It’s all go in Nokia N97 land this week, with the double news that not only have the Finnish company released the much-anticipated 2.0 firmware update for the original N97, but that the Nokia N97 mini would be arriving on shelves. The N97 mini – officially announced at Nokia World back in September – has a smaller chassis than the N97, but uses the same touchscreen-friendly S60 5th Edition OS.
We knew the Nokia N97 Mini was only mildly smaller than its full-sized sibling, but Mobile-Review’s Eldar Murtazin has – thanks to his early access to the QWERTY smartphone – confirmed it with a full review. Unfortunately for Nokia, he’s not impressed: a combination of insufficient price differentiation between the N97 Mini and the N97, mediocre looks and, most damning, a keyboard that’s actually worse than that of the original add up to a handset that’s yet to answer the original question of “why bother?”
Images of the Nokia N97 Mini have leaked, showing the rumored compact version of the company’s flagship touchscreen smartphone next to its full-sized N97 sibling. Tipped to arrive in the second-half of 2009, the phone is shorter than the existing N97 and swaps the distinct directional pad on the slide-out keyboard for more traditional arrow buttons.
Over at our sibling site PhoneMag they’ve posted the full Nokia N97 review, and if you’ve been as eagerly-anticipating this smartphone as we have then you really need to read it. On paper, the N97 ticks just about every box you could hope for, but when it comes to usability and overall polish it seems that Nokia may have dropped the ball.
We’ve been singularly cellularly obsessed here at SlashGear over the past seven days, and it’ll come as no surprise that the run-up to the iPhone 3G S has occupied much of our attention. The new Apple smartphone may not look much different to its predecessor, but if our hands-on first impressions are anything to go by, Cupertino have done their best to make the user-experience as polished as the casing. Still, it’s not just shiny Apple hardware that’s caught our eye this week; Novatel Wireless’ GSM MiFi 2352 piqued our interest when we talked to the company themselves on Monday, and then proceeded to impress us considerably in our full review.
Chalk this one up under the “big rumor” heading for the moment, but a moderator at the Vodafone View forums has claimed that the carrier will be releasing a “Nokia N97 Mini” in Ireland later this year. The phone is described as “competitively” priced, which the moderator suggests will “appeal to a wider segment of customers”; as such, the Nokia N97 will not be launched in Ireland.
Nokia’s N97 flagship smartphone began shipping to US customers last week, and a white review unit has dropped onto the desk of our sibling-site PhoneMag. They’ve done the honorable thing and put together a full unboxing video and hands-on gallery, as well as sharing some initial impressions about the long-awaited N97.
Unboxing video and hands-on N97 gallery after the cut
After Palm’s big moment last weekend, Apple once again seized the headlines with their WWDC 2009 keynote on Monday morning. We showed up to liveblog the whole announcement, expecting a new smartphone, and the company delivered in the shape of the iPhone 3G S – twice the speed, twice the storage, and the same styling as the iPhone 3G – together with a launch date for iPhone OS 3.0. However, Apple weren’t content with just that: they also brought along a new MacBook Pro range complete with integrated batteries; check out our video unboxing and first-impressions.
You wait for a high-end Nokia phone and two come along at once. Nokia’s N97 has been a long time in coming, but the North America version of the touchscreen QWERTY smartphone should be reaching buyers today; at the same time, the company has announced that their N86 8MP cameraphone, unveiled back at Mobile World Congress, is also now shipping globally.
Nokia have announced that their N97 flagship smartphone will go on sale worldwide this month. No word on pricing for any of the 75 countries that will soon be getting the 3.5-inch touchscreen handset, nor specific availability dates, but the UK will apparently get it on unlocked and SIM-free from Nokia themselves as of June 19th.
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