[Ottoman]

@ froschy

i did hard reset a thousand times, and sent my phone to nokia care point!

if i switch on the phone in offline mode, no problem occurs, when i selected general mode, then phone sometimes restarts itself, i cleaned the sim car with alcohol, do you think there could be a problem with hardware? Since i bought my cell phone from abroad (not eu country), guarantee is invalid, WHY?Many famous brands provide international guarante, why dont you provide so ?

i m really angry with nokia :@

[froschy]

@ Ottoman - Maybe there is a hardware problem but really it's impossible for me to know and as you took it into a Nokia Care Point and they couldn't fix it for you it sounds unlikely.

I had a lot more problems when I originally updated the firmware to v20 without doing a hard reset. Only after a couple of days of frustration I decided to completely rebuild the phone and this resolved a lot of these problems, the phone is not perfect but it's pretty much usable and only requires me to restart it about once a day. The process I used is as follows and although I know you have tried many hard resets you may want to try this process (if you haven't already) as it sounds like you have nothing to lose:

1. Backup your data (not settings)

2. Uninstall all applications/widgets

3. Format the mass memory (e: drive)

4. Hard reset the phone

5. Reinstall the v20 firmware

6. Hard reset the phone

Before you reload your PIM data, media, maps and re-install the apps make sure that you test the phone to see if this process has helped. Then just do one thing at a time and test thoroughly before the next, when you get to re-installing the apps avoid any beta applications and any ones that you think might be dodgy, then just install one app at a time with thorough testing in between.

I hope this helps! 

[cebndan]

I would like to see:

-If someone calls me, his phone number is recorderd in the call registry. Then, I assign that phone number a name. But that name is not shown in the registry call. I would like to see that name in the call log, instead of the phone number.

-A "two step" boot. That's to say, the time to boot the phone is, in my opinion, too large. If I have the phone turned off and want to make a call urgently, there could be a way to boot up the phone in two steps. First one, a fast boot that let me make a call. Then, the rest of the features will be loaded.

(sorry for my not perfect english)

[froschy]

OK Nokia we've waited long enough for a phone that works as advertised, time to either release the v2.1 firmware or explain the delay.

[timmyjo]

WOW, so if the update comes out today, we can blame Froschy for not "OKing" it sooner......

[froschy]

lolz, just trying to express my righteous indignation.

Wrote this using my N97, man the browser is slow and having to wait for the page to fully load is so frustrating. It's like watching paint dry.

[Ottoman]

who is the official expert of nokia on this discussion page?

i hope nokia solves out the problems soon (in a month)

[froschy]

As far as I can remember no Nokia employee has posted on this thread.

You can tell that they are an official Nokia employee by the blue Nokia badge next to their user name.

Hope this helps! 

[froschy]

Just a little off topic but given this thread has already deteriorated I thought that I would provide some commentary on the N97 as it currently sits with the v2.0 firmware. 

Through frustration caused by the poor performance of features/functions of this device I have come to the conclusion that the N97 is the penultimate jack of all trades, master of none. Does anybody disagree with me?

The phone function:

This is OK but I have had several instance where I was unable to make a phone call until I restarted the device and due to the slowness of the auto-rotation I have missed several phone calls while the screen orients itself. I have now turned the auto-rotation off to resolve this but this is a less than acceptable solution as I now have to open the keyboard to use the phone in landscape mode.

The web browser:

This is so slow that I have basically stopped using it and having to wait for the entire page to load before you can scroll is like watching paint dry. The opera browser is pretty good but fairly unusable on the N97 due to the lack of RAM and NAND memory, and the inability to set it as the default browser.

Multi-tasking:

What a joke, any memory intensive app requires all the other apps to close before it will run and when the phone can actually handle several apps it slows down so much that it's probably better to close everything else anyway.

The music player:

Another function with a very poor UI and several quirks, this might have been acceptable on a device released in 2000 but compared to all of the other great music players/devices on the market since 2000 it's just laughable.

The homescreen with widgets:

This is such a great idea but so poorly implemented and crippled by the slow CPU and lack of RAM. I can't count the number of times I have wanted to check some information off a widget only to find that it has stopped refreshing or even completely frozen. Best case scenario it just requires a manual refresh but often it requires the widget to be removed and re-added back to the homescreen, unfortunately sometimes it requires completely uninstalling and re-installing the widget.

The photo album:

This is another app that is really slow and very memory intensive (causing the phone to close down other apps to free up memory), also when compared to the competition the UI is very dated.

The calendar:

Again dated UI and not touch friendly at all.

