Nokia’s problems with and eventual axing of the N97 was one of the biggest fiascos for the mobile industry last year.
So, when senior Nokia executive Anssi Vanjoki gives as frank an interview as he does below, it’s big news!
In the interview, Vanjoki explains the problems that hampered the N97, the failures of Nokia’s quality control department, subsequent problems with patches and also his own sleepless nights.
Compared to the blanks that Nokia drew up with the announcement of their MeeGo platform at last week’s MWC, this is positively scintillating stuff.
However, if you were unfortunate enough to have bought and suffered at the hands of a glitchy Nokia N97 then this video will probably offer little in the way of consolation. Chances are you’ve already voted with your wallet and opted for one of the many Android phones out there.
Confused as to why the new raft of telly ads have been raving about the new Nokia N97 Mini as opposed to the regular Nokia N97? Not completely sure where the differences lie?
Well, wonder no more as Nokia Experts takes you on a journey of mobile discovery, comparing the sleek smart phone to its bigger brother in great detail.
Whilst there is little in comparing N97 Mini deals to those of the Nokia N97 (£20 difference for a SIM-free model, according to the Nokia site), there is a lot more to contrast in terms of form and function.
Check it out below.
Keen to know how the two stack up on paper? Well, let our Omio phone comparison widget do the hard work for you…
The Nokia N97 Mini suddenly looks a lot more familiar now, as Phones4U are stocking an exclusive white variant of the N97′s baby brother.
It’s a sense of deja-vu as Phones4U had a two month window as the only retailer to stock the original Nokia N97 in a lighter hue back in the summer, now they intend to follow up one of their most successful launches by being the only retailer to sell the diminutive smart phone in this colourway.
Now bathed in white as opposed to the oft-seen Cherry Brown Nokia N97 Mini, the family resemblance is unmistakable!
The white Nokia N97 Mini shaves off valuable inches where it counts, resulting in a sleeker version of the slider handset yet retaining all of that high-end charm and functionality.
Available for free on pay monthly deals for as little as £20 per month, the N97 Mini stands a good chance of repeating past N-series successes for Nokia.
Over the month of October we’ve been holding our ‘Scare Omio‘ competition, and received some of the most horrible, hilarious and heart-stopping pictures and videos from our community trying to give us the chilliest chills in an attempt to win a Nokia N97!
Below are some of the more weird and wonderful entries, but first – the winner!
Congratulations to on this elaborate mobile phone ‘unboxing’ from @wee_dizzy_dee.
The effort is there with the make up, the homebrew intestinal gore and faux legs show dedication to anatomical correctness, and a child in grown up people spectacles just freaked us out!
HONOURABLE MENTIONS:-
This bloody effort from @v8gamer was inspired, we love that you dotted the ‘i’ on the logo!
It might be a slow burner, but this video from @corasonsalbahe got us, and good!
@xrgo‘s was just…yucky. Also, the attention to detail is awesome.
Another video nasty, this time from @TunaRioMare. Definite winner of ‘Best Cinematography’, if we had such a category. But we didn’t.
All of the entries were of a surprisingly high standard, thanks to everyone that made the effort and took the time to scare Omio.
We thought we were made of sterner stuff, but some of the ones that didn’t make it into the Rogue’s Gallery were on the grounds of taste and decency as much as anything else…you people are sick!
We hope to do another competition again very soon so keep looking out on Omio for the mobile phone deals, as well as more competitions!
Vodafone have a pre-order page for the Nokia N97 Mini live on their site, complete with a prospective release date of the 29th of October.
Following our gun-jumping incident with the Nokia N97 Mini on Orange last week, we thought that the sawn-off smart phone might not resurface until early November, but it is currently available for pre-order with the offer of a free handset on a £35 pay monthly deal.
For this 18-month bundle a healthy 900 minutes and unlimited texts are at your disposal, as well as unlimited landlane calls and mobile internet.
Vodafone have some pretty sizable mobile phone deals for such a diminutive handset, but the Nokia N97 Mini loses very little in terms of both features and looks in comparison to its bigger brother.
UPDATE:Techradar has asked Nokia what is happening regarding the release, and they have stated that they, not Orange, would be the first to bring the diminutive handset to UK shores:
“The Nokia N97 mini will begin shipping in October, however an exact UK release date has not yet been announced. We can confirm that the device will go on sale inNokia’s flagship stores before it is sold through any operators.”
