How to: Optimise the Nokia N97 (v12)
Published by Steve Litchfield at 15:04 UTC, September 7th 2009
So my white Nokia N97 was returned to me after Ewan's extensive video diaries and after Tzer2's Finnish experiments on it. It's a little battle scarred in places, but hey, phones are designed to be used(!) I'm well aware of all the N97's pros and cons, but was relishing a chance to really get to grips with some of its - ahem - quirks, a couple of months on from my initial look. Read on to see how to set up and optimise the N97.
Background
In short, I'm trying using the N97 as my full-time device now. I just can't seem to stay away from the 'bleeding edge', you know, although my wariness of the various N97 issues was tempered by some attributes of the device that I really, really wanted to combine in one phone. Namely:
- A nice large screen (I was loving the Samsung i8910 HD's and it was a wrench to go back to 2.4" and 2.8" QVGA)
- A transflective touch screen (something of a rarity - e.g. the 5800's isn't transflective, so blacks out in the sun)
- A useable QWERTY keyboard
- BBC iPlayer 'Download' compatibility (I hate broadcast schedules and love watching TV as and when I get waiting/downtime)
- An FM transmitter (this sounds geeky, but being able to play music and podcasts straight to my car stereo without messing around with wires and adapters is quite addictive
- A (minimum) 1500mAh battery (I was FED UP with my N96 and E75's 950mAh batteries giving up on me prematurely)
- A keylock toggle (I was simply fed up with using 'Option+*' or 'Left fn-Right fn' to lock and unlock my keyboard or keypad)
Other, required, attributes included a good camera, GPS, Wi-Fi (of course) and a 3.5mm audio jack. The only device in the Symbian world that satisfies all these features is the N97, believe it or not. So the return of my white N97 was timely indeed and I was determined to tackle some of the reported issues first hand.
My initial dislike of the keyboard's minimalism and of its key legend contrast remain - it's only marginally faster to type on the N97 than to enter text using predictive input. However, it is still QWERTY and, when faced with typing names, passwords and unusual text, it starts to race ahead of smaller T9 keypads, so I'm bearing with it.
The screen has been a nice surprise, it has been readable in almost all light conditions and very attractive to view indoors, whether showing off photos to relatives or watching TV programmes at night. And, most importantly, it's nice and large, easy to read for my ageing (late 40s!) eyes.
The keylock toggle works well, but the default of having a screen backlight toggle period set the same as the keylock timeout is a bit confusing if you're not careful, and wasteful, in terms of leaving the screen blazing away, I've found that it's best to disable the auto-keylock, set the display backlight to turn off after 15 seconds and then just lock the keys manually when putting the N97 in a pocket or case.
So, my requirements all met, I should be a very happy bunny. Right? Well, I'm moderately happy - which is to say, happier than the more vociferous N97 critics out there on the Web. The (hopefully) interesting bit is how I achieved this state of gentle wannabe-nirvana...
NB: At the time of writing, my N97 was running v12 firmware, released in mid August - a big v20 update is due out via Nokia Software Updater and FOTA in October.
Optimising the N97
Disk C:
The first and biggest issue with the N97 has turned out to be not its free RAM (though more of that shortly) but its free space on disk C:, the system disk. Due to some very poor planning by Nokia, the device starts off, factory fresh, with about 50MB free on C: (compare this to the 32GB free on the 'mass memory' disk and you can see how poorly this was planned), but with day to day use and the installation of OS/software items which have to be installed to C:, you quickly descend to 20MB free.... and then 10MB free.... and before you know it, you're out of space and the N97 and its applications are crashing because it simply hasn't got room to work with anymore.
Conventional wisdom back in N95 days was to install applications to C: and put media on your memory card - this plan has had to be changed partly because of the shortage of space on C: but mainly because of the presence of a large, permanent, 'mass memory' store (disk E:) on most new devices, in addition to a microSD option. For the Nokia N97, it pays to install everything (third party applications and many Nokia add-ons) to E:, i.e. the mass memory, leaving C: free for OS use and for the handful of applications which insist (for technical reasons, apparently) on installing to C:.
