Nokia N97 Mini out this month

October is set to be a juicy month for phone fans, with Sony Ericsson’s 12Mp cameraphone, Nokia’s miniature N97 and Motorola’s first Android handset all set to launch over the coming weeks. SE_Idou_05 SE's Satio: joins the emerging 12Mp cameraphone crowd SE’s Satio – previously known as Idou – sports a whopping 12.1Mp …

[David Edwards]

Mini

When will the tech market realise that making things tiny is not where its at anymore. Smartphones need reasonably sized displays and keyboard/touch areas to be of any real use e.g. games, spreadsheets, note taking or video watchign (for any time).

I hated my N97 becuase trying to email on it was horrid where as pocket PC/Iphone are fine.

[Georgees]

N97 mini

What's the point of making a mini version of an already awful phone?

The UI was clunky and about as intuitive as my gran at halo and the general feel of the phone was that of a cheap handset.

[DRendar]

FLASH

And not a decent (Xenon) flash among them.

The Moto one doesn't even have a flash at all!!!

Gigantic FAIL as what's the point of a camera if you can't take decent pictures in low light.

[Marc Spillman]

And still no news on the E72

I wonder what's going on in Nokia towers?

Apparently the version 2 firmware for the N97 will make a significant difference to the phone when it becomes available later on this month. I assume the mini will start with that same firmware out of the box.

[Bad Beaver]

Yawn

Is it me, or are we experiencing a new wave of mobile-boredom?

[Steve Evans]

@Georgees

I assume you've had extended experience of the N97 then?

Strange, as mine works fine with V12 firmware, and I'm looking forward to what V20 has to offer later this month.

Don't believe everything you read in online reviews, unless you want your nose inserted up the rear passage of Mr jobs by proxy.

[Georgees]

@Steve Evans

My friend bought one and that's when I used it, I've not read a review of the phone but find it amusing that reviewers have said the same thing I said. Adds some truth to it.

In comparison to the iPhones UI it is a turd that wont accept polish. Even my friend admitted the UI was clunky as hell.

[Steve Evans]

@Georgees

Sure the UI isn't as polished as the iPhone, but it's also nowhere near as expensive! Free on a £35 a month tarrif with 1200 mins and unlimited text/data. Try and get a 32gig iPhone for that!

I've been using symbian phones for years, so for me the UI was a doddle. Everything was where I expected it. It's nice to not have a huge learning curve. Multitasking is something I've had on my phones for over 5 years.

The killer thing for me is that I can install what I like, from wherever I like onto the phone *I* own. Flash works, java apps work. I currently have 3 browsers (nokia's own, opera mini 4.2 and opera mini 5 beta), two instant messenger clients, 3 twitter clients and a wordpress admin app. The wordpress app is actually written in python, so I installed python too. Grand total for all these useful apps £0.

It's nowhere near as bad as the reviews make out. The current V12 firmware has ironed out some quirks and V20 is just round the corner which will bring some polish... I believe V20 is the firmware Nokia intended to release the phone with, but were forced to push it out early by market forces.

Unfortunately everyone will remember the reviews and early firmware (V10) experience, and the N97 will forever be slated. The N95 had a similar birth (I was a first week adopter), but as anyone still using one with the later V31 firmware will tell you, it's a stunning little phone. Yet the only thing anyone remembers about the N95 is "crap battery life", which was a fault with the early firmware and fixed within a couple of months.