Messaging:

Again slow and the built-in email client lacks proper support for viewing HTML. Nokia messaging is a little better but it doesn't integrate properly into the phone.

Navigation:

Even with the GPS antennae fix and using Skyhook's Map Booster the GPS position jumps all over the place, I definitely wouldn't use it in a car and can't justify using it for pedestrian navigation due to the outrageous licence fee.

The Video player:

On the rare occasions that I have used this either the phone doesn't support the video format or the playback has stuttered (this includes videos downloaded from the Ovi Store).

The physical keyboard:

I actually quite like this but definitely think it would have benefitted from have dedicated copy/paste keys and I can't understand why Nokia got rid of the virtual keyboard as you don't always want to use the physical keyboard to tap out one or two words and the t9 input is too slow. There is certainly enough room on the screen to accommodate a virtual qwerty keyboard in both the portrait and landscape modes.

Skype:

Promised but not delivered, enough said. 

I'm sure there are many more examples of the phone being a jack off all trades, master of none. In the end most of these problems probably could have been sorted out through software updates if Nokia hadn't crippled the device through poor choices in the CPU, RAM and NAND memory. I guess the best we can hope for is some stability and performance improvements that make the phone reliable enough to use until we purchase our next phone. For me this is currently not looking like being a Nokia device (unless the company really changes their modus operandi) maybe the Nexus Two (?) or the iPhone 4G (?).

[ravidavi]

froschy, in order to be a "jack of all trades, master of none" one must first be pretty good at everything (but not amazingly great at any one thing).  From your own description, it seems like the N97 is subpar at most things, and only decent at a few things.  This brings it waaay down from "jack of all trades" to "just plain bad."

Ravi

Message Edited by ravidavi on 12-Jan-2010 10:05 PM

[snoFlake]

Been reading this forum for long while as another delighted N97 owner(mug):

froschy I think you've pretty much nailed it, the hardware skinflinting descisions made by Nokia have crippled this device's potential  and nothing they can do will stop it runnng like a donkey. All we can hope for is some stability (for example I  am experiencing a large number of dropped calls, 50% of calls over 10 mins I would say, and this should be fixable). Everything else and everything we were sold/promised is off the table. I'm sure the poor softwareengineers who no doubt had no input into the crass choices are sick of explaining to the product managers that you can't make an all singing dancing active homescreen multi media beast running on an abacus (actually in the right hands they can be very fast so wrong analogy).I'm also personally amazed at how bad S60/ SF^x is having just attrributed most ctiticism before to fanboi flame wars but even compared to UIQ it really is poor I guess maybe against earlier WM versions it was better but even that is better and more stable now. Against modern OS's it's like using DOS. The reviews I read (and there were lots) really gave no idea of what a nightmare owning this device would be I guess becasue they don't have long enough with them and are too tolerant of early fimware faults and always pass them off with a "I'm sure thius will be fixed", problem was the biggest issue was the hardware and they couldn't patch that. So enter the Lemon.

The platform cannot handle SF^2 which is effectively what we bought into with the N97, end of discussion and game over. I fully anticipate that Nokia will quietly walk away from these devices having realised this and are focusing efforts on devices that they can affect ie future ones. It makes sense in business terms after all they've been flogging away for 7 months since release and it wasn't released for 7 months afetr announcement and wasn't substantially different to 5800 which was out in Nov/Dec 2008. So if in 15 months they can't get it working doesn't look to me like there's much hope. They also have the N900 and SF^3which they're pinning many hopes on to take up there time and manpower resources now.

What the effect of having lumbered your loyalest high end customers with such a terrible device only time will tell but the Sony Ericsson P990 fiasco was a pressager of all the troubles SE are in today. I for one will almost certainly not get a Nokia as my next device and I have spent the last 4 months warning off friends and family from doing so. The new Google phone although not bringing much new apart from a new sales channel is a heavyweight threat with the backing of Google and there are rumours that the iPhone 4G release may be brought up to Apri. I haven't seen a single other N97 in use, just under 50% of my frinds have iPhones and I reckon 25-30% of any Tube (subway in London) carriage has iPhones out. 

Nokia are in big big trouble and they've just kneed their early dopters in the groin - SF^3 or SF^4 no thanks I'll try a handset that works next time - I can't afford to throw this sort of money down the bin.

If Nokia want a bit of throw away advice the only way I can see substabtial numbers of N97 owners coming back (actually many cos they is geeks/early adopters have gone already which is why resale values are so dismal for 6 month old device) is if they offer a 20-25% discount off next flagship or first SF^4 device for all N97 owners bring N97 in for discount - Nokia Environmental Scrapage Scheme , get the N97 off the roads. That could have some impact for those of us trapped by our contracts with this hunk of junk.

