Nokia N97 mini - The camera has its ups and downs

Nokia N97 mini has a 5 MP camera with a maximum image resolution of 2592x1944 pixels. Carl Zeiss optics and the dual-LED flash promise nice photos with a lot of detail. Let's see is it true.

The camera UI is similar to the one found in 5800 XpressMusic and a carbon copy of the one in N97 - the few changes made are hardly for the better. All the settings are squeezed in a common menu, except for the flash, which has its own dedicated shortcut. We understand that a tabular layout isn't the easiest of thing this kind of devices but some of the more important features could have had their own shortcuts too.

The camera UI

At least the range of settings that the Nokia N97 mini offers is extensive enough: from manual white balance and ISO to exposure compensation, sharpness and contrast. Various effects are also at hand, labeled as Color Tones.

Unlike the Nokia 5800 XpressMusic, which needed a firmware update for the purpose, in N97 mini camera geo-tagging is present out of the box.

Nokia N97 mini lacks all the modern features that the other competing manufacturers are using such as face detection, smile detection and even blink prevention - not to mention in-camera face retouching or the likes.

The Nokia N97 mini viewfinder doesn't occupy the whole screen - a bar on the right is reserved for the touch controls. You have a settings button that launches a semi-transparent overlay of all available shooting options, a dedicated Flash button and an on-screen shutter key.

The on-screen shutter key seems absolutely redundant - it doesn't have a half press/full press action to properly handle auto focus. It would've been way better to have a Quick Settings button instead.

The picture quality is pretty decent in our books. First of all the picture detail is enough to qualify the photo as a very nice one. The next thing is the noise reduction algorithm is mature enough and finds a good balance between noise levels and detail. There is no purple fringing and the white balance and auto ISO settings worked just fine.

If there is one thing to complain about in the Nokia N97 mini photos, it would be the color balance. Most of the photos have generally warmer colors and the yellow tint is at times too much to swallow. Bear in mind though that quite a lot point and shoot cameras are tuned to reproduce colors warmer than they really are since this makes the photos look more vibrant and appealing to the end-users.

The dynamic range is also not quite impressive with highlight clipping a bit more frequent that we would have liked.

And there go some more photo samples from the N97 mini camera.

Nokia N97 mini camera samples

Synthetic resolution

We also snapped our resolution chart with the Nokia N97 mini. You can check out what that test is all about here.

Nokia N97 mini resolution chart photo • 100% crops

HTC Hero resolution chart photo • 100% crops

Video recording

The camcorder interface doesn't differ from the still camera much.

The N97 video capture quality is OK. Colors and white balance turn out just fine, but the compression seems too aggressive in most of the clips and produces many noticeable video artifacts.

Plus the other manufacturers are already offering better video quality at higher resolution - take Samsung, for instance, and their Samsung S8300 UltraTOUCH or even Omnia HD. Not to mention the 120fps and slow-motion videos that are already standard issue stuff on the higher segment LG and Samsung phones.

The camcorder UI

Here are two samples from the Nokia N97 mini:

Sample 1, VGA@30fps
Sample 2, nHD@30fps

So in essence, Nokia N97 mini offers a three-year old camera technology remixed as a brand fresh product for quite a steep price tag. Image quality is still among the top-of-the-line but for a 5 megapixel cameraphone.

Five megapixels don't count as high-end anymore, not to mention the lack of all the current popular features such as face detection, tracking or manual focus, touch focus, smile shutter, blink detection and the likes.

Video recording is another area where Nokia have made no progress for the past several years. So if you've set your eyes on N97, we really hope that the camera is not the most important feature for you as Omnia HD goes for pretty much the same asking price.

Nokia N97 mini - Music player does the job

The music player (identical to the 5800 XpressMusic one) is very similar to the S60 3rd edition versions. A few cosmetic changes here and there and touch-optimization is all that sets it apart.

Not that the music player isn't capable enough or something - it surely has more than enough functionality. However some more eye-candy would have been quite welcome. After all, touch interfaces are usually mostly about being fun to use and nice to look at.

Your music library is automatically sorted by artist, album, genre and composer and searching tracks by gradual typing is available. You can also create your own playlists in no time.

The process of adding tracks to the library is as simple as choosing the refresh option. You won't need to do that if you upload the music via the proprietary PC Suite application.

The Nokia N97 mini music player

With the huge number of supported formats you will hardly ever come across an audio file that the phone won't handle. Album art is also supported and if you don't like the default sound of the device you can enhance it by applying one of the five equalizer presets and if they seem insufficient you can create new ones in a matter of seconds.

Quite naturally, the player can also be minimized to play in background. In this case a tab appears on the stand-by screen indicating the currently running track.

Splendid audio quality

Just as we expected, the audio output of Nokia N97 mini differs little from the excellent Nokia N97. The slight change is the intemodulation distortion, which reduced in half and is now only slightly below average.

The handset did excellently in all other parts of our test, achieving some excellent scores.

