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My N97’s Near Death Experience

by Matt Towsey on November 13, 2009

Now I’m not usually clumsy but I have had a couple of close calls with my N97. This is quite unusual for me as I have never dropped any of my previous phones or had any accidental damage. The same cannot be said for my trusty N97.

The N97’s initial brush with mobile heaven

Now I had my mobile safely stored in my jeans pocket ready for going out as normal. Now I have 3 young children so getting out of the house is never a quick affair so after making it out to the car eventually I idly went to check the time on my mobile as I no longer wear a watch, I slid my mobile out of my pocket and it slipped straight through my fingers

Before I had a chance to grab the phone it was heading screen down to the pavement on a 3 foot fall. I looked on in horror as the phone bounced screen first on the concrete floor. I grabbed the phone and flipped it over. Much to my delight the screen was fine, no damage and no scratches!

However on closer inspection the silver metal outer frame had not fared so well. I now had some minor damage to the metal surround. A small price to pay when you consider the alternatives.

I checked the phone over and everything was working perfectly.

S8000306S8000307 My Nokia almost meets its maker again

As I said earlier I’ve never had any problems with my mobiles in the past and had always been very good at looking after them. So after the near fatal accident I was somewhat relieved to say the least.

A few days later I was listening to some music via the MP3 player on my phone, something I do quite a lot on my N97. The phone was on the side and I had a juice sitting next to it. Yes I can tell you know where this is going …

I went to grab something else on the side completely forgetting the drink was there and knocked it all over my open N97. I’m not one to panic but I grabbed the phone, shook the juice off and ran for a towel. I frantically dried the phone off. I inspected the phone and could not see any signs of the juice having gotten into the screen, must be sealed real tight. Now my other concern was has any of the juice seeped into the keyboard. None of the keys appeared to be sticking and all of them were coming up when using them on screen.

Realising that the juice would get stickier as it dried I left it overnight and anxiously checked it in the morning. To my surprise I had gotten away with it again. All functions are working fine and have been ever since.

Moral of the tale

I can almost hear what you’re saying, this is why you should have a screen protector and a case! I couldn’t agree more but I have never been someone who drops there phone and have never ever split anything on one before, nor am I likely to again. Still no arguing with how robust the N97 truly is!

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Article by Matt Towsey

Matt has written 4 articles for your enjoyment.

On The Web: http://

About: I'm married with 3 wonderful children. Spend most of my time playing with the kids. Big N97 fan. I'm from the UK, huge Liverpool FC fan. Work full time. I am on twitter and will probably post on their from time to time also.

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  • pspezone
    hi please read the issue at http://www.symbiandreams.com/nokia-nseries/noki... thanks.
  • pspezone
    hi ,As you are going along with N97 for long time ,I would like to ask from you ,I get a horizontal line in my Nokia N97 after using some apps like opera mini or nokia messaging. really it is the dark colour bar of the program ,but after the program closed also it remains,in screen shots it is not appearing ,but i can see on the screen. it disappears after 3/4 days again come ..can you guess what is this?
  • vetduarte
    @ David:
    I don't know where you are, but here in Rio putting my N97 inside my jeans facing my leg means it's LCD will be flooded with sweat within minutes

    @ Martin:
    Usually it will, but it will be expensive no matter what is done.
  • johnylee
    just dropped my n97 on the floor and it doesnt work anymore. i didnt have a case or anything. now it only shows me the nokia screen when i turn it on... i going to send it to the nokia repair center. hope they won't charge me.
  • Martin
    anyone know if nokia care centre can repair out of warranty mobiles??
  • Andyfort
    Wife dropped mine into pot of boiling rice, was tempted to get her to grab it out with her bare hands but stopped short of that, scooped out with slotted spoon and stripped immedialy, the phone that is not the wife or i.
    Major row, but hey accidents happen,,,about to try restarting so will post later on outcome,,,
  • still ticking
    Needless to say my N97 has also had a few near death experiences. Not one to drop my previous phones; my N97 has hit pavement on a number of occasions, thankfully apart from a little less silver trim all is fine. But it does have me wondering if the dimensions or the texture or both are making the N97 a bit more vulnerable than other handsets. Any thoughts????
  • Well, yesterday was Friday the 13th (in North America, anyway), and I have to tell you, Matt's near death experience was the second one I had heard yesterday...and then I had one myself.

    I tried tweaking/messing with the registry on the C: Drive of my N97 and then restarted it (as per instructions I was following). Lo and Behold! My phone refused to start up! I had bricked my phone! My legs felt weak, my stomach acids were rumbling, and my brain felt like it had been electrically charged.

    Then I did a hard reset with the keyboard and power button and everything worked fine (had to re-configure my phone of course). Sounds like no big deal, but for thirty minutes I was PANICKED like you wouldn't believe...I must've sent out thirty tweets in thirty seconds seeking assistance.

    Moral of THIS story? don't F**K with the registry...

    MD 7
  • Timi
    Nice, good to hear the N97 can take some juice and punishment! :P
  • cjn52
    I would add that the N97 is not so watertight..I got caught in a rainstorm and tried to protect it as best I could..thought it was ok, but a few hrs after the storm, about 50% of the screen was fogged on the inside. After about a day or so it evaporated with no ill effects, but a lesson nonetheless
  • Rich C
    Glad to hear she pulled through!

    You can tell yourself you'll never drop it, but when it's something you take with you everwhere, sooner or later it's going to get dropped. That's why I have a whole manner of armor on my N97 - Invisisheld for the screen and plastic hard case for the body - ready for anything (well, not liquids anyway).
  • David
    Needless to say that you are not the only one doing stuff like this... when something like that happens to me, my blood pressure drops :-P

    Recently i crash the screen of my N97 against something while it was on my pocket... and i stupidlity put it in there facing the screen out and when i hit something with my leg the screen got damaged.

    By the way, i am glad you didnt experience what i did ;-)

    Moral: face the screen inside to your leg (i know you wont feel the N97 vibrations the same way) while it is in you pocket.

    Thanks for your posts, i read you every week. Regards from Caracas, Venezuela.
  • Glad your N97 is ok. I dropped mine from 4 ft onto hard tile floor and thought it was done. It hit the floor and bounced a few times, keyboard pops open and my buddy was like "oh shit that has a keyboard" hahaha. Anyways it's fine besides a few dings on two corners of the chrome trim. Slider is still tight as ever with no wiggle room.
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