Customer Reviews

Nokia N97 mini 8 GB Unlocked Phone, Free GPS with Voice Navigation and Navigation/Car Kit--U.S. Version with Full U.S. Warranty (Black)

5 star:		(29)
4 star:		(13)
3 star:		(8)
2 star:		(16)
1 star:		(8)

 

 

January 9 2010: I amended the review to add some details about a couple problems I've had with the phone, slowdowns which lead to lockups and twice it suffered a system crash that leads to wiping out the phone's memory. I devoted a lot of the amended review to a hassle I had with Nokia's customer service. I realize that's unfair and irrelevant to the review of the phone, so I removed it.

Although it says I bought the phone from Amazon I actually bought it direct from Nokia. I canceled the Amazon order when I thought they had the wrong color. I'm sorry that happened because buying it from Amazon would have been a better experience. (another edit: since installing the new firmware, any stability issues the phone had seem to have been solved)

My original review:

The quality of the materials and the fit/finish & construction is the first thing I noticed, taking this out of the box. It has nice surfaces everywhere, a shiny steel bezel on the front and highlights around the bottom section, a matte black (brownish) metal finish on the bottom with a steel battery door and camera lens bezel. The battery door latches securely (and easily) unlike any phone I've ever owned. The phone feels heavy in a high quality way. It fits in your hand in a way that makes it feel much thinner than you would expect from the measurements. The flare at the bottom makes it feel more secure in your hand. The raised lens bezel makes it easy to avoid inadvertently using the camera lens as a finger grip.

so many pros...
-- Touchscreen is very responsive and has kinetic scrolling and it's easy to stop the screen without accidentally launching something.
-- Browser is full screen and looks great. (embedded con - I'm not sure I like the controls that pop up for some basic stuff like "back" or bookmarks. I can't find an easy way to backtrack in sites without bringing up the clunky set of controls.)
-- The 3-row back-lit keyboard is easy to see in dim light, and it looks awesome with the gray and orange illumination. The layout works great for me, I'm already comfortable with how it works and find it much nicer than keyboards with 5 rows of keys.
-- 16 x 9 screen has excellent color and brightness, even outside. Perfect format for watching movies full screen.
-- Has native support for Flash and java so Youtubes and flash based websites look like they should. (does not support Flash 10 - hopping for an update)
-- When you open the keyboard the screen tilts into a good viewing angle, either for typing with your thumbs or setting it on a table. Works great for watching videos, you don't have to prop it up on something.
-- Stereo speakers sound great for speaker phone. (edited to add: the speaker quality continues to impress me. They also work good for listening to the FM radio.) Music sounds outstanding through headphones, it sounds like a high-end MP3 player. Music Player has the best sorting, album art, searching, Playlist creating and ID3Tag editing I've ever seen on a phone - wow.
-- Accelerometer is pretty fast and all menus and screens and all but a few third-party apps have a landscape mode. You have to turn it on, it's off by default. The keyboard forces a landscape mode.
-- This is the most customizable phone I've ever had. Nothing is locked in place, put it wherever it works best for you. I've already downloaded about a dozen themes and love how much you can personalize the appearance of the menus and screens, even the icons.
-- The widgitized home screen is of course just as customizable but has another feature I wasn't expecting. You can swipe your finger across it and hide all the widgets so your phone display is just the wallpaper you chose and the clock at the top. Another swipe brings them back.
-- Call quality and signal strength is very good - what you would expect from Nokia. I'm replacing a Samsung Eternity and this phone is a dramatic contrast, it's so much better.
-- All the phone stuff, voice dial, speed dial, endless contact list with all the fields you could ever need, excellent contact list access/search, full MP3 ringtones, etc. It's all there and implemented very well.
-- It comes loaded with apps, all of which can be removed if you want. Email is available in a couple different ways, a pay push system or free mail client in the messaging bundle. POP3 or IMAP.
-- App stores for Symbian S60 are plentiful and there are loads of free apps and themes as well as ones you pay for.
-- GPS is fast to fix on a location and stays locked on very well. Works much better outside than it does indoors.
-- WiFi was easy to set up with MAC address and WPA security on my home system. It seems a bit flakey about staying connected or the phone deciding which network to use for certain apps, GSM or WiFi. I haven't found the way to configure this yet but I'm sure it's in there somewhere. (edited: a call to nokia support took care of this. There is a way to make it ask which connection to use when launching)
-- Headphone jack has video out and hands-free mic & music controller inside the single 3.5mm plug. A nice set of headphones with mic and music controls is included but no video cable.
-- Camera is excellent from what I can tell, haven't tried the video recorder yet.

