Nokia N97 Mini mobile phone

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Summary: The N97 Mini is a “lite” version of the N97 smartphone. The phone is very easy to use, with the twin benefits of a slide-out QWERTY keyboard and a large ultra-hi-res touchscreen. The use of the word “Mini” is relative, as the N97 is still an extremely powerful multimedia device, with a 5 megapixel camera with Carl Zeiss optics, music, video, email, facebook and other apps, and GPS. Connectivity includes WiFi, HSDPA, Bluetooth & USB, plus the bonus of a 3.5mm audio jack. Slimmer and lighter than its big brother, the N97 Mini also seems to have more stable firmware, and feels like a more polished product.

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The N97 does what it says on the tin. It’s a slimmed-down version of the Nokia N97. The N97 is Nokia’s flagship phone, so it can afford to have a few features shaved off in order to cut down on the size and the cost. There is no such thing as the perfect phone, but the N97 Mini acknowledges the compromises that have been made in cutting it down to a more manageable size, and the design is intelligent and very usable.

The N97 Mini looks almost exactly the same as the N97, except that it is smaller. The sliding QWERTY keyboard is just the same as on the N97, except that the 4-way navigation button has been removed to shave a few millimetres off the size. Even the funnily-positioned space bar is in exactly the same space, but the strange thing is that we’ve got used it completely and it feels quite natural now. The screen is smaller, but at 3.2 inches it is in no way a small screen, and is perfectly big enough for the job it has to do. It has the same ultra-high resolution as the N97 (640 x 360 pixels and 16 million colours) and is a superb display for watching videos, browsing the web or editing documents. Having the benefit of a physical keyboard makes the requirement for screen real estate less pressing, and the format works very well indeed. We’d prefer the N97 Mini’s keyboard plus touchscreen combination to a pure virtual touchscreen setup any day.

Like its big brother, the N97 Mini has an information-packed and customisable home screen, packed with widgets streaming live information such as facebook, email, texts, the date & time, weather forecasts and RSS feeds. Yes, we know it’s not an iPhone, but with the mature Symbian operating system backing it up, there are more than enough apps to keep most people happy. We love the way that the home screen gives one-touch access to most of the features that you’ll use regularly, and the integration seems to work very well.

Browsing web pages works very well. The screen is slightly smaller than the N97 of course, so the font can sometimes be rather small, but there are easy controls to scroll and zoom, and the web browsing experience is generally very good. The always-on 3G internet connection helps, and with HSDPA giving download speeds of up to 3.6 Mbps and WiFi offering 54 Mbps, you can almost imagine that your using a laptop rather than a souped-up mobile phone.

The camera is the same as the one on the N97, which in turn is essentially the same as the camera in the old N96. But it’s an excellent camera nevertheless, and outperforms most smartphones. The sensor is a respectable 5 megapixels, but it’s the quality of the Carl Zeiss optics that makes it perform so well. The dual LED flash isn’t as powerful as the xenon flash on the Sony Ericsson Satio, but it’s more than a match for most camera phones. Video recording is excellent too, with the ability to record at VGA format and 30 frames/second. A secondary front-facing camera is available for video calling too.

There’s a powerful Nseries music player included, and an FM radio with RDS too. As you’d expect, the music quality is top-notch, and not only is a good quality set of stereo headphones supplied, but the 3.5mm AV connection lets you plug in your own headphones too. The memory isn’t as large as in the N97, but still, with 8GB of built-in memory and the ability to add a 16GB microSD card, you can hardly say that the memory is small. The maximum storage capacity would give you enough space for between 6,000 and 10,000 music tracks or a couple of dozen full length movies!

The N97 Mini also has built-in GPS and a-GPS receivers, and you can use these to find your location, to geo-tag photos and to navigate. Nokia Maps is included, as well as a digital compass, and a 10-day trial licence of a Walk-and-Drive navigation system.

One compromise that the designers have made to reduce the overall size and weight of the device is to reduce the capacity of the battery. The battery is a 1200 mAh Li-Ion battery, instead of the 1500 mAh one supplied with the N97. Despite having a smaller LCD display, the N97 does suffer as a consequence, although the battery performance is no worse than comparable touchscreen smartphones.

To wrap up, we feel that the N97 Mini is a perfect example of an intelligent compromise. Yes, the screen is smaller, and yes, the battery life is shorter. But the phone is significantly slimmer, lighter and quite a bit cheaper too, bringing the power of the N97 within reach of a whole new market segment. The big bugbear with the N97 was probably the lumbering old Symbian operating system under the hood. Symbian phones often have a tendency to freeze or reboot at the most annoying times, and the N97 was no exception. The Symbian OS is still present in the N97 Mini of course, but it seems that Nokia have tweaked and polished it and the whole system feels more robust and stable. N97 Mini users can benefit from all those early adopters who beta-tested the N97 on Nokia’s behalf! It’s funny, but somehow the “lite” version of the N97 feels like a better product than the original. It’s proof that size and specification aren’t everything. By taking the time to test and to gather user feedback, Nokia have polished the rough edges of their flagship product and created a new and better one. Ah, now if only they could do that with every phone release!

Features of the Nokia N97 Mini include:

• S60 5th edition Symbian interface
• 5 megapixel camera (2592 x 1944 pixels) with Carl Zeiss optics, autofocus, dual LED flash, 4x digital zoom and geo-tagging
• Video camera: MPEG4/3GP VGA video capture at 640 x 480 pixels and 30 frames/second, 4x digital zoom and video light
• Front camera for video calling: 176 x 144 pixels
• Display: Resistive touchscreen, 16 million colours, 640 x 360 pixels (3.2 inches) with orientation sensor, proximity sensor and light sensor
• Digital music player (supports MP3/AAC/eAAC/eAAC+/WMA formats) with playlists and equalizer
• Stereo FM radio (87.5-108 MHz/76-90 MHz), RDS
• Built-in GPS navigation with Nokia Maps application and digital compass
• Speaker independent name dialing
• Voice commands
• Voice recorder
• Integrated hands-free speaker
• Speed dialing
• Messaging: SMS, MMS, Email (SMTP, IMAP4, POP3, Mail for Exchange)
• Viewing of email attachments – .doc, .xls, .ppt, .pdf
• Java games (DJ Club Tour included)
• Advanced contacts database with support for multiple phone and e-mail details per entry
• Memory: 8 GB plus microSD memory card slot (up to 16GB)
• Connectivity: Bluetooth 2.0 with EDR, USB 2.0, TV-Out, (WLAN 802.11 b/g), 3.5 mm stereo headphone plug
• Internet: Full web browser with Flash video support, RSS reader, WAP, GPRS class A, WCDMA/HSDPA (3.6Mb/s download), WLAN (up to 11Mbps/54Mbps)
• Quadband plus 3G
• Size: 113 x 53 x 14 mm
• Weight: 138g
• Talktime: 240 minutes (3G) – 430 minutes (2G)
• Battery standby: 320 hours