N97 mini Unboxing

The awesome people over at Nokia Womworld sent me a N97 mini to trial.  Now I've been hearing all sorts of mixed reviews about its elder sibling the Nokia N97 , and i wanted to see for myself how the little brother stacks up against it. Here are some of my initial observations during the unboxing :

1. The packaging 

Nokia has really gone forward and taken the "mini" concept to a whole new level. The packaging is neat and slim. I have compared the sizes of the boxes of my N95 and the N97 mini just to give you a brief idea of how slim the box is. Nokia has really pulled of a wonderful "Mini" marketing strategy with this one.

I think thats what the "Experiment #097" is all about , "experimenting with smaller packaging". I think that this is a positive step and I would love to see other N-series phones ship with minimalistic space saving packaging too.

2. The Contents

As soon as you open the box , you will see the N97 and powerful BL4D battery resting comfortably in the plastic casing.

Beneath the plastic casing you have the product manuals , the OVI suite installation dvd,  the USB to micro USB cable ,  the charger and the Nokia WH-701 headset.

One thing that I have observed is that Nokia loves to change the type of headset it provides with every N-series handset , but this is the first time I have come across a N-Series handset with "in ear" earphones with silicone buds , rather than the standard "ear bud" earphones. I've always had a problem with the traditional earphones that all the other N-series handsets came with as the kept popping out of my ears while jogging. The WH-701 comes with a set of adjustable silicone ear plugs that can adjust to any ear size. Even though the N97 is not a music centric phone , I am very pleased that Nokia decided to provide the WH-701 headset with the N97 mini.

3. The Handset

The N97 mini is gorgeous. The bronze finish makes is look real classy. Much like a mixture between the sharp E series and the playful N series.
The N97 mini feels sturdy in the hand and has a very sturdy "snap" sound when you slide the keypad open and close it. Overall , from the exterior , the phone feels like it was sturdily built and there are no creaks and groans or wobbly sliders as was the case with the N95 when it was launched. Over the years Nokia seems to have perfect the qwerty slider mechanism and its latest sliders - The E75 , the N97 and the N97 mini seem to be proof of just that. The Carl Zeiss 5 Mega pixel cam takes decent pictures , although I did click a few and found them to be pretty grainy. I dont know if this is because of the plastic scratch guard on the lens. I'll probably put it head to head against my Nokia N95 (which in my opinion is still the best camera-phone ever made by Nokia !!)

Well, This was a brief unboxing of the Nokia N97. I am thinking if  writing a comparison review of the N97 mini  v/s the Android G1. What do you think readers ? Would you like to see how the N97 mini matches up against the Android G1 ? Please leave your opinions and suggestions in the comments.

Nokia Launches 5230 ..Possibly the first Sub Rs.10K Touch handset?

Nokia has just popped open its paint pot and pulled out the new Nokia 5230 in a range of custom colours. The latest handset to join the touchscreen fold, the Nokia 5230 has been designed to serve up slick on-the-go entertainment, location-based services and act as an easy pocket portal for social networking at low cost.

Brandishing a 3.2-inch widescreen touch display with full-screen QWERTY keyboard and handwriting recognition, the Nokia 5230 is geared up to enable you to rattle out messages at speed. Paired with speedy HSDPA connectivity, this means staying in the loop and keeping your Facebook and Twitter streams promises to be a no-wait affair. Ovi Store is nestled neatly on the homescreen from the moment you switch on the device, ensuring you can get instant anywhere access to quality bite-size apps.

Music is its first love though, with the 5230 bringing 33 hours of playback time (long battery life was recently voted the most important feature in a music phone by you guys – so we’re stoked to see that), a 3.5mm headphone jack and memory expandable up to 16GB via a microSD card. Two versions of the phone will launch – a standard device costing 149 Euros, and in some select areas a Comes With Music version will be available for 259 Euros for those keen on all-you-can-eat downloads.

Jo Harlow is Vice President at Nokia, and had this to say about today’s news of the upcoming 5230:

“Competitively priced at 149 Euros, we believe the Nokia 5230 is an unbeatable offer for many new customers who aspire a device that stars in music, mingles with social networks from Facebook to MySpace, navigates you to where it happens, when it happens, and comes in array of dazzling colors”

Other features include assisted-GPS with Ovi Maps, Nokia’s new Contacts bar on the homescreen, a 2 megapixel camera and Bluetooth 2.0.