As sure as the sun,
Mobile-review's Eldar Murtazin managed to nab a very early look at the still yet-to-be-announced
Nokia N97 Mini, and as if we needed
another reminder, the
FCC filing wasn't kidding with that 1:1 scale. Turns out it only takes "around a centimeter" difference to earn the "mini" nomenclature in Finland, and in addition to that peculiarity, the company's apparently managed to make the keyboard actually worse than its predecessor -- no small feat, if you ask us. Of course, we haven't had a chance to try it ourselves yet, but the prognosis so far isn't so good. Perhaps more interesting is good ole' Eldar's teasing about a number of other touchscreen Nokia devices, some without keyboards, that'd target the same segment as the N97 Mini, including one he'll be revealing and previewing tomorrow -- and no matter what it is, we can all but guarantee with supreme confidence that it'll have a more compelling
raison d'être than this thing.
posted Aug 24th 2009 4:46PM
Mmmmm... raisons...
Disappointing.
I have the original N97 and i think it is much better than the MINI
The keyboard on the Phat N97 isnt perfect but the Mini just screw it over.
This looks like what Apple should've done - full fledged multitasking and a slide-out.
melikes =)
Umm...sorry, I'm tired. My eyes must be making pics blurry, cuz I thought I was seeing the N900 with Maemo. This I don't want nor like. S60 on a touch screen is completely useless to me. On a KEYBOARD, S60 is good enough...
Yeah then and only then would they have been successful. Its too bad the iPhone flopped.
Because everyone knows that number of sales is always the best indicator of product quality. See MS Windows for further proof.
/s
Because everyone knows the iphone is just a god-awful piece of garbage that is horrible to use and dreadfully inelegant
/s
Well at least we can all agree on one thing
S60 needs to find the peaceful room, with the nice music and the gas that makes you sleepy.... SO it can be turned into soilent green and fed to the aligned troops of M, A, P and G as they march ever onward to overthrow the telcos and mobile conspiritors!
... then in victory, they will turn in each other like baby chickens who have tasted blood and devour the weakest first!!!
Hmmm. I think I need to eat
This IS maemo...
Maybe they're putting it in reviewers hands before an announcement to see if the 'mini' ideals worth production. Sounds like a no go might be best for Nokia this round.
Gizmodo put it really well the first time around: http://gizmodo.com/5308440/nokia-n97-review-nokia-is-doomed
Who cares? Engadget has it now. I prefer Engadget's clean layout to Gizmodo's tacky gray scheme.
I agree. I was just referring to the headline, which was spot on.
Sure, Lundmark, they're doomed which is why their smartphone share went up last quarter and the N900 is exciting pretty much everyone.
That said, this is a stupid product with no real use as far as I can see.
Gizmodo is full of barely functional morons. Any time I'm forced to read that site I pray for a way to reach through the internet and punch Jesus Diaz for being such a stupid douche.
Please don't post Gizmodo here again. They're idiot frat boys who think it's funny to sabotage expos, rant about how the iPhone keyboard is the best keyboard out there even compared to real keyboards, and constantly make posts telling their commenters to literally shut up about how much they love Apple because they do and people have to get over it...it's too much, and I love my iPhone.
If you still go there, fine, but don't bring the infection back here.
Lol Jonathan. Need to get laid?
I don't think you're his type, Lundmark
raison d'être, nomenclature, peculiarity?
Look Ross, we don't all watch Frasier OK?
who the hell thought it was a good idea to put the space bar to the right of the M key?
I agree thats FAIL, what the hell is wrong with Nokia? Have they lost all common sense?
keys are the same size, and now the spacebar is even bigger
Uh-oh...all the Nokia fans are going to be cheesed off with that title...oh noes...
Yeah they'll come in here and accuse the world of being full of a bunch of iPhone fanboys.
29 comments and no one is talking about the nokia fans or the iPhone but you guys... I wonder who the fanboys here are.
Well no, not really. This is a shit phone. Nokia have made quite a number of shit phones - the N96, the N97 and now the N97 Mini spring to mind. That said, they've also made a number of excellent phones - the N96, 5800, 6300, 6303, N82 and others spring to mind and the N900 looks awesome.
They don't always get it right but they get it right often enough to utterly dominate the market.
I used to love Nokia but I really wish they'd get their act together.
Hmm, seems more like a KIRF to me.
Eldar praises the N900, engadget goes meh. Eldar dislikes the N97 mini, engadget agrees. Just sayin~
http://www.engadget.com/2009/08/19/nokias-maemo-5-rx-51-n900-tablet-gets-exhaustively-previewed/
I said Maemo 5 looked impressive but that we were disappointed that the touchscreen was resistive. How is that an eh?
There's more to a device than just the screen tech used, and a resistive screen isn't a drawback by definition. Remember the precision of styli might be needed to edit a whole spreadsheet at once without zooming on that 800x480 screen.
zzzzzzzzzz
i mean i am a fan of S60 but seeing this just makes me facepalm
I can't be the only person in the world that likes the idea of a right-biased space bar? Don't get me wrong, I hated the rest of the phone and got a HTC Hero, but I really did like having the space bar a little bit closer to my right thumb. I mean, I use the spacebar a lot more frequently that most other keys when typing and not having to stretch out across a landscape keyboard to reach it was nice.
