Nokia N97 mini might not give you dozens of new features bt it seems that Nokia goes for optimization with its latest touchscreen phones os the Nokia N97 mini is fast, responsive and still full of interesting features.
Nokia N97 mini pros:
+ Slide-n-tilt 3.2″ 16M-color resistive touchscreen of 640 x 360 pixel resolution
+ 5 megapixel autofocus camera with dual-LED flash
+ Symbian OS 9.4 with S60 5th edition UI with kinetic scrolling
+ Full QWERTY keyboard
+ Fast processor and a lot of RAM
+ Quad-band GSM and tri-band 3G with 3.6Mbps HSDPA support
+ Wi-Fi and GPS with A-GPS
+ 8GB butli-in memory
+ Standard 3.5mm audio jack
Nokia N97 mini cons:
- No DivX or XviD video support
- No smart dialing
- No office document editor
- No camera lens protection
The design:
Nokia N97 mini measures 113 x 52.5 x 14.2 mm and weighs 138 grams, although it might seem big and so contradict the ‚mini’ in Nokia N97 mini’s name it is in fact quite compact for a touchscreen phone. The phone is mainly made of high quality plastic, yet the battery cover is metallic. The front of the Nokia phone is dominated by the 3.2-inch touchscreen displaying 320 x 640 pixels. Below the screen is the hardware menu key, while above the display you can find the proximity sensor and ambient light detector. The right side of the Nokia N97 mini houses the camera key and the volume button, whereas the left side features the microUSB port and screen lock. On the top of the phone sits the 3.5 mm audio jack and next to it the power key. Sliding the phone open reveals the three row QWERTY keyboard. The keys might seem a bit small yet they are quite comfortable thanks to perfect spacing and responsiveness. The back of the Nokia N97 mini houses the 5 megapixel camera lens and the dual LED flash. Those are unprotected by any cover so they might get scratched easily.
Performance:
The display in Nokia N97 mini is excellent as always with Nokia phones. The colors are vivid, the image is bright and the direct sunlight does not disturb it at all. The user interface in the Nokia N97 mini is entirely touch-optimized and thanks to the fast processor and some software tweaks it all works great. With the accelerometer built-in the screen auto rotates and abundance of widgets allows for great customization. What may be annoying at times is the fact that you have to double click to open a submenu, but as it also prevents accidental mistakes it is a good solution. In fact the menu often resembles the one in Nokia 6600i slide.
The phonebook in the Nokia N97 mini has almost unlimited capacity, it is touch-optimized and very easy to use and customize. There are fields for a few phone numbers, address, emails and so on and you can still create your own fields. The call log remembers the last 20 calls in the usual tabs. The only downside of making phone call with the Nokia N97 mini is the lack of smart dialing.
Multimedia:
Image gallery on the Nokia N97 mini is just fine. It is a part of the interface and to a separate application so it works really fast. There are a few viewing modes, zooming and auto rotation so it is all quite pleasant.
The music player has a wide array of features including album art, equalizer, support of virtually any file format. There are many ways that you can browse your music library in and you can also create your own playlists. The sound quality is very good and so the Nokia N97 mini may substitute an mp3 player.
The video player is also nice but it does not support DivX/XviD videos out of the box which is a pity.
FM radio in the Nokia N97 mini supports RDS and can remember a few stations.
The 5 megapixel camera shoots up to 2592 x 1944 photos. With Carl Zeiss lens and the LED flash you can achieve pretty nice results. The images are sharp and full of details and there is not too much noise. Therefore, the Nokia N97 mini can easily substitute a digital camera for occasional shooting.
The web browser in the Nokia N97 mini renders the websites really well although it is not one of the fastest browsers on the market. Still, it can get the job done so it’s ok.
Selected Nokia N97 mini features and specifications:
Display
Type Graphical
Coloured Yes, TFT resistive touchscreen, 16M colors
Size 3.20 inch
Resolution 360 x 640 pixels
- Proximity sensor for auto turn-off
- Accelerometer sensor for auto-rotate
- Full QWERTY keyboard
- Handwriting recognition
Memory
Shared memory 8 GB
- Photocall
- 128 MB RAM
- microSD (TransFlash), up to 16GB
- CPU ARM 11 434 MHz processor
Ringtones
Polyphonic ringtones Yes
Ringtone profiles Yes
- MP3 ringtones
- 3.5 mm audio jack
- Speakerphone with stereo speakers
Networking
HSDPA speed 3.6 Mbps
GPRS Yes, Class 32
EDGE Yes, Class 32
HSCSD Yes
WLAN Yes, Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g, UPnP technology
USB Yes, 2.0 microUSB
Bluetooth Yes, 2.0 with A2DP
WAP Yes
Browser Yes, WAP 2.0/xHTML, HTML, RSS feeds
Email client Yes
- Symbian OS v9.4, Series 60 rel. 5
- Push Email
- Instant Messaging
- Digital compass
- GPS with A-GPS support
- Nokia Maps
Other recently reviewed mobile phones:
Nokia 5530 XpressMusic, Sony Ericsson C901, Nokia 6600i slide, Acer beTouch E200, HTC Touch2, Nokia 6760 slide, Sony Ericsson Satio, LG BL40 New Chocolate, Sony Ericsson Aino, Acer neoTouch