UPDATE 2: Unfortunately, a technical hiccup on Orange has been blamed for the premature release of the N97 Mini on third party retailers. They released a statement regarding the matter:
“We are working to resolve this issue. Orange can confirm it will be ranging the Nokia N97 Mini and correct pricing and availability will be available in due course.”
It’s a shame, as we are excited about seeing the N97 Mini arrive this winter. The flagship Nokia store is said to be selling the phone – SIM-free – from the 23rd of October.
The slimmed down sequel to Nokia’s popular N97 has been a little shy regarding a release date, but Omio has stock available of theN97 Mini from Orange Direct right now!
Despite being marked up as ‘coming soon’ on the Orange site, Omio’s Nokia N97 Mini deals will take you straight to the basket, allowing you to get one delivered as soon as Wednesday!
The pricing is certainly in line with premium smart phones on the network, with a handset price of £97.50 and £34.25 per month bagging you an N97 Mini on a 24 month deal of 1200 minutes and unlimited texts.
However, with the site saying the handset will be available from free on pay monthly, there might be even better deals yet to come…
In the spirit of the season, you’ll see that Omio has embraced an altogether more frightening air in recent days…this is because we’re giving away a brand new Nokia N97 (courtesy of Phones4U) to one of our lucky, lucky readers!
We’re a bit sad about how Hallowe’en has become more about the sweets and than the scares, as well as the lack of association that the holiday has with our first love, mobile phones.
So…our competition (which is not the least bit commercial) asks you to take the scariest picture or make the most blood-curdling video, and send in to us by midnight on All Hallows’ Eve via Twitter!
Whether it be a photo of a possessed mobile or a slasher movie remake shot using your cameraphone, the more inventive your entry the better!
We only ask that they be your own original creations, and whilst your images can be a bit gory, we ask they err on the side of decency regarding nudity…a bit of a contradiction, but we don’t want Omio to end up as one of those sites!
The best entries will go up in our Rogues’ Gallery, with the eventual winner selected on All Hallows’ Eve at the witching hour (that’s midnight on October31st for the demonically challenged)!
Follow @omiodotcom on Twitter to submit your pics, and go to our competition page for more details. So be quick, the competition runs until the end of October, and are looking to reward only the most macabre of entries!
The forthcoming Nokia N97 Mini is the latest Nseries phone, taking this summer’s most hyped handset and shrinking it down to a more pocket-friendly form factor.
So far, we know that it is smaller, cheaper and…browner than the Nokia N97, but does the N97 Mini actually bring to the table this October?
Check out our guide to see the differences between the Nokia N97 and the N97 Mini in all of the ways that really matter!
Size:
This is one round where the Nokia N97 Mini had better strut its stuff!
In response to popular demand, shaving a few centimeters from all of the N97′s angles makes the Mini, well…mini! The N97 Mini has also been made a little more curvaceous to fit in the pocket easier. The QWERTY keyboard is retained, but losing the N97′s slightly redundant d-pad in the process. What that means for N-GaGe gaming compatibility remains to be seen…
If you like your smart phone smaller, then the N97 Mini is exactly what you are looking for!
Winner: Nokia N97 Mini
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Weight:
Another shoo-in, the Nokia N97 Mini is positively svelte in comparison. The paunchy N97 is 12grams heavier than the 138g Mini, and that reduced weight leaves plenty of room in your pocket for loose change or pine cones.
Winner: Nokia N97 Mini
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Screen:
Something had to give, and the N97 Mini has lost .3 of an inch in the touchscreen department. May not sound like much, but size always matters and the N97′s 3.5″ screen looks all the more spacious for those active widgets when compared to its younger sibling.
Winner: Nokia N97
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Camera:
A photo finish in this department, the Carl Zeiss 5 megapixel camera remains largely unchanged between the two devices, with N97 Mini sporting a dual-LED flash as opposed to the single LED of the N97.
A small but significant victory for the plucky youngster!
Winner: Nokia N97 Mini
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Battery:
The Nokia N97 rocks a beefier battery, giving more than 2 hours talktime to the gallon over the N97 Mini and an 8 hour difference in music playback. Standby time eclipses the Mini by over 100 hours, proving that bigger is sometimes better!
Winner: Nokia N97
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Memory:
Another department whether concessions make the N97 Mini that bit more affordable. An internal memory of 8GB is usually impressive, but the hefty 32GB offered by the original N97 is tough for any handset on the market to beat. The microSD card slot can beef up both devices by an extra 16GB, but that doesn’t offset the cavernous 24GB disparity in memory.
