Nokia N97 (silver, unlocked)

Pros: Form Factor, 32G of onboard memory, Multi-Media feature (excellent video playback, music functionality), radio, S60 community, fully-loaded with Joiku-Spot, Bloomberg, Qik and other productivity apps, beautiful large screen.

Cons: Space bar off to the right, symbol shift key to the far right, not enough tactile feedback when typing

Summary: I went to the Nokia flagship store in New York City six days ago, and picked myself up a N97 for $699. With tax it was over $750, so this phone wasn't cheap. I am a a Nokia fanboy, and heavily involved in the S60 user community here in NYC, so my purchase was motivated by wanting to own Nokia's latest and greatest flagship phone. There's an incredible amount of buzz in the blogosphere about this phone, and Nokia through WOM World is promoting the N97 big time. I also attended the N97 Launch party in NYC, so I felt I should commit by giving this phone a shot. The phone looks great. At first I was set on buying a black N97, but I walked out of the store with a white N97. The salesman told me I made a right choice, and showed me his white N97. In fact, most of the sales associates @ the Nokia store opted for the white model. Interestingly, I was at the store on launch day, and all they had were the black models, but it seems the white models are selling better.

First impressions..the phone is a looker. It looks very sexy, and is one of those phones that will get you looks in public places. Especially as Nokia phones get more exposure in North America. I always get excited when I see Nokia phones (esp. E71s, and now the N97 )in the wild. I am a Blackberry user, and one of the questions I wondered to myself was whether or not the N97 could replicate the Blackberry experience. I know it wouldn't be an equivalent experience. At first I was disappointed. The messenging app on phone isn't that great. There's no push-email, and it felt inefficient. I was used to Blackberry's ease of use. However, after I took the time to set up the mail application, and then also installed "Seven" to provide me push-email funcitionality, it was better. I'm still trying to figure out email, because blogs report there are a number of free services that will make the email experience great on the N97, e.g., Emoze. Second, the keyboard isn't awesome. I love the keyboard on my Curve. The N97's keyboard should be awesome, but its keys don't feel great, and the weird location of the space bar really cut into my typing speed. I can normally type a long email quickly on most full qwerty devices. But, I do have to say that after five days with the N97 I am getting more used to the keyboard, and now can type long emails with fewer hiccups. I still think Nokia could have done a better job with this keyboard, but it is not as bad as some people make it out to be especially after a few days of use.

I like the screen. It is big, and bright. It is resistive, but I have found it very responsive. It would have been better if it was capacitive, with multi-touch. Nokia has a good track record with manufacturing phones, and somehow, I'm not going to really hold it against them that they didn't absolutely nail this touch screen thing. It's pretty good, and I am able to flip through apps, and scroll using one hand. That's the ultimate test.

There's still much to learn, because this phone is a microcomputer. It has 32G of memory. I probably won't have to buy a micro-SD.

One thing that was easy to do and great was transferring Amazon Video on Demand content to my N97. I bought a movie and transferred it to my N97, and it was easy, and the movie looked great on the large screen of the N97.

The phone is a little expensive. It might be a better buy if you wait until the price drops to around $550. Then I say this phone would be worth it. But wanting to have the latest and great Nokia phone first, I did pay the full $699. The phone is growing on me, and I'll probably keep it.