The N97 Mini: Comparison shots

by Ben Smith on 21st September 2009

Whilst in Budapest watching (and occasionally being-in) Nokia’s latest viral video shoot I got to play with some of their most-recently announced products and I’ll be writing more about them shortly.  However, the device I managed to leave Hungary having barely looked at and not even photographed (I really am a terrible blogger) was the N97 Mini that we ‘discussed’ in our recent ‘from Stuttgart’ video.

N97 Maxi v N97 Mini: Image from photo series on Pestola.gr by Stefanos Kofopoulos.  Used under Creative Commons license.

N97 Maxi v N97 Mini: Image from photo series on Pestola.gr by Stefanos Kofopoulos. Used under Creative Commons license.

Fortunately one of the other bloggers present, Stefanos who runs the excellent Greek-language blog Pestola.gr, took some beautifully-shot images of the Mini next to both the N97 Maxi (not it’s official name, but I’m hoping I can get this to stick) and the N900 (which has my credit card tingling).  He’s done two awesome photo-posts (N97 v N97 Mini and N900 v N97 Mini) so please go and take a look – you don’t need to speak Greek to appreciate them.

The Mini units we played with had a salmon-colour finish and a number of the Nokia people present suggested their diminutive size would be more ‘handbag-friendly’.  I’ll be interested to see if that really does make a difference or if technically-demanding female consumers will prefer the full keypad and big screen experience to accompany the high-spec of the device.

However, the metal backing and lower screen angle (both changes on the Mini over the original N97) did feel like attractive refinements to me… I wouldn’t be surprised if they made it onto a future refresh of the N97 Maxi.

  • It's shameful that this good phone does not have xenon flash..... Nokia, can you guys just bump up the resolution to 8 or 12 MP and equip it with a good xenon flash please ?
  • the handbag friendly comment must of been made by a man. women have less of an issue with size of handsets as hangbags have room. slim smaller handsets are more of an issue for people keeping their phones in a pocket
  • It was :-) Although pocket-friendly was a term that came up later. In his defence he may also have been referring to the finish as it's a more desirable-looking device to carry...
  • Because real men only have black handsets! Wheres the lime green and orange version, Nokia have lost the plot. though seriously i was at a nokia 'thing' where someone mentioned model t fords being available in any colour as long as it was black, and the designer of one of the N series handsets joked privately that was pretty much the case at nokia - though they have since branched out a bit with a shocking white!
  • Am I the only one who thinks that the N97 Mini just shows that Nokia's policy of product diversification is getting out of control. They're really struggling to explain the positioning of this thing and to distinguish it from the regular N97. Sorry Nokia but a new salmon colour and talk of handbag-friendliness isn't convincing anyone that this is the phone for a new niche.

    The truth - that Nokia is so loathe to admit - is that there is no reason why these two phones should coexist in the same product portfolio.

    Nokia, please stick 32GB of internal storage into the Mini and admit that this is the phone that the N97 should have been at launch. Just quietly discontinue the regular model and drop the silly 'Mini' tag from the new one.
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