you get the idea... I really like this phone. It does everything and does it in a mature way, the OS feels like it's no-nonsense, something made for adults.

Now the cons (including a big one - oops nokia!)

-- limited video codec support. No DiVX. Player is from Real Player. I'm looking for a video player app to replace it - any suggestions would be appreciated.
-- photo viewer doesn't recognize folders. This means all your contacts, album art, phone photos and collections of photos are all in one list, not necessarily sorted in the order you would expect. It's a pain to do anything with photos (my old phone worked the same way). ***I see there are third--party apps that seem to address all the issues.*** <-- this is not true. I was thinking the Resco Photo Viewer took care of this problem but it doesn't. I haven't found anything that does. A Nokia update might be able to address this and also make the photo viewer usable.
-- GPS has an indicator to show it's running but it doesn't show if it's connected to any satellites. (edited: some of the GPS apps have a satellite signal strength indicator on the screen, but this doesn't help when multitasking.)
-- some of the menus and built-in apps like the media player have a bland retro look. A bit of skinning would have helped, smaller boxes, less 3-d shading and touches like that. Simpler would have been nicer. Maybe some different fonts.
-- There's a blinking indicator for unread messages that won't stop flashing. I've marked everything I can find as read but it continues blinking. (solved: messages stored on the SIMM card caused this - thx to the comment that pointed this out)
-- The screen is a little stiff to flip up, but it's spring loaded so once it gets going it flies into place. Getting a fingernail under the back part really helps pop it into place. A small indent back there would have helped.
-- USB connector is uncovered (dust) and is placed on the front so it's a bit awkward using it while plugged in - also the connector is mounted upside down which is mildly irritating.
-- not a con but I haven't figured out where the mic is - so I'm not sure if I'm putting my finger over it.

-- Here's the big one... The bottom of the phone has the camera lens bezel on one side and a flare on the other side to make it sit flat on a flat surface. The space in front of the lens bezel is enough to make it tip when you type on that side of the keyboard. [This is only a problem if you type on the keyboard while it's sitting on a flat surface, like a desk. Most people type with their thumbs while holding the phone so for them it wouldn't be an issue. (edited to add this clarification)]

The original N97, the design this phone was based on, has a lens cover in a shroud that extends to the front of the phone. Leaving the lens cover off the mini created the problem. The designers must have not thought it through (or tested their design) but it clearly is a flaw Nokia needs to correct.

This phone is just too cool to give up on so I used a wooden matchstick to steady it and then realized I could just glue it to the case.

I put a photo of my matchstick mod in the user photo gallery. If anyone else comes up with a solution for the tippy case I'd love to see it, I'm hoping to use the mini for at least a few years. (someone in the comments pointed out that using a case with the phone would also solve the problem.)

My wife found another solution for the "foot" problem. She gave me a package of leather dots that quilters use as a thimble, stuck right on the tip of their finger. These things stick to the case really well and you can pull them off of the case without leaving any mess behind. Two of them stacked together make a perfect height for the foot.

Edited - 03-05-10: I added some photos to the gallery. These are to show the ThimblePad foot in place and also the clarity of the Clarivue screen protector. Plus I added a couple of shots that are just sheer affection for the design of this phone.

Edited May 16, 2010: I upgraded to the new firmware recently and my phone is more stable, the UI is faster, memory is optimized better so multitasking never hiccups and my battery life is outstanding. I'm getting three days on a single charge even with fairly heavy usage. Right now I'm at a bit more than 48 hours since I charged and my battery shows 100%. A week ago after going 72 hours the battery still showed 27% when I plugged it in for the night. I just put my rating back to five stars, I love this phone more every day.

