How good is the Nokia N97? Very good!

I didn’t think I’d like the Nokia N97.

When you stick the device next to the likes of the iPhone 3G or the Palm Pre, it just feels 2004.

I haven’t written much on the N97, deliberately so. I remember reading the specifications, announced (if memory serves) some time late last year. I wasn’t impressed.

This was, after all, meant to be the Marquee handset for Nokia. The top-of-the-range device. The one that *everyone* should be thirsting over.

When I saw pre-release versions, I ran away. I ran FAR away. In the opposite direction. I didn’t want to see just how bad it was.

And after Nokia phoned up and said ‘we’d like to send you one’, I gave serious thought to saying ‘no thank you’.

Even as I observed the devices in the wild at Nokia’s recent blogger party in San Francisco (the day before the iPhone 3GS launch), I couldn’t help but being totally and wholly underwhelmed.

I remember Noah from Phonedog arriving for a drink in the East Bay a few days afterwards. He brought out the N97 and asked what I thought. I had to do my best to stand up for Europe.

“It, errr…. it does background applications!” I explained.

Noah didn’t look at all convinced, pulling off the battery cover and commenting on the quality.

“Right, but I’ve been to their test lab,” I said, “They put their devices through hell. They make some brilliant hardware, they really do.”

My thoughts drifted to the thrashing the N97 has had on many-a-blog.

In today’s iPhone age, the N97 looks positively old.

And when you try and use the device for the first time, it’s a total arse. Trying to learn just how the touchscreen performs is painful. For those accustomed to an iPhone screen that simply… works, it’s very, very easy to write off the N97 has a bollocks device — an archaic — powerful, yes — but unusable monstrosity.

Well, no.

I’ve made it my main phone for almost a week. Here’s what I’m liking, in no particular order.

1. I left the phone on for a full day, doing nothing. I took it off the charger at 7am and did nothing to it. I let it sit on the network, updating my contacts/calendar every 30 minutes, and doing nothing else until midnight. Guess what? All six bars of battery power were undisturbed. This is unusual for a ‘smartphone’. My Android G1 would have switched off through lack of power by about 7pm.

2. The camera is excellent. The device handles pictures and video quickly and easily — the processor and memory has clearly been tuned. If you remember the arse of having to mess around with the N95 (and even N95 8GB) waiting for it to catch up with your actions, well, the N97 has evolved beyond this. I installed the 5800 ‘tube’ version of ShoZu on the device and it’s 3.5G connection was sending pictures and video up the Vodafone data pipe extremely quickly.

3. Kudos to Rafe Blandford from All About Symbian — the Nokia God that he is — for pointing out that you can use the N97 with one hand. I had been using the device’s QWERTY keyboard for my typing up until then. The N97 sports a really useful numeric on-screen keyboard that lets you use T9 input. Brilliant. Absolutely tip-top brilliant for testing. I can text as fast as I can on my N95 8GB with this function.

4. The haptic feedback from the touchscreen is pleasing. Very pleasing.

5. You get used to the stupid interface. I’m no fan of Nokia’s bollocks interface. They really need to sort out the structure. But I got used to it after a day. I now navigate around the device with lightning speed.

6. There’s a little pull-down switch thing on the left hand side of the device that switches the screen off and puts the phone into ‘locked’ mode. I love it. It feels really nice. Pull it down to switch off the screen and lock it… then pull it down once more and tap to reactivate.

7. The touchscreen is… actually… pretty good. You need to learn how to use it. It’s not as reactive, obviously, as the iPhone or similar. I find myself tap-tap-tapping all across the device swiftly.

8. Background applications are brilliant. I thoroughly enjoy swapping between apps — Google Maps, for example, and the browser. (Yes the browser is outdated but you can install an alternative).

9. The power of the device makes me feel good. I like that it’s fast. 32GB of space too.

10. The little Facebook widget on the front screen is pretty nifty. I’d like to see more widget support for the N97.

11. Sync. I sync my calendar and contacts flawlessly with Google using the Mail For Exchange functionality. It is simply brilliant.

12. Setting up my Google Mail for Apps account on the device took 5 seconds. I literally had to type in a username and password. Done. Nokia took care of the rest. That was super.

13. Audio quality. It’s simply fantastic.

I’ll stop there. I don’t see any glaring problems with the device. If you’re a Nokia fan, I think you’ll enjoy the N97.

There is an element of me that feels a bit.. held back, with the N97. There are precious few applications available for it at the moment so the Ovi Store experience is rather limited.

I do feel that I’ve got power. I feel like it’s a proper, solid, top-of-the-range device for the mobile geniuses. Super quality video, ultra fast 3.5G connection, nice, powerful processor, background applications galore… I feel good with it. I certainly like my iPhone app and music experience. But I don’t feel like I’m missing out too much with the N97.

If anything I’m feeling pretty smug with the N97. I don’t think there’s anything that can touch it’s raw capabilities on the market.

It’s not a consumer handset though. I wouldn’t recommend it for my mother. It’s definitely power-user territory.

I’m giving serious thought to getting one free on contract from 3 here in the UK.