Review: Nokia N97 Mini – A Slightly Smaller Experience

The Nokia N97, Big Brother of the N97 Mini arrived to these shores on the 20 June 2009 as Nokia’s Flagship device. Little did we know that behind the scenes a baby was being created to add to the N97 family. The baby now called the N97 Mini is now in most stores and available online for purchase.Review: Nokia N97 Mini A Slightly Smaller Experience Review: Nokia N97 Mini A Slightly Smaller Experience



As a N97 owner I am well qualified to rate the N97 Mini against its older sibling. The N97 Mini looks almost identical in looks form and size to the N97. Follow the break below for the full gallery of comparison images. The first thing I realised was that the N97 Mini was slightly slimmer and so more comfortable to hold, particularly for those of us with small hands. The screen size was slightly smaller than the N97. However, I found that the N97 held the same amount of text and gallery, menu items when viewing as per the N97. Indoors the displays were comparable and outdoors the N97 Mini had a more washed-out display, more difficult to read in sunlight.



The N97 Mini comes with 8gb built-in memory in comparison with the N97 which arrives with 32gb. The N97 Mini comes in a variety of 3 colours including white and brown with the distinctive metal battery case. However there is no camera protector for the N97 Mini. N97 users will be aware of the camera scratch problem that exists in the older N97 caused by the camera protector scratching the lens. I have had a repair for my own and have not had any further problems with this. The N97 Mini has a 5 megapixel camera as per the N97 so you have to make your own judgement as to whether you would prefer the N97 with its camera protector or the N97 Mini without.

Both the N97 and the N97 Mini has a metal rim around the screen and the housing of the qwerty keypad. The N97 Mini feels heavier at 138g even though the N97 weighs in at 150g (I do not understand why). The tilt of the display once the qwerty is open, lays at different angles with the N97 Mini lying further back. Check the images below for comparison. The N97’s display sits at a much higher angle, easier to view in my opinion. They keyboards are similar but with the N97 Mini having slightly more space between the key placements and the keys are slightly more rasied giving a better tactile typing feel to the overall performance. As I am left-handed I do prefer the use of the D-pad on the N97 to the placement of the 4 arrow keys on the N97 Mini. A few of the keys have changed places during the move from N97 to N97 Mini such as the sym key and the character to numerical key. With the newest firmware for the N97 matching up to the same offerings as the N97 Mini you will be hard-pressed to find much inconsistencies between the two.

In conclusion the N97 Mini offers you a slightly smaller experience to the N97. The N97 Mini has more fluidity and consistencies within menu’s and applications. The N97 Mini has approximately 244mb of free memory on the c-drive. More than enough to store all your essential applications directly on the c-drive phone memory, an option much used by me and others in the N82. It is not in my opinion price effective to buy the N97 Mini if you already own the N97 but for pocketability and the slightly more robust and speedy operations in the handset it would be the best-buy for someone who does not need the memory size of 32gb.