Wow excellent review, very detailed. I think we now have a first contender for the maemo member reviewer for the Rover!

Rover? What's that? And if Nokia has something else they'd like to throw my way for review, I'm game for it. I haven't asked them though cause I've been working on a lot of other projects lately. The nice part is, my platter should clear out again here by the end of June. It's just that I've had like a whole list of reviews, school stuff, magazine articles, family events, graduations, outings, conventions, and God knows what else hitting me. Thankfully those are almost done. So I'll finally have freetime again to start doing more hardware reviews.

The only thing I need to figure out now is what they have that's within my review scope. I can't do straight up phones as I don't have a phone service via which I can test them, but stuff like the n810 I can do. Ah well, guess I'll have to do some digging and then hit them up via email if I find something. Well, unless of course they hit me up first with something interesting.

I'm officially ready for a review of the thing in Italian, even in verses if needed

I received my white N97 NAM yesterday and spent about four hours last night trying to get it set up and data migrated from my Nokia 9300 which I have dearly loved for 3+ years.

First impressions:

Out of the box, worked with just a SIM card change.

A good bit of learning curve between Symbian 80 (Nokia 9300) to Symbian 60, but it's coming along.

I am a little disappointed in the setup complexity, but heck it's a pretty complex device (which means that it is probably NOT for your rank and file casual user!).

Feature-wise--the built-in software is an order of magnitude less functional than that on my Nokia 9300. I feel like I took a step backwards (see my more detailed comments in the All About Symbian N97 forum). Perhaps that's why Nokia is not pushing the N97 as a PDA phone. Maybe there's some aftermarket software that can make up the difference?

Camera evaluation: SUPERB on the 5.1 MP!!! 5 stars! On the forward-facing camera--it's a heck of a lot better than either of my two N800's. Camera button is a nuisance when you are using the keyboard and go to pick the N97 up--it triggers the camera applet. Going to have to get used to not grabbing it where the button gets depressed.

Web surfing experience? I guess I'm spoiled with the microb browser in my N800's and the Opera browser in my 9300. I did read in a review that Skyfire works on the N97 and it promises to give a "PC-like experience". I'll try that next week.

Meanwhile...back to migrating data. The built-in SYNC applet did NOT bring all of my contact data over. Let me elaborate...part of the data associated with each contact was brought over--in all about 60%, but none of the thumbnail pictures came over. Looks like I have a lot of work ahead of me as I have 128 contacts with lots of different phones, emails and addresses, birthdates, etc.
At least the PC Suite will let me type this information in on my desktop PC as the N97 keyboard is a might tedious.

About that keyboard...it took a little getting used to, but considering the space it fits in, it is pretty nice. Space key is not a big of problem as I thought it would be. The D-button for navigating is a might touchy--a slight touch and you've changed fields from where you wanted to go. Maybe my fingers are too big?

More comment reviews later.

This was my same feeling when I went from the 9500 Communicator to the E90. The S60 gui is poor and clumsy in comparison to that of the now buried series 80. Too bad Nokia didn't push an evolution of the good things they had but pursued an involution towards the myth of the one-thumb interface, one-menu-fits-all.

As regards browser, may I suggest you the Bolt Browser which is quicker and more accurate than Skyfire in my experience on the E90.

Verses ? Knowing the sentiment around here, that would be haiku !