A quick impression is that it’s a solid device, with solid features. But, to me the real cool thing is the Home Screen, with widgets and stuff, basically a dashboard of activity on and off the phone. It harks back to the active contacts view on the Nokia 5800 XpressMusic, but is more fully developed.
Lots of the inspiration that led to Ovi was to bring all your infostreams and people connections into a nice usable interface and then to make that interface work on a mobile device, keeping in mind the mobile lifestyle. I think the N97 really will shine as it gets melded with the various services and apps that are created under Ovi.
See the video after the jump.
Things to look for
The video is brief, but shows the Home Screen, and how to edit it. It also shows a privacy feature to clear the Home Screen with a gesture. You can also see a video playing on the N97 in 16:9 (HD) format (video is also recorded in that format, if you want – cool). Finally, you can see how the hinge works (it’s not a slide).
Enjoy.