Edited - July 1: I took the "foot" off the mini and the stylus string broke so I have a naked phone again, like just out of the box. I really like it this way and I found something useful for the tippy keyboard. A quarter (US) slipped under the corner works perfectly to stabilize the case. I'll live with this solution for a while and see how it works for me. I still have plenty of the leather feet so I can always go back to that. I like the phone the way it is though. I still haven't seen any phone for AT&T's 3.5G that is anywhere near as functional or well built as the mini for the price.

I've been carrying it unprotected in my pocket for six months and it looks as good as new (I do have a clear screen protector). No scratches and the finish is still beautiful. I find new functions all the time and have settled on about ten favorite themes. I love this phone.

I'm a gadget nut, with a particular affinity for Nokia and Symbian, which I find far more robust and user friendly than many of the other options out there. I've used a number of Nokia E-series products, and returned to my E71 again and again - like many people, I think it's one of the best smart phones ever made. Nonetheless, I recently tried the N97 (twice). I returned the first one - it was clearly not ready for prime time. The second time around was better, because the firmware was more evolved; however, the phone was just too big for me, particularly after using the E71.

When the N97 mini became available, I was initially put off by the negative reviews, including those that made it seem like less than the n97, but for about the same cost. I'm glad I ignored those reviews. This is a phenomenal phone, starting with the phone. In my opinion, Nokia is matched only by Blackberry when it comes to signal strength and call quality, and I don't understand why professional reviews just gloss over the phone capability - for me, it's one of the most important features of a phone. The home screen is highly modifiable - something that was a deal killer for me re: iPhone (I don't want to know that I have an email; I want to be able to see the email itself without having to dig down through four menus). The web browser is snappy and excellent. The size is perfect. Build quality far exceeds that of the N97, and is on par with the E71. The touch screen is very responsive - I've read a lot about resistive vs. capacitive; however, I was never comfortable with the iPhone but feel that mini works very well.

If you're on AT&T and are bemoaning the fact that you can't get a decent Android phone, then get this. You'll be happy you did.

All and all, very pleased with the purchase. The only cautionary note is that if you use all of the widgets and leave things on, like greader, facebook, etc., you'll def. run into battery issues. But you would with any phone.

I have had this phone for a little over a week now and am quite happy with the results so far. Before I begin though, I feel like a few caveats are in order. 1) If you are expecting an Apple iPhone UI experience in terms of simplicity and whistles and bells, you will be disappointed with the OS employed by this smartphone (Symbian S60 5th Edition). 2) You definitely need a data plan to get full use of this phone - preferable through AT&T to take advantage of 3g speed. 3) This phone uses resistive touch screen technology - as such, it is not as sensitive as that used in many commercial touch screen smartphones on the market in the US. If you're coming from that background, you'll find this a little difficult to get used to. That said, if you live in a colder environment, you'll be able to use this phone while wearing gloves.

With that out of the way, here are the impressions I have:

1) This is a well-built phone with nice use of metals and higher quality plastics. It feels great in the hand - solid and compact. There is no creaking whatsoever (you can't even tell straight up that the phone has a keyboard) and the hinge seems durable and well designed - time will tell. On the negative side, I have noticed that there is a little light leak coming from a couple of the keys and the camera key also feels a little stiff.

2) I found the keyboard to be tactile and I was able to adapt to it pretty quickly. There is enough space between the keys to make typing a relatively accurate experience. The space key is slightly offset which may throw some people.

3) The overall feel of the OS is pretty zippy. Coming from a Nokia N95 8gb, I am definitely experiencing a speed increase in menu transitions and application load times.

4) The out-of-the box firmware appears quite stable. I've had the phone for over a week and have not experienced a lock-up yet. My previous phone would crash at least once every couple of days so stability is a key issue for me and this phone (so far) appears to pass muster.

5) The home screen is completely customizable. This is a great feature and gives you virtually one touch access to the things you use the most - be it applications, contacts, music player and a whole range of web widgets (facebook, email, weather)

6) The GPS gets fast locks especially when use the assisted GPS function (allowing the phone to access data from the internet to obtain a quicker GPS fix). The phone also comes preloaded with map data for the US and Canada. For voice navigation you'll need to purchase a license from Nokia. I find their service to be accurate and okay value for money.