However, even with this scheme, it's possible to start running short. For a start, Nokia offer a deluge of apps and updates via their 'Sw update' utility, all of which seem to be completely unaware of disk E: (or F:) - quite inexplicable:
- The first offering is Nokia's new 'Messaging' client. If you really, really have been looking forward to this then by all means install it, but beware that it will, between application and messagebase, use up a lot of disk C: on its own. And you can't switch the messagebase to 'mass memory', because that gets locked out when you connect your N97 up to your PC or Mac, switching Nokia Messaging back to C:. As a long time Gmail user, I still find it easier to use either the 'old' S60 Messaging application (in IMAP4 mode) or just use the standalone Gmail (Java-based) application, which has the benefit of speed and of an utterly minimal footprint in daily use.
- Also offered via 'Sw update' is Ovi Maps 3.1, which also insists on ensconcing itself on C:. If version 2.0 is working well for you then there really isn't a compelling reason to update, to be honest. Or at least not one that's compelling enough to warrant signing over at least 7MB of C: to it. If version 2 isn't working for you, you still shouldn't install v3.1, as offered, but go for the very latest v3.3, from the Nokia Beta Labs Maps page. It's faster and slicker and at least you'll be getting extra functionality for your lost Megabytes, including less troublesome GPS performance. See below for more on the GPS.
- Next is Ovi Contacts, a beta-quality social integration system that's yet to take off in any meaningful way. Again, just avoided unless you really, really want to get involved. You don't need to lose the vital Megabytes.
- Then there's the N-Gage games client, another C: biggie, seemingly swallowing up 6MB or so in a real world installation - if, like me, you're rather underwhelmed by N-Gage titles (in fact, underwhelmed by gaming on Symbian in general, but that's another rant for another day), then just say no and, again, give your internal disk a break.
- The final optional 'Sw update' was Quickoffice 6, bringing compatibility with Office 2007 documents. This also takes up the best part of 10MB on C:, so unless you get a lot of Docx or Xlsx files by email then I'd strongly suggest holding fire on this update - you'll probably get it anyway in the v20 firmware in a few months time.
With Messaging, Ovi Contacts and N-Gage ignored, but with (the non-Sw update) Ovi Maps 3.3 and Quickoffice 6 installed (my preferred configuration), I find that I'm running with about 30MB free on C:, which is absolutely fine for all normal operations.
RAM
The next memory-related issue is RAM, of course, i.e. the dynamic memory used by the running OS and applications. As shipped, with Facebook and AccuWeather widgets installed on the homescreen, the N97 boots up with around 45MB of RAM free. While this would have seemed luxurious for an N70 or even N95 three years ago, it's borderline for S60 5th Edition, especially when you build in the number of things which work on top of Web (Runtime).
So, and I know this defeats part of the reason for the N97's 'active' homescreen in the first place, I've opted to only use non-widget homescreen panels on my N97, with the result that it boots faster and with around 56MB of RAM free. This extra 20% or so makes all the difference and, as long as I don't go crazy, deliberately opening up heavweight apps and leaving them chugging away in the background, RAM simply isn't an issue for me.
What I'm saying then, is that by all means have two or three active widgets on your N97 homescreen, each refreshing in real time and accessing the Internet. But don't be surprised if you find yourself running out of RAM (apps start misbehaving or closing down) and running out of battery power (data-active widgets can be heavy on this too).
For the record, my N97 homescreen uses 'Shortcut 1', 'Music player' (in the absence of any hardware music controls), 'Calendar', 'Favourite contacts I' and 'Shortcut 2', in that order.
Battery
Talking of battery power, the 1500mAh power house in the N97 can perform as well as it does in the E90, but there's an extra trick that seems to be needed. As you'll have discovered if you want to sync your N97 with a Mac, there are connectivity oddities under the N97's hood - not being able to have a Mac iSync profile is one manifestation. Having erratic GPS data is another. And having power-hungry Bluetooth is yet another. Many N97 owners, including myself, have seen significant improvements in battery life after disabling Bluetooth (i.e. just turn it on when needed, rather than leaving it on all the time).
