Trying hard to love the Nokia N97 Mini.

Jan 24, 2011

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I’ve had this phone on trial for nearly a month now – Christmas and our family trip away got in the way of sending it back to its home at WomWorld. An extended loan though means that I really get chance to try it out under fire, and find my way around all its quirks.

Sadly, this is not a relationship that is going to last, no matter how hard I try 🙁

My previous experience with the E72 was mainly positive. It seemed to me that all it was missing was a touch screen, and then it would be a fab phone. The N97 has got the touch screen, but in comparison with other smartphones, the screen is hard to get to grips with. You’ve to apply a bit of pressure to get a reaction, and then other times the merest brush will select something that you hadn’t intended. The screen is a usable size though, and because of the way the keyboard slides and tilts, you get a lot of tech into a very small space.

Once I got the hang of the predictive text, typing has been much quicker – the keyboard isn’t big enough to touch type, but it’s possible to do the two thumb technique. I think I was faster on the E72 though, as the layout on there is slightly smaller and very appealing to the two thumb technique. I also wish I could figure out how to turn off the beeping – I’ve tried, but I haven’t cracked it yet.

The real problem that I have with this phone though is software related.

The apps for Nokia kit just aren’t up to the standard of the apps you can get on Android phones (and I’d suspect on iPhones, though I haven’t tried one of those out myself). Snaptu doesn’t compare with Seesmic – I’m aware that there are higher recommended apps if you are prepared to pay, but I didn’t have to pay for anything I used out of the Android store, so I’m trying like for like here. And the WordPress app just doesn’t seem to work at all. I’ve tried uninstalling and reinstalling and all it does is bring up the splash screen and sit there.

This is a real shame, as there *are* things to love about the N97. It’s dinky in size, and reassuringly solid, with battery life that far exceeds that of the large screened smartphone like the HTC Desire HD I’ve tried out. If you were looking for something for light business use it can and will manage your email, although it’s constant need for reassurance as to which way you’d like to connect to a network is tiring – another software failure, this time of the OS itself I suspect. (Unless of course I’m missing something in the settings, but tbh, if I am, that’s another failure as I have tried, oh how I’ve tried.)

So all in all, if I was going Nokia smartphone, I wouldn’t go for this one. I don’t like it as much as the E72, and I’m really hoping that Nokia have something a little bit more special up their sleeve very soon, perhaps in the form of a more solid OS which will allow the very solid tech to show itself off rather better.

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Comments

9 responses to “Trying hard to love the Nokia N97 Mini.”

