Nokia N97 Previewed

The Nokia N97 may still be six months away, but that hasn't stopped Mobile-Review from putting together a fiendishly comprehensive "preview" of the QWERTY smartphone.  They've found the touchscreen handset to be sturdy and robust, with a solid hinge and, thanks to the elongated casing, a narrow feel in the hand.  The display comes in for compliments, too, both for its quality and finger-friendliness.

The offset spacebar looks to be a bizarre ergonomic decision, but thankfully the handset doesn't crawl in use.  That's down to the lashings of RAM (unconfirmed, but expected to be in excess of 128MB) and 369 MHz ARM11 processor.

Of course, they're calling this a preview and not a review, and so the conclusions shouldn't be taken as Gospel until the production handsets emerge.  The overriding impression seems to be that the N97 makes most sense when you consider it as an integrated package of device and services, and for that we'll need to wait until Nokia finish rolling out their online provisions.