As with most smartphones, the single biggest drain on the N97 battery for many people is the challenge of maintaining a constant 3G data connection, especially when not close to a cell tower or travelling - unless you're an absolute 'must have email the second it's sent' addict then just say no to push email and get your email periodically or manually (as God intended...!)
GPS
By 'erratic' GPS, I mean that lock on times are OK (anything from a couple of seconds to a couple of minutes, depending on where you've moved since the last time GPS was used and how long ago that was), but that the positional data doesn't seem constant. All three versions of Nokia/Ovi Maps, the built-in Location utility and Google Maps, all show signs that every so often the GPS fix can get lost for no good reason. I find it hard to believe that the hardware design is too different from the other couple of dozen Nokia GPS-enabled smartphones, so the common factor is the GPS drivers in the OS - something else which can hopefully be fixed in upcoming firmware.
Your best bet for navigation use until such time as this firmware appears, is to use Ovi Maps 3.3.54 or later - this contains algorithms to work around temporary outages in GPS position, albeit at the expense of appearing to hesitate on screen. For the umpteenth time, yes, this will also be sorted out in the v20 firmware.
Themes
Although there are some wonderful third party themes out there, it's rare for any to be 100% perfect in terms of every screen element being visible. I tend to stick to the three built-in Nseries themes, each of which has been ratified by Nokia. I know, boring - but these themes also run slightly 'faster', both because they're being loaded from ROM and because they're relatively light in terms of backgrounds and fancy graphical elements.
'Theme effects' (transitions) are turned 'off' by default, thankfully. You may want to experiment by switching these on (from the 'Options' menu inside 'Themes | General'), to see what you're missing. Probably, like me, you'll want to keep these off and keep the UI of the N97 as fast as possible.
Music
As with the N95 8GB, N96 and other mass-memory-equipped S60 smartphones, the N97 is slow when it comes to handling hundreds of music files loaded on E:. I've been running with about 4GB of music and Music player indexing and searching is acceptable, but others have noted that things grind to a halt as your library rises towards 10GB. So don't just load on everything you own - be selective. If you absolutely must have your 14GB library with you all the time, stick the files on a 16GB microSD card - Music player will be much faster.
All of which begs the question of what to do with the remaining 26GB or so on E:! To be honest, short of preloading a vast number of videos, I'm not sure I'll ever get close to filling the N97's mass memory. It certainly gives freedom for grabbing all the iPlayer content, maps and podcasts you want without ever worrying about running out of room.
Camera
The biggest problem with the N97's camera is, of course, the proximity of the camera glass cover to the glass itself, meaning that dust and grit get ground into scratches which then (mainly) affect photos taken with flash. Apparently Nokia service centres are now aware of the issue, so if your phone has bad scratches then you might want to leave it at a centre for replacement. I've got two bad scratches, but as previously proved they don't affect photos in all normal light conditions - although it's a pain to have flash photos affected by a nasty white 'bar', it's probably a bigger pain to be without the N97 for a week while Nokia fiddle around. And, as James Burland has commented a few times, exactly how many of your camera-taken flash photos have ever made it to your 'favourites' folder in the past? Exactly - none. Every really great photo you've ever taken has been in natural light. So the restriction for flash photos may not be a huge problem.
Video capture focus is still an issue if you like to shoot people and things close to you, but I'm still hoping that the Nseries team can perform a similar tweak to that in the N96, whose video focus miraculously shifted to a useable couple of metres with the v30 firmware. Fingers crossed. In the meantime, just be aware of the issue and shoot people from a distance of 2 metres plus.
Updates
With so many bits for Nokia still to fix up, it goes without saying that you should keep watching All About Symbian for news of updates to both firmware and software components. You can also check yourself for updates offered over-the-air by going into 'Sw update' every week or so. And, as suggested above, don't automatically install everything that gets suggested - be selective and keep your N97 lean and mean.
