Back in July of this year, I posted an article regarding the N97 Main Camera Cover Self harming after discovering many new owners of the N97 were reporting scratches appearing on their main camera glass.
It turned out, the lens cover itself had been mounted too close to the lens cover glass, thus allowing small particles of dust, and other debris to get trapped between the slider cover, and glass itself, and then when the cover was manually slid open, and closed, it rubbed these trapped pieces of dust, and debris onto the glass surface, resulting in straight lined scratches.
Following this article, I posted within our forums for members to post up photo’s showing the extent of the scratches on their new N97 handsets, and then another post, asking members to post up photos “Taken” with an N97 with scratched lens glass, as there were reports coming in that many N97 owners were experiencing “Flash flood” when taking photos with low light conditions.
I posted another article here, covering a story of another N97 owner, who took it upon himself to investigate the root of the cause of these scratches himself, due to not getting an official response from Nokia at the time. It was this article, which led me to look into replacing my own scratched camera lens myself, and I even put together a video guide on how to replace your N97′s scratches camera cover. Please note, I was fully capable of carrying out this repair due to experience in repairing phones, and that this kind of DIY repair is not advised to do yourself for a number of reasons. Firstly, you will lose any Manufacturers warranty that you would normally have for your device, and secondly, its very easy to damage the handset, and render it useless. Click “Read More”
Back to the subject of these scratches, and the many unhappy N97 owners, who have either been in touch with the BBC’s Watchdog programme, or other complaint route, even participants who signed the online petition here, which has received over 1000 signatures now. So without further ado, onto the Official Response from Nokia on this whole Nokia N97 Main Camera Scratch Issue.
“We are certainly aware that there are a number of Nokia N97′s where the lens cover may have been mounted too close to the lens glass. Given the sales volume of the unit this is relatively rare, however this does mean that in some instances particles of dust, grit, sand or similar could get stuck under the cover and this in turn may affect the lens. If your Nokia N97 readers notice that the image quality of their Nokia N97 is affected by this, our team recommends that, if cleaning the lens with a soft cloth does not solve the problem then they should get in contact with their closest Nokia Care Point (these are listed on www.nokia.com) 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”.
Sadly this is too little too late in many cases, and really only confirms what our own investigations have revealed. At least we know Officially now, as assumed, that you are indeed allowed to return your N97 for a replacement lens to be fitted. Note, replacement lens, and not entired device.
How do you feel about this response? Please let us know in this Thread within our forums. If your not a registered member of our forums, then now is a great time to get yourself registered, and join our fast growing Nokia community. We have a very friendly, family based forums, and you will find help, and advice on hand pretty much 24/7. To register, click here, its free, and only takes a couple of minutes, you can even login with your facebook details if you prefer.!