The Nokia N97 Mini with a device software version v10.0.20 has the most mature and stable version of the Symbian 60 version 5, lots of improvement were seen compared to the earlier versions. Most visible is the User Interface’s (UI) responsiveness, it’s undoubtedly faster and hardly experience lags in opening applications, the kinetic scrolling is also now by far smooth. The 250MB of Phone Memory is a welcome addition, this would mean more applications can be downloaded and installed on the phone memory creating a faster application response compared to those that are save in the memory card. The problem though is the phones RAM, it’s not enough to cover its capacity specially in multitasking, often than not, few warnings of Memory Full comes up while running Nokia Messaging, Gravity, Music Player, Web Browser and youTube client at the same time, but at least it can, other phones doesn’t even support multitasking. It would really be appreciated if Nokia will double the RAM capacity of the phone.
Homescreen:
The live homescreen of the N97 Mini is its best feature, there can never be any better than be updated to your most favorite applications making use of a once boring space. This perhaps is one of the biggest envy of other manufacturers as Nokia toss this down exclusively. The only problem that crops up was its limited customization like the eMail slot, there’s only one slot intended for this that will show only a single eMail account, it would have been better if there were 2 or more, no doubt people nowadays maintain more than one eMail account. It would also have been better if Nokia would put more Shortcut content, only two slots were given for this at the moment.
Calendar and Contacts
Nokia’s calendar set up is as always, excellent, adding up events, schedules, reminders among others is a breeze. Dividing the calendar screen to half giving way to daily activity list is a welcome addition, this eliminates the tapping of the date to show its content. Contacts is rather a charm, you can add every possible information into it. Searching for contacts is now easier than ever as kinetic scrolling is also implemented. Ovi chat is now pre installed and works perfectly well. Ovi Contacts needs to be integrated here, this will solidify the Contacts feature more edging other manufacturers.
Music
Music Menu have a facelift, it’s now on a List View adding up the option to open the last track played. Music Store was integrated as well, another welcome addition. Music library didn’t change much while the Album Art on the portrait mode now shows a huge album image, makes the screen more lively to gaze, landscape mode is roughly the same.
Music Player is the best on its class, as mentioned on the Daily Chronicle, the device plays top of the line music with crisp and clear sound using the headphone. Loudness and Stereo Widening works perfectly well rather and the Bass Booster is rocking its way. Stereo Speakers though was let down, it’s seemed distorted on high volume, Nokia 6233 sounds even better and louder than this. Music Player supports MP3, WMA, WAV and AAC+ files.
Video and TV
The Video and TV menu is something new to S60v5 showing the same List View menu to that of the Music folder with a Last Video Played sub menu, other sub menu includes My Video and Video Feeds. The Nokia N97 Mini plays WMV, RealVideo, MP4 files flawlessly in the full screen mode but the absence of support for DivX and Xvid files is a bit of a letdown but can be covered by a 3rd application software like the SmartMovie that can be bought online, but then again other manufacturers supports this file for free so it’s an additional expense for Nokia devices. It’s high time for Nokia to dwell on this matter as there where countless of people who make this there most preferred basis in buying phones.
Web and Email
As mentioned on the Daily Chronicle, the web page implementation of this phone was greatly improved, it now supports automatic fullscreen transition which is another welcome addition making use of the phones entire screen rather than the ¾ screen dissection before. Kinetic scrolling was also added making web browsing experience more enjoyable and lively. There is also a youTube video support which makes it possible to play videos directly from the web page unlike the 5530 XpressMusic that needs a 3rd party client to view one, a huge step up.
The Nokia N97 Mini has the typical Nokia Messaging client but its stability is worth nothing, it never resembled the same problem to that of the 5530 XpressMusic, no freezing or lag in opening eMails, no failure to open the client itself, among others. It’s not E75-like in interface and reliability but it serves its purpose pretty well.
Camera and Photo
The Nokia N97 Mini sports a 5 MegaPixel Carl Ziess Camera with Autofocus and like Nokia N82, it also produce similar top end images in well lit areas. No improvements though on the camera feature except that the touch interface provides a more interactive experience. Dim and Night shoots on the other hand is below average having only a Dual LED Flash. Images comes out cloudy and blurred with lots of background noise. As you can see in the images below, the difference is a quarter mile compared to N82’s Xenon especially in far angle shoots. Video of the N97 Mini supports VGA with 30 frames per minute, same quality to that of N82 except that N97 Mini was fun to use with its large screen.
Outdoor Shoots
Indoor Shoots
Close Up Night Shoots
Games
Nokia’s initial success in the mobilephone market was solely achieve by integrating games and entertainment to their mobilephones and N97 Mini is no different from its ancestors, it is game capable and has one preinstalled, the Mix DJ Tour and there were tons of additional free games that can be downloaded via Ovi Store. If you happen to be in the APAC area, Ovi Store has 10 free top end Gameloft games that you can download for free, to mention some, The Assassin Creed, Prince of Persia, Block Breaker, Brain Challenge 2 among others. The phone have no N-Gage client pre installed, an obvious omission from Nokia since their closing the service to gave way to Ovi Store but there is an N-Gage installer than can be downloaded in the web if you wish to install one.
Conclusion
There is no doubt that Nokia N97 Mini is the best on its class, having all this feature into one device is incredible, it was named Mini yet its larger feature wise than any other phone in the market at the moment. It has the best touch sensitivity, best UI, best form factor, best QWERTY, best build quality, best services and it’s even the cheapest among phones with the same capability, call that the best value super phone. If you’re looking for a touchscreen phone within the price point and you want only the best, then this is the only phone you can find, it’s worth every penny you spent.
Dec 16, 2009
Nokia N97 Mini Review, The Software
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