Slider phones with a complete QWERTY keyboard have pretty much managed to grasp a large number of mobile enthusiasts particularly the professional bunch. When the Nokia N97 Mini phone we’re reviewing came out in December 2008, it got quite a few heads turning for this very reason. Soon after, the phone was quite the centre of attraction in the mobile terrain with also word around of a sibling coming soon. Well, come October 2009 and that’s exactly what we saw, the release of the Nokia N97 Mini. This younger kin of the original slider phone revealed itself with some expansive features that included a wide application list in a minimalist appearance.
Keeping the unwieldiness of the N97 at bay, a first glance of the Mini got us excited. As we brass-tacked this handset, it appeared that not all was just a plain strip down of the original phone. If you must have us pit the Mini against its older brethren, then the former is replaced with an 8GB memory capacity, a 3.2” touchscreen and a shorter battery life. Of course more than a few tweaks here and there other than this seem to have got into the making of the device. In a much compact appearance, the phone appears to be unique in its own way though.
We received the handset in a black recycled packaging with a few assortments for company. They included a USB cord charger, earphones with earbud options and a user guide. The phone’s elongated and minimal appearance caught our attention almost instantly. Our review unit was a cherry black version and despite its large 3.2” screen, the phone was not that heavy. At approximately 113(h) x 52.5(w) x 14.2(d) mm in dimensions, the handset tips the scale at 138g. The phone’s bare look and feel with the just the touchscreen that sports a 640 x 360 pixels, 16.7 million color resolution seems to keep in line with the design of most other touchscreen phones these days. Just a trio of buttons is housed beneath the screen. They include a distinctly tailored metallic oval-shaped physical button assigned for the menu, a call answer and a call reject button.
When you slide the phone, a complete QWERTY keyboard that’s pivoted to the tilting screen appears. In fact with the slider open, for a minute we thought we had a tiny netbook in our palm. On the left of the QWERTY keyboard were a USB port and a keyguard switch which you can push to lock/unlock the phone. A dedicated camera key along with a volume adjustment button was what we spotted on the handset’s right panel. The volume button was not your regular one and included a raised and fuller circle for elevating the audio level while a flat circle helps lower it. There’s a power button infused on the top of the phone and it is followed by a 3.5mm headphone jack. The phone’s brown black back panel features the camera lens and flash. The trim back panel complements the overall form factor of the phone pretty well which seems to be a move away from typical boring back casings. We think the handset would make for a great accompaniment not just when you are in the mood to show off but also in that all important business deal.
Responding at the simple touch of a finger, the homescreen though clustered initially was quite aware. We could customize the homescreen as per our fancy with a total of six widgets offered. Options like Web, Messaging, Clock, Facebook, up the ante with a few useful shortcuts. There are three functions at the bottom of the homescreen mainly Options, Numeric Keypad and Contacts. The Options feature let us effortlessly Edit and Hide the widget content and we could also put it in the online mode. Connecting the phone to your netbook or computer should let you conveniently charge the handset via the supplied USB cord. The USB cord is indicated connected by a light blue illumination which glows at the port.
Each attribute in the Nokia N97 Mini is rounded off by a ‘Show open apps’ feature that gives you a know-how of applications that are currently being used. The function gave us a desktop-like feeling where we could move between tasks like listening to music, writing a message or even playing a game. A systemized menu that can be embodied in either a list view or grid view is let out by the assigned menu button. Turning the knob on the organize button enabled us to move different functions as we desired and interestingly we could also shift attributes to a folder. The slide out QWERTY keypad is easy on the fingers and makes activities like typing messages, surfing the internet and others quite easy.
We can claim to have experienced a netbook-like feeling when keying in information with the keypad. The physical keys are fitted well as far as space between them is concerned and their illumination makes them all the more useful. While the screen is not something we can actually scream about, it wasn’t that bad either in terms of display. A high resolution screen that satiates your regular video watching appetite is what you can expect, not too less and yet not too much. The touch capabilities of the phone can further be put to a test by the DJ Hero Mix game. It allowed us to don the mask of a DJ and check how well we can belt out tunes. The loading of the game is something that really got us flustered. It seemed to go on for eternity and entering and exiting the game was a task.
