Nokia N97 Mini previewed ahead of launch, fails to impress

Some of our readers were still skeptical after the first two leaks of the Nokia N97 Mini but that should be enough to convince them that the handset is just round the corner. A live preview of the slightly downgraded version of the Nokia multimedia flagship appeared online, revealing almost everything there's to reveal about the handset.

Being a sized-down version of the original Nokia N97, the N97 Mini-Me will come with 8GB of internal storage rather than 32 GB. There's also no D-pad this time and the keypad size is reduced, which according to the author makes it uncomfortable for users with larger hands. While the camera module has remained unchanged, the protective cover is dropped, leaving the N97 Mini lens exposed to fingerprints and scratches.

Nokia N97 Mini

On the positive side the Nokia N97 Mini replaces the plastic battery cover with a much nicer metal one and has more solid build quality. There's also kinetic scrolling throughout the interface, much like the newly released Nokia 5530 XpressMusic and the latest firmware of the Nokia 5800 XpressMusic.

The good news about the Nokia N97 users is that they will also be receiving kinetic scrolling as an update soon. The new firmware sporting it will be released in mid-September.

The main grudge that the author of the preview has against the Nokia N97 Mini is its pricing, which is said to be only about 100 euro less than that of the regular N97 but frankly we cannot quite agree with that. While we certainly consider the N97 slightly over-priced, we cannot help but feel that such a price difference is pretty reasonable. After all with the original handset nearing 400 euro, we cannot have hoped for its younger brother to sell for less than 300, right?

Nokia N97 mini

Leaving the pricing aside, the preview gives us some more spicy info about the Nokia touchscreen portfolio. Apparently it will be receiving some major update in the coming months with the first new editions right around the corner (presumably the Nokia 5230, announced this morning is one of them).

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