[Resolved]  Nokia N97 — Crap

Nokia N97 — Not happy with the Phone's perfomence.

Sir,

I would like to bring to your notice that, I am facing lots of problem with your newly launched gadget Nokia N97. I was the first in my Town (Raniganj, West Bengal) to buy this phone from Tirupati Telecom (Nokia Priority, Raniganj) and I had to sell out Rs 33, 000 for this crap Phone of yours. I was so excited to buy this cell but now the excitement has died out. So much was expected from it, but NOKIA FAILED in so many aspects.

These are the following problem faced by me:
1. PC does not detect N97 or USB charging connection not detected.
2. Home screen online/offline widget crash.
3. Messaging & calendar Important Data lost.
4. Slow Touch Screen UI response.
5. Device performance deteriorates when lots of content in the device - especially photos
6. No display or backlight illumination when unlocking lock-key pressed
7. Alphabetical and Number input are mixed in Facebook until end key is pressed.
8. And Many More….

I am not at all happy with the performance of N97, I would like immediate replacement for it, if the problem persists. I will be really grateful if you kindly look into this matter and take necessary steps to resolve the problem.

A proud owner of a shiny Nokia N97
Raja Oberoi

I have the same hand set and facing frequent hanging, backlit problem and many, poor response from the company.

Nokia N97 — my mobiletv download error is like this my mobile tv does not support my mobile device currently.

sir,
while downloading mimobitv to my device nokia n97 using bsnl3G sim there was an error message that my Mimobi TV does not support my mobile device.kindly suggest how to overcome the problem.

I agree. This is the most frustrating phone I ever owned. I mean as in EVER! And I am a cell phone and avid Nokia user since 1998. I always used the top of the range model - 9110i; 9500; 9600; E90 and now this piece of absolute ! The frustration started with the E90 and the throwing out of the very effective symbian operating system of the nokia 9500 - Man, that was a dream phone! The cancellation of that very effective operating system was really a bummer. I have been using the E90 since it was launched and kept hoping for some form of improvement from Nokia - and eventually, after 3 years of loyal waiting and teeth clenching, what did they offer me? This little frustrating freakin N97! Functionality people functionality PLEASE!!! Not slower performance! I don't care what the spec of the processor says. If the phone operates slower, the bottom line is worse performance! In plain English - one giant step backwards. If the battery cant last a full 8hour work day of business style use, what is the reason for this little piece of crap device's existence? I now use my old E90 as a charger for the extra battery. When I go on the road I carry this extra battery in a little plastic bag in my shirt pocket - so that I will still have an operational phone at 3PM! How pathetic can you get!? And the QWERTY keyboard. Oh boy, don't get me started there! They lost the CTRL key and all the short cut speed enhancing dilly dallies that came along with it. No more copy & paste between applications. The spacebar moved into a smaller button and now sits on the right where the shift key used to sit. This took some time getting used to. But after you typed on a desktop computer keyboard, you need to really concentrate and focus, cause your subconscious mind keep forcing your fingers to the centre of the keypad of your N97 when you want to press the spacebar. And how about this: They place the function key that gives you access to numeric and some special characters, next to the "symbols" key (which brings up a new window with more complete selection of special characters), and this symbols key is right next to the space bar!! Remember, this is where one's thumb operates - the thickest member on your hand. You need to be accurate, VERY accurate to not frequently frustrate yourself by pressing the symbols key by mistake in mid-typing. Then the N97 stops everything and you need to lift your finger to the far opposite side of the touch screen to press a button that makes this screen go away again before you can do anything else. I've got this phone for longer than 2 months now. It's not getting better. I'm loosing it. Reception and speech quality - PATHETIC. Worse than any phone I had. This is honest feedback people - this thing takes little snippets out of your voice like a 2-way radio loosing signal. Sometimes everything goes right, mind you, only sometimes, then the sound is exceptionally crisp and clear and people on the other end of the line says it sounds as if I'm standing next to them. But this is the exception rather than the rule.

Tell me, software developers, is there nobody who checks up on you when it comes to "number of clicks"? Haven't you got a drive or internal "wanting" or general rule to always try to minimize the number of clicks and the number of button presses to get to what you want the device to do? I heard that at Apple Mac they appoint a guy specifically to check the number of clicks, and in the iPOD for example, if you need to press a button or tap the screen more than 3 times to get to any function of the device, the developer is sent back to redo and get it right. Well, to me it feels as if the developers at Nokia have absolutely no regards for this. I sometimes get the idea that they are under the impression that they need to build in more interaction steps to keep the user busy with.

