The Nokia 97 is the latest contender in the race for best smartphone. It can compete directly with Apple’s iPhone, but with the price tag (about $800, or 600 Euros), we can see why. It’s 5 megapixel camera can replace your aging digital camera completely, and the 20x digital zoom makes it that much more enticing.
Other goodies include expandable memory (16 gigabytes), 37 hours of music and the requisite GPS. It’s a little bulky, but that can be expected from everything you’re getting. One of my favoured reasons for having this phone is it’s customization abilities; something the iPhone just doesn’t have. Just like the iPhone connecting to Apple’s ITunes, the N97 will connect you to Nokia’s Ovi Internet services, which plugs a user into the Nokia Music Store, Maps, and the proprietary N-Gage gaming platform. Though sales may be limited by the high price, it does edge into other smartphones’ touch-screen friendliness. Is this phone the first of it’s kind? No. Will it be the next disruptive product? Probably not. But if you want a mobile phone that exceeds expectations, and only the best will do, then the Nokia N97 is perfect.