Nokia N97 Mini Review, The Hardware

As mentioned on the Nokia N97 Mini Daily Chronicle, the phones hardware is stunning, its very much the epitome of Nokia's design, well built, feels solid and sturdy and fits perfectly in the hand. The sliding mechanism is excellent, the hedge at the back supports the screen well giving an assurance that it can hold a strong snap but it's not the E75 level where you can play around. I saw a few display dummy phones were the hedge breaks off, typical aftermath being made of plastic, Nokia should replace this with metal in their future devices.

Screen size is just about the ideal, perfect in one hand operation, the 3.2 inches screen with an 800 x 600 resolution is good enough to show large icons, beyond this would mean increase in width which will result eventually to uncomfortable grip. Less buttons on the sides looks great, it came out classy and sophisticated but on the contrary, mechanical music dedicated buttons would have been a welcome addition on the sides to control the music player without opening the screen, no problem with the headphone as it is supplied controls but this became a problem with the use of stereo speakers. Maybe Nokia could extend the lock key a bit and convert it to a sliding music control when music player is use to prevent button addition. The stereo speakers were perfectly fitted on the left end sides, there is no way for it to be block whatsoever by the user.

QWERTY keyboard is great, the best so far, its well spaced, well marked and best of all has an excellent tactile feedback. The 3 row works perfectly well as it eliminates hard to reached middle and top row keys. Nokia uses a rubber mat for the keypad but will this stand rigourous used? It would have been better if its metal like that of the menu button.

The phone has the most unique way in inserting SIM as it has a detachable SIM latch, users needs to detached it everytime they put a sim on which is a bad news for those who were fun of changing SIM cards often, they will definitely drop and lost this in the long run making the phone entirely useless. Nokia should stock this latches up in there flagship stores just in case.

The phones power source, the BL-4D with 1200 mAh, isn't good enough for power users, the phone can withstand regular use for about two days but it doesn't last a day with rigid use, increase in battery capacity would have been better. Use of wap service via 3G even drag the battery down further lessening its life span with the battery heating up in the long run.

The camera lens was left unprotected, a bit of a disapointment for photo enthusiast since its a rib to their interest. Nokia must have put something to cover this precious feature but at least they make it up with the camera button, it works great and very comfortable to use, also makes the half press autofocus scheme easy, again, the best so far.

Well, I think I have covered all the hardware part of the phone. A very good hardware impression so far, Nokia made it a point that they have covered all there lapses from the original N97 and yet made it possible to keep its price low, a fleet worth applauding. Now a regular consumer who can only afford a regular price with a hunger for high end technology and quality device built have something to run to, the Nokia N97 Mini. Stay tuned for the software review.

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