Due to the huge demand on the Nokia N97, during Nokia World 2009 in Suttgart, Nokia launched a little brother, the N97 Mini. The word ‘Mini’ just signalise that it’s smaller than the original. However, what else is different? This article will show you all the differences between these siblings.

Size & Display:

First things first is the different size. The Mini is slightly smaller than the N97 in all directions. It’s edges are also slightly rounded so that it will fit better in your pocket. Compared to other phones however, it is still quite big. When holding it in the hand you can really tell that the Mini is 22g lighter than the N97. The comparison picture will help you get a better feeling of the size.

In order to get the N97 Mini smaller, Nokia had to decrease the screen-size. The really huge 3.5” display is now only 3.2″ and the original resolution remains at 360 x 640 pixel with 16M colors.

Keyboard:

The full QWERTY-keyboard, despite the smaller amount of space, is still present. Nevertheless, there has been some redesign in terms of the keypad. First, the big D-pad on the left side has been replaced by four arrow keys on the right side. Other than that there is more space between each keys and the keys are a little bit higher giving you a much better feel when typing.

Battery and the backside:

Also the backside has received a nice face lift. The plastic battery cover has been replaced by a solid metallic battery cover. This gives the Mini a nice look and feel. Although the original N97 felt really good, the Mini feels even better. The Mini has no camera protection but also comes with the same 5 mega pixel camera and Dual LED flash.

This time the N97 Mini is powered by a 1200mAh battery which is basically 300mAh less than the big N97. A bigger battery would be great but due to the little space this was the only way to go.

Internal Storage:

To keep the price as low as possible Nokia reduces the internal storage from 32GB to 8GB. If this isn’t enough you can expand your memory with microSD card anyway.

Price:

The price mentioned in the keynote was 450€ before taxes and subsidies. This is about 100€ less than the big N97 costs. I’d love to see this devices being even cheaper to address more customers.

Little details:

This isn’t really a big deal but the hinge mechanism isn’t showing all the features like GPS etc any more, but now simply says the name and that it’s been designed in Finland – the motherland of Nokia.

Some specs

Final words:

These are pretty much all significant changes or differences. Yet, the software versions aren’t same but as soon as the Firmware 2.0 will come out for the original N97 both versions will be the same. All in all this is a big step and I can confidently forecast a big future for the N97 Mini.