7) The camera takes excellent pictures for a phone and is one of the main reasons I bought this phone. I am noticing a slight improvement on the camera module from the N95 even though the specs are virtually the same. I imagine that Nokia have tweaked the camera processing software somewhat. Worth mentioning though is that the quality is never going to be as good as even a rudimentary compact camera - especially in low light conditions. That said, always having a camera on your person for on the fly photography is awesome. It's also great to be able to upload to flickr or facebook upon capturing a photo you want to share.

8) The music player does a nice job and provides rich sound. There is no FM transmitter on this model (unlike the N97 standard) so connecting it to a car stereo will have to be through Bluetooth or wired using the headphone socket (it is a standard 3.5 jack)

9) Connecting to a computer is simple. Nokia provides the OVI suite which helps to sync your calendar, music, photos/videos etc. You can also download new maps and backup your phone data using this software. Unfortunately, you'll need a PC to install it. Using a Mac still allows you to access the phone in mass-memory mode so you can drop down music to the phone manually.

10) Battery life is pretty good. Ultimately of course it depends on how you use the phone as to how long it lasts. If you're using data heavy widgets and GPS, you're battery will become depleted quite quickly. It easily lasts a full day of average use (couple of calls, 10-15 text messages, an hour of music while browsing the internet on Opera Mini, reviewing some emails from my Gmail account and taking 2 or 3 photos)

11) You can get a whole range of 3rd party apps for this phone - free and paid for. I recommend downloading Opera Mini (an alternative browser), Fring, (a VOIP application which allows connection to the Skype network) and Joikuspot (a app that turns your phone into a wireless hotspot and comes installed on this phone). Nokia's own OVI store can be used for downloading apps but I have not had great experiences with this method - I find their app store to be poorly organized and the access point is slow and klunky. There are other stores out there where apps can be downloaded which provide a better experience in my eyes.

12) As it currently stands, you'll likely have to import a case and screen protector for this phone. I'm sure this will change in the coming months.

All in all, this is a great phone - it is extremely versatile and has coped well thus far with all I've thrown at it. It does lack the wow factor of the iPhone or the n900 in the user interface department but if you can get past that and want a functional, aesthetically pleasing smartphone this is a decent option.

*****EDIT: I have used the phone full-time for around a month now and am in a good position to supplement my review with the following comments regarding features that I have discovered/missed in my original review and bugs that I have encountered with the firmware shipped with the device (namely v. 10.2.020).

13. Voice/phone capabilities: It is testament to this phone's many other features that I neglected to mention the overall voice capabilities of the phone. They are pretty much what you come to expect with Nokia devices in general - I have owned 4 models in my life and each one has provided strong voice functionality. General reception on the phone is excellent, voice comes through nice a clear and I've had no complaints from the other end. One related negative point here though that I would like to add is that the speakers on this phone are not quite as impressive as other devices that I have owned. They just seem a lot less powerful and considerably more tinny. As a consequence, I have limited my speakerphone use to quiet areas.

14. I got a nice case for the phone from PDAIR. It is a leather holder of sorts that houses the phone nice and securely. It doesn't add too much bulk to the phone either. I also got a screen protector from the same supplier.

15. Update on the battery use: Again, I am relatively impressed with the longevity of the battery vs. my personal daily use. I do not use any data heavy widgets but I have activated the push email feature of my email client (Profimail). I typically push my regular non-business email so it's not on the go for 12 hours a day but I receive at least 15 emails/day. This has been added to my regular usage as noted above (namely couple of calls, 10-15 text messages, an hour of music while browsing the internet on Opera Mini and taking 2 or 3 photos). I typically have around 4 bars of battery left when I plug it in to charge again overnight. If I have a day when I really intend to use it heavily, I plug it into my computer at work to give it a little extra juice. One thing I have noticed when doing this is that I am unable to access my music through the device (likely due to the computer recognizing access in mass memory mode (where my music is stored) as opposed to just charging the battery). This is a little inconvenient but maybe there is a workaround that I haven't discovered yet.

