My N97 experience... not all bad

Question

When I first received my N97 at the end of June with its v10 firmware it was truly awful!
I actually went through 3 handsets in 10 days.
I experienced freezing, crashing, incorrect ringtones, slow GPS and "Out of Memory" issues constantly. I was forced, because of the low C: drive, to install widgets, themes and as many app's as possible to Mass Memory, which in turn led to problems of their own when connecting to PC Suite in anything other than PC Suite mode. I could not even install some of Nokia's own app's as they would take up the precious C: drive.
It took me quite awhile to adjust the Destinations settings, using trial and error, so that I used my home wifi and 3G whilst out.
Then, about two or three weeks later, v11 was released on Vodafone and I upgraded the firmware, using PC Suite, with no problem and was quite pleased that I did not have to reinstall everything from scratch. The only change that I noticed with v11 was that my widgets worked a little better and that my thumbnails loaded quicker. However, the phone still gave me "Out of Memory" errors, crashed and was sluggish and unresponsive to touch, sometimes requiring 3/4 taps to get it working.
Like the majority of N97 owners, I was not a happy bunny and felt ripped off when I compared the N97 to my N95 and N95 8GB. I was thoroughly cheesed off with having to go through manually clearing the browser cache every day, not being able to have theme effects on or use anything except the built in themes for fear of crashing. Also the GPS was still taking far too long to get a mediocre lock.
Then around the end of August it was announced that v12 would be launched to address some of these problems and I eagerly awaited its coming. As with all the N97 firmware releases, the Continent version was released first, this was then to be followed by the UK CV (Country Variant) at some time in the future and finally the operator branded version even later still.
It was at this point that my frustration with the N97 got the better of me and I took the decision to change the product code to the Euro one and risk voiding my warranty to get v12 that much quicker,all went surprisingly smoothly and I was able to obtain the v12 firmware weeks ahead of Vodafone's release.
The v12 firmware did bring about some minor changes but not enough to stop my handset from crashing, freezing, every now and then. I still found the phone to be sluggish and unresponsive. I was still having to spend a lot of time "nursing" it by Clearing C: drive, which was hovering around 15MB and watch my RAM usage at around 10Mb. I still could not use anything other than the built-in theme with no effects for fear of overloading the pitiful RAM.
I was also using the beta Nokia Photo Browser as this seemed to display quicker and better than the Gallery. Also, album art was a bit hit and miss although my crashes and freezes were less. To say that I was disappointed at this stage would be an understatement. I felt thoroughly cheated by Nokia who, it seemed to me, had rushed out the N97 with immature firmware just to compete with the iPhone 3GS.
I had experienced poor RAM before, with the N95, but this had been rectified to a large extent, by a firmware update. I thought about the millions of people worldwide who had purchased the N97 and had not, or could not, update the firmware and were cursing Nokia and the N97.
It would seem that Nokia had not learnt from Apple iPhone's original launch when they promised the earth and ended up refunding early adopters after pressure was brought to bear. I also despised Nokia's head in the sand approach to the lens scratching fiasco that, luckily, I have not suffered from.
By this time I was seriously considering getting rid of my N97 and moving on. It was becoming a full time job to ensure that there was enough RAM and C: drive. I was constantly having to make tradeoffs about installing certain app's and although my GPS had improved it wasn't great. I was also cheesed off using the scroll bar to go through lists and got frustrated with it on Contacts and Music, usually ending up using the Nav pad. The touch screen was still a joke with me having to constantly tap to try and get it to work.
Enough was enough!
I'd spent over a quarter of a year trying to come to terms with what was supposed to be a Nokia flagship phone costing £500 that just did not deliver.
And then I saw a preview of v20 with its kinetic scrolling and RAM and C: usage enhancements and thought I'd give the N97 one last chance.
After all, I stood to lose about half the phones cost if I tried to sell it on.
Like most of you, I waited with baited breath for the will they, won't they, release of v20.
Then, finally, it became available for my, now, unbranded Euro firmware and I jumped on it immediately.
That's where I made my first mistake, as I downloaded v20 straight away using NSU and immediately started to get freezes, crashes and rebooting. Photo's were slow and the Music library was a nightmare.
The penny then dropped, as they say, and I realised from my experiences with the N95 and N95 8GB, that with a firmware upgrade of this magnitude it was bound to cause problems if I either just upgraded or reinstalled from PC Suite backup.
I then proceeded to format both the phone and Mass Memory and reinstall everthing from scratch. Not an easy or short task I might add.
It was worth it though!
I had nearly 60MB free on C: drive, before installing themes, app's and widgets. My RAM was now 40+MB after boot up and rarely goes below 20MB.
Kinetic scrolling is a joy to use. The phone is no longer sluggish. The touch screen is very responsive. I ditched Nokia Photo Browser beta as the in-built photo's prog offered so much more. The music library is a lot better. Particularly with album art. Boot up time is quicker. Widgets are more stable, although Accuweather seem to have dropped "Current Location". My GPS achieves a more accurate, and quicker, lock than before. I experience a lot less lags. The built-in browser is a lot quicker, I can hold down a key in QWERTY to get a symbol. The speakers even sound better!
Also there was a lot of tinkering and tweaking of settings as this can make a big difference to the way the phone funtions, as we can see by the forum postings.
IMHO this was the N97 I thought I was getting in June. This is the N97 that Nokia should, and could, have released and I cannot excuse them for palming off inferior firmware.
OK, it's not perfect, but as Julia Roberts says in Pretty Woman... "it has potential".
Am I going to ditch it? The answer is no!
Because I think that v20 has gone a long way to solving a lot of the things that bugged me. It shows me what this phone is capable of. It can multi task. It can run prog's without crashing.
Some of us wax lyrical about the N95 but I remember all the complaints about the lack of RAM and it's slowness, poor camera and video. until it received it's v20 upgrade which changed the phone completely and actually put it ahead of the N95 8GB with its restricted Mass Memory.
Perhaps smart phones are becoming too smart.
We get them and fire them up, sometimes ignoring the manuals, and then shove loads of third party software on them without a thought or adjustment to settings and expect them to work perfectly. I know from my own experience that I've had to uninstall software from a handset because of conflicts or poor programming.
I know that there are delays with the release of firmware updates between the Continent, CV and operator branded handsets but this is not all down to Nokia but rather to getting country approvals and operator "adjustments".
I must stress that these are my opinions based on my usage, app's and phone model.
I understand I may come in for a lot of flak for this and I am certainly no technical genius. I'm just trying to relate my everyday experience and frustration with the N97.
As my dear old mum used to say... "Speak as you find" and I'm finding this phone a lot better than it was.
Message Edited by wildreamer on 15-Nov-2009 09:01 PM

