Qwerty Phone Battle - Nokia N97 Vs Sony Ericsson X1

One phone is causing a big stir in the world of mobile phones: the QWERTY follow-up to the 5800, the Nokia N97. But is the Sony Ericsson X1 the fly in its ointment...?

Nokia N97 - all set to dominate the world?

With the Nokia 5800 on course to bring touchscreen mobile phones to the mid-range market, that leaves a massive gap at the very top-end, and yes, there IS a touchscreen mobile phone on its way to take its place as the top-end powerhouse: the utterly awesome Nokia N97. This takes the same Symbian S60 Touch interface and packages it into the shell of a proper, full-tilt smartphone. Which means it has an even more huge, 3.5 inch screen, a flip out QWERTY keyboard, and the camera's been upgraded to 5 megapixels. The Nokia N97 is, in a very definite way, destined to be the new flagship Nseries mobile phone, and it's genuinely as high-spec as the rumours had us believe, with HSDPA, GPS, digital compass, and integrated Flash, so that you get an internet experience that tops any other mobile phones! Put it like this: the Nokia N97 is awesome. It easily outdoes just about all other mobile phones and as the Nokia 5800 angles to take over the mid-range, the Nokia N97 is clearly designed to dominate the high-end market.

But the thing is... there's already a QWERTY mobile phone on the market that is better than any before it, and it could well put a spanner in the spoke of the Nokia N97.

Sony Ericsson X1 - already setting the world alight

Released at the tail end of 2008, the Sony Ericsson X1 is the Swedish/Japanese manufacturer's first foray into the world of Windows Mobile phones, and quite frankly, it's the best Windows Mobile phone ever made. It's ludicrously powerful, and has a unique 'arc slider' mechanism to reveal the keyboard, but more than that, the Sony Ericsson X1 has about every conceivable bell and whistle it's possible for mobile phones to have. GPS, WiFi, and HSDPA, it does them all with aplomb. And since the screen resolution is a whopping 800x480 pixels, it tops nearly every other mobile phone in existence for sharpness of screen. The only downside, technically speaking, of the Sony Ericsson X1 is its camera, coming in at just 3 megapixels. But (and its a big but), since Sony Ericsson put exceptional cameras on their mobile phones, a 3 megapixel Sony Ericsson camera is probably not that far off the quality of a 5 megapixel Nokia camera. All in all, then, the Sony Ericsson X1 is one serious contender for the best phone ever made, which makes the Nokia N97's job even harder...

''Should I get the Sony Ericsson X1, or wait for the Nokia N97?''

So, the big question is should you take he plunge and get the Sony Ericsson X1 now, or wait and see what the Nokia N97 turns out to be like? Well, there's no doubt that, on paper, the Nokia N97 seems to be the better of the two mobile phones, with a higher-megapixel camera, and a bigger screen that'll display more colours. However, it's not that simple. The sheer fact that the Nokia N97 has a bigger and more colourful screen than the Sony Ericsson X1 means it'll eat batteries, and the X1 should easily outlast it before needing charging. Also, there are rumours of the 16Gb of memory on the Nokia N97 being slow to access, and the unproven nature of the Symbian Touch operating system makes it slightly less of a prospect. And trust me when i say the Sony Ericsson X1 will take some beating. I know this because I asked myself the same question I'm asking here, and I decided that the sensible choice was to get the Sony Ericsson X1. So, I got one. And believe me, it's just about the best phone I've ever seen!