We’ll try to avoid comparing the Nokia N96 Mini feature-by-feature against its predecessor and refrain from telling readers what was or wasn’t enhanced to our satisfaction in the phone. A fresh look at the device seems just what’s needed for a fair review. Because when Nokia came out with the N97 back in June 2009, tech world received it with mixed reviews. It seemed like there was a lot to be liked and a lot to be loathed about the handset. So what does Nokia do but go on ahead and launch a possibly enhanced Mini version of it and call it the N97 Mini. Predictable name, wasn’t it?
First off, the actual appearance of the phone belies the name it’s been given. It’s not something that can be palmed even with a lot of practice though it’s definitely less bulky than the N97. The familiar chassis design hosts a dedicated camera key, volume controls, screen lock slider, MiniUSB terminal and 3.5mm headphone jack. Why do alluring bodies have to be restricted to luxury phones? Honestly, the exterior is a little boring to look at, but then again, no handset manufacturer has managed to bowl us over with a beautifully crafted one lately. Just the fact that Nokia decided to do away with the entirely plastic feel that the previous model flaunted is pretty considerate of them. To a certain extent the black with delicious brown blend of colors saves us the energy that would have been spent cribbing about the appearance.
The side slide with tilting screen design may have fewer fans than critics, count us among the former group. It seems to give the handset less of a phone and more of a computer-ish feel which sits well with us. The keyboard is pretty easy to type with though the reason as to why the shift key is placed to one side confounds us greatly. Typing on a QWERTY keypad cannot offer the same experience as hitting out letters on a regular PC keyboard anyway, so why couldn’t the ‘B’, ‘N’ and ‘M’ have been set to the right of the shift key? Beats us. The N97’s D-pad has been given a miss too, instead we have arrow keys on the Mini. All applications work in landscape mode when the keyboard is slid out and most users might want to stick to this mode.
The reason is simply enough, the resistive touchscreen UI is frustratingly erratic. There are some applications that require a single tap and some that call for double taps. Why not work on a UI that’s received flak in the past is something that’s baffled us successfully. Next, we could tell you that the front facing camera is superbly inferior to the main camera because the manufacturers back in Finland probably thought that no one was going to notice it anyway. The 5MP AF snapper fitted into the back is pretty good with its powerful flash. We have not made a mention about the fun picture enhancing and editing tools because unexpectedly enough, they don’t come with the Nokia N97 Mini.
One thing that we greatly appreciate about the 3.2†touchscreen is the image clarity it delivers in 640 x 360p nHD quality. A perfect complement to this was the nifty sound quality rendered through the speakers and headphone jack. The colors look very vivid without appearing unnatural and even the contrast ratio lends a hand along the way. It must be noted that the display visibility in sunlight does not have us dancing in delight. YouTube videos sound as good as they look on this handset. Speaking of which, the web browsing experience is nice and slick. It doesn’t take more than a few seconds to get to a particular web page. Requesting a Google Search lent us an experience akin to internet browsing on a regular PC, it was that quick. So what if you don’t have the fancy pinch and zoom gestures to help you along. It just makes it feel that much more like a PC, doesn’t it?
The various Facebook, MySpace, Amazon, YouTube, Bloomberg, Boingo, CNN Video, Qik, AccuWeather and similar widgets that come pre-loaded with the phone can be found under applications. According to us, it already houses all the interesting apps needed for our entertainment. Accessing the Ovi Store calls for an update that gets installed in a blink. Did we tell you about the clutter-vanishing properties of the homescreen? Reminds us of the tale of that witch who would snap her fingers to get her flying broomstick to tidy up her cottage. If the widgets are hidden, a sweep of a finger across the display makes them appear around the perennially present and visible clock and another sweep makes them disappear. Neat! It’s like a magic trick we’ve never had to practice at.
Our device did hang up several times when we opened multiple applications, though not frequently enough to annoy us too much. But it does take the zing out of it when you have to get the handset working again and painfully access applications through the whimsical touchscreen. Apart from the QWERTY keypad, the phone accommodates handwriting recognition that required us to use a lot of fingertip pressure to write out alphabets and a virtual keypad which is unfortunately not a QWERTY type. We can live without that since the physical keypad is quite user-friendly. The e-mailing service function is not difficult to set up and it supports a number of providers. Navigating through the various applications and functions has been made a tad bit better with kinetic scrolling. It’s the only saving grace about the touchscreen UI.
It may not be the foremost thing that strikes everyone’s minds when they’re mulling over buying a new gizmo, but battery life is always of primary concern to us. Not only are we eco-conscious, we also don’t like our travel companions, our mobile phones being the inanimate ones in this case, dying out on us due to lack of energy. This Nokia offering does not require to be charged frequently and gave us around 24 hours of average usage before starving out. There’s a useful search option for looking for stuff within the phone memory or over the web too. The inevitable utilities like alarm clock, calculator, stopwatch, several games and more that accompany the phone don’t need detailed description. All being said and done with, we could perhaps beg for a more fun and engaging UI than the one presented to us in this mini package.
Overall, the Nokia N97 Mini is a reliable and feature-rich handset though we can’t concretely state that the handset will give an average user a decent run for his money with its Rs.30,939 price tag. With its robust feel and smooth web browsing abilities, we liked the N97 Mini enough to chalk up an 8 out of 10 for it.