The frequency response of the N97 mini is almost identical to the one delivered by Nokia N97. It is pretty close to the perfect, the greatest deviating being only 0.32dB.

The noise level, dynamic range and stereo crosstalk readings are also very good, comparable to the best in class. Here go the results so you can compare it to some of the other handsets we have tested.

Test	Frequency response	Noise level	Dynamic range	THD	IMD + Noise	Stereo crosstalk
Nokia N97 mini	+0.05, -0.32	-90.5	90.4	0.0049	0.487	-91.0
Nokia N97	+0.04, -0.27	-90.7	90.7	0.0048	0.896	-89.5
Nokia N96	+0.52, -2.14	-90.6	90.7	0.016	0.364	-73.5
HTC Touch Pro2	+0.17, -1.61	-84.6	87.1	0.023	0.182	-84.9
Sony Ericsson XPERIA X1	+0.11, -0.47	-93.2	94.8	0.448	0.897	-96.3
Apple iPhone 3G	+0.52, -1.05	-89.9	90.1	0.0033	0.016	-93.1

Nokia N97 mini vs Nokia N97 frequency response graphs

You can find more information about our audio quality test here.

No DivX and XviD dooms video player

Watching a video on the Nokia N97 mini is generally a pleasure due to the relatively big screen. The built-in video player has decent functionality but only supports a very limited number of codecs, no DivX and XviD out of the box. As to third party solutions, mixed success is reported in terms of getting compatible players to run on the 5800 XpressMusic or the N97 mini.

The built-in video player

The Nokia PC suite, actually Ovi Suite now, has a built-in application that automatically converts all kinds of video files to the format and resolution your phone supports. The automatic converter though seems to compress the videos too much even at the highest quality setting and they look over pixilated but so far it's the easiest way of getting video to your Nokia touch handset.

The video player itself only works in fullscreen landscape mode but, since anything else would have made the widescreen display useless, this is understandable. When in fullscreen, a press on the screen shows the controls which are normally hidden.

The amply sized high-res screen is also more than welcome for truly enjoying your clips. With QWERTY keyboard slid out, the Nokia N97 mini looks just like made for video watching.

Nokia have called their video app (which is actually a Real player in disguise) Video & TV but as it turns out, the TV is actually videos that you can stream from Nokia or Reuters. One can only wonder how YouTube was left out of this streaming video equation.

FM radio comes with RDS

The FM radio on Nokia N97 mini has a neat and simple interface and can automatically scan and save the available stations in your area. It also has RDS support and automatic scanning for an alternative frequency. This means that if you travel the N97 mini will take care of auto-switching to the frequencies of your selected radio station.

The FM radio interface is quite cool

The RDS is the best part of Nokia N97 mini FM radio. The radio station name gets displayed with cool effects across the whole screen, while the rest of the RDS readings are printed in nicely legible text on a line at the bottom. Perhaps we would have preferred this font a bit larger, but it doesn't really matter that much.

Nokia N97 mini - Messaging specialist

The messaging menu is yet another part of the Symbian S60 UI that hasn't been modified at all compared to what we saw on Nokia 5800.

Nokia N97 mini supports all common message types - SMS, MMS and email. They all share a common intuitive editor which by this point should be quite familiar to everyone. When composing an SMS, a counter is displayed of characters left to the limit of 160. An indicator in brackets is showing the number of separate parts the message will be divided into for sending.

Once you insert some multimedia content, or an email address is inserted as recipient, the counter is replaced by a data counter showing the size of your email.

The N97 mini uses a common intuitive editor for all your messages

Nokia N97 mini also features the dedicated editor for instant recording of audio messages. Much like with Symbian S60 v3.2 you can either record the message on the spot or use a sound clip from the phone memory. The interface of all the messengers is quite similar too.

Delivery reports can be turned on - they pop up once the message reaches the addressee, and are then saved in a separate folder in the messaging sub-menu. When you are exiting the message editor without having sent the message, you get prompted to save it in Drafts or discard it.

Here might just be the right time to mention the input options on Nokia N97 mini. The handset offers a standard alphanumeric on-screen keypad in both portrait and landscape mode. There's no on-screen QWERTY, either full or the SureType-like version.

The alphanumeric keypad is available in both portrait and landscape modes

Of course the hardware QWERTY is here to solve all your problems. It's just three rows and you need to use the function key for accessing the numbers and symbols, but that's no biggie.

Finally, the N97 mini offers handwriting recognition, which did a rather decent job, recognizing almost all the letters we scribbled in the box. You can improve its performance by taking the handwriting training - where you actually show the handset how you write each different letter.

The handwriting recognition worked pretty well for us

The email client is really nice, able to meet almost any emailing needs. The easy setup we found in the latest Nokia handsets is also available with the N97 mini.

Setting up email is easy

If you are using any public email service (it has to be among the over 1000 supported providers), all you have to do is enter your username and password to start enjoying email on the go. The phone downloads all the needed settings to get you going in no time.

