While summer is fast approaching two highly anticipated S60 5th edition devices come closer to being released, Nokia’s N97 and Samsung’s OmniaHD. Both considered to be each respective companies high-end/flagship device for 2009. While both are high-end devices some argue that the N97 is NOT worthy of such a title. Turning back to December when Nokia broke news of its “best kept secret” flagship device at Nokia World 2008, there was much excitement. Not only had Nokia created a powerful N-series device with a qwerty keyboard, but it also added a touch screen! This phone quickly came to be regarded as the true successor to the highly acclaimed N95. When the dust had settled after the initial announcement it was clear that some if not most of the features were similar to previous N-series devices. What had seemed impressive upon initial release was quickly overshadowed by what its competitors would release at MWC 2009.
MWC 09 took place and another S60 5th edition device was announced, the Samsung OmniaHD. This handset would quickly set the benchmark for what a top end handset should have in 2009. The OmniaHD has a large AMOLED 3.7” screen with capacitive touch screen capability, 8MP camera with HD video recording (720p), and HMDI output. Incredible specifications, and something genuinely to get excited about. This left many Nokia fans with a bad taste in their mouths. The questions started to arise. Why did Nokia chose 5MP over 8MP? Why did they use a 4xxmhz processor vs a 600mhz? AMOLED vs LCD? and so on. Although I am also concerned as to why the N97 doesn't pack these amazing features, I trust that Nokia has focused its time elsewhere. The hardware in the N97 is older but by no means dated. Also being able to work with the same hardware for nearly two years should allow for precision tweaks and improvements. This brings the question, what does the Nokia N97 have over the Samsung Omnia HD? What is Nokia counting on to make the N97 the dominant S60 5th edition device this summer? The answer is software. They both run on the same OS but have different additions. While the OmniaHD will offer its TouchWiz3d. The Nokia N97 will offer a customizable front page with internet/active widgets. Nokia has spent a large part of its demonstrations showing off the new home screen widgets. Nokia will also be opening its new OVI store which is rumored to launch with 20,000 items (applications, wallpapers, songs, etc).
While it is yet to be seen whether the software will be amazing/useful/smooth, most demonstrations of the live widgets have looked smooth with minor lag (which can be seen on YouTube). While we wont be sure if the lag will be present in production models we can only hope that Nokia has thoroughly tested its hardware configuration and has a excellent staff that can create a wonderful experience for us when the N97 is available for purchase. While the N97 isn't a hardware beast it may just be time to rethink what an N-series device is. Many still have their N95 because the many firmware updates have allowed the device to grow into a “perfect” device. Maybe this is a new generation of N-series device, one that will make sure that the user is happy not by having state of the art hardware, but having good hardware and great software.
Timi Cantisano is a long time mobile phone user and S60/Nokia fan. You can read more of his articles at his personal phone website called Phoneomenon.com. Keep checking back for more contributions to this site by Timi.
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