16. Firmware bugs: First up, don't be put off by the following remarks: None of them are real deal breakers for me and they will likely be cleaned up in the next firmware update. Being an early adopter of devices, you come to accept that there will be some issues and you just hope that they don't impact regular use too much. This is the case here:
a. I noticed that when you are receiving a call and need to activate the screen using the screen release button on the side you sometimes have to flick the switch several times to get the screen to activate. This can be irritating when you need to get the dialer application up when you are using some automated system (i.e. calling your bank etc.)
b. I noticed that on occasion (and the exact situation that inspires this still undetermined) the phone does lock up for a good few minutes before resolving itself. In the past this has happened when I've had a few 3rd part apps open and then tried to access the music player. I resolve this typically by restarting the phone. Ultimately, this may be due to 3rd party app incompatibility or it may be some sort of firmware issue. If anybody has had a similar experience, I'd be interested to know what your conditions were. Again, this hasn't happened many times and in all probability, a 3rd party app was to blame. I also want to add here that I have never the type of lock up where you need to remove the battery.
c. Memory management: If I could change this device in any way, I would have given it 256mb of ROM as opposed to the 128. That said, I have only encountered memory out errors twice and both were due to trying to access the photo gallery. (As a side note, the photo gallery needs to optimized somewhat, it takes a while to load the images etc. and feels sludgy overall. This is somewhat annoying as the photo taking capability of this phone is where it excels in comparison to other devices yet trying to show off some of the images you've taken and having to deal with the slow gallery interface removes some of the wow factor for users of other devices). I recently purchased a program that gives me all kinds of data regarding the phone including available ROM memory and I have noticed that the amount of ROM you start off with after restarting the phone is slowly chipped away at even if you correctly close applications that you are finished with for the day. This is likely due to all the system process background apps that are loaded as you use the phone throughout the day and ultimately probably lends to some memory out errors. Again, I've only encountered this a couple of time and if you remain diligent in closing apps that you are finished with (you'll conserve battery this way too) and restart the phone every once in a while, you'll likely not encounter this too often.
d. There is an error with the standard profile/ring tone whereby despite assigning a ringtone to a profile, the software chooses something different for certain people calling me. I can't explain this at all and have checked all the settings.


My original conclusion still remains and, as the firmware becomes more mature, this phone should get better with age.

My first Unlocked Nokia was the E71. I thought that was a solid phone, but felt jealous of all the people with their big screen phones, therefore decided to get the Nokia 5800 Navigation Edition...worst mistake I've ever made. That phone is probably Nokia's worst phone in my opinion. The best thing about it was the lifetime navigation license, but what good is that if the User Interface sucked, and was difficult to use. I returned that as soon as I could...sigh. Then I heard about the mini..it looks and feels fantastic. The one thing I have been unable to do that I miss from the E71, is the fact that I got to choose what internet to use. Ex: I could just set it to use WIFI and be done with it. The mini does not allow me to do this. Sometimes it asks me what I want to use, wifi or my phone's network. Other times I can't figure out what it is using. I prefer the touch interface on this phone hella better than the 5800. But hey, it was Nokia's first "mass market" touch interface. I mean what else can I say. I have a 5MP Camera, A GPS Navigator, A Phone, an MP3 Player, FM Radio, and an internet browser with FLASH support in one device. I do, however wish they would have kept the memory at 32GB. Other than that I am very happy with my phone, I haven't had any issues mentioned, though I did have them with the 5800.

P.S. If anyone knows what I'm talking about with the wifi, feel free to send me some info on how to set it to only use wifi. Thank You.

Review Update: My Honeymoon is Over!

After owning the phone for about 5 months I realized this was not the phone for me. The truth is...this phone can do a lot. It is feature rich, however as many reviewers have warned, it has a lot of bugs. Like I wrote above, I've owned three Nokias and I've come to the conclusion that when it comes to Call Quality and Signal Strength, nothing beats the Nokia E71. After all, that's the whole purpose of the cell phone right? No, I'm not a business user, I'm just regular average Joe.