Seriously though, Nokia are STILL using S60? Good grief...
Yes and it's still utterly dominant as a smartphone platform.
Anderson, you are a tricky one. Sometimes you come over as the fire starter, other times as the more sober facts person.
I'm a firestarter, twisted firestarter!
Actually it's the silliness of some people that gets me. Nokia are going low to mid range with their Symbian smartphones and are absolutely dominating the market. High end, not so much but that only really bothers some analysts who want to make a quick buck besides they look to be on the right track with Maemo.
People in Europe and Asia love their Nokias so articles like Gizmodo's are so off the pace because theyw miss that simple fact. Mind you, Jesus Diaz's head is so far up Steve Jobs' arse that all he can see is his tonsils. I wonder if he realises that his credibility has vanished like the morning dew on a sunny day?
Low-to-mid range would be an ok niche for the N97... if it didn't cost as much as a house. For the same price, maybe less, you can get an unlocked Touch Pro 2 that blows this pile of road apples right out of the water.
Nokia, wake me up when you go to capacitive screens and decent speed processors.
I'm a nokia fan, but their latest group of phones has been underpowered and boring.
My last hope is the n86
space bar position is fine in the right, much more ergonomic than central.
something from preview - in the mid september there will be update for n97 that will add kinetic scrolling
Why does Nokia keep making such jokes? They really deserve the name Jokia with such crap. Just put out that netbook and maybe the N900. Why rehash a joke and make it more of a joke? Jokia really fits.
I hope the mobile that Mobile Review will reveal tomorrow is the Nokia 5800 XpressMusic followup. :) Definitely rumored to be announced soon and reallly looking forward to it. The 5800 was excellent bang for the buck, the followup might have some nice improvements as well.
i guess Nokia studies found that 88%+ users press the space bar with their right thumb and felt obliged to move it eastward. lol
3 rows of blah
Why does it say N00 by the way?
It means that it is not a production version, which can differ from the one, reviewed.
because it's a prototype
I m lost for words.....I really do want to get back in bed with Nokia but it seems Nokia is in no mood for me. Damn, I know dat S60 might be dying but but but not this way. This mini of a thing has fail written all over it. I love Symbian, but with all this high end meh phones coming from Nokia......Symbian might end up losing in the top phones
I admit it. I'm a Nokia fanboy but this phone is just so offensive. A mini version of a phone that no one liked in the first place? Oh, brother. Nokia really deserves everything that's coming to them.
Yes, we Get it engadget, you disapprove of the N97, funnily enough, a lot of us like the phone and think the keyboard is in a class of it's own compared to others such as the G1. I'll admit, it looks like this mini is a potential mis-step, in fact in honesty that keyboard does look a little harder to type on as the bottom row has shifted left a little, but enough of the constant bashing, seriously, people like myself who moved from Symbian regular to Symbian touch are happy with the transition, it keeps the familiarity of operation and builds on a platform with a lot of existing support. No one's saying it's perfect, but if for one second you suggested that the iPhone was perfect on first release I think even the Apple fans would have a quiet chuckle!
It isn't worth brining to US unless some of the carriers pick it up. And from the AT&T and T-Mobile road maps we can't safely say that it isn't happening. Hmm, make it 300$ and I'll put it on my list to consider for Chrismas...
Nokia really needs to get their hands on actual designers: hardware and interface designers. The N97 felt like too many cooks in the kitchen (though the N800 wasn't too bad for a tablet)... Palm/Google/IPhone just feels a lot more consistent... my N800 is collecting dust while my Magic is taking over a lot of the tasks I was doing on the N800...
i don't think symbian is quite as bad as people make it out to be. its far and away from ideal, but it works on my friends e71x
I dont think it is nokia N97 mini....it looks more like NOKLA
This mini is a slap in the face to owners of the N97. I love my N97 and seeing a newer version, although with a gimped keyboard, pisses me off. The only thing that worries me most is when Symbian^2 comes along I wont be able to get a hold of it without purchasing a new phone since Nokia has been terrible with not allowing people to upgrade to a new feature pack. As for the OS itself, it take some time to adjust to, but once adjusted it is very solid. It took me about a month of use before I was accustomed to the layout and where things were located.
I would think having an N97 was already a slap in the face of N97 owners.
I hate rhat Glare.....
Photographs show that N97 Mini indeed is significantly smaller than N97. Why does Ross Miller post 'reviews' like this on Engadget?
I own N97 and use it extensively for web surfing. The physical qwerty keyboard is ok. In N97 Mini, Nokia has replaced the D-pad with arrow keys on the right of the keyboard. The D-pad is a great help in web surfing because one can easily and accurately choose and click a link on a link heavy web page.
I don't know what pictures you were looking at but to me it didn't look that much smaller. Example: http://images.macnn.com/esta/content/0907/nokian97mini-leaklg.jpg it's smaller, but not by very much.