The Nokia N97 - Schizophrenic

I've been using the new Nokia N97 for the last week or so, and my overall feeling is rather positive. First, it's very very nice from a hardware point of view, probably the best piece of N-series hardware that Nokia has put out to date. It has the feel of a quality German car to it. Full marks there. One the software side, I'm not so happy. It clear that merging a touch-screen UI on top of Series 60, along with folding in the Ovi store and Ovi Messaging, has created a confusing mess. Too often you get caught out trying to figure out what to do to get something done, or the phone reacts in an unexpected way. Some of the more glaring examples:


Sometimes you need to double tap on items, sometimes you single tap
Very frustrating in the menus. I'm sure it has to due to some items being selectable without being invoked, but that is never clear, and its a mess.

Sometimes you can flick scroll in application or menus, other times you have to use scroll bars
The applications that can use kinetic scrolling are great, but few and far between. The base UI does not, and after you leave a app that does, you find yourself flicking at the screen.


Sometimes HTML will show in emails, other times it will not
Corporate Mail for Exchange does NOT support HTML mail, but POP/IMAP Ovi Mail does.

Sometimes the screen will rotate its orientation, sometimes it will not
You can try to control this by turning off the rotation sensor, bu then you have to open the phone to use landscape.

Sometime you use the SW Update app to find updates, other times you need to use settings.. device updates
There is a dedicated application to find updates to applications on the device, which SHOULD be built into the Ovi store. For device updates, you have to go to the Control Panel, or do the *#0000# from the dialer

Sometimes you need to use the Blue Shift key to get number on the keyboard, sometimes that does NOT work and you have to just press the un-shifted key
This one threw me. Normally numbers are Blue-shifted. But, if the ONLY input that is allowed in an input box is a number, then you HAVE to enter the number by pressing the number key UNSHIFTED. Crazy.


Sometimes the widgets will grab internet connectivity, sometimes they will not
The WRT technology is not completely sorted out when it comes to connectivity, which is not a strong point of series 60 to begin with. If the widgets are using EDGE/3G and you turn on WiFi in a browser, the widgets stop. When will they come back on? Who knows?

Sometimes the Ovi store appears as a web site, other times as an application. Sometimes you use the Nokia Download app.
Where do you get apps? It depends.

New applications sometimes appears as icons in the ‘applications' folder, and sometimes in a random, new folder.
Install a new application, and you have NO idea where the icon will end up. maybe in the Applications folder. Or maybe not. It may create its own folder somewhere else, and go there.


Sometimes the phone wants you to use the keyboard to enter text, sometimes it throws up a T9 pad and wants you to multi-tap
Need to enter a PSK value into WiFi security? You get a T9 pad. If the entry is letters/words, be prepared to multi-tap.


Maybe these things will being clearer with time and use. But Nokia has got to get this right going forward. In the world now full of the iPhone 3Gs, the Palm Pre, and new Android devices, they have to find ways to leverage their scale and strengths while not being caught in the binders of legacy. I hope they can pull it off.