The Nokia N97 is the very latest "mobile computer" from Nokia. The successor to the N95, it includes Symbian OS 9.4 with S60 v5, a resistive touchscreen, 640x360 resolution 3.5" 16:9 screen, 5 megapixel camera with Carl Zeiss Tessar lens, an accelerometer, digital compass, QWERTY keyboard and 32GB of internal mass memory.

To clear up some confusion, Symbian is the underlying operating system, and S60 is the name of the Graphical User Interface. Similar to Linux 2.6.x and KDE 3.5 if you are familiar with Linux.

I'm not one to pay much attention to the unit dimensions before purchasing. I first saw the Nokia N97 with my own eyes when a store clerk opened a box so I could have a look. The first thing I noticed was that the phone looks like a phone. It's attractive, and slimmer than the N95 which always looked like a small brick to me.

The internal speaker quality is slightly less than that of the N95, but no-one expects good quality sound from a phone's internal speakers anyway. The volume is still quite loud, the sound quality is fine, and not any less than I expected.

The N97 retails at $1129.00 and is currently available at Crazy Johns, Telechoice and some Optus & Vodafone stores.

There are two flavours of the N97 being sold in Australia, the N97-1 (APAC version), and the N97-2 (NAM version). The N97-2 is like the N95-3, in that it supports 850mhz UTMS, but dropping 900mhz UTMS support. Unlike the N95-3, the N97-2 does not drop 2100mhz UTMS support, and both the N97-1 and N97-2 have 1900mhz and 2100mhz UTMS support. Telstra's NextG network operates on the 850mhz UTMS band.

An awkwardly designed stylus comes with the phone. It is flat and rectangular, though as long as a regular stylus. The tip is shaped like an arrow.

The N97 comes with a screen protector already applied. Using the stylus causes permanent marks and indentations even if you are very careful not to try to scratch the screen. I have replaced the screen protector with a better quality one, though still a cheap Chinese brand, and using the stylus is no-where near as bad with this new screen protector.

The main screen of this phone, named the "Home Screen", can have up to 5 "widgets" attached. These widgets are little rectangular boxes of updating information such as a clock, news ticker, e-mail display, music player or the weather. New widgets can be downloaded from the Ovi Store, but may cost you some money. Widgets can also be moved around on the Home Screen on a grid, allowing you to choose where to place each widget. As of the current firmware (11.0.021), the clock is permanent. Swiping your finger across the homescreen will hide all of the widgets allowing you to see your wallpaper clearly, and you can swipe again to bring them all back.

The phone features vibration feedback enabled by default. When tapping on the screen, the phone will vibrate. Some may find it more comfortable with this on, and other may find it annoying. I have left it on.

To access the QWERTY keyboard, the phone flips out and tilts up on a nice 45 degree angle (a guess). This is where you will find the microphone underneath the spacebar. It is an awkward position to put the microphone, in my opinion, but it does the job and no-one has complained of not being able to hear me when the phone is slid shut.

The keyboard features a shift key, all 26 letters of the alphabet in a QWERTY arrangement, the spacebar is in the position of where the "ALT" key is on a standard keyboard, but it is not annoying, and seems the logical place for it. Backspace and Enter are present, and numbers are available by using a key which works much like an "ALT" key.

Also to the left of the keyboard is the standard "joystick". Up, down, left, right and a centre button like that on the N95.

The camera is the same as that on the N95, but the flash is of a higher quality with two bright LEDs instead of just one. The lens cover is square and slid open with a finger, and in my opinion, much nicer than the N95.

The N97 can record in 640x480 4:3 and 640x360 16:9 widescreen at 30 frames per second. Some refer to this as DVD quality. It is quite good for a phone, and even produces better quality recordings than some 8mm Handycams, but is not quite DVD quality. Digital zoom capability is present in both picture and video mode. All features you're likely to find on a standard digital camera, such as red-eye reduction, exposure settings, colour adjustment, white balance and contrast control are present, although macro mode is missing, naturally.

With 32GB of internal mass storage memory, you are likely to never need an SDHC card, but a slot is available if you choose to use one.

Just like the N95 and previous Nokia models, the Phone Switch application is present allowing you to copy all contacts, notes, SMS messages, calendar appointments and To-Do lists in a single step from one phone to another.

The back battery cover, unlike nearly all other phones I have encountered, does not slide open. It instead clicks in at several positions around the base. To remove the cover, you tear it off starting from the bottom of the phone. I don't particularly like the way the back cover clips on, but i'm sure i'll get used to it.

Near the earpiece is a proximity sensor. This stops the phone from registering taps if it rubs against your ear during a call.

A nice improvement on my previous N95, is the ability to charge the phone via a USB connection. This makes travelling a lot easier. The box comes with a USB wall charger, standard USB cord to charge via computer or for accessing data, and an adaptor that converts 2 different styles of Nokia chargers to USB. The adaptor is useful for already existing Nokia car chargers.

The stylus or a wrist strap can be attached to the base of the phone, though having the stylus permanently attached may scratch the screen (protector) when carried around in your pocket or handbag.

The Nokia N97 has the ability to read e-mail messages and SMS messages aloud, in a robotic, yet non-monotonous voice. It seems like a gimmick, but could be useful for some people.

A new feature (since the N95) is the ability to set up Access Point zones called "Destinations". When selecting an access point, no longer does the phone list choices such as "VF AU Internet", "Optus Streaming" or "Telstra MMS" etc.. Instead there are zones such as "Internet", "WAP services" and "Multimedia msg.". Each zone can have multiple access points, in order of priority.

As an example, when opening the web browser, the "Internet" destination will be used, and depending on where you are, it may use your home WiFi or 3G connection, depending on the priority chosen for that destination.

The phone also seems to play nice with SSIDs of the same name. If you and your friend both have the same SSID but different security settings, it should not cause problems to configure both networks in the phone.

A digital compass is also present, for use with Nokia Maps. After calibrating the compass by rotating the phone in a figure eight motion, the compass icon turns green, and the map will rotate as you rotate. This is useful, as you no longer have to calculate a route to have the map rotate for you when walking or driving. Unfortunately the compass needs to be calibrated every time Nokia Maps is loaded.

I must talk about the negative aspects of the phone. One beloved feature of the N95, E71, 6220c and many more is the built-in VoIP client which works over SIP. Though the SIP settings can be configured in the N97, the VoIP client is no-where to be seen, forcing you to use applications such as Fring or Nimbuzz instead. Hopefully the VoIP client will come in a future firmware update.

Answering calls while the phone is locked is rather annoying. Pressing the green answer button does nothing, and tapping the answer button also does nothing. Both work when the phone is unlocked. You can either unlock the phone while it is ringing, or otherwise the only way to answer the call is through a swiping motion, left to right, over the "Answer" button on the screen. An animation shows you what to do, but it is unclear unless having read the manual.

Transitional effects are disabled by default, but once turned on in the theme settings, are limited to a fading effect when rotating the phone and sliding motion when moving up and down in menus.

With transition effects enabled, and 5 widgets running, the phone has little memory left. After a couple of applications are opened, such as the web browser and GPS software, the phone will automatically close non-system software to free up memory.

At this time, I have not tested the earphones and TV-out feature. The review may be updated shortly to include a review on those parts of the phone.

In summary, a worthwhile purchase for the QWERTY keyboard, touchscreen, large viewing screen and access point priorities. I expect the price to fall starting next year. $1129 RRP is a bit steep, but the phone can be found for $999 at Telechoice.