Nokia has built an extensive line of smartphones, including the N97 and N900, which come with many similar features, such as built-in digital cameras and media players. Though they have much in common, the N97 and N900, both released in 2009, have several differences you should take into consideration before choosing one phone over the other.
Batttery Lives
When fully charged, the Nokia N97 gets up to 6.7 hours of talk time and up to 430 hours, or 17.9 days, of standby time. The Nokia N900 gets up to 6.3 hours of talk time and up to 288 hours, or 12 days, of standby time. Compared to similar products on the market in 2011, these times rank below the seven-hour average for talk time and 336-hour average for standby time. It's important to understand that these times are tested in ideal laboratory settings and not in real-life situations. A variety of factors can contribute to shorter battery life, including atmospheric conditions, network traffic and the phone's settings.
Memory
The Nokia N97 comes with 128MB of onboard memory, while the Nokia N900 has 256MB of memory. Both phones are equipped with a micro-Secure Digital card slot for up to 16GB of expanded memory. Each phone supports microSD cards, which offer up to 2GB of memory, and high-capacity microSD (microSDHC) cards, which provide between 2GB and 32GB of memory, up to the phones' 16GB limit. Both phones will store large numbers of contacts with multiple phone numbers and photo and ringtone ID. The precise number of contacts supported by the phones is determined by the amount of memory installed.
Internal Components and Connectivity
While the Nokia N97 is built on the Symbian operating system and uses a 434 MHz ARM 11 processor, the Nokia N900 is built on the Maemo 5 operating system and uses a 600 MHz ARM Cortex A8 processor. Operating systems are a subjective matter, but processors are more of a measurable aspect of mobile computing. With a faster processor, the N900 will run applications faster than the N97 will. Both phones access the 2G and 3G wireless networks using GSM and HSDPA technology and are Wi-Fi compatible. For synchronizing data and transferring files, each phone connects to a personal computer using a microUSB cable.
Physical Characteristics
The Nokia N97 measures 4.6 inches long, 2.2 inches wide and 0.6 inches deep, while the Nokia N900 measures 4.4 inches long, 2.4 inches wide and 0.8 inches deep. At 6.4 oz., the N900 is slightly heavier than the N97, which weighs 5.3 oz. Each phone features a 3.5-inch thin-film transistor touch screen, but the screens display at differing resolutions and color capabilities. The N97's screen displays more than 16 million colors at 360 by 640 pixels of resolution, while the N900's screen displays more than 65,000 colors at 800 by 480 pixels of resolution. Both phones feature a slide-out QWERTY keyboard.
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