Winner: Nokia N97
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Connectivity:
Both handsets are identical in this respect, the suite of smart phone syncing options from Bluetooth to USB and everything in between are covered by both devices. Wi-Fi makes surfing over a wireless connection a cinch, whilst the FM transmitter enables you to broadcast music through any free radio frequency. The built-in browser has support for Flash, whilst messaging and mail functionality remain intact. It really is a miniature N97 in most respects…
Winner: Draw
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Media:
The Nokia N97 Mini is well equipped to enjoy the wealth of existing music and movie formats, whilst the smaller screen size does little to ruin the viewing experience. Ovi Store downloadable apps are available and should be compatible with both devices, but the lack of d-pad makes the N-GaGe gaming platform a challenge on the smaller handset.
Winner: Draw
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Verdict:
It’s all about price at the end of the day, and the N97 Mini is about giving users that smart phone functionality at a more affordable cost. If the success of Nokia’s N97 flagship smart phone was at all tempered this summer by some being put off by the price tag, then the N97 Mini is bound to do great business this winter.
From the early rumblings on a hastily deleted Vodafone Ireland thread (of all places) to recent sightings in the flesh, the Nokia N97 getting a little brother is the biggest non-Apple tablet story currently doing the rounds in the tech blogosphere.
So it’s only right that one of the interweb’s biggest bloggers lays down some concrete details, as Mobile Review‘s Eldar gives the world the lowdown on the Nokia N97 Mini.
Unwired View has brushed up on their Russian and picked out the salient points from all that he told them…
What is it? It is indeed the Nokia N97 Mini, and will be named as such. The name is apparently stealing a march on another manufacturer’s intentions to release a slimmed down version of a popular handset as the ‘Mini’. Sneaky…
What’s it got? It is indeed a smaller N97, with similar features and specs, albeit…well, smaller. The display is said to be reminiscent of the new Nokia 5530 XpressMusic, so we’re talking a 2.9″ screen at a 640 x 360 resolution.
The d-pad on the left side is gone as the images suggested, and the internal memory will be either 8GB or 16GB, depending on the model.
Why? It will be a sleeker, sexier alternative to the slightly bulky original, and cheaper too at around €100 (£85) less than the N97.
When? Well, the big reveal is said to be Nokia World ’09 in Stuttgart on the 2nd and 3rd of September. Release? Eldar doesn’t say, but he does mention the degree of faith that Nokia has in the N97 Mini’s success.
It’s cute, but does it really have what it takes to do Nokia N95 numbers? Time will tell.
We have a sneaking suspicion that even a Nokia 5800 XpressMusic with a decent software upgrade would be more of an <insert today’s hot smartphone name here> killer than a diddy N97 Mini might…
Another Twitter exclusive, as Nokia Conversations revealed on their page that the new N97 smartphone will receive an update in the form of ‘SW 1.1 (11.x.021)’, available from today (1st July).
The fixes are plentiful, and wholly welcome!
- USB detection error fix
- PC does not detect N97 or USB charging connection not detected.
- Widget
- Home screen online/offline widget crash fix
- Fix for Alphabetical and Number input are mixed in facebook until end key is pressed.
- Widget UI improvement – New facebook widget fixes a problem of Home Screen background visible on soft-key area.
- Browser fixes to improve widgets stability.
- MfE related fixes
- Partial fix for Messaging/calendar entry lost.
- Mail for exchange calendar entry synchronization error fix.
- UI transition error fixes (Portrait <-> landscape transition, there is a home screen corruption.)
- UI transition (Slowness and bad effects)
- Slow Touch UI response
- Picture of the device lock appears half of the screen when transitioning the UI sometimes
- Landscape: in some cases the soft buttons on touch (right hand) show the Home Screen in background (install maps.google.com)
- Photos thumbnail performance and stability improvements
- Device performance deteriorates when lots of content in the device – especially photos
- Partial fix no display backlight illumination when unlocking lock-key – CAP Genius reported already
- New version of Accuweather to improve the “Connection error” situation
- Device reset when browsing with high speed packet access (for Malaysia)
- “Browser soft key UI doesn’t work after putting Chinese character with qwerty keyboard”
- Java fixes (TCK, Pre-install app disappearing, *#7370#*)
- Operator fixes (CMCC, Hutchson and Telefonica, Vodafone)
- Ovi store client now embedded in the core image
Great changes big and small, will these be the fixes to turn the Nokia N97 into the uberphone we were all expecting? Probably not, but its a step in the right direction. Especially improving the user interface slickness, which is way off the competition…
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