Nokia N97 in the Queue

UPDATED 20 June 2009: O2 network engineers tell me they've finished certifying the N97 for use in Ireland and that means the price plans should be sorted out by early July with the phone appearing in O2-Irleand sales channels in mid-August 2009.

THOSE WHO KNOW ME understand I like my phones to weigh in around 140 grams so news of the 150 gram Nokia N97 comes as a bright sunrise spills over Dublin. I need my mobile phones to double as ultaportable computers and the N97 does that. It offers a fl QWERTY keyboard, a 3.5" touchscreen and 32 GB of on-board memory. This beast (at left in a photo by Jonathan Greene) has both the 5 Megapixel camera optics and the storage space to record a ful work day of video without saving onto removeable memory. Although its micro SD slot can take a 16 GB card if needed.

Like my Nokia E90, the N97 has GPS (handy for geotagging photos and pushing them with a singlw click to Flickr or Ovi), HSDPA, Wifi, and the standard array og GSM antennas to ensure it works in where I travel in Europe, Asia and North America. I appreciate its TV-out jack and its 16 x 9 aspect ratio for 640 x 360 playback on the device. I'm waiting to see how the N97 processor handles 720p movie clips because in an ideal world, I could swap SD movie cards between the N97 and my PVR at home.

A world of social networking widgets sits on the N97's desktop, making this 2009 multimedia device a compelling part of my online working world. I expect to get the Nokia N97 from my O2 channel partner before St Patrick's Day, but I may have to pay up to €900, its unsubsidised price. [UPDATE: The Communication People in Thurles (Co Tipperary) tell me it will be late summer 2009 before they see the product and I might be able to get it over their counter for less than €600).

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Information glened from text messages sent to my phone by @atmasphere on Jaiku, where some guys aren't too excited.
Sent mail2blog using Nokia E90 O2-3G Typepad services in the Dublin Institute of Technology.

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