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The Nokia N97 comes with a gorgeous 3.5″ touchscreen that’s great for touch input. But the Pièce de résistance of the N97 is the Qwerty Keyboard that slides out from under the screen.
Just how good is this touchscreen & Qwerty keyboard for text input ? Read on to find out.
Note: The Nokia N97 used in this review is on firmware v11.0.021 which was the latest firmware at the time of this post.
As we said before, the N97 comes to a couple methods of Text Input at the moment. There’s the Alphanumeric Onscreen Keyboard, Handwriting recognition and of course, the Slide out Qwerty Keyboard.
Using the TouchScreen :
The N97 basically has the same Alphanumeric Keyboard and Handwriting recognition as the Nokia 5800.
Since we’ve talked about this in detail before, we wont go over it again. The Text Messaging application in the N97 is almost completely identical to the 5800 version.
As expected, there’s the Alphanumeric keyboard.
There’s also predictive text (aka T9) if you wish to use that. I remember using this mode a lot more on the 5800 than the on-screen Qwerty keyboard (which the 5800 has, and the N97 doesnt).
And there’s also Handwriting recognition, for which you probably do need to use the stylus, or perhaps the tip of your nails.
With both these modes being present, its a shame the onscreen Qwerty Keyboard was removed, although the fact that there’s a hardware keyboard right there more than compensates for it. Still, would have been nice to have it, for those rare occasions when you might not want to slide out the Full Qwerty Keyboard.
When it comes to sensitivity, the N97′s touchscreen does a good enough job. Its way more sensitive to touch than the 5800′s screen, but the resistive touchscreen is still leagues behind a capacitive touchscreen (like the iPhone, Samsung Omnia HD, etc).
Using the Qwerty Keyboard :
When I received the N97, the first thing I did (after switching it on) was slide out that Qwerty Keyboard to get a feel of it.
The Phone “fits” your hands great in Slider-out mode.
Coming to the keyboard, each individual key is slightly raised which lets you “feel” each key. That definitely helps.
You can really notice how each key is raised up, if you’ve had an experience with the E75 keyboard before. That was one of my main complaints with that keyboard.
You’d also notice the different placement of keys when you compare the two.
The Layout of the N97′s keyboard isnt bad at all, really. It isnt actually as cramped as it might appear. The Hinge Mechanism though, actually takes a bit of space.
All the keys are very well and evenly lit. And there doesnt appear to be any light leaking out anywhere, which is definitely nice to see.
The “Caps Lock” button is on the left end, with a Symbols button on the right end. There’s a Blue Arrow button which is the function key, that allows you to access the symbols in blue on the keys.
Note : One very annoying “feature” of the N97′s keyboard, is that you cant longpress any key to get to the Blue Symbol on screen. You’re forced to use the Blue Arrow function key to access these symbols, which is very very annoying. This was included on the Nokia E75 (and the E71 and E63 before it), so I was puzzled as to why it wasnt here. Hopefully, this “bug” will be fixed with a firmware update soon.
There’s an Enter key, and a Backspace key. And the Space bar, as you can see, if relocated towards the right end of the keyboard.
While I initially did find that a bit awkward, after a day of use, I found that the space bar is in a great position for my right thumb to press it, while typing messages.
At the other end, there’s the Dpad placed at the extreme left.
It does take some getting used to, but the overall placement of keys is definitely not too bad in my books.
That being said however, there is one very annoying thing about the N97′s keyboard, that really takes getting used to. The keys on the Qwerty Keyboard dont seem to have very much/any tactile feedback when pressed, which leads to awkward “Did I press that key ?” situations while typing.
This makes me thing that the N97 might be good for short bursts of typing like text messages, or Twitter or Facebook status updates. But any sort of prolonged typing such as emails or documents, might be a tad uncomfortable. Again, this depends on how soon you get used to the N97′s keyboard though.
Moving on from the keyboard, the messaging application has been adapted pretty well to the Qwerty Keyboard.
Slide out the keyboard and start typing. That’s all there is to it.
There’s also predictive text onboard, but I found it to be more of a nuisance than any help.
As expected, you can vary the level of text-correction (High, Medium, Off), among other options.
Everything else, is mostly the same as the Messaging app on the Nokia 5800.
Conclusion :
Typing on the Nokia N97 is actually a pretty enjoyable experience, for short bursts. I cant see myself using this to type out any sort of long compilations though. If they had just spent a little more time getting the tactile feedback on the keys better, it would be effortless to touch-type on this keyboard.
Have you tried out a Nokia N97′s Qwerty Keyboard ? Any thoughts that you’d like to add to our post ? Do let us know in the comments.
Clinton is currently based in New Delhi, India and is executive editor for UnleashThePhones. He is responsible for all editorial decisions, and covers all forms of Mobile and mobile-related accessories.
Cj is addicted to caffeine, social media, and technology. Always up for a good conversation, you can reach him through the contact form, his website, on Google Plus 
or on Facebook or Twitter: Follow @clintonjeff
I love my N97, but now HATE typing a text, the key responce is gettin worse by the day i feel, it used to keep up now it just stops and doesnt ever catchup, if it tries to catch up it misses letters, words, whole sentances, you name it, all gone, retype time, SOOOO frustrating!!!!!, :'-(Brendon, My N97 has a cut, paste, copy, i have to go into the menus thou
The copy/paste text function is almost absent here. It used to be available in earlier S60 devices by pressing the pencil icon key and dragging to make your selection (much like the shift key in Windows). Wonder why Nokia did away with such a nifty function, I really miss it!!
The copy/paste text function is almost absent here. It used to be available in earlier S60 devices by pressing the pencil icon key and dragging to make your selection (much like the shift key in Windows). Wonder why Nokia did away with such a nifty function, I really miss it!!
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