Nokia N97 mini

In June, Nokia started shipping the N97, its flagship model which featured a touchscreen display and a slide-out QWERTY keyboard. In September, the company announced the N97 mini, a similar handset with a smaller screen and less built-in memory. It may appear to be a scaled down variant, but there are things about the mini which we liked better than the original.

Design

At 113 x 52.5 x 14.2mm, the N97 mini is quite a compact smartphone considering it hides a QWERTY keyboard. It's smaller in all dimensions compared with the N97 and weighs 12g lighter. The reduction in size and weight didn't lead to a drop in quality though, and in fact, the mini felt more solidly built. This is, in part, thanks to the metal battery cover on the back, an improvement from the black plastic cover found on the N97.
Build quality aside, most of the design elements remain the same. The front sports a single physical Menu button under the screen, beside the touch-sensitive Call and End keys. The left side is where you find a micro-USB port and lock switch. A dedicated 3.5mm audio connector can be found on top together with the power button while on the left, there is a volume rocker and camera shutter.
The 3.2-inch screen on the front has a resolution of 640 x 360 pixels, standard fare for Nokia's touchscreen-enabled S60 devices. Put side-by-side with the N97's 3.5-inch panel, it is noticeably smaller. Nonetheless, aside from smaller text when reading Web pages and documents, the mini's screen worked just as well as the N97's, especially since there's no difference in the number of pixels. It was sufficiently bright for most situations and text and images were displayed clearly without issues.
In its opened position, the mini's screen sits at a gentler angle than the N97's. It isn't a huge difference, but the change is significant. We mentioned in our N97 review that the angle of the screen made it a tad hard to view when the device is held in the hands. This is no longer the case with the mini and we felt the slight reduction of the angle has improved its usability.

The N97 mini (above) loses the directional pad but comes with arrow keys. Its spacebar is closer to the center compared with the N97 (below).

Adjustments have also been made to the keyboard to accommodate its smaller chassis. Most prominently, the N97 mini does not have a directional pad on the left side, but instead comes with four arrow keys on the right. Unless you play games using the directional pad, this is not an issue. In fact, it made more space for the keyboard so even though the phone is shorter, the keys weren't made smaller. While the layout remains largely the same, the spacebar has been slightly lengthened and moved closer to the center. This is a marked improvement as it makes getting to it with the right thumb much easier. Keys are also not as flush, so you get better tactile feedback when moving your thumbs across the keyboard. Overall, the implementation of this QWERTY keypad is better than the original.

Features

The N97 mini is a high-end product in the company's portfolio, which means you get no less than an exhaustive suite of connectivity options. This includes HSDPA for high-speed data over the cellular network, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and A-GPS for navigation.
On the software end of things, it uses the Symbian S60 5th edition operating system, a version specifically designed for touchscreen devices. This is very similar to the standard S60 user interface (UI) and at times, it feels like the touchscreen capabilities are simply foisted in, an afterthought of sorts. For example, in some menus, tapping on items merely highlights it and you have to tap again to select. That's the procedure in a non-touchscreen device as you move the cursor over the item and press select using a directional pad. But this is unnecessary with a touch-sensitive panel as you can see the items in one glance, and touching means you want to select it.
But it's not all negative as there are signs of improvement. Swipe scrolling used to be available only in certain applications such as the browser. But now, using your finger to push screens up and down without relying on the side scrollbar is consistently implemented throughout the interface.
Many of the features like the live widgets and Ovi Store remain the same, so read our N97 review for details.

Test shot from the N97 mini.
(Click for original image)

The N97 mini has 8GB of internal storage and a microSD card slot for expansion. This is quite a bit less than the 32GB available in the N97 but it's not a big deal if you insert a high-capacity microSD card.
On the back is where you will find the 5-megapixel camera with an LED for lighting up dark subjects. Unlike the N97, there's no cover to protect the lens. The upside to that is a reduction in size as the sliding mechanism does add to the thickness significantly. Picture quality is good, not too much different from the N97's.

Performance

Though marred slightly by the UI inconsistencies, the software performance of the N97 mini felt responsive. Aside from a few third-party apps that were more resource intensive, we didn't experience many slowdowns throughout our period of testing.
The 1,200mAh battery gave about two days of use on a single charge with live widgets turned off. If you leave push email and widget real-time updates on, expect to plug it in at the end of every day.

Conclusion

There are improvements in the software on the N97 mini, but those are applicable to the N97, too, through an update. So where it really stands out is in the form factor. When it comes to mobile devices, every gram and millimeter counts. So even though it isn't smaller and lighter by much, the N97 mini feels a lot more comfortable in the hands. This is most probably due to the use of materials and reduced width. We also liked the keyboard better, a major consideration for any smartphone with physical keypads.
Unfortunately, the same reservations we have about the N97 also apply to the N97 mini. Compared with Apple's iPhone OS and Google's Android, S60 5th edition just doesn't feel like a compelling proposition. This is not just with the touch interface, but also because of the dearth of affordable applications. For example, the best Twitter application for S60 is Gravity, which costs S$15 (US$10.80). While that's a fair price to pay for a good application, the fact that there are so many free versions for other platforms which are just as good makes it hard to swallow.
The N97 mini is available now in Asia at S$1,020 (US$734). That's quite pricey, so look out for deals from your operator before diving in.