Products & Services
Talking about the N97
By JBC on 08 October 2009
GLOBAL – There have been reports online regarding some isolated issues with the Nokia N97 lens cover and lens. We raised this issue with the folks responsible for the product internally to see if they could help shed some light on the situation. They flicked on their product knowledge torch and shone it in our direction, with some tips and advice for those who think their devices might be affected. Get the full lowdown after the jump.
In some instances (it seems to be pretty rare, despite the volume of N97s out there) the lens cover may have been mounted a little bit too close to the lens glass. Where this is the case it’s possible for particles of dust or grit to get stuck under the cover, which in turn could affect the lens.
If you’re an N97 user and you’ve noticed the image quality on your device is affected by this, then this is what you should do:
- Take a soft cloth and clean the lens.
- If that doesn’t work, get in touch with your nearest Nokia Care Point where the Nokia Care Point staff can then determine whether or not the lens and or the lens cover mechanism needs replacing under the device warranty.
You can get a complete list of Nokia care points from the Nokia website.
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Tags | N97, Nokia Care Centre, nokia n97
October 8th, 2009 at 11:08 am
It’s true, this does seem to be a rare issue on paper, simply because of the volume of N97s sold.
However, there’s a petition online (set up because for several months Nokia did not acknowledge existence of this issue) with over 1,000 affected users. At €500+ per phone, even if it’s a low % of sold devices affected, this should be a significant figure.
Personally, I’m on my 3rd lens and I’ve been very very careful with this latest one and still it is scratched. But after having the last 2 lenses replaced, only for the problem to re-occur I see little point in visiting the care point again until this issue is properly resolved… And I don’t care what anybody says, a “repaired” device is never as good as a factory build.
It’s a shame, because the combination of silence from Nokia and repeated visits to “Care” Points (with a 24 hour turnaround) have totally ruined my “user experience” with the N97 – which could have been an amazing device.
Now I’m just waiting for my contract to be over so I can go get a new, and probably non-Nokia, device.
P.S. My previous device was an N95-1, which I had from soon after release. I never got fed up with the hardware or it’s initially buggy firmware. I’m an early adopter, so I know the risks – but the N97 is supposed to be a flagship device from a market leader!
Also, apologies for the length of this comment!
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October 8th, 2009 at 11:21 am
After buying an E90 & having the keyboard scratch the internal display & the local agents refusing to fix it under warranty, I have learnt never to be an early adopter of Nokia phones.
I didn’t buy the N97 when it first came out & was glad of that when I saw the scratch problem. Even more glad of it when I saw the N900 get released as now I plan to buy that instead. But not until the power users have had a chance to break a few!
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October 8th, 2009 at 11:55 am
Thanks Eina… Don’t even get me started on how long the N97 was flagship for. About 3 months before the N900 came and stomped all over it. Replaced before it’s even working properly!
I have many regrets. But this will be the last time I regret buying a Nokia.
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October 8th, 2009 at 12:08 pm
I’ve signed the petition myself and I was able to get my lens replaced. Luckily the new lens haven’t had any scratches as the previous one with same usage.
The shop owner also told me that they had gotten in a similar case in which the technicians didn’t even bother to write the job description as it was a known case.
The only thing that’s left for me to do now is to again send my phone (2nd time) to repairs to get the GPS changed, because it really is BAD.
According to Steve Litchfield on Phone Show #6.
Nokia N97
Camera slide scratching glass & Poor GPS lock. Both issues admitted by Nokia – willing to replace both antenna & camera glass/cover
So there is no point in denying such flaws. It’s better to face them and fix them rather than not admitting to it.
That said I think Nokia is one of the better manufacturers that do listen to the consumers unlike other brands, such as Apple. (Read. 3GS overheating, battery issues).
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October 8th, 2009 at 12:11 pm
The comments here that it’s an “isolated issue” conflict with Nokia’s statement to a newspaper in Finland that there have been many cases and that care points will replace the lens cover under warranty with a new, redesigned version that removes the problem:
http://www.iltalehti.fi/digi/2009083010154551_du.shtml
Is this related to BBC Watchdog’s upcoming story on the issue?
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October 8th, 2009 at 12:14 pm
Now we just need some ackbnowledgement of the poor GPS issue with the N97. Some have worked out that applying a degree of pressue on the sticky label to the top right of the lense cover when looking at the phone from the rear with the battery cover removed improves the GPS reception quality. This is not a permanent fix, but under the sticker is the GPS Antenna and some believe that thsi may not be best secured/inserted in many cases.
Still waiting for a formal response from Nokia. All I know is that my GPS was mch better on my old N95 8GB than my new N97 (which I received at initial UK release.
