The Nokia N97 - it's rubbish really

I've had my Nokia N97 smartphone (the full-size version, not the mini) for nearly a year now, and I have to say I haven't been very happy with it - considering that it cost just over 400 GB Pounds it really is quite rubbish.

Now, I'm not talking about the usual phone crashes and lock-ups that most people experience with smartphones from time to time - I've suffered plenty of those with my N97, and I can generally live with such things. They're to be somewhat expected due to the very complex and intricate nature of these types of device.

The main problem with the N97 for me is that it is extremely slow to do anything, especially with the multimedia I have stored on it. It takes around two minutes to access my MP3 music library of around 3000 songs and 100 playlists each and every time I go into the music player, which is absolutely terrible. The N97's main rival, the iPhone, has no such problems, giving almost instantaneous access to a similar sized music library.

The N97 is also pretty poor at playing MP4 videos (which have been formatted specifically for the N97 using Nokia's OVI Suite), often freezing and/or skipping during playback, which is very annoying.

And the N97 is also dreadfully slow to access my photo library of around 500 photos.

I have tried all manner of things to try to improve the situation, including a soft reset and a hard reset of the phone, a reformat of the phone's mass storage device, and a careful reload of all the multimedia, but nothing ever makes any difference.

Clearly there are two major problems with the N97:

1. The processor is not powerful enough, and...

2. There is not enough dedicated RAM for the processor to use - there is only ever about 50 MB of free internal phone memory showing on my phone, with almost no apps installed or running, which is a shockingly low amount. (And which is similar to what most other people report having free on their N97's during use.)

Both of these factors combine to make the N97 very slow to do anything - unacceptably slow for such an expensive smartphone. For what is basically Nokia's flagship product, it really is a very sorry story.

In summary, I don't recommend anyone to buy the Nokia N97, which is the first time I have ever had to say anything negative about one of Nokia's products. Oh dear.

The Last Airbender film is released in the UK tomorrow

After a long wait (it was released in the US on July 1st and Thailand on July 29th), M. Night Shyamalan's "The Last Airbender" movie, based on the first season of the very popular Nickelodeon cartoon series "Avatar: The Last Airbender", is finally released in UK cinemas tomorrow.

To tie in with the film's release, here are some free official Avatar: The Last Airbender Flash online games for you to play:

  The Last Airbender - Elemental Battles

  The Last Airbender - Trial of Air

  The Last Airbender - Bending Battle

  The Last Airbender - Elemental Escape

  The Last Airbender - Fortress Fight

These games also include Avatar: The Last Airbender film and Avatar: The Last Airbender cartoon desktop wallpaper pictures for you to use on your computer if you wish.

You can find all the above games, together with 100's more film and cartoon-based games, at my Cartoons, Movies and TV Online Games site.

Enjoy! :-)

(See also here and here)