Nokia N97

Nokia has announced the Nokia N97 yesterday and already people are wondering if it has the feature set to become an iPhone, Blackberry and Google Phone killer all rolled into one.

With a 5 megapixel camera, HSDPA and qwerty keyboard it beats the iPhone in terms of features hands down. For mainstream users who want a decent camera and Blackberry/Google Phone style keyboards this is a dream device.

Nokia expects the handset with a large touch screen, retailing for 550 euros ($693) before taxes and subsidies and due to reach market in the first half of 2009 will bolster its N-Series smartphone offering.

Here’s a run-down of the specs: tri-band HSDPA 3G support; 802.11b/g Wi-Fi; aGPS and stand alone GPS; 3.5-inch touch resistive touch screen that measures 640 x 360 pixels in a 16:9 widescreen format; 32GB of built-in memory, with support for another 16GB with the addition of a microSD card; 5 megapixel camera with Carl Zeiss optics, LED flash and video capture at 30 frames per second; on-board accelerometer and compass; and support for Flash Lite 3.0 and Flash Video in the browser. Not bad. Not bad at all.

As for the hardware, the preview units we saw were literally built by hand and the product managers couldn’t stress enough that they are many generations away from being final. That said, the hardware was very good. The hinge that slides the top half of the phone open was solid and had no side-to-side play. The keyboard was spacious and comfortable to type on. The buttons all felt good, and the materials were quality all around.

See video of this product.