As we closed the slider, the homescreen switched instantly to the portrait mode. Yes, opening the slider reveals the homescreen in the landscape mode. The music player was something we laid our hands on first considering the very chic earphones that were bundled in. The player features a music library, the music store and also Radio with RDS. By choosing from among six presets mainly Default, Bass Booster, Classical, Jazz, Pop and Rock, the incorporated equalizer ensured we enjoyed optimum audio. While tweaking the balance, loudness and stereo widening of the audio, we could also seamlessly create our own playlist. Besides tapping our feet to the latest beats, the 3.5mm headphones had us more than intrigued. Essaying style to the core, the earphones are accompanied by replaceable silicone eartips that rest themselves deep in the ears for a clear and uninterrupted audio experience. There’s a rewind, play/stop and forward button on the elongated flexible clip of the earphone, the edges of which house volume adjust and call answer buttons tailored in metal.
We tested the phone’s web browser next which worked fine until we tried to exit. It was really difficult to get off the phone’s web browser and it acted bizarrely when we tried to bid it farewell. The N97 Mini doesn’t really respond well with many applications open as well. It looked like it couldn’t handle the sheer pressure of multiple applications and closing applications took quite some time. As soon as we hit on Ovi application, we were asked to download an update to the Ovi store. Its download and installation was really quick and quite took us by surprise. The phone has been optimized really well for the Ovi store and crunching in a few applications and games via the store was enjoyable. In fact this was one quarter that the phone really impressed us. On the connectivity front, WLAN support was instantaneous and the phone identified networks in a jiffy while also allowing us to browse the web minus any hassles. Integrated with an Ovi Maps application, the phone also includes the Map, Satellite and Terrain modes. We could even mark locations as favorites.
The phone is equipped with a 5MP camera with zoom and a Carl Zeiss Tessar 2.8/5.4 lens. We could opt to keep Flash On, Off, Automatic or Reduce red while also being able to pick from a range of scene modes like close-up, portrait, landscape, automatic and sport. Playing around with attributes that let us adjust the color tone, white balance, exposure or light sensitivity, a self-timer of maximum 20 seconds can also be set with the camera. Budding photography enthusiasts we’re certain will be left asking for more as they gain the ability to adjust the contrast and sharpness. Moreover images can be snapped in a single shot or in sequence with the latter capturing photos in succession till you actually hit stop. If image quality is not something you’re really bothered about, then you can also use the front facing secondary camera.
A wide list of software updates kept us informed round the week about new versions of applications. The Office tool kept to its namesake and let us handle work files without any trouble. When looking for content whether within the phone or online, the Search function was quite useful. The phone also includes a Location application that offers landmarks, GPS data and positioning information. The handset packs in a host of applications that should keep the average mobile enthusiast more than busy all through the day. We found the Msg Reader application that reads text messages aloud really interesting. The other applications included were Drawing, JoikuSpot, Qik, Boingo, Traveler, YouTube, AccuWeatWeather, Amazon, AP Mobile, Bloomberg, CNN Video, Elle, ESPNsoccer, Facebook, Friendster, Hi5, MySpace, Slideshow and Vlingo.
Pros: The phone‘s slide-out QWERTY keypad is definitely one of its highlights. It’s good on functionality too allowing comfortable typing. The image output of the phone’s camera was also impressive yet it was the earphones that scored maximum on our list with its advanced sound quality. The battery life delivered too was worth mentioning. We dabbled on the phone for a good 1.5 days on a single charge.
Cons: Pretty boring in terms of design and fabrication, we think Nokia could have added some more fun to the plain front face of the phone. The weight of the phone was something that bothered us quite a bit. A phone having ‘Mini’ attached to its name could have been a tad bit lighter. The phone’s interface seemed to have behaved just like other members of the Nokia family. No lessons learnt here! The phone freezed a couple of times and the interface lagged when we moved from one application to another. One more attribute of the phone that disturbed us was its quick heating even with minimum usage.
On the whole, the Nokia N97 Mini was a good phone. Though it didn’t really offer us something new or features that we haven’t seen in many smartphones these days, it was pretty nifty on some fronts. The number of applications housed in this phone was pretty overwhelming and should keep you occupied when on the go. Though we don’t think many would be willing to shell out what we think is an exorbitant price of Rs 30,939 for this phone. We ratify this phone at around 8.5 out of 10.