[snoFlake]

Just to add that Nokia have so little faith in the N97 "Classic" their alledged Symbian Flagship and alledged consumer not enthusiasts Flagship that they didn't seemingly include it on their stand at CES in Las Vegas. Instead they were showing the N900 (which is a great phone and idea but not ready or designed for broad consumer adoption in my view and Nokia's own statements) and the N97's junior (although improved and much better) version the Mini. The Mini whilst improving on the N97 (and tacitly admitting the stupidity of the inadequate C: by having double the N97's) was not properly fixed i.e. processor still weak and RAM should've been doubled (I think originally it was intended to be £100+ cheaper but had to be upspecc'd to fill in for N97 "Classic" disaster) however it couldn't be because would've made the N97 look ridiculous (well more ridiculous) only 3 months after release.

So Nokia now have a Flagship - the N900 that wasn't intended for broad consumer adoption and whilst intrigiuing and with some great features is very much a work in  progress and a Symbian Multimedia de facto Flagship the N97mini that was deliberately hobbled so as not to make it's "Senior" sibling obsolete.

What a farce!

[maverik_77]

Following the news for a few weeks now i am getting a gloomy picture of Nokia's future. The N97 was dropped from most operators when N97 mini was released citing high number of returns. Now it is announced that Orange UK is dropping N97 mini from its lineup because of more than 20% returns.

This makes the people owning N97 and N97 mini like me jokers.

I feel it is time Nokia takes some responsibility and give something back to its customers instead of hiding the head like an ostrich.

As days pass by i am getting more and more fustrated with my N97...

[froschy]

@ ravidavi - I probably shouldn't have used such an English term as "Jack of all trades, master of none", understandably it is probably not clear if you have not heard of this term before. It actually means to be able to do a little of everything but to not be good any one of these things. IMHO this term fits the N97 perfectly and to be quite frank I expected more from a device that I paid US $700 for.

Message Edited by froschy on 13-Jan-2010 11:23 AM

[froschy]

@ snoFlake - Some really good points, especially

---

... a Symbian Multimedia de facto Flagship the N97mini that was deliberately hobbled so as not to make it's "Senior" sibling obsolete.

What a farce!

---

It's so bizarre, Nokia must have known all of the faults with the N97 and like you say rather than fix these problems in the N97 mini they decided to hobble it so as to not make it a better phone than the more expensive N97. If they had put decent hardware in the N97 Mini they could have then offered N97 owners a rebate/exchange program for the N97 mini and salvaged some of their brand reputation.

Unfortunately I still don't think Nokia have accepted that the N97/N97 mini was a huge debacle as they have again released another phone (the X6) with the same slow CPU and just 128 MB of RAM. IMHO why bother release another device if it's no better than all the phones you already have on the market, just a different form factor to add to their ridiculously large portfolio of phones.

[dodo85]

Is there anyone out there who could make FM transmitter work? If so then please tell me step by step. Because i've tried it several times and it doesn't work well.... Or i can use it only when there's no broadcasting channel? I mean i need to find an empty channel when nothing broadcasting? I had n85 before and it was working fine, no problem! Even if there was a broadcasting... Please help me in this! Thank you very much! And oh yeah, i hope Nokia will come out with a better firmware to fix several bugs cuz it really lacks, has a lot of problem!

[timmyjo]

Not much left to say here, it's just turning into a "whinefest" at this point. There's pretty much two choices; stick it out and wait for more firmware, or sell it for 3 to 4 hundred on Ebay. I'm giving the one last shot to new firmware. I think all the Nokia devices mentioned will eventually function adequately. It's what they do. Why they do it this way, I have no idea. I've had MANY high end smartphones. Being an "early adopter" can be a hit or miss thing. I usually get less than a year out of a phone. I sell for over half my cost, and go on the next "great thing". TRUE smartphones seem to always need tinkering, and seldom seem to work as they should. It seems a lot of N97 owners are not up to the task. Go get an Iphony. That's like comparing apples to oranges.

[snoFlake]

Yeah you might want to lower your price expectations, more like £250 tops (mint) on ebay and £175 at the recyclers (mazuma, enviro etc) which is why I'm sticking it out as am stuck on contract and can't justify dropping £250 and price of new handeset £400+ in 5 months, this was budgeted to amortise over 2 years ish for me.

[bowardsen]

V40 is out for 5800, maybe that v21 comes out soon for us flagshipowners...

[St3ph3n]

Yea i hope so, Nokia's been giving out three firmware updates already i think