Nokia N97 'Mini' gets pictured in the wild?
By Donald Melanson 
posted Jul 29th 2009 2:42PM
posted Jul 29th 2009 2:42PM
We've already heard talk of a Nokia N97 Mini (or Mini N97, if you will) from folks who should know what the situation is, and it looks like things have now gotten more interesting still, with some seemingly legitimate pictures of the rumored device finding their way to us that show it out and about with its bigger brother. As you can see above and in another pic after the break, the device is slightly smaller and slightly slimmer than the regular N97, and it's also received a few subtle design changes, particularly on the back, where the camera has lost its sliding cover. Could it be real? Almost certainly -- either that, or it's a tremendously talented KIRF -- though we're not sure we understand the business justification for a new version of the N97 that isn't small enough (or different enough, for that matter) to hold its own spot in the lineup. Not much more to go on than that, unfortunately, but you can pretty safely move this one up a notch on the ol' Rumor-o-Meter.
first... n97 sucks
What do you use? the iPhone? have you ever owned or used the N97 for an extended period of time? The reviews on the N97 have been both positive and negative. I for one have not used the N97 yet, but am a huge nokia fan. Hopefully soon I'll see the N97 in Canada. Rogers Wireless did launch the N95 8GB.
If it has S60 on it, its a fail. If it runs Maemo 5, probably an epic win.
With that battery cover, I'm guessing it's going to be in the E-Series and have an epic battery life.
And a touchscreen! Let's hope for a capacitive one...
I can see that. Probably with a lesser camera and less memory.
I think it's a fake! Made in China!
Wasn't the n97 considerably small already. I mean, what is the business plan behind having a mini?
Well the entire E series is business oriented, so perhaps having something more durable/compact? I agree, with the above poster as well, that the battery cover looks E series-like.
Ok, a few things here need to be cleared up and I feel pretty well informed on the subject. I personally own a Nokia 5800 which was a warranty replacement for my SE W960i, ironically both running flavours of Symbian (S60 5th-ed and UIQ3 respectively). UIQ3 was definitely the better of the two OS's, but the 5800 isn't a bad phone because of the OS.
Now, three people in the office have the N97 so that's 4 of us on S60 now, my thoughts are this:
The N97, in terms or hardware, is simply awesome. If you want something with a big ass touch screen AND a physical QWERTY, there probably isn't a better handset out there. Except it's pretty big, so a mini version would actually solve a major gripe.
What really lets the N97 down is S60. I don't mind it on my 5800 but I don't "like" it. But my handset isn't expensive and it's not really trying to be an iPhone rival, the N97 is (in a sense at least) and for that, S60 is not a patch on OSX. It ruins the user experience of the handset. A better OS is required, and fast. Or at least a slickly skinned version. I don't know anything about Maemo apart from Nokia own them. But I can't help feel that if this just ran Android (lets face it, it's really the only other OS out there that isn't winmo but is actually good), it would be phenominal. It would be the T-Mobile G1 we all wanted.
So to re-iterate, the N97 isn't a bad phone because of the hardware, it's the software that does it. But if it was smaller, not so expensive and was more business orientated? Hell yes the Mini would be a nice handset with a keen target audience.
I've heard a lot of people say they don't like S60, but these are people switching from a dumb phone, or from another Smartphone. I myself LOVE S60, I've use a S60 Nokia for several years. I started with a 6620, then the 6682 and now the N95. I would like to see how the S60 5th edition interacts compared to what I’m using now. I will admit however S60 is an aging platform that needs a bit of an update and a refresh to the actual interaction with the OS.
Nicholas, I agree with you. I've used S60 exclusively for many years and I still like the platform. And for most of that time Nokia was ok because other mobile operating systems were not demonstratively better. However, like many things in the recent world of mobile, the iPhone changed things. I won't go as far as saying that the iPhone is better (my stance there is "to each his own"). But the iPhone did make smartphones extremely easy to use for the average phone user. That's the world that S60 (and BlackBerry and Windows Mobile) is now competing. Android and webOS have stepped up to the plate and seem to be competing. But can the older OSs reinvent themselves to keep their place?
If you really like Android, you would love Maemo. First of all, it would not be impossible to run Android apps under Maemo, but Android itself is very restrictive. And I also find the Android UI kind of confusing.
Having in my possession a N770 from its launch and being a Maemo developer I guarantee that while it is not very popular, it has plenty of cool applications and a huge potential - probably , most Linux apps can be compiled to it.
While you may argue that Linux doesnt have good apps (something I would promptly disagree), thats still better than most mobile plataforms out there.
This device on the picture is probably a fake, but it would be amazing if it runs Maemo 5 (a major overhaul in the user experience)
I think it's more likely that this device will be Symbian 9.5, running under an early version of the Symbian^2 interface. The current Symbian 9.4 handsets are supposedly going to be compatible with Symbian^2, and there's been a parallel rumour that the new OS's interface will sneak out as part of S60 5th FP1 later this year. So it would make sense for them to use an N97-derived handset to give that a test drive.
Err, 9.6, I mean. I forgot they used 9.5 before.
Omagus
Omagus @ Jul 29th 2009 7:23PM
"...But can the older OSs reinvent themselves to keep their place?"
Not in it's current state. Nokia will need to really jump into the capacitive screen technology and develop their OS around that if they really want to have an honest chance. As good as my 5800 is, and as much as I like Symbian, I even know that in order to compete, they will eventually have to satisfy that mass market appeal 'technology' and 'software UI' expectation.
one more shot with bigger resolution - http://www.mobilebulgaria.com/news/view.php?id=13167
Either a Chinese Fake or a New Weaker Model
it'd be nice if they came out with a N97i that fixes little issues and maybe add some HD recording like the i8910 :)
If The Picture Is Real...Then One Thing That I Don't Really Understand Is That NOKIA Rarely Fix Thier Problems, Meanwhile They Came Out With A Even Worse Solution...To Be Specific, The Back Cover & The Camera Slider...(You Can't Just Remove It to Call It "Problem Solved")
or, "The Modern Promethius".
That's most likely a Chinese fake!