if connected

The Nokia N97 is currently Nokia’s flagship phone for consumers. Key features are a large touch screen, sideways sliding qwerty keyboard, five megapixel camera and Symbian Series 50 5th Edition.

Somehow, Nokia appear to have convinced themselves that simply because the N97 is the current flagship, and the N95 8Gb was last year’s flagship, that owners of the latter should buy the N97. See the imagery below which also matches my impressions after talking with Nokia product managers.

Nokia phone upgrade positioning, summer 2009

I don’t buy it. The N95 8Gb was famous for its dual-slider mechanism and easy access music playback controls. The N95 is completely controllable one-handed, with the N97 it’s a struggle. N95 buyers were attracted by what was, at the time, a state of the art camera, but today’s top end phones have eight or twelve megapixels, not the five of the N97. The N97′s features and form factor are simply not a clear evolution from the N95.

Ironically, there is a model in Nokia’s current line-up that is the clear heir of the N95, but Nokia are not choosing to market it that way. The N86 has a near identical form factor to the N95, a better eight megapixel camera with variable aperture, and it has the same neat music control buttons. Like the N95, it runs Series 60 3rd edition and is completely controllable one-handed.

The N97 has had a lot of criticism. Most is deserved. But if Nokia had presented the N97 more modestly rather than as the all conquering flagship heir to the N95, I suspect the many critiques would have been more measured, and reviewers would have given Nokia a little slack.