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Lloyd Reply:
October 8th, 2009 at 6:22 pm
WOW!!!! I just did what you wrote about the GPS. I got a signal in less than 5 seconds!!! That has NEVER happened and I put the phone in the usual spot to pick up the signal. I am indoors and usually have to wait 2 -4 minutes before I get a signal.
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October 8th, 2009 at 1:48 pm
This was the first issue when n97 was released. Many folks help each other to solve this problem. But its good to see the official Nokia blog to have this solution of their own =p.
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October 8th, 2009 at 2:09 pm
..or I can still buy an SE Saito
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October 8th, 2009 at 5:42 pm
Are you kidding me?!?!?!?
I know this is a company blog so it has to tow the line, but you went to the product people and their solution was use a clean cloth or go to the care center – that’s it? That’s the best the product manager could come up with for this product
Here is the deal, you forum is full of complaints about your flagship product (the one the defines who you are in the marketplace, the product that is the shining light for everything good about Nokia and its heritage) and we get some wet response about a few problems around a lens cover – try reading your company forums for once and see the litany of mistakes and screw ups the company has made.
Note these numbers well: 60, 50, 45, 38, 20, 10…..it is the market share of the profitable smartphones that Nokia will have if it thinks that they can pump out flagship products as defective as this.
Experimenting is over – the world has caught up – time to innovate and lead… you used to be good at that.
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Miffed Reply:
October 9th, 2009 at 3:00 pm
Muppet, what, in addition to this do you expect them to say? How about, take a screw driver and wiggle it about in a threatening manner until you break the lens cover, then pour some paint stripper over it, that’ll do the trick.
Of course the first thing you should do is clean the lens, if that doesn’t sort anything, don’t mess around with it, take it in to the Care Centre.
Miffed (With idiot and ill thought through comments.)
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JB Reply:
October 9th, 2009 at 11:39 pm
I guess the irony of your statement is that you actually add nothing to the discussion.
My comments are a reflection of the general state of the internet towards how Nokia is treating its FLAGSHIP customers. This is not some crappy low end phone, but the phone that is meant to personify Nokia to the world. Sorry that the concept of customer experience and satisfaction have passed you by, but there are many fo us that are frustrated that Nokia has made no attempt to publicly rectify the situation ….. then again I guess they rely on your insightful observations to hold back the onslaught.
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October 8th, 2009 at 6:14 pm
Care sites? What a crock. There are none in the US per se. And as for isolated? The scrtch in my lens cover is so bad it isn’t a scratch anymore. It is cracked clean through! Send it to Nokia? I can’t….it is my only phone and is my home phone as well as cell phone. As there are no loaners I would be without a phone for at least 3 weeks given the “7 – 10 days” of turn-around after receipt.
Nokia should contract with local locations and send the items needed for the repair so we don’t have to go so long without our brick.
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October 8th, 2009 at 9:20 pm
JBC, that was certainly tip toeing around the issue!
Could you explain how it is that a ‘few’ cases of lens cover scratching comes of a precession machine factory production line? could it be that the belt was loose and some covers were machined & mounted lower than others?
Very unlikely if you know modern production techniques, more likely a case that many people with the problem have not written on the blogs to complain. You only need to look at Nokia’s own discussions board to see that it’s not ‘isolated cases’, it’s complete batches of production runs.
This is Nokia’s major problem now, the company was always known for the quality of the product, now with the N97, they have thrown quality out of the window with the cost cutting design flaws – like the low RAM (cost cutting), cheap GPS system and cheap CPU system.
Now if it is the case that Nokia don’t care about quality any more, then why should we the faithful continue to buy the product? They certainly won’t gain customer share like that and seem to be just milking the faithful. I’ve see the clone N97 and in many ways it performs better than the Nokia original.
This is the message to take back to N97 product managers, the faithful followers should be your best marketing tool, instead they have been, what is the word, ’shafted’ with this flagship and now many will jump ship, and know this, the poor reviews and feedback have definitely hurt N97 sales, after all, what actual users of the product say, is 10x more powerful than any amount of slick marketing EUROS.
Please don’t do this ever again if you want to stay ahead of this game, no-one is to big to fail in technology, history should tell you that!
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October 9th, 2009 at 2:21 am
I’ve come across a couple of forum posts saying they’ve sent their N97’s to a care center and the lens scratch problem was fixed, but have yet to see actual proof of this (e.g. the lens cover no longer touching the camera lens).
I’m still looking forward to getting myself an N97 as I find I prefer it to the mini or the N900, but have not done so due to the lens scratch problem. Even if it was fixed, is there any way to tell if an N97 is from an older/defective batch versus a unit from a more recent batch whose lens cover does not touch the camera lens?
Even at a lower price of US$599, I still find it a most unwise gamble at this point, unless NOKIA can declare that the current batches (maybe via IMEI series) do not have this problem.
