Nokia’s N97 Does a Savior with Firmware Upgrade

November 2, 2009

By sinha

I have been using Nokia N97 for the last few months and while my initial reaction was full of ecstasy (read: N97 review), the phone had serious usability and performance issues.

The good news is that Nokia has not yet given up on N97 (especially after N900) and has released the firmware upgrade 2.0 that brings back one’s faith in Nokia (and their credibility to stand against apple/google competition).

N97 - The Ultimate Touchscreen Phone from Nokia

One of the big pain points (apart from performance issues) of N97 was the ‘dancing’ screen, an overdose of touch/flip that would prevent you from answering any call (yes! I mean this!). The 134MB 2.0 firmware, which is currently available only via the software updater needs a mention for the simple reason that there is a significant improvement in touch screen usability, screen scrolling (kinetic scrolling).

Other updates include

Nokia Email, Ovi Contacts and Ovi Store are all integrated in the core system image.
Increased memory and battery performance
Improved image and video stability
Ovi Maps, Ovi Maps 3.1 which boasts 3 dimensional maps

Overall, Nokia brings back the punch with major (mentioned above) as well as minor updates (for instance, there are few text changes which makes the feature usage more intuitive)

All in all, N97 seems to bring back the Nokia promise. If you are a N97 user, do upgrade to 2.0 firmware (before you give up on the phone and the company).

Note: If you are on Windows7, you should run the Nokia software updater in compatibility mode.

Tags: N97

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richard on November 3, 2009 at 4:45 am

when is it available in the uk!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Nokia take the piss!

Tom Rees on November 5, 2009 at 4:27 pm

I bought mine on Monday. Very pleased with it too. Dunno what the n97 was like but the n97 mini is great.

arvind on November 3, 2009 at 10:25 am

Nokia is apparently stuck in the spiral of a GIANT company with too many processes. They have essentially killed the creativity within that others like Google, Apple and HTC are taking advantage of.