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Preview: Nokia N97 Mini: Like the N97, but with a smaller screen, less storage, and less d-pad

Categories: Nokia
By: , IntoMobile
Tuesday, August 25th, 2009 at 1:06 AM

Eldar from Mobile-Review is at it again, pissing Nokia off greatly by publishing a preview of an unannounced device. First it was the Nokia N900 a few days ago, and now it’s the Nokia N97 Mini, both devices are expected to be officially launched at Nokia World 2009 which takes place on September 2. Eldar seems to have mixed feelings about the device, calling it a Nokia N97 that was attacked with a hacksaw. What will make or break the “Mini” is the price; too much and people are not going to bother, they’ll pick up the full size N97; too little and people are going to pick up the Mini instead of the N97. Eldar claims that the Mini is built better than the original N97, with a metal battery door giving it a nice and dense feel. This is let down however by the shrunken QWERTY keyboard, which … to quote Eldar himself:

As you might remember, the Nokia N97’s thumbboard was far from perfect and required some practice, and the Mini’s keys are even worse – in fact, they could’ve dumped the keyboard here altogether, but opted to keep it in order to maintain resemblance with the original model.

The N97 comes with 32 GB of built in storage, the Mini has only 8 GB. The N97 has a lens cover, the Mini does not. The Mini has kinetic scrolling, and the N97 will get this too some time in mid September with a software upgrade. What do you think about the Mini? Waste of Nokia resources?

[Via: Mobile-Review]

About The Author

Stefan Constantinescu

Stefan Constantinescu (@WhatTheBit on Twitter) has loved technology since as far back as he can remember. It started with computers, but in the past few years his passion has turned to mobile devices. As a mobile phone enthusiast who lives and breathes devices that connect to the internet, he knows he is not alone with this radical fascination of all things wireless. He is strongly opinionated and enjoys a good debate so leave comments in his posts and he’ll get back to you! Stefan began blogging as a hobby in the fall of 2006 and joined IntoMobile in the summer of 2007. Later he got a job at Nokia in March 2008, but as of June 2009 he has rejoined the IntoMobile team. He is currently based out of Helsinki, Finland.

  • Jonathan Bruha

    Directional keys on the right make a lot more sense than they did on the left. Now it’s not awkward to select text because you can hold shift with your left thumb and navigate through the text with the arrow keys on the right.