[hecatae]

It will be free of charge on a £35-a-month contract or £320 on prepay - a price that is signficantly cheaper than the SIM-free price of £499 on the Nokia website. Of course, the handset is locked - but 3 is hoping you'll be happy with its network.

http://www.whatmobile.net/News/generalnews/275779/nokias_n97_coming_to_3_with_free_skype_calling_pre pay_too.html

I might need to ditch the credit cards tomorrow, that price is :eek:

[Hands0n]

Hmmmm, lets see now .... £320 for an N97 locked to 3 or £499 for a SIM-free .... tough choice that .... or is it?

Its a no brainer really .... option 2 for me :D

[Ben]

I'd take it SIM-Free, too. But if the Skype calling is your thing then I suppose it's quite a deal!

[Hands0n]

Yea but ... imagine that ... something like an N97 permanently tied to 3 :eek:

The moment something goes wrong you've a £320 paperweight.

I suppose it all depends on how lucky you feel.

[miffed]

http://www.whatmobile.net/News/generalnews/275779/nokias_n97_coming_to_3_with_free_skype_calling_pre pay_too.html

I might need to ditch the credit cards tomorrow, that price is :eek:\

......That price is ? ..... Desperate ?

[hecatae]

yup it is desperate, cant see the benefit of the N97, the touchscreen is EPOC, Ericsson R380, Nokia N97, same principle just in colour

[Hands0n]

A friend of mine has just got his N97, despite my warnings, on Vodafone. I am just not convinced that Nokia have the mindset to produce the Apple/HTC touchscreen killer phone. That they've near-on ripped off the design of the HTC Touch Pro 2 says it all for me.

I speculate that buyers are going to find out that the N97 is going to end up like the N95, an unfulfilled dream. Tons of potential, big upsell, but little in the way of a device that can be used to its maximum.

But then I'm only able to compare the Symbian-based N97 experience against that of the two latest mobile handset platforms (OS X and Google Android) as a way forward.

[miffed]

But there is one striking difference between the Touch Pro II and the N97 - The keyboard !!

The Touch Pro has the arguably the BEST keyboard on a mobile device , while the N97's is arguably the WORST !!
There is a Head to head on Steve Litchfield's the phones show , which shows you this in detail , it is quite funny because Steve goes through the devices, with the Touch beating the N97 on virtually every point ..... and then
concludes that ........ Well , it's Steve Litchfield , you KNOW which device he is going to declare the better :D

[Hands0n]

Thats why I never bother with Steve Litchfield's video podcasts. If he can't bring himself to be even moderately neutral or at least objective then there really is no point. Its supposed to be about the phones, not all about him!

I must admit that I was questioning the design of the N70 keyboard, whats with putting that spacebar over there on the right? Haven't Nokia heard of ergonomics? Anyone used to a regular keyboard is going to have to adjust to the machine - it shouldn't be like that.

The "experience" is damaged from the outset!!

[Ben]

Mhm. Everything I've read so far about the N97 has been negative WRT the keyboard. I don't have great hopes for it as a handset!

[Hands0n]

A Nokia die-hard friend of mine has just taken delivery of his N97. I don't think I'll get to lay my mitts on it until next week though.

I want to find out about its touchscreen capabilities. Anyone can build a keyboard, even a not-so-good one! But touchscreen is where its at right now - and we're going to see it scaled up into Netbooks, Laptops and Tablets (without styli) in the not too distant future. These things enable gestures and that is where the general tech seems to be heading, mimicking what we do with our hands naturally.

In time I suppose we'll be able to use gestures mid-air and without having to touch the larger screens. But for handsets I can't see the direction going anywhere else. Fold-out keyboards and buttons will eventually give way to the glass :D

[miffed]

Very similar devices , But seems to me that one manufacturer has thought carefully about putting the best possible keyboard on the device , whereas the other has just chucked one on as an afterthought - Shame after some of the brilliant communicator keyboards !