SMS
We all love SMS. While I still believe that Nokia has scored quite high in the user-friendliness of handling text messages, N97 makes it easier with one click reply or delete (see icons above). And as you can see below, a one click send.
I think Nokia is getting closer to the SMS mechanism that I love back in the days of 8850. Back then (10 years ago?), replying SMS is so much faster and easier. I still have a working 8850 at home.
Unique to N97, you can also attach all sort of files into your messages (see below). I haven’t tested this feature yet. But I reckon if your friend is also using a Nokia phone, he or she should have no problem opening the contents. Back in N96, there are 6 attachment options. N97 has much more. Is this an overkill? I guess when data plan becomes more affordable, these options do open up more possibilities.
Calendar
N96 has a calendar. But I hardly use it. N97 has an enhanced one. And because the appointments are displayed side by side with the calendar, I may end up using it. Besides, entering an appointment on a touchscreen is so much easier.
Browser
I can live with the browser in N96. But I can say with conviction that the N97 browser is so much more responsive and fun to use. Of course, having a much larger screen helps. What better way to test out the phone by opening one of the travel journal I have written recently?
The Javascript works as intended (that ‘table of content’ selection list) and if I scroll down, my image fits nicely onto the phone browser. Check out the resolution. It is stunningly beautiful.
Navigating the web pages is as simple as scrolling and clicking onto the touchscreen. Of course, there comes upon a time that some links are just so close to each other (see picture below). Like Hotmail.com.
Surprising, my fat thumb has no problem clicking onto the right link. OK, I may miss in rare occasions. All I often do is instead of click and release, I click and move my thumb away (while I am still touching the screen). The action will be cancelled and I can aim again. Of course I can double click onto the screen at any time to zoom right in (note: N97’s browser has no memory on your zoom setting so you will need to set the zoom every time you visit a page had you decided to change it from 100% – it’s a bummer I know).
My thought on the browser is this: Yes, it is responsive and the resolution is beautiful (640×360). But the predictive text input doesn’t seem to work well with the text-boxes on the screen (firmware version 11.0.021). At times it dumps a few junk characters. At times it crashes the browser. So my suggestion is: turn the predictive input off when you use the QWERTY mode. It is kind of a strange experience to use anyway. It requires you to constantly looking at the screen to see if the phone’s best guess is correct. Doesn’t quite work for me.
Dictionary
One last feature to highlight before we move onto the next section is dictionary. If you have a N97, you ought to check out the new dictionary application. Previously, it is a pre-installed application with one-way translation of English to Chinese. Now in N97, when you click onto the dictionary application, it brings you to a Nokia website to download a list of languages you wish to translate to and fro! That is very awesome. I am learning Spanish at the moment and here is a screenshot of the Spanish dictionary on my N97.
This section we have covered some of the standard applications that come with the N97. In the next section, I will go through with you some of the applications that are high values, and also what are the applications that I find missing so far.
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