it could have been worse with it being under the battery itself. Not having to remove the battery to get to the card could ensure that the device at least remain powered on. Placing the battery door onto the device was easy enough since it only involved fitting the clips into their appropriate spots and applying a firm pressing.

The sliding lens cover for the 5 megapixel autofocus camera was indeed a welcomed feature to be reunited with since my past days of owning a N95 model. I guess that having a Carl Zeiss lens should have been a joy, but since I'm not a photographer I always figured it to be nothing more than a name. The primary expectation I was looking forward to testing was the video capture at 30 frames per second. Having a phone that could shoot TV quality video was a sorely missed feature since I had sold my E90 Communicator. Having a dual LED flash was another plus even if it was not xenon. Anything that the N97 couldn't handle would only be an opportunity for my Canon SD750 digital camera.

Seeing the stereo speaker grills evoked a sigh of relief since I realized I could be free from the E71's mono speaker I tolerated for so long. The capability of enjoying multimedia audio in this manner would be further enhanced by the presence of a 3.5mm headphone jack…no more adapters or subpar 2.5mm headsets!

A microUSB port with an LED indicator did deal a bit of a shocker: there was no sign of the old charging port I had seen in EVERY previous device from Nokia! This meant that my car charger and stationed AC adapter charging station were rendered useless unless I could find an adapter! However, I did remember that the N97 could be charged from a USB connection to a computer. Maybe this trade off would not be so bad, but only time would tell.

On the front face I could see the menu key, two touch sensitive keys for call and send commands, a front-facing camera, ambient light sensor, earpiece, proximity sensor, and the main screen. After the onceover I gave to the N97, I honestly had a sense of caution that subdued the excitement felt at the start of the unboxing. Previously reading a number of mixed reviews on this media phone and having to tolerate a slider brought out the skeptic from within, and this was a first for me with any Nokia device. This was Nokia's second attempt with a touch device for a Symbian operating system that had been labeled as potentially antiquated and overly complex, so there was much riding on this endeavor.

Eager to install the battery and turn on the device, I was looking forward to soon tap into what the Symbian S60 5th edition OS had in store for me.  Would this device be able to live up to the hype generated by its parent company? Would this N97 be able to stand up to its competitors with a fluid convergence of solid hardware and new touch software? Would Nokia be able to finally become known in the US for more than just its E71x and countless budget handsets? I had to wait for my chance to finally press that power button and let the magic happen.


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Trentonn Smith
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TRENT SENSE blogger/netcast host
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