The screen gets clogged with useless and outdated style information that nobody wants and nobody can switch of. When I make a call, a little notification message pops (just as the phone starts to ring). This message says: "You have active call diverts". Woop-dee-doo! I really, really needed to know that! Every time I make a call! Since 1998 when I started to use a cell phone!!!???? And this comes up because, like EVERYBODY ELSE IN THE WORLD, when I don't answer my phone, the call "is diverted" to my voice mailbox - I'd say this is pretty much standard for any mobile user on the planet, why remind you of this fact with every call made? And this not-ever-updated software from Nokia needs to notify me of this EVERY TIME I MAKE A CALL - and the real reason that this frustrates me, is because a) I can not switch this little piece of irritating notification off AND b) for the duration (of 3 seconds in the case of the N97) that this is displayed on my screen, I can not do anything on my phone. Many times one need to quickly "alter" what you started of to do - such as: You make a call, and just as it starts to ring you realize you need to first make a different call, or you need to quickly open another application because the person on the other side need you to read a number back to him from your phone book or whatever. In my case I also receive a lot of calls. Many times, just as my outgoing call starts to ring, my phone shows an incoming call - I always rush against time, so I try to answer that call (while the outgoing call rings) and quickly asks "Hi Suzy, I'm on another call, can you hold a few secs or must I call back?" usually, I get an answer just in the nick of time and I can swap back to my outgoing call as the other person answers. That is functionality man!! And I actually had this in my previous models. Your finger knows the route and the menu and you can do it blindfolded almost - but no, this little unnecessary notification message renders everything inactive for you for 3 seconds. And what is the result? I must ignore the incoming call because the obstructing notification message brings down my speed and forces me out of "effective range" to manage it as I always did - i.e., I need to spend money to call the person back. Can't drop my outgoing call either, cause it already started ringing, if I drop it and answer the incoming call, chances are that in 80% of the cases, that person phones back to ask "I've got a missed call from you. Are you looking for me?" Cute, only problem is, I am on the line with the other call that I dropped that call for. Major loss of functionality and effectiveness. Thanks Nokia, for placing that piece of irritation in my path. This is a software issue in most all Nokia phones. With some it is not a problem, because the reaction of the processor is fast and crisp and accurate and always the same. You quickly learn that if I just press on the screen or on the "c" key or maybe on any digit key, this message disappear and my automated fingers can rush through the desired steps to get to the application I want or answer the other call before my colleague on the other side answers. (Just don't press the red phone symbol button - this will not only remove the unwanted notification, it will also end your call prematurely. And boy if this happens, you need to wait many seconds extra for the phone to make peace with itself before you can just press redial. More steps, more sequences, more buttons, and more frustration.) And with this issue the N97 is EXTA slow to respond. After every action, it needs time to make piece with itself, to re-orientate the screen, the memory. It needs time to make available to you the option to press buttons that you are anxiously waiting to press, if this phone can just "keep up". But it can't, unfortunately. To think that the E90 that I have been using for 3 years now, which already frustrated me in many of these same issues, are light years ahead in speed (in terms of reaction time) and reception and battery life and operating system stability, than this super-dooper-top-notch "flag-ship" device that is supposed to have 4 years newer technical performance and capabilities.
I can go on and on and on about my frustrations here. But, I need to get back to work now. I am so disgruntled. I so much wish for Nokia to be the best. It is possible. Everything is out there. The hardware can make it. The software can make it. There are very good processors and memory capabilities out there. Even battery technology. Jeepers, have you seen the improvements made in this field as of late? Why not take in the best of everything that there is? Why not strike a deal with Window to use Win mobile? Face it, Symbian do have the stability and capability, but you don't have the zest to bring it to its rights, Nokia. Get Windows mobile or get left behind. OR, get your bloody lazy buts in gear and develop Symbian to what it really can be - it can be even better than Windows.
Nokia, let me just drop a note on your PC suite quickly - while I'm at it. Man, is that one piece of potential fantasticness that you have been slow to come around to! Do you know what PC SUITE is supposed to be for me? It is should be "my phone on my computer". To really be this, PC SUITE should become a little Symbian operating system (exact replica of the phone connected at any given moment) on top of my Windows Desktop Operating system. I should be able to do everything from within PC Suite that I do on my phone. Not just access telephone numbers and calendar and messages! From within PC suite I should be able to operate all software on my phone - because PC Suite should actually become my phone on my computer when connected. But where is PC SUITE now? Lets take a simple thing like "default number". I have more +1300 contacts on my phone. Most of them got more than one number - fax, landline, mobile, email etc. What happens when I want to call someone? I get asked which number I wish to call. Usually you always call someone by a preferred number (default number). Now to select a contact number as default number, you need to open the contact, select 'Defaults' from the options menu and pick which contact detail to use for what function. This may seem all OK to the user getting started with a new phone and systematically adding your contacts. But even to these individuals, this is a cumbersome issue with a lot of button issues on the phone. One can not set defaults on PC SUITE. With your mouse and keyboard in PC SUITE, this would be much less painful. Further more if the Nokia developers should come around to this some day in the distant future, they would be so near sighted (an assumption made from experience) that they would not think of "mass default settings" - where you should be able to select a number of contacts in your phone book (or maybe all - whatever you want) and for all of the selections, change default phone number to 'mobile' or whatever. Wouldn't that be effective? Especially for a guy with 1300 contacts in his address book? And now the real bummer on this issue: Just as you've got this set up, you change your handset, you upgrade or the thing broke or gets stolen or whatever. You've made your phone back-ups religiously and you receive your new handset and transfer all of your data back to your new device. Guess what; yes you guessed right, the defaults are gone. There is no way to transfer default settings or save them or retain them in any manner. The cumbersome process of setting it up needs to start all over again.
Phone developers, get one thing straight please: These gadgets are but one of many tools in our toolboxes. The percentage of population who uses them for farting around is actually very low. We work with these things. It's not a toy although it can be used as one. But its use is important. Its function is critical. SO MAKE THE FREAKIN THING AS FUNCTIONAL AS POSSIBLE PLEASE!!! I NEED A QUALITY TOOL. I KNOW HOW TO APPRECIATE A QUALITY TOOL. I WILL LOVE IT, AND TAKE CARE OF IT - I PROMISE!