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October 10th, 2009 at 12:45 am
The problem being Nokia don’t always log all these problems. I phone the N97 help line on a regular and was never given a ref code until after the 15th call, meaning every call I made before was never logged and am sure there has been a lot other who have been treated the same way. So they have no way knowing just how big the problem is. My phone has been to Nokia for repairs twice it’s come back the same. SHAME ON YOU NOKIA
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October 10th, 2009 at 12:28 pm
I had nokia n-80 n95-8gb now I have n97. I promise i will never buy nokia again.
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October 10th, 2009 at 5:54 pm
I started with Nokia with the 8860 (James Bond) phone- everyone said wow, Since I’ve had the Samsung a990 and the newest blackberrys-storm,bold. I just purchased the N97-because it was available and made top reviews(With some) I have to tell you that I am excited about the product and willing to forgive a few glitches, as long as the software can get us where we need to go, the theme seemed to be… Made to upgrade. I will look forward to see if they are willing to keep that statement, if so they have my next phone purchases, if not-the fantacy is gone. I usually purchase three at a time, This is for my personal use and I’m willing to deal with a learning curve. This is a 32gig phone with a lot of potential, soon sun will have a 32gig micro, iphone should be worried and Nokia your ALMOST there, a little tweeking is going to make you and or have you go down quick with the world economy, clearly I am placing my money on you at this point, are you willing to step up with the software for these data monsters??? Its up to you.
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October 11th, 2009 at 6:35 pm
Yea, all over the places I’m getting impression Nokia really screwed up in PR and customer service front. Even their fanatic-site (n97fans) seems to be filled with mindless drones who love to lick Nokia’s back. Engadgets rules.
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October 13th, 2009 at 8:29 am
this N97 is so bad, i never have the issue phone like this before. the software hang and hang and jam. hopefully the new version will improve on this.
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October 13th, 2009 at 12:20 pm
nokia indonesia (NCC yogya) reject my claim for scratch lens.. whereas i told them this official article.. they wont.. they said there was no memo for those problem.. wtf..!
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October 14th, 2009 at 2:07 pm
I live in India and when I asked the care they said there is no such issues. i even showed this page, they are saying it is not official……. NEVER BUY NOKIA IN THE FUTURE…..
And I have a doubt IS THIS A FLAGSHIP MOBILE???????????
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October 14th, 2009 at 8:09 pm
N97 is Nokia’s version of Vista (or maybe much worse; MS seems to be dealing with the issues better, much better. At least I still respect MS).
Disastrous.
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October 16th, 2009 at 3:14 pm
Nokia why … oh why???
I am one of the LUCKY Guys who found this page just before I bought the N97.
I LOVED THE SAMSUNG OMNIA HD i8910… even reviews said the Samsung HD is better than N97.
YET Being Faithful to Nokia(N95 8GB was my previous for 3 years) I chose the N97. Then I wanted to read about N97 one last time before I finalised it tommorow…. I FIND THIS…
GOODBYE NOKIA… I SADLY HAVE TO LET YOU GO…
The Samsung Omnia HD i8910 it IS FOR ME…. Yet I feel SAD cos I admit I WAS A NOKIA FANBOY… Not Anymore…
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October 18th, 2009 at 1:06 am
Can we have an official statement to whether this nokia care center fix stops the lens from scratching again in the future? Thanks
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October 20th, 2009 at 4:25 pm
hello , some mobilephones have application locks , i mean sometimes you like to have selective access to datas on your mobilephone , for example you may give your mobilephone to a friend to make a call , but you dont like him to have access to your phonebook or messages or called numbers or … , i like to know why a big company like Nokia have not incorporate such application locks inbuilt on its product .
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October 22nd, 2009 at 8:54 am
my n97 doesn’t keep log information anymore but before it used too…i don’t know why
and i also don’t get to receive smses unless i off and on my hp again
is this to do with the phone itself or my service operator?
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October 26th, 2009 at 10:45 pm
It is so disappointing when you spend your 6 years collected pocket money on a product which you have hopes on. Nokia has disappointed me because 6 years worth of pain for a flagship someday has led me nowhere. Now the N97 has GPS and camera lens scratch issues.. It is my mistake that I trusted Nokia. It won’t happen again.
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November 6th, 2009 at 1:06 pm
I have a question.Is this service free?I mean to determine the lens and the lens cover mechanism needs replacing under the device warranty.In my country the office did not have any information for this case.
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November 6th, 2009 at 1:23 pm
I have a question. Is this service free? I mean to determine the lens and the lens cover mechanism needs replacing under the device warranty. In my country ,there is no information about this case.
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November 9th, 2009 at 7:06 am
I have a question.Is this service free? I mean determine the lens and the lens cover mechanism needs replacing under the device warranty.In my country there is no information about this case.
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