Nokia 97 Photos and Hands On: Here in the Philippines!

The Nokia N97 will be available in the Philippines in the second half of 2009.

Ladies and gentlemen, presenting the Nokia N97, dubbed by the Finns as their most advanced phone in their stable. And it’s here in the Philippines but sadly, not available publicly yet. I did ask, but Nokia still does not have a SRP for the Philippine market.

Let’s do this! Photo overload follows!

I spent about an hour with the phone over lunch and apart from the photos, I was given a sneak peek into the latest S60 interface. The phone being demoed is a prototype so my first impressions are really just that — impressions based on how the N97 feels in your hand, the basic UI and other experiences that make the N97 what it is.

From the press photos, the Nokia N97 seems heavy, maybe because it resembles a lot of the Communicator series which were really big and bulky — fit for the total executive. Surprisingly, the N97 isn’t as big as I thought it was and it is amazingly light. If you’ve ever owned a Nokia N82, you’ll know what I mean. The front side of the screen has three buttons – two for calls and a slanted button which is used to access the newly animated menu with “Dissolve” and “Genie” effects. There’s a secondary camera located on the unit’s upper left hand side.

As you can see from the photos, the N97 is pretty much a minimalist when it comes to UI buttons. Using the phone with just the touch screen feels exactly like the 5800 experience. When you open up the phone to reveal the QWERTY keypad, you’re treated with a compact keyboard that still leaves you with space to move your fingers around. The D pad is now controlled by your left hand and the space bar, by no choice, is on the right side, not at the bottom of the keys.

Below is the size comparison of the N97 with my Nokia E71.

In my next post, we will talk about the new home screen, camera functions and first impressions conclusion. Join me here for the second part.