Sorry for shouting there, just needed to get that of my chest.

Do you know what would be the best phone for me? Take my old E90, give it the same 5MP camera and lens and related photo software of the N97, give it the fastest processor on the market, make the internal screen touch screen, leave the keyboard as is, change to Windows Mobile latest & greatest, leave the outer screen & keys as is, add the same hard drive sizes and additional memory stick capabilities than the N97. Man! That would have been a beaut of a phone! I can daydream about that. I will be willing to take out a lone to buy a thing like that.

Well, that’s it from me. I will go to sleep now for 20 years and see if you’ve caught up when I wake UP.

i have had this phone 24 hours how and am stoked there is a 14 day return policy, not the worst phone i ever had but no where worth its price tag and tarrif plan, i want my traded in n93i back i guess its been shipped off to rwanda or whatever they do with traded in phones

Jack Tanner you have saved me the bother of ranting myself, your points are spot on. Even if the phone and OS worked properly without rebooting, crashing, not connecting to my mailboxes etc etc etc, the "more steps, more sequences, more buttons, and more frustration" you talk about is spot on.

This phone and the OS is a disgrace

Hi Jack,

The points which you raised are absolutely valid and theres no point in highlighting the points.

I am also too much frustrated and dont want to repeat the point again, but could help myself abusing the company

This piece of crap is worse than a bug ridden device driver - sometimnes it does not even drive the devices. And on some days the phone completely crashes. I am close to the company that provided a lot of the Qualiative Reasearch into what Nokia SOULD have produced as a flagship - their simple and very expensive recommendation was - build something that WORKS! And so as we N97 owners know ony too well - they paid their money and ignorde the advice and produced a turd - and no amount of polishing will change that. Therer is an IT project manager out there somewhere who deserves to have his balls seared with a bunson burner. Nokia's only hope is to send him to Apple to do the same damage there! As they say in the Den - I'm out - Nokia you have just lost one more loyal customer.

Ive had the phone since it came out. And i bloody wish i got rid of it. Now i've got 22months left of paying for something that im not happy about. It crashes, the app store is bollocks, it does things i dont want or tell it to, you cant recieve more than 3 songs from bluetooth without having to delete them from the TEXT MESSAGE inbox. Why are they goin there in the first place! And why can i not send pictures from my "captured" file into a new album then delete them from the captured file without the pictures being totally removed from the album aswell as the captured. I will never recommend that someone gets this phone. And for [censored] sake! why couldnt they put a better processor in! it gets soo confused and takes ages to do anything. The screen is very very very hard to see in bright light, The battery life is basically about 15-17 hours... if you use your phone. When you take a picture in the dark with the super dooper amazing flash... has anyoine noticed the actual picture turns out to have a bright circle to the left of the picture, due to the flash. It is very hard to organise your own things. And why cant i put a pin code on my phone? because theres a pin already there and i dont no it... i got the phone brand new. Why is there a pin that i dont no! surely i should no it and no1 else should! Also everytime you finish a phone call you have to wait for a pop-up that says "active diverts activated" or something like that before you can make another phone call! lol What else... if someone that has had the phone a while. If you slide it open, turn it round and look at the back of the screen on the left and right side... do you see light from the screen coming through due to the rubber stuff being rubbed off gradually. It looks like dried glue on the back of my phone! The music player is pretty . I was hoping for that sliding album covers you get on an IPhone. And the only reason i didnt get an IPhone is because i didnt wanna look like one of them bellends that have one for just the fact of having them. I thought this phone would be better. But it isnt at all. ITS SOOO CRAP! but i cant really do anything about it except wait until the contracts over... but im sure the phone will commit suicide before then! SO PEOPLE THINKING OF GETTING A NOKIA N97... DO NOT DO IT!