Unfortunately that was not the case with the N97 Mini. I would still buy this phone over the 5800 any day. But if you decide to buy the phone, be warned that you're going to get a lot of call drops. Sometimes, I would be talking to someone on the phone and out of nowhere, the phone would shut off. And yes it was fully charged and yes my phone was updated. I mean it only takes a minute "over the air." Also the phone would freeze, not often, but it would. To Nokia's defense though, I have heard that is an issue with most touch screen phones.

I took one star off due to software issues, which I believe is the cause for the freezing and shutoffs. I also took one star off due to speed(response when opening and switching between programs) of the phone. If you're a NOKIA Fan, don't hate me. I still LOVE NOKIA...They give you more for the value of your dollar. I just wish they would take the time to make a better quality product like the E71.

I purchased this phone for the sole purpose of using it during my travels. I travel worldwide, and am out of the US more than I'm in it. I was in the market for a phone that had the following capabilities:

Quad-band, so it'll work in all the countries I visit
Unlocked, so I can slip in different SIM cards for said countries
GPS, so I could find my way around
Good camera (5mp or better), so I can take pics on the fly without having to pull out my actual camera
Good battery life, so I don't have to constantly recharge
Touchscreen, because I have always been a fan of this feature
QWERTY keyboard, because as much as I love a touchscreen, I like a dedicated keyboard for punching out my texts
Slider phone, because I want both the big touchscreen and a keyboard

This phone has all of the above qualities I was looking for, so I snapped it up. Before this phone, I used in iPhone while at home in the US and purchased the Sony Xperia X1a for my travels. As much as I loved the zippy OS and intuitive interface of my iPhone, it was locked into a service plan and had a pretty crummy camera as well as no physical keyboard. I let my contract expire and I purchased the Xperia. That phone was lovely to look at; very sleek and solid with a cool keyboard. But after a few weeks with it, I realized how hard of a time I was having typing with it (and I have pretty small fingers), so I began a new search for a phone and came across the Nokia N97 mini. I actually saw it for the first time in a market overseas, and then ordered mine online. The N97 mini is very easy on the eyes. Even though the color was listed as black, it has a metallic maroonish bezel. The back of the phone is metal and the front is quality plastic, giving this phone a solid weighty feel in your hands. It slides open easily (but not loosely), and flips up at an angle for better viewing while typing. The keys are very tactile and although a little close together, pretty easy to type with. I've read many reviews that knock this phone for its off center space bar, and a few reviews ding them further if the user is left handed, but I'm left handed, and I have no problem using it. You just have to get used to hitting the spacebar with your right thumb. No biggie.

Call quality is great. Voices are clear and loud. I've traveled to some remote parts of the world, and even with spotty cell coverage due to rudimentary networks, I can place a call and it'll go through.

The OS isn't as fast or sleek as the iPhone, and the touchscreen isn't as responsive, nor does it have multitouch (which I sort of miss), but it's much better than a Windows based OS and with a little playing around with it, you get used to it.

The camera is also pretty good. Picture quality won't be as great as a standalone camera, obviously, but for a cell phone camera, this one is pretty impressive. Pictures come out crisp and the color stays true. I've used the camera function to take most of my pictures since I've been overseas. I barely bring out my regular camera now, unless I want to take specialty photos (pictures at night, macro).

The apps that come pre-installed are mediocre to good. Ovi maps, Facebook, YouTube, and a few others that I don't really use. For me personally, the Ovi store is pretty impossible to use. Their online store is buggy and customer service is sub-par at best, but that's not a ding on this phone, as it would be that way with any Nokia phone.

The Nokia N97 mini is an excellent phone for traveling. The physical aspects of this phone is solid enough that it'll have no problems holding up to wherever you take it, although I would still recommend a screen protector and case to avoid excess dust and scratches. It works as a one stop gadget, as you can watch movies, listen to music, play games, surf the internet, place calls, find where you are with the GPS, and take pictures all with one gadget in your bag. Highly recommended.

Let me start by saying that the Nokia N97mini performs very well in its class. It is not to be compared with the likes of the iPhone and the Droids. So, if you are looking for something equivalent to the experience on the iPhone, this is not the phone for you. Perhaps, wait for the Nokia N8 or E7.