Besides, it now prompts choosing whether you prefer POP or IMAP access to mail providers that support both. With the previous version selection was automatic. Nicely done!

Advanced email options

The email client can do it all

Multiple email accounts and various security protocols are supported, so you can bet almost any mail service will run trouble-free on your Nokia N97 mini.

The client can download headers only or entire messages, and can be set to automatically check mail at a given interval. A nice feature allows you to schedule sending email next time an internet connection is available. This can save you some data traffic charges since you can use the next available WLAN connection instead.

A feature that we really like is the ability to subscribe to different folders of the email account, like the Starred folder in Gmail. This can be very helpful if you've set up filters to automatically move messages to specific folders and keep your Inbox clean.

There is also support for attachments, signatures and generally, you can hardly think of something important that the Nokia N97 mini lacks. Furthermore with a screen resolution like this reading your emails is easy.

Great file manager

The file manager is yet another aspect where the pedigree counts big time. With the soft keys at the bottom you can almost forget that you are looking at a new device.

The Symbian file management system has been top notch for quite a while now, and you can hardly think of anything to change. The application can basically do anything you can think of with your files - moving, copying renaming, sorting or sending - you name it. You can also password-protect your memory card if you see fit.

The file manager has extensive functionality

The searching for a specific file or directory is also available with the phone. All you need to remember is a part of the desired name and where it was located (phone memory or memory card) the Nokia N97 mini will find it in no time.

Image gallery - not bad, but not great either

The gallery of Nokia N97 mini is yet another part of its interface that hasn't been dramatically changed compared to non-touch Symbian predecessors. It has neither the swanky 3D view mode, nor the customizable slideshow we are used to seeing in the Nseries.

You can go through your pictures (and videos as well) by sweeping your finger across the screen. Kinetic scrolling is enabled in the gallery view as well.

The image gallery

Opting between portrait and landscape mode is automatic, thanks to the built-in accelerometer. Unless you have that feature disabled, all you need to do to switch modes is to flip the phone sideways (or just to slide out the QWERTY keyboard).

Viewing a photo

Image zoom is controlled via either the volume rocker or an on-screen touch slider. In all other cases, images are displayed full screen. After you've cheked the details, to go to the next photo you always have to zoom all the way back, which might get annoying if you zoom in to often.

Overall, picture browsing is relatively fast, but the zooming is somewhat slow at least on the initial zooming step. The panning is worse than HTC's latest models and many of the other similar devices.

Nokia N97 mini - Phonebooks remains unchanged

Nokia N97 mini uses a phonebook that's identical to what previous versions of the UI have offered. Except for the whole touch thingy, that is. The phonebook itself has virtually unlimited capacity and functionality is among the best we've seen.

Contacts can be freely ordered by first or last name and can naturally be searched by gradual typing of any of the names. You can also set whether the contacts from the SIM card, the phone memory and the service numbers will get displayed.

The phonebook hasn't seen much change

Editing a contact offers a great variety of preset fields and you can replicate each of them as many times as you like. You can also create new fields if you happen to be able to think of one. Personal ringtones and videos are also available for assigning. If you prefer, you may group your contacts and give each group a specific ringtone.

Viewing a contact, editing a contact offers a huge variety of fields

The Call log keeps track of your recent communications. The application itself comes in two flavors - accessed by pressing the Call key on the stand-by screen or from the main menu. The first one brings 20 call records in each of its tabs for outgoing, received and missed calls.

The call log logs everything

If you access the Log application from the main menu, you'll see a detailed list of all your network communications for the past 30 days. These include messages, calls and data transfers (even WLAN connections are included).

No smart-dial takes all the fun out of the telephony

We didn't experience any problems with the in-call performance of Nokia N97. Reception levels are good on both ends of calls, the earpiece is loud enough and there were no interferences whatsoever.

Voice dialing is an option with the N97 as with mostly any other phone. The voice dialing mode is activated once you press and hold the Call key. It is fully speaker-independent and doesn't require prerecording the names of your contacts. Bear in mind though, that if you have multiple numbers assigned to a contact, the first or the default one gets dialed.

The dialling pad

Thanks to the built-in accelerometer you can silence an incoming call on the phone by simply flipping it over. Those feature was also available in 5800 XpressMusic and through third party application on the previous versions on the UI.

Making a call is very good. Thanks to the proximity sensor the screen turns off automatically while close to your head. There are four big buttons available - mute, hold, loudspeaker and end call. Form the options menu you can find more settings like lock screen and keys, switch to video call, new call and etc.

Making a call, call options

The problems that the original N97 had with answering and rejecting calls with the receiver keys are gone.

We also ran our traditional loudspeaker test on Nokia N97 mini. The handset scored a Very Good mark in our test. You might want to keep a closer look on it when you are in noisier environments.

Speakerphone test	Voice, dB	Pink noise/ Music, dB	Ringing phone, dB	Overall score
Apple iPhone 3G	66.1	62.1	71.7	Below Average
Nokia 5800 XpressMusic	75.7	66.5	68.5	Good
