Nokia N97 mini and N900 Hands-on

Nokia on Wednesday showcased two of their latest N-Series phones - the Nokia N97 mini and the Nokia N900 - at the 'N-Tour-Age' event. We were there for the event and got our hands on both the devices. So today we give you our first impressions of the phones.

Nokia N97 mini

The younger brother of the N97, the N97 mini features a slightly smaller body but with nearly all the features of the N97 crammed in. The first thing I noticed when I held the phone was how good it felt in the hand. The dimensions were just right and the phone, although not a lot smaller compared to the N97 on paper, somehow feels a lot smaller in hand. The build quality is good, brilliant actually, and the slider mechanism moves with a flawless precision and smoothness that makes you slide the phone just for the fun of it.

On the front you see the same set of keys as on the N97; the Menu key, call key and the end key. The Menu key has been changed a bit and now resembles the one on the N86 8MP with the dotted pattern. The key is angled that way so that it is comfortable in both landscape and portrait modes.

I tried my hand (or thumbs, to be precise) on the keypad of the N97 mini. The keys have the same basic shape and design but there is no D-pad this time and the Space key is still on the right side. The keys take sometime to get used to, especially the Space key's location, but after a couple of minutes of typing I started getting used to them.

The rear side loses the huge plastic cover of the N97 and gets a smaller metal cover instead, which apart from saving a few millimeters of thickness also adds some more solidity to the design. The camera, however, loses the lens cover, which makes it more prone to damage. Everything else on the side remains the same.

Moving on to the software section, a welcome addition to the N97 mini UI, which by the way runs on the Symbian S60 5th Edition, is kinetic scrolling. Now, although kinetic scrolling was available even on the Nokia 5530 XpressMusic and the N97 after a firmware update, the one on the N97 mini works even in the main menu with the icon view. This means it now works everywhere in the UI and not just in lists. The interface speed is pretty good and the phone feels responsive. The resistive touchscreen response is as good as it can get for its kind but a capacitive screen would have been a lot better.

Apart from this the N97 mini is the same old N97, which means it is a pretty solid device that can do a lot of things quite well. Priced at Rs. 30,000, the N97 mini is cheaper by just a thousand bucks compared to the N97. Eventually it boils down to what you want if you have to decide between the two; whether it would be the extra features in the N97 along with the larger body or the more compact N97 mini, but with a couple of minor features missing. Personally, I'd go for the N97 mini.