As the owner of the iPhone3G and the Motorola Droid, I had lowered my expectations considerably when I bought this device. My goal was to get an unlocked smartphone that had email capabilities, some limited apps that I use and most importantly free navigation. After reading a lot of reviews, I chose the Nokia N97 mini - partly because, there was a deal available at the time from Dell (I was debating between the N97mini and the X6). Got the N97mini w/ navigation package for around $290 including taxes and shipping.

The overall look and feel of the device is very good. It is sturdy and has a rich feel to it (apart from the touch screen) because of the metallic sides and back cover. Getting started up with the device for basic call functions, messaging and browsing is a breeze. But if you want to make changes and customize the device to your liking, be prepared to spend a considerable amount of time figuring out its quirky OS. This device has a resistive touch screen and looks and feels a little cheap (plasticky) when compared to the iPhone and Droids which use capacitive touch technology (with glass). The learning curve is rather steep. But once you get a hang of it, it doesn't bother you much. I'm very impressed with the call quality. Its way better than how my iPhone was and how my Motorola Droid is. The camera takes decent pictures and the video was also quite good. However, the flash was not very helpful even in a dimly lit room. I wonder if it will be of any use in completely dark situations. The slide mechanism for the keypad is robust and is so much better than the one I have on my Motorola Droid.

The device comes with 8GB internal storage with the option to add upto an additional 16GB using a microSD card. I have just placed an order for a 16GB microSD from Amazon so I can't comment on the performance of the device with additional memory. I was able to load music and pictures rather easily. I was also impressed with the radio (although you have to use the wired headset that comes along with this unit) performance.

The part that most impressed me was Ovi Maps and Navigation. I've been travelling a lot and rely on GPS devices quite a bit. I used to carry my Garmin c330 earlier before I switched to Google Navigation on my Droid. Unfortunately, Google Navigation has been a complete disappointment for me. Now, I absolutely adore Ovi Maps / Navigation. It has been able to give me my location in less than 30 seconds and it provides directions even if I'm out of a cellular coverage area. It has capabilities to warn you if you are over the speed limit (customizable) and can re-route based on traffic information. The one thing from Google Navigation that I would like to see in Ovi Navigation is that of "Layers". Especially, to see traffic information as a layer on the map itself as opposed to reading it as a list. But I definitely rate this as my #1 favorite feature apart from call quality.

The Ovi Store on this device is akin to App store on the iPhone or the Android Market on the Droids. It does not have the huge quantity of maps that the other stores can boast of. For me, I use a handful of free apps and they were all available in the Ovi Store (For anything more, I have my Motorola Droid!). I downloaded the Ovi Suite from the Nokia USA website and was easily able to update the software and get updates to existing applications.

Some other features I'm yet to completely evaluate: Front facing camera, video calling application (I heard Fring(?) is available for this), notifications for emails, switching between WiFi and cellular packet data,

To sum it up:

PROS:
1. Great phone (call quality)
2. Excellent Navigation using Ovi Maps.
3. Comfortable physical keyboard for typing.
4. Easy to setup email.

CONS:
1. Resistive touchscreen. (If this is a huge concern for you, you can choose the Nokia X6 which I think is very similar to the N97 mini with a capacitive touch display but without a physical keypad).
2. Ovi Suite - Downloading and transferring maps take a long time! I started downloading USA maps (little over 1GB) and it said estimated time was 2 hours. I killed it and downloaded just maps for the states I travel to. Even transferring photos takes quite some time when using Ovi Suite!
3. Complicated OS with lots of hard-to-find settings.
4. Only one home screen for widgets and apps. It provides a second one but that can only be blank :(

Fee sat nav and free maps an updates forever, totally configurable, touch screen, good keyboard and my fingers aren't small, good battery life; using a lot maybe 3days (buy a car charger ;), great photos and video. I thought about an iphone but this is better...plus I can add more memory :)

I purchased this phone because my N95 8 Gb (4 years of intense use) is now falling apart.

