The reports of Maemo's demise are greatly exaggerated.

Looks like I got the tilt screen I wanted :-)

The keyboard layout doesn't thrill me though.

And, of course, the lack of Maemo doesn't thrill me either.

open platform?

whos gonna be the first to port maemo to it?

Dual-boot?

OS X? Maybe?

What we know is that N97 is in a category of devices called by Nokia "mobile computers". Maemo 5 is designed for devices in the same category. Maemo 5 is targeting OMAP3 processors which deliver 3 times the performance than ARM11 processors many smartphones use today, according to ARM. At 500 to 600 MHz clock speed, it will feel like 900 MHz due to Cortex architecture, beating (at least on specification level) the recently launched "most powerful smartphone with 800Mhz).

Data sheet.

Nokia just learned from N8x0 and iPhone. What is wrong with that?

It has plenty of storage. 32 GB on-board and 16 GB expansion with microSD. Total of 48 GB!

Unlike any N-Series (phones or Symbian) it has a touchscreen. This is the high-end touch screen phone which was rumoured about.

Traditionally, it has a (quality) camera. It has all the common connectivity protocols (from GSM and GRPS to HSPA and WiFi). It has working A-GPS and GPS with an actually usable navigation suite (Nokia Maps). Unlike iPhone it supports BlueTooth (such as A2DP). It has a foldable hardware keyboard. Lack of accelerometer is a bummer though, but on the video it looked like it had one? The screen is smaller than the N8x0, 16M colours 'only'. What processor will it use?

AFAIK this will be the first phone which doesn't run on RIM, iPhone or Windows Mobile, has a touch screen, will run Qt software, and is an open platform. Next to the very open Maemo it'd be the best of sliced bread afaict.

Have you looked at the equivelant of 'applets'? Looks nice and easy to manage. Unlike the way the work on Maemo...

The only thing is that its a phone, and it doesn't run Linux, so you folks dig it. Pfff.

Won't matter though. It'll be very popular. And usability wise it shows the stage where Nokia is at. So that is promising IMO. I wait till I know more about applications it runs.

Did you throw Qt in there just to eliminate Android and the G1? :-)

Doesn't run RIM, iPhone, or WinMo? check.
Has a touch screen? check.
will run Qt? (does Symbian have Qt yet? I didn't think it did)
Open platform? as open as Symbian, so check.

And, frankly, I don't care about Qt compatibility :-}

It's a nice step for Nokia, but it's still not what I want.

Better keyboard layout*, Maemo, T-Mobile USA 3G, Dalvik. While retaining S60's tethering features (for use with my netbook). Those are what I'd want added on to this device, in order for it to impress me.

(* I question using that keyboard for Maemo's linux layer, or even for SSH on S60; and I hope it has a feel more like the E71 and less like the N810)

Yes . Ehh, well, I don't like a vendor lock-in by Apple. I try to stay away from Google as well. I don't want to host my data on Google.

Unlike iPhone it has multi-tasking.

It is also the first N-Series (phone/Symbian) having a QWERTY keyboard, being aimed at consumers (although the E71 was also popular in the consumer market).

It looks like a modern Nokia Communicator

Here is another demo.

Difference between N95 and N96 was minor, N96 isn't very popular. (It has many + and - compared to N95-1 and N95-2, but in general this doesn't justify the price difference N95-1 and N95-2 being 1+ year old.)

IMO: a good direction Nokia is heading into.

I too would like to see something nice on T-Mo's 3G. Stupid T-Mo folks just had to have their own friggin' frequency. Couldn't share with AT&T like the European carriers share frequencies. You don't see VodaFone, O2, Era, Orange, T-Mo DE/UK, etc each with their own friggin frequencies.

I almost hate T-Mobile for this.