Review: Nokia N97 mini

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Nokia N97 mini said to be an improvement (at least in its size) over Nokia N97.By now I believe there are already many Nokia N97, N97 mini users over and Symbian OS S60 5th Edition users.

Standard Sales Package

Nokia N97 mini mobile computer
Nokia Battery (BL-4D)
Nokia High-Efficiency Charger (AC-10)
Nokia Connectivity Cable (CA-101)
Nokia Music Headset (WH-701)
User GuideOvi
Suite DVD 1.1

Front View with mean button, call answer and end call key

The built of the phone feels quality, the plastic used does not give a cheapo feeling, and the battery cover, menu button and the side are made of metal, really like the looks and feel of this phone (only this colour garnet as this colour gives a more elegant feel) I don’t like black colour model.


Reel View

Side view with camera button (left) and volume button (right)

Top view with 3.5 mm headphone jack and power button

Side view with micro usb port and phone lock button


QWERTY Keyboard View


I am surprise by the smooth slider its really smooth as compare to the Nokia N97 as it not as smooth and always catches my fingers while closing, mini does not :)



The QWERTY keys are relatively small but its well spread out, thus its still pretty acceptable maybe not the best, if its any bigger its will end up a N97 and not a mini


Back view with screen slide up

Main camera
5 megapixel with Carl Zeiss optics
Take high-quality 16:9 videos
Video capture in MPEG-4 up to VGA at 30 fps
Video clip length: up to 90 minutes

Camera is pretty cool, macro shots are good better than mine Casio 5.0MP camera which I always use to take pictures for this blog, yes surprisingly. N97 mini night shots are also acceptable but I believe its not the best in the market, but the respond of the Nokia N97 mini is pretty alright can accept it, but seem like there is no way to off the camera sound.


The size of this phone feel really good on my hand I am able to access to all the buttons with one hand. The screen is good 16 million colour even after I set the display back light to the lowest its still very clear and sharp.


The UI is very easy to customize maybe its due to there are not much option available for us to play around haha… Yes only one screen available for us to play with, the upcoming Symbian ^3 will be able to have multiple home screens.
The touch screen is pretty cool too it is relatively responsive and fast not much lag. if you want to compare with iPhone, iPhone is the winner in this area still.


Lets take a look at the texting (messaging) option. It provide a good big screen to read our text message, thats great!


I am not a big fan of QWERTY keyboard as I prefer to text with one hand and not two! Therefore a good old alphanumeric keypad with T9 support is a must have for me, fortunately this phone does provide that. Great!


And it also comes with handwriting option for texting. Hmmm… not so important to me, I dont think I use that much.


Alphanumeric keypad in landscape mode


QWERTY option for those who prefer two hand texting


Applications are pretty standard, I have to highlight refreshing the Music Player library can be slow it does not make sense when a S40 phone can update faster than a S60 phone… Maybe there are snails in the phone memory


It comes with that social networking application, Nokia Map, Weather info, News, Ovi store, Email Setup, etc… but no Windows MSN, anyway most application can be downloaded from Ovi store online, mostly free but good ones you will have to buy them.

In conclusion, Nokia N97 mini is a good phone to have, touch screen is good, its built is quality, its has all the connection you needs like WiFi, HSDPA 3.5G and Bluetooth. Screen is clear and sharp, its speakers are one of the loudest in the market place, battery life is pretty acceptable for normal usage else continue usage on web surfing will only last 3-5 hrs depend on the brightness of the screen. Camera is good and it come with memory slot. Web surfing with this phone is normal cos screen not big enough, but if you dont mind it then its as you can really surf HTML web sites, loading of the pages are fast (depend upon the network you are using), it handle the website pretty well double tap on the screen to zoom in and out.

The disadvantages will be slow music library refresh, sometime the phone respond slow when 5 or 6 application running at the background, require to restart your phone due to application not responding. But so far I have not encounter the White Screen Of Death (WSOD) which some users had encountered. I am using firmware 11.0.045 I had unbrand my phone in order to update this, some user had checked out my Unbranding write up Here and reply that it had stopped he phone from the encounter of WSOD! Symbian S60 had came a long way and Nokia is coming up with new firmware to fix the bugs (and snail) hope they will come up with more solution to make this phone super stable!

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