Answer 1

I have had a very similar experience with the N97 and agree that now with firmware v20 the phone is just usable. It's ridiculous that to get to this point we've had to put so much work into researching solutions, resetting the phone multiple times, formatting the mass memory, reloading media and maps (also multiple times), uninstalling and reinstalling apps, and installing and reinstalling firmware updates. My wife jokingly said to me that I'd spent more time trying to get the phone running than actually using it. The sad thing is that this is pretty much true and no matter how well the phone works I will always remember the first four months of very sub par performance.
IMHO if Nokia hadn't skimped on the memory for the RAM and c drive the N97 would have suffered from a lot less problems. Also instead of spending four months trying to resolve these memory issues in the development for the v20 firmware release, they could have focussed on the multitude of other bugs. And how much do you think Nokia saved by skimping, maybe a few dollars per handset. Contrast this with how much bad publicity they have received over the N97 as well as the bad experience for people who spent US $700 for a flagship device.
Added to all these faults is the poor way that Nokia have handled this. From the head in the sand approach to the camera lens scratches and poor GPS, to the lack of Mac support, and to the complete denial that there is even a problem.
Nokia's official support is also problematic, the user to user forum is good but it should not be a replacement for official support pages (the device support pages only provide the product guide and link to the discussions forum) and getting anything other than form responses and incorrect information from the Nokia Customer Care makes this service a complete waste of time.
Will I sell my N97? No, not for the moment.
Can I recommend the N97? No!
Can I recommend any Nokia product? No!
Nokia N97 (RM-507) v 22
iPhone 4 (Coming Soon) - Lemon N97 - SE - Nokia 8210 - Nokia 7710 - Nokia 5100