Nokia N97: Cool Phone, Not Officially in US Yet :(
Jan 18th, 2009 Posted in Other Technology | 3 comments »
I hate how all the awesome higher end phones are always introduced in Europe and Asia and may or may not ever make it to the USA. This was also true for my current phone, the HTC Touch Diamond, which I had to wait several months in order for it to finally be available on Sprint.
The past few months, I’ve done some research on phones that are both pretty and useful, and I think I found the perfect one. I stumbled upon the Nokia N97 that was recently released in Europe, and I now have a new “dream” or perfect phone for my needs that will hopefully be officially sold in the USA around the time my Sprint contract ends in December. Since I’m a techie, of course I want a phone with a plethora of functions that I may not use frequently but can brag about, and the N97 is perfect for this. Nokia calls this phone the “world’s most advanced mobile computer” for a reason. Also, since I’m female, I might care slightly more about a nice looking phone, and for a Nokia phone, the N97 is really not bad looking either. Of course I have the option of buying the unlocked version of this phone for $700+ (the current price in Europe is 550 Euros), but I’m not sure if it’s tri-band or quad-band compatible at this point. Phones in Europe and Asia tend to run on 900/1900/2100MHz bands while AT&T runs on 850/1900MHz and T-Mobile runs on 1700/2100MHz. Thus, I will be able to get some service with either AT&T or T-Mobile in the USA, but I will only be receiving roughly half the maximum reception if the phone is tri-band at 900/1900/2100MHz
Features:
3.5-inch, 640 x 360 pixel screen
Slide-out qwerty keyboard
WiFi
GPS
3.5 mm headphone jack
Stereo Speakers
5 megapixel camera
30 fps video capture (excellent DVD quality)
32GB of memory
These specs are definitely some of the most impressive I’ve seen, way better than my HTC Touch Diamond that I just bought a few months ago, anyway. This seems like the one device that can be used for everything, maybe even enough so that I won’t even have to carry a Netbook around for internet browsing/note taking with a full qwerty keyboard.
As an added bonus to the specs that are superior to those of any other phone I have seen, the N97 is also sleek and attractive, as the picture shows. It measures a sleek 117.2 x 55.3 x 15.9-18.3 mm or approximately 4.6 X 2.2 X .72 inches which is small and thin enough to store in a small purse or pants pocket.