Nokia N97 — FAULTY CAMERA, COSMETICS

I PURCHASED MY NOKIA N97 HANDSET WORTH RS 31200. AFTER A WEEK MY HANDSET CAMERA STARTED TAKING BAD PICTURES.. I COMPLAINED TO THE NOIKA SERVICE CENTER LUCKNOW ( AYRYANS COMMUNICATION) . THEY SEND THE SEND TO DELHI HEAD OFFICE. I GOT MY HANDSET AFTER 17 DAYS. AND THE PROBLEM WAS AS IT IS. N97 IS NOKIA'S FLAFSHIP HANDSET AND SUCJ TYPE OF SERVICE IS NOT ACCEPATBLE.I REQUEST U TO TAKE NECESSARY ACTION AGAINST THEM AND HELP ME..

THANKS

YOU ARE RIGHT, THE CAMERA TAKES HAZY PICTURE WITH FLASH ON AT NIGHE..
PHONE HANGS.. NOKIA HAS DISSAPOINTED US ALL..

Nokia N97 — Defective piece

I have purchased a nokia N97 on 1.8.2009 n from that day the mobile has been sent for around 10 times to nokia care for repair n still it's with them from last 10 days n it was for rs 34000 n they have updated software twice n losing all my personel data Inc imp pics ..n phone no.....so I have suffered both monetary n personel loss from that mobile that I have purchased for 34000..n I have requested to nokia for replacement but time after time they just keep it for software updation... Pls help me to replace my mobile otherwise further action is inevitable.....

Nokia N97 — sluggish response of the company

i had given an n97 white, a euro made model, with imei [protected] for repair. the issue was the touch screen and camera which was resolved but was taken back by the company as there was some quality check failure. i had recieved a call saying that the slider had some problem and it would take about 10 days for repair. its been 12 days and i am still unaware as to where my cellphone is.
they are charging a hefty amount, fine, but atleast i should be aware of as to what is the progress. the only phone number i was provided with is either busy or nobody picks up, and its been the same since the last 4 days. i am thoroughly frustated !!!

ya, i am also feel that i did very big mistake for buting N-97.As it gives me lot of problems specially for hanging.

one of the worst phone in compare to its price.I will prefer i phone instead it.

I received my new N97 blast week and my partner got hers 3 days ago, they are now packed up and ready to go...BACK
This is the worst pnone I ve ever had, nothing works properly and the SATNAV sent me scatty as I went on and off at the same motorway exits...

Did your problem get resolved ? i am facing same issue with my N97.
Please reply. [protected]@gmail.com, [protected]

Nokia N97 — Below Standerd

Nokia's N97 is a crap I purchased for 33000.It's not worth buying a phone that Hangs atleast 10 times in 16 hrs o[censored]sage.No doubt it has a dynamic interface but the softwere is lousy.If Offered full refund i wiould like to surrender the phone.

nokia n97 does not work properly, it use to hang in every hour and also the camera quality is not upto the 5 mp.

The N97 is the biggest pile of crap I've ever owned. I've always been loyal to Nokia as the phones were always very reliable, but the N97 is awful...The faults seem endless, even after the latest updates, the ones that are really getting on my nerves are:

- Slide to answer, this works ok when you answer the call, but it's impossible to hang up, yanking the battery is the only solution
- Applications, memory full, another restart
- Phone hangs for no reason
- Battery life is absolutely appauling, less than a day
- Phone reception is dreadful, signal is always dropping
- Operating system just seems so antiquated when you compare to an iPhone
- It's not a pleasuring experience using the phone, no swish graphics, or fade in and out's, just clunk, clunk, clunk through is endless menus
- The phone unlock slider is an absolute comedy addition, how many times do you need to actually do the slider before it actually unlocks
- WHY DIDN'T I GET AN IPHONE...!!!

I agree with you...sae is happing with us.actully i brought it with othre two my officemet.you are lucy to get hanged once in 16 hrs.we are facing same almost each hrs.
BE FRANCLY WE NEVER SAW A MOBILE WORTH OF RS 33000.
SOME LOCAL CHINA MOBILE 1000TIMES G8 THAN THIS ONE