The Nokia N97 at the BBC

[slitchfield]

The ubiquitous BBC have weighed in on the subject of the Nokia N97, with two videos, one in which Rory Cellan-Jones pitches it against the iPhone 3GS (also embedded below) and one in which Dan Simmons reviews the N97 on its own. Both seem fairly positive about it, though Rory rightly comments on the high price, also shared by the new iPhone, of course.

Read on in the full article.

[nomorgow]

Darn, i saw BBC and first thought BBB (better business bureau) to address the nonstop crashing and hardware problems of the n97, referenced in this thread on nokia's forums: http://discussions.europe.nokia.com/...read.id=141469 Or a handful of others on howardforums.

The way the n97 is today, it is completely unusable as a phone. Rebooting constantly, all day long, if you try to connect to the net and do anything.

This is after several *#7370# resets, a full mass storage format, a reinstall of the firmware, and all of the aforementioned things in various orders.

I won't dereail the thread any longer though, sorry. Will save it for the right thread when it comes heh.

[Rafe]

I think you already went off topic

Worth pointing out that plenty of people have them and don't seem to have same issue. Though I know its frustrting when it is happening to you (been thier myself). Hope you get it sorted.

Rafe

[Tzer2]

I noticed Rory Cellan-Jones complaining about the price of the iPhone 3GS on his blog the other day, so price is clearly a general issue for him (which is good because many tech journalists forget about this factor).

Originally Posted by nomorgow

The way the n97 is today, it is completely unusable as a phone. Rebooting constantly, all day long, if you try to connect to the net and do anything.

Why don't you try getting it repaired? That is what the manufacturer's guarantee is for after all.

I somehow doubt that most N97s are "rebooting constantly all day long if you try to do anything", so your problems are probably down to a dodgy unit.

[zyler]

The video doesn't really pit the two devices against each other. So Steve when can we expect your "Nokia creams Apple" showdown?

[maartenmk]

Originally Posted by zyler

The video doesn't really pit the two devices against each other. So Steve when can we expect your "Nokia creams Apple" showdown?

Well I don't know about Steve, but I've seen the Engadget review of the 3GS, and I'm still in the S60 camp, but at least the quality of the video recording was pretty impressive; high quality, smooth, and with focus.
(No idea why Nokia doesn't implement at least 'initial focus', surely that could be done in software, even for existing devices)

[widehead]

The most telling comment on the video clip is this:

"So, you have to decide whether you're a Nokia fan or an Apple fan"

This kind of pointless, lazy and abominable journalism needs to be recognized for what it is - worthless.

I was pleasantly suprised given the pro-apple bias I've seen from the bBC previously, this was much better. The guy also came to the same conclusion as me right at the very end. Basically that neither phone is worth the silly money. I would much prefer to save my cash for a good time in the pub, or a nice holiday.

I would like to see more emphasis on real world attributes when testing phones. Tell me what it is like to carry the thing about your person all day, when wearing various different types of clothing. Tell me how well the thing will stand up to being accidentally dropped on concrete, or suffering a few raindrops. How well will the phone perform in areas of poor reception quality? How attractive is the phone to muggers? Is the phone available on attractive deals with a choice of network providers?

What's the point of having a superficially enhanced UI with fancy transistions if the very basic things described above are not addressed? Apple are very clever in making sure they appeal to the very shallow people in in modern western society.

[buster]

Unfortunately, the discussion thread on the BBC blog degenerated into the usual "Apple's better than everyone else", "you're just a fanboy" etc. crap that usually happens when such comparisons are made.

Let's face it, the bottom line is that both phones are basically amazing devices for a fairly large amount of money. If you've got the money and prefer one over the other, go ahead and buy it. If you don't have the money, or thinks that one or both phones under discussion are rubbish, that's also fine. But let's be realistic, apart from journalists or tech writers, hardly anybody in the real world has enough money and experience with both devices to be in a position to make an objective comparison; if you read the remarks, you'd think that everyone posting had had both a 3GS and a N97 for the last 6 months...

This comes down to the whole premise that "one device does not suit all needs/users"; the sooner people realise this and stop badmouthing other people's choices/preferences, the better.

[buster]

How attractive is the phone to muggers?

I'm not sure how a tech-writer is supposed to determine this....