Nokia N97 Cell Phone First Impressions Review - Value & Comparisons

Pricing & Value
The N97 will be priced at €550 (about $690) when it goes on sale in Europe. Nokia's most recent N-series devices have been sold in the U.S. as unlocked phones, not attached to a specific carrier and not requiring a contract at purchase. This offers a level of freedom that is particularly useful for global travelers who like to use SIM cards of carriers local to where they travel, which is usually far cheaper than the international roaming rates of U.S.-based carriers. However, the up-front cost of an unlocked device is usually far more than U.S. consumers are used to since most carriers subsidize the prices of their phones, counting on the income they'll receive from you over the life of the 2-year contract.

U.S. pricing of the N97 is not yet known, but we do expect it will come in at least as expensive as it will be in Europe. This is a pretty penny for a cell phone, but the N97 offers more in the way of storage and features than previous N-series devices, so this is understandable. In this price range, the N97 will not sell like hotcakes and will likely appeal primarily to the cell phone aficionados and tech-heads. Without full specs and testing the N97 to see if it lives up to Nokia's hype, we can't say yet if it will be worth the several hundred dollars required to purchase it. We'll let you know as soon as we get our anxious little hands on one to review.

Comparisons

iPhone 3G - The iPhone 3G has been the target of much competition, and the N97 is another in a long line of devices looking to take away the spot light. On paper, the N97 has the iPhone 3G beat with its 32GB of storage, front-facing camera for video calls, 5-megapixel camera, full physical QWERTY keyboard, video capture capability, and more. We think the key will be the interface - how easy it is to use and sync will make or break it relative to the iPhone 3G. There have been other devices that have beat the iPhone 3G spec-wise, but the iPhone is still the talk of the town because of its interface and the success of its App Store.

Blackberry Storm - The Storm is Blackberrys first touchscreen device and it's got all of the standard Blackberry messaging and organizer power under the hood, but we found its interface to not be quite up to the task to making the Storm a killer device, much less an iPhone killer. However, for those looking for full business-oriented capabilities, including the ability to view and edit Microsoft Office documents natively, the Storm is a reasonable alternative. The N97 is not going to be a business-oriented device, but the Storm is the closest Blackberry offering with which it will compete. On paper, the N97 will likely give it a run for its money.

T-Mobile G1 - The G1 has a similar form factor to the N97 with its large touchscreen and slide-out QWERTY keyboard. As the first phone to the market running Google's Android operating system, it was a highly-anticipated device, and while we think it's a promising start for Android, we found the hardware to be clunky and much to be missing in the way of syncing with common desktop PIM applications (there is none) and basic multimedia features, such as video playback, to be missing. HTC announced another Android device at Mobile World Congress, the HTC Magic, and it's an improvement over the G1 in many ways both hardware and software-wise.

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