In such a mode, the Nokia N97's unique combination of big battery, big screen, qwerty keyboard (etc, see the list at the top of this feature) come into their own and the N97 is a pleasure to use. Armed with the tips from this feature, hopefully your N97 can make it 'on probation' until the big v20 firmware update next month, after which (hopefully) a good number of points from this article will be rendered obsolete.
Steve Litchfield, All About Symbian, 8th Sep 2009
Categories: How To, Hardware
Platforms: S60 5th Edition
Feature Discussion
The poor folk in the UK that bought the unbranded version can't update to v12 yet. I'll put money on it that v20 doesn't arrive in the UK until 2010.
If there were enough complaints to OfCom for instance, what do you think the chances are for legislation to be passed in the telecomms industry that every FW update must be supported by networks?
Just a thought...
Tahir
Seriously I think this is a major flaw in the hardware design of the camera cover especially in the white edition of the N97. The border around the flash is painted silver instead of black inside thus reflecting the flash light like a mirror. I get a white fog with decreasing intensity from left to right accross all flash photos. Not sure if this is related to the scratch I have on the lens cover glass.
Would be great if nokia would replace the lens covers having BOTH problems the scratches and the reflections fixed. Together with firmware v20 the N97 would become the perfect device for me even despite the new N900.
with 32gb mass storage known to be pretty slow, are you still suggesting installing apps on it?
Did you notice diffrence in performance/startup time of apps from c:\ and mass storage?
czarnikjak
Perhaps it's time that a respectable mobile news site tried to help with the firmware situation in the UK by using it's influence?
On the other hand, I think great, way to go! The N97 is the flagship handset and despite being somewhat slated in the blogosphere (as if that actually had any effect in real terms - those with the least to say in society shout the loudest), is selling in vast numbers and is a lot better than snotty 'pro' opinion. So it is good that you are focussing on it (especially with all those users out there) and helping people make the most out of it.
I now won't buy a handset without a Xenon flash so it's not for me (my N82 is marvellous and I look forward to the Satio) but good work for restoring the balance somewhat against the bitchy blogosphere :)
On top of which you recommend turning off one of the phone's key advantages; having live updating homescreen, not taking adavantage of new S/W such as maps (one of the promised benefits down the road promised at launch), not worrying that the camera is quietly destroying itself and not using the new Messaging App one key feature for my brother as a corporate user syncing with Exchange and he found the other messaging app. Not much value again for his $700 odd! And as peripheral issues NGage is going to be rubbish because of the hardware even if they get the service together and all gaming and "fun" stuff is going to be poor for same reason and it doesn't seem to be able to handle a not unreasonable amount of music.
When the phone was announced it attracted fairly immediate scepticism about the hardware and both prior to and at launch the AAS team all countered this saying it was too early to judge and the speed and capability of a phone cannot be judged by hardware alone without seeing how the software has been optimised. Not unreasonable but I thought at the time the RAM and the Proccy looked inadequate judging from the 5800 (great phone for price and released date) and that the N97 was meant to be top of the range all-comers challenger. For a product that wasn't exactly released speedily it's a bit of a mess and I think not unfair to say crippled by under spec hardware if it had the right amount of memory and a faster processor how much more impressive could this have been. On top of which Nokia could have spent the last few months improving on and adding gloss to it rather than desperately shoehorning the thing into working. The N96 was a dog at release and still is and this thing seems to be yapping a bit.
snoFlake
Why should one pay 500Ģ for that,
I'm bored of my N95 8gb, I guess N86 is the only option.
I would wait only 2 more months. Then v20 should be available and the camera issues fixed. There is also quick progress at the third party software front.
So I would recommend to get an N97 or an N97 mini in November to replace your N95.
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Originally Posted by Unregistered
To the person that suggested changing product codes: That is only an option for those that no longer or do not have a valid warranty. It's not the perfect solution to everything.
Perhaps it's time that a respectable mobile news site tried to help with the firmware situation in the UK by using it's influence? |
I did the code change. Then changed the code back again, had the phone in for a SIM contact issue and it was done under warranty OK.
