Nokia N97 (Computer Phone) Announced Find Full Details

We’re a bit saddened with the news that the Nokia 6260 slide won’t be released in the local market by Nokia Philippines, but upon hearing about this new model, we quickly got over our depression.

We heard about it at the end of last week, but we had no idea just how exciting Nokia’s announcment would be! Christmas has come early this year as Nokia has revealed their brand new N-series handset, the N97 - and we couldn’t have wished for anything better! Take a look at the headline features:

Key Features of the new Nokia N97

• Touch display (3.5″ of it) which slides and tilts to reveal a full QWERTY kepboard plus d-pad for easy navigation.
• 5 Megapixel Camera
• Carl Zeiss integrated optics coupled with a dual LED flash
• A massive 32GB of internal memory with MicrSD support for further memory expansion
• Integrated Assisted GPS
• WiFi and HSDPA
• DVD quality video capture and 16:9 display

The N97 is a cutting edge smartphone that includes support for their OVI service as well as the Nokia Music Store. Nokia have called the N97 “the most advanced mobile computer” and have done well to keep ahead of current mobile phone usability trends. With more and more people using their phones to browse the net, to access email accounts and share photos online we expect that the likes of the N97 will become the most demanded everyday phone. GPS has also become a standard on handsets and more and more people are expecting their phones to have integrated GPS. App developers are also aware of this and the number of cool GPS reliant applications is growing at a phenomenal rate.

Nokia have divulged that the expected release date for the N97 is in the first half of 2009 and is expected to hold a pre-tax price tag of 550 Euros. So if you are wanting to get this handset soon after public release expect to take out a higher tariff package if you want it for free.

The Nokia N97 is the new flagship model from the Finnish company. It comes with a 3.5-inch 640×360 touchscreen display with tactile feedback, 5-megapixel camera with Carl Zeiss glass lens, slide out QWERTY keypad, HSDPA, WiFi, Bluetooth, A-GPS, 32GB internal memory and support for additional storage of up to 16GB via microSD. This marks the continuing evolution of Nokia’s touchscreen phones and the first time an Nseries mobile phone featured a QWERTY keypad. While it does lack DVB-H technology that’s found in the N96, I’m sure most users wouldn’t mind that small sacrificial lamb for the N97’s existing feature set.

Here’s a short promotional video for the N97 to get you even more excited for 2009.

It’s expected to begin shipping in the first half of 2009 with a €550 (roughly P34,500) price tag attached to it excluding tax and subsidies. With its impressive line of features, I’m sure aspiring N96 and 5800 XpressMsuic phone owners will now think twice before making any hasty purchases from now until mid next year.

While there’s still no certainty if it will make it to the local market, I’m pretty optimistic that this one won’t suffer the same fate as the 6260 slide. Let’s just hope that when it does, its price won’t even come close to the SRP of the XPERIA X1 so that more of us can get to enjoy this new beauty.