Primary reasons on buying the N97 mini:
1) I use navigation all over the world, Nokia is the only phone (nokia maps) that will give you that service, now on the newer models even for free, but downgraded and it's gone to OVI maps, (My N95 did that, but had to pay, but it worked 100%)
2) emailing, so wifi needs to work flawless. (my n95 did that)
3) searching the net for business research while traveling in asia, so internet needs to work flawless with 3G networks. (N95 did that)
4) bluetooth needs to connect the phone to my rental car's sound system or my own private car, so I can drive hands free and safe. (My N95 did that all day long.)

The first week, the phone worked fine:
- except for OS freez ups now and then, I was forewarned for this problem on this amazon customer reviews, but could reset the phone easy after a freez up.
Problems that nobody wrote about:
- when bluetooth is active, battery drains empty within 1 hour, and battery gets overheated.
- when wifi is active battery also drains empty within 1 hour,and battery gets overheated.

So if you use those features, make sure you have a charger at hand.

The second week, bluetooth stopped working altogether, I tried a firmware upgrade, but no results, then I decided to uninstall all software apps that were not originally on the phone when I received it, but also that didn't solve the problem. After reading up on N97 on the net, I discover many people are suffering from the same problem.

Other issues I found very frustrating on this phone:
-The connectivity on the N97 mini is very frustrating, and the way it manages your access points doesn't make sense either, N95 was better, why the h@#%!ll change a winner?
-Bluetooth when it still worked, would react very slow, it could take minutes before it would show up on other pairing devices.
-The phone refuses to show up on my computer's OVI office suite, whether I use USB or Bluetooth, it just doesn't work, so forget synchronizing all together.
-This phone will not allow you to use email accounts that use pop3 and smtp, strictly and only html mail. (I could send and receive on any email account on my N95 anywhere in the world.


I decided to send it back and have a refund.

This in now the second phone I have to send back within weeks after purchase, first I bought the N900, that developed grey lines on the screen, and was a big disappointment on overall performance, similar to the N97 mini.

Will try 1 more time purchasing the N8-00 later this month when it becomes available, if that is a disappointment again, I will never ever buy a Nokia again in my life, so far i had only Nokia's for the last 18 years, and I've been a very satisfied Nokia user and fan.

I wish they still sold a Nokia phone, that out smarts the N95 8Gb with the same or higher quality standards.

great phone- a little steep on the price but you do not have to worry about buying a data plan with you phone carrier so you can save a heap on this unlocked phone by using the local wifi hotpot accounts in your town.

The phone is small and light and the touch screen is pretty responsive- I see very little difference with resistive and the capacitive screens.

The n97 mini has the resistive so in theory is needs a harder push on the screen to do the same commands that a capacitive screen would do. The upside with resistive as in this phone is you have handwriting recognition and you can write notes and enter things into the device by writing them with a stylus or a blunt pen like object- this option or you could use the keyboard that is very well designed or you can enter things in the traditional way using the key pad on the screen.
Now Ovi maps includes free voice navigation which is an added bonus.

As with Nokia phones it has a solid build quality and feels strong and durable and like it will last- it can also run several applications in the background like all Symbian phones- no problems.

I had the N97, which unfortunately was big, too plasticky, and had a lot of of problems (even after the latest firmware update 2.0) - the biggest problem being the lack of RAM and internal memory.

I decided to get the N97 mini because it addresses a lot of those issues (and because I just love the form factor of the phone). The N97 mini feels like a high-end device due to its stainless steel materials and higher quality plastic. The internal memory is huge now (no more deleting files/apps to free up space) and it just feels better in the hands over the chunky N97 because of the smaller physical size. It also seems to be more stable than the N97 even though they essentially run the same firmware. It still has lower amount of free RAM than I would like, but Nokia has done a much better job optimizing RAM when running its own apps with the latest firmware (I never get an "out of memory" message). However, 3rd party apps that are memory intensive (e.g. Garmin Mobile XT) still give me problems.

The Symbian S60 5th Ed OS may be lackluster in terms of eye candy but it is still one of the most functional mobile OS's out there. I would rather choose functionality over beauty.

Overall, I would recommend this product to people, especially over its bigger brother, the N97.