The first choice you need to make while buying a smartphone today is the form factor. Either you endlessly debate between opting for a touchscreen or a phone with physical QWERTY. Or you buy a smartphone like the Nokia N97 Mini which has both! Read on to find out why we feel the N97 Mini and its unique form factor is the best option to please all. And there is more to it than just the form factor itself!
Phones that do it both: Touch & QWERTY
Touchscreen phones have really simplified the task of navigating the phone menus as well as enhanced the internet browsing experience. But touchscreen critics prefer a physical QWERTY keypad to type lengthy emails & messages. Thus evolved a new form factor for phones with both touch and QWERTY such as Sony Ericsson Xperia X2 & Samsung B7610 Omnia Pro (both WinMo 6.x), Motorola Milestone (Android 2.1), Nokia N97 & Nokia N97 Mini (both Symbian S60v5) & Nokia N900 (Maemo). Both Apple & Blackberry currently have nothing to offer in this segment.
Its important to note here that there is one thing which separates the Nokia N97 & the N97 Mini from the rest. Their unique selling point is that the touchscreen hinges outwards, coming to rest at a handy viewing angle giving it more of a laptop look than other sliders like the Motorola Milestone & Nokia N900.
After the form factor… comes the choice of OS
As far as choice of OS is concerned, we personally would stay away from any WinMo 6.x device. If you are on the lookout for an Android or Maemo device in particular, then you may want to buy the Motorola Milestone or the Nokia N900 respectively. But if you are OS neutral or prefer the Symbian OS as we do then the Nokia N97 Mini is a highly recommended choice.
Between the Nokia N97 and the N97 Mini, we are happy to let go of the slightly larger screen (3.5″ vs 3.2″) & much higher storage (32GB vs 8GB) of the N97 in return for the compactness of the N97 Mini and a lower price tag!
N97 Mini : Short Review
The N97 Mini sports a homescreen customisable with plenty of widgets on a 3.2 inch bright resistive touchscreen. The 5-megapixel camera with a Carl Zeiss Tessar lens does a marvelous job in capturing photos & videos, and the audio & video playback is excellent as well. Like most new high end Nokia devices, the N97 Mini now comes with Ovi Maps with lifetime free voice navigation.
Of course, no phone is perfect & the N97 Mini is no exception. While we appreciate the amount of internal memory provided, it could have done with more than 128MB RAM. We miss the virtual onscreen keyboard at times as well as a stylus for the resistive screen. And lastly, the battery life could have been a little better.
We remain slightly disappointed with Nokia’s vision for this version of the Symbian OS. The N97 Mini runs S60v5 which is Symbian^1 and is unlikely to be upgradeable to Symbian^3 & Symbian^4 which will be launched later this year.
Conclusion:
The Nokia N97 Mini may not be as ground breaking as the N95 was in its time. But it definitely provides an exceedingly good all-round package at a reasonable price.
It may not have the classy UI of the iPhone and has far less number of apps than the iPhone has. But any number of apps on the iPhone cannot replace a physical QWERTY keyboard or a 5 MP Carl Zeiss camera with flash, can it? Being a Symbian device, the N97 Mini can multi-task unlike the iPhone, and there is an ever increasing number of apps in Nokia’s Ovi Store.
And if you think that the Nokia N97 Mini cannot do push email like the Blackberry, then think again. Nokia Messaging delivers push mail to the N97 Mini without fuss and without the need to subscribe for the expensive Blackberry Internet Service.
We thank Nokia WOMWorld for sending us a trial Nokia N97 Mini for our review. We were so impressed with the phone that we ended up buying the phone as soon as we sent back our trial device, which speaks highly of what we think about the N97 Mini!