When a friend took a 5800 in where the firmware wasn't available for his code, the Nokia shop upated the firmware anyway.
It's Free Internal Storage (not Mass Memory), was 54MB when my N86 arrived on Saturday.
Now, despite me telling it to install EVERYTHING I have added to the phone since, to the E: drive (8GB Mass Storage), my Internal memory Storage (C: Drive) is now down to a paltry 20MB and falling fast.
Because as Steve says, my Maps Update went to C: without giving me a choice... My Quick Office Update went to C: without presenting a choice, and the N-Gage stuff is all on C:
So it sounds to me Steve, like this is a major issue, and indeed design shift, for new Nokias, to have LESS Free Ram, less Free Internal Storage, AND lots of stuff that only gets installed to C: without giving me a user choice.
Indeed, I can safely say, that as my first FP2 Nokia (after loads of FP1 devices), I am HATING the new OS...
It's slow - if I read a text message, then click to reply, I have to wait several seconds before it takes me into the actual typing editor... And this was at clean boot on Saturday when it arrived - it's the slowest such Nokia I have EVER owned for this aspect!
...It's buggy - it's crashed on me loads, and I have had to fully turn off sensor rotate for now, as when I lock the phone with a numeric keygaurd, if it rotates the screen as I am doing it, when I unlock the phone, it won't re-rotate to the correct portrait orientation, and whatever hangs it, does it so bad that a power off can't even be done, so I have to keep battery pulling it...
...It has some major flaws - the option to Copy / Duplicate a contact, which every single Nokia Series 60 phone I have ever possessed has, is suddenly GONE from the N86 (that is, find a contact, and then "Duplicate" it, as a copy, ready for the addition of extra info, for a contact that is thus similar - all prior phones have this - the N86 does not let you "Duplicate" a contact).
...Being FP2, Swim doesn't work on it - so not only is it bad enough that even now, Symbian has ZERO way to automatically schedule Syncs, the only thrid party tool that automated this, now does not work either. So much for this being PROGRESS.
...By the same token, no current "quick restart" applications work, even now, due to the changed API's and SDK's or whatever, that FP2 brings.
...And no matter what I seem to set or change, pressing and holding in the Zero key, as the quick shortcut for Nokias to load up the internet, takes me to a list of Bookmarks, rather than to an actual Homepage I have set, even though I have looked in all the settings i can think of, to allocate a specific homepage - if anyone knows the answer to this one, please yell!
So overall, I have to say, FP2 has left me with a MUCH less able device, than any of my previous FP1 handsets, and this includes low powered ones such as the 6120c, not just my E71, E90, N82, N95 etc. And I don't just mean the API issues - it's slower, has glaring omissions, and comes with a small amount of free internal memory which gets smaller and smaller all the time due to this issue of not having a choice WHERE to save, for all applications we add.
So to the user who said "I think I'll go for an N86 instead", let me assure you, that despite none of these issues ever being mentioned on reviews on here, it's got all the problems I mention above too. And I am on the current latest firmware as well.
I kind of applaud Apple for not including this feature and keeping with the smoothness of the UI, shame about the 3GS though, as that phone could probably pi$$ all over multi-tasking and then some :)
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Originally Posted by Irony
when the N97 is seriously crippled because of it?
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For normal use, I'm really quite enjoying the N97. Surprisingly so, in fact. With the long-press thing fixed, I may even grow to like the keyboard..... 8-)
Rather than give us a "tresure map" on how to avoid to be eaten by the S60v5/Nokia beasts along our trip on the promised land, they should have delivered what their advertising promised on the first place.
Your article may be resumed like this:
* Donīt use WRT widgets
* Donīt use OVI Maps (I donīt use it anyway)
* Donīt use too much of the 32GB Flash (only to store PDFs or backup your PC)
* Smartphone OS: Donīt use it. (ie donīt install apps) they consume RAM / NAND Flash (C: )
* Donīt use Quick Office
* Donīt use Bluetooth
* Donīt use your N97 to play NGage games
* Donīt trust the GPS. It may give you erroneous locations
* Donīt install themes
* Donīt use the camera. You have to open the lens cover to use it, and it may scratch the lens
* Donīt record videos on short distance people. Ask them to take a couple steps back because you have an N97 (watch your step on the cliff)
For the record: I AM NOT AN APPLE FANBOY. I own a N97 and for 2 months it gave me nothing but problems. Most of the advices in this article had to be painly learnt by me on this time.
