Nokia N97: Top Five Free eBook & Doc Reader Apps
By Stu Houghton on September 24,
 2009 at 00:00,

Nokia N97: Top Five Free PDF Readers The Nokia N97 is one of the most versatile handsets in the Nokia armoury. The 3.5-inch touchscreen is perfect for reading emails, as well as any attachments you may get sent. So, viewing the latest PDF files is a cinch on the Nokia N97. Here we look at the top five PDF Readers for your Nokia N97, what's more they are all free!

One of the best features of the Nokia N97 is its lovely, bright screen with plenty of real estate for displaying text and graphics. More so than almost any other Nokia, it makes an ideal eBook and image viewer. These apps will help you view PDFs, read best sellers, even check out the latest comics.

Check out our Nokia N97 review for how good the screen actually is

Adobe Reader LE

Size:  n/a

Price: Free

Link: n/a

You almost certainly have a copy of this on your phone already - stashed away in the 'Office' folder under your Applications icon. It is a capable PDF reader, designed by the PDF guys themselves - Adobe. You can read PDFs in full colour, with resizable fonts and support for landscape view. The only snag is that your N97 probably shipped with a trial version that will expire not log after you start using it. Still, it does mean you at least get to try it out before you buy.

ZX Reader

Size:  0.124MB

Price: Free

Link: ZX Reader

ZX Reader may only support two formats – plain .TXT or the little used .FB2 – but this is still a very capable and extremely customisable reader app. You can tweak font sizes, colours, screen margin and more. Different regions of the screen can be made touchable to turn pages or activate other functions. A bundled utility can convert other documents to FB2 for your reading pleasure.

TouchComic

Size:  0.271MB

Price: Free

Link: TouchComic

Comics - or, if you are appearing on Newsnight Review, Graphic Novels - can increasingly be found in digital form. True, there is a thriving piracy scene which we couldn't condone in good conscience, but you can also find free issues in the popular CBZ format and TouchComic is a great way to read them on your N97. You can scale pages o fit the screen completely or just to the page width, or just scroll around the panels using your fingertip. CBZ files are just renamed ZIP archives of .JPG images so you can easily make your own files and this fact turns TouchComic into a nifty image viewer for hand-rolled image collections.

Mobipocket

Size: 1.6MB

Price: Free

Link: Mobipocket

Although Amazon have recently bought out Mobipocket and appear to be dismantling the company in favour of its Kindle device and iPhone app, the S60 3rd Edition Mobipocket is still a capable eBook reading app with both a large library of titles to buy and converter utilities to create new ones. The lack of a physical keyboard meant that certain crucial commands could not be given when run on the Nokia 5800, but the N97 copes just fine.

Offscreen eBooks

Size:  varies

Price: Free

Link: Offscreen eBooks

Offscreen publish a range of eBooks via Ovi Store. Rather than a generic reader app like the others listed here, Offscreen’s books are standalone apps. Each of the eBook titles on offer – mainly public domain classics like The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes and Sense & Sensibility – is presented beautifully with smoothly animated ‘pages’ and well drawn text. Some titles feature full illustrations and  all feature automatic bookmarking and support for widescreen reading too.

Before you can download some of  these apps you’ll need to register your device with Ovi Store, which also entitles you to updates and message alerts from Nokia and is a great way of keeping abreast of what’s going on at the Ovi Store.

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