Morag
25 January 2011
Get an iPhone. 😉
Reply
1. Jax
  25 January 2011
  Thanks for the tip, but I wanted something that works as a phone as well 😉
  Reply
Steve Barker
26 January 2011
How much can we expect from a two-year-old smartphone?
Symbian app development is only just beginning to catch up with Android Market because Symbian S60 WAS outdated, very much in its twiglight hours and hard to compile for. Android was a clean-sheet project without the Symbian infrastructure requirements to hold it back.
You need to spend a few sheckles to get world-class apps like Gravity, but this is more than reflected in the (now) lower purchase price of the handset only (the only true comparison).
If you really want to do a ‘retro’ review, you should compare N97 Mini with one of its true competitors of the time – iPhone 3 or an early incarnation of Android with apps from Android market as it was.
Don’t forget, many Android devices are running early incarnations of the OS and will not benefit from the later updates that enable use of the latest offerings in Android Market. Apps are still being released for S60/N97Mini – no fragmentation issues there. AND Nokia are still releasing firmware updates for this device.
We have an old N97 Mini in the family and it’s a good, incredibly rugged work-horse of a device:
Good battery life (user-replaceable as well, don’t forget!), stellar ‘phone capabilities with Contacts groups, assignable ringtones, etc. It STILL still gets a signal where far newer and more expensive Android and Apple devices will not. It has a camera better than anything from HTC or Motorolla to date and has a far better loudspeaker – a very under-rated feature. IMO.
Ours rocks to 16Gb of on-board data courtesy of the memory-card slot (can’t believe devices are still sold without this) and you can use the device as a flash drive – just plug it in to a desktop and drag files over – no pissing about with iTunes necessary.
It multitasks reasonably well, is very customisable (lots of FREE themes, etc) and if you load one of the advanced front-ends like SPB Mobile Shell it brings the UI bang up-to-date.
All this on an ancient, but efficient 400-odd Mhz processor.
remember, – the N97 is not Yesterday’s phone – it’s 2008’s phone – over two years ago, so don’t be too quick to dismiss this still-capable, albeit a little outdated device.
The build quality is amazing – the new Desire Z could learn a thing or two about how to build a hinge mechanism from N97 and the
Reply
Morag
26 January 2011
The iPhone4 is the world’s best selling phone.
I’m not sure what nonsense you’ve read but it works perfectly as a phone (better than other smartphones). The iPhone 4 has a return rate of 1.7% (an industry best) compared to Nokia’s 20-30% and Blackberry’s 50%.
We run our IT Consultancy from them when out of the office. Lots of our home and business customers use them. Many businesses (SMEs and corporate) are abandoning the BlackBerry and other smart phones and moving to the iPhone.
The alternative is Android which is not secure. The OS has a number of security flaws which Google are not planning to fix in the next update. Even when they do fix them, users will have to wait until their phone manufacturer releases an update for their phone. One in five Android apps is not secure either.
I’m afraid you’ll keep being disappointed until you buy an iPhone. 😉
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Steve Barker
26 January 2011
@Morag
‘Smartphone’ is a subjective definition. My little X3-02 can do many of the things my N900 can do (and indeed can do some with greater ease) but many would’t even call it a ‘Featurephone’, let alone a smartphone.
iPhone4 is only the best selling single model of ‘smartphon’; if you add in all the slightly-different smartphone models in the range Nokia/Symbian is by far the biggest seller – as you will know. And if you then add in the ‘featurephones’…
That said, iPhone is a fantastic device for people who ask very little of their device, and do not want to customise or personalise it that much. As someone far more erudite of these matters than me put it, you can safely buy an iPhone for your Mum and not have her ring you up every five minutes afterwards. It does few things compared to Symbian or Android, but Boy, does it do them well – and with panache and style to boot.
But iPhone is not the only solution, and it is limited in SO many ways for those of us who are power users or the increasing numbers of us who want to mod our devices without voiding the warranty.
But above all, the basic hardware is limiting; Antennagate is a myth, but for those who need voice-dialing first and foremost – Nokia still wins. For those who need the best cameras, loudspeakers, keyboards (or call/send buttons)or flashlights – Nokia still wins.
And for those who work away from mains chargers, Nokia still wins if you take a few fully-charged spare batteries to swap. (N8 and E7 excepted – shame on you, Nokia) When it comes down to it, the best phone is the one that still works.
And that is DESPITE the dated UX that Symbian delivers, and DESPITE the appalling lack of integration with Google services and exchange mail for business users, and DESPITE the lack of apps compared to Android or iOS (even though most of them are rubbish or repetitions of pointless, meaningless apps beyond a small usergroup)
My old company ran iPhone 3’s and 3GS’s but I’d allways carry my old Nokia N70 in the glove-box of my car for the all-too-frequent times when the damn I-things couldn’t get a signal.
Swap SIM cards, fire it up and hey presto! I could make that vital call (can’t do that now with iPhone4’s mini-SIM – shame on you, Apple)
I can see that from an IT Mgrs perspective, iPhone is a good bet – easy to set up, good product backup, etc, but out in the field it’s a very different world.
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Geeky Mummy
27 January 2011
Oohh, isn’t it funny how protective people can get of their phone choice. I am with Jax on this. For the vast majority of mums an Android is the smart choice as it’s as easy to use as an iPhone but available at a much better price.
The type of apps available that most mums want like tweetdeck, sky news, ocado, amazon and eBay are all available for free on Android and iPhone but other makes just aren’t being supported by developers.
Also with regard to OS updates, I have a HTC Desire and I am always on the latest Android OS. I know that other Android manufacturers aren’t as good at supporting updates, which is why I will probably still with HTC.
I do miss the sound quality of the Nokia phones and once they realise that they need to change their strategy and put Android on their phones I will be first in the queue. But until then this Geeky Mummy will continue to be a loyal HTC Android fan.
Oh and Jax, have you tried the latest Tweetdeck? Is Seesmic really better?
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HelenHaricot
27 January 2011
i have always been a nokia pone girl [tho at the Â£20 pound end of the range 😉 ] however, inherited an iphone, and have to say that find it fine to use for phoning and the various apps. on one of those simplicity Â£15 per month, which is an up on the tenner i used to spend, but i like being able to keep in touch with friends on the move 🙂 not essential tho, but my fav app is prob the geocache one.
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Kevin
27 January 2011
@Steve
Not sure where to start with that huge load of misinformation.
Nokia sales have tanked worldwide. The smartphone market belongs to Apple and Android. RIM (BlackBerry) and Nokia are both struggling.
Both iPhone and Android are far more capable than you seem to suggest. There’s more to a phone than changing wallpaper (which you can do anyway). Look at the AppStore. Really.
Voice dialling is a software issue, not hardware. iPhones (like Apple Macs) have excellent speech recognition. iPhones are completely usable by blind and other disabled users via VoiceOver as well.
There’s far more to cameras than pixels – The iPhone camera wins head-to-head picture quality tests against other phones with higher megapixel values. They sacrifice quality and increase distortion and noise in favour of Dixons-friendly big numbers.
There are plenty of external battery packs for iPhones. 99.9% of users never need it. iPhone 4 battery life is excellent.
As for MicroSIMs, they’re becoming standard on other phones and adapters are freely available (O2 include one with your MicroSIM)
Android or iPhone are both great choices. Android you will need patience and risk
Buying apps that don’t work on your model of phone or require a software update your network won’t let you have until they’ve spent 6 months including their branded crapware into it. There’s a huge amount of dangerous software in Google’s Android Market; the downside of the free-for-all approach.
As for modding phones, most current Android models prevent you from installing custom firmware
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Nokia N97 Mini
4 March 2011
I found your post extremely interesting in regard to the problems you are having with the N97. Of course Android is now the #1 OS in the world with 60% of the apps free.
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