Note: English is not my first language, so I apologize for any typo or misspelled word.
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Originally Posted by slitchfield
For normal use, I'm really quite enjoying the N97. Surprisingly so, in fact. With the long-press thing fixed, I may even grow to like the keyboard..... 8-) |
The N97 mini looks like it will be a 5800 with a slide out qwerty, so an improvement on the 5800 should suit me well. Still a bit big but just about acceptable, the only real downer with it will be the cost at launch. I will not be an early adopter anyway, I'll wait for the price to fall, the 5800 is perfectly good to be getting on with for now.
It has to be Nokia Messaging (~10 mails a day, synced for 7 days) & Maps that are using it - have installed everything else to the 32Gb drive and used Xplore painstakingly to check file sizes of everything I can see on the drive, remove cache/temp files etc.
When the 32Gb drive works as well as it does (and it IS a lot quicker than the memory stick in my N95), why did Nokia even give us the option of using the C: drive?
And more to the point - why have they not optimised Messaging for E:? It's ridiculous having to uninstall and reinstall it regularly, especially as the Nokia Messaging server that takes your password frequently times out...
Not a good look.
| * Donīt use WRT widgets |
| * Donīt use OVI Maps (I donīt use it anyway) |
| * Donīt use too much of the 32GB Flash (only to store PDFs or backup your PC) |
| * Smartphone OS: Donīt use it. (ie donīt install apps) they consume RAM / NAND Flash (C: ) |
| * Donīt use Quick Office |
[quote]
| * Donīt use Bluetooth |
| * Donīt use your N97 to play NGage games |
| * Donīt trust the GPS. It may give you erroneous locations |
| * Donīt install themes |
| * Donīt use the camera. You have to open the lens cover to use it, and it may scratch the lens |
| * Donīt record videos on short distance people. Ask them to take a couple steps back because you have an N97 (watch your step on the cliff) |
Nearly all the above caveats can be fixed in software though. The N97 v12 is no different to the N95 v11, I reckon. And look how that turned out. In 6 months time, with the N97 at v32 firmware, we might be all be praising it as the most troublefree and stable touch smartphone. 8-)
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Originally Posted by shadamehr
It's slow - if I read a text message, then click to reply, I have to wait several seconds before it takes me into the actual typing editor... And this was at clean boot on Saturday when it arrived - it's the slowest such Nokia I have EVER owned for this aspect!
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In the case of the N97 we'll see what the new firmware brings, but I have a sneaking suspicion that they have skimped just a little too much on the CPU and RAM in recent devices (driven by a plan to become more profitable perhaps?) and no amount of clever programming will save them. I look forward to being disproved by v2x.
It's a marvel that Nokia still managed to grab a chunk of market in spite of the devices' mishaps w/c is probably due to the N97's effective marketing campaign. I'm betting that majority of N97 owners do not belong to our "Geekdom/Phone-smart" stypes and could care any less about RAM and performance issues and care more about the Nxx model index, satisfied to know that they have Nokia's flagship device. Same goes for the 5800 XpressMusic.
Unless the N97 proves really worthwhile, I'm sticking with the 5800 as my primary phone. The other part of the apps compatibility "void" is filled by my WM6.1 device.
I don't have one, I just have a N86, but even after updating everything and installing the n-gage client on the c: partition, I still have 38MB on C: and it's only used as a cache memory for the web browser. Everything else is installed on the E:, and often by default (podcast, n-gage games, downloaded files, france 24 cache, etc...). Furthermore when you connect the phone on your computer you can't see what's in the c: (on windows, I should try on Linux).
I also have a question about "Sw update": what is the meaning of the size in the "Sw update"? Is it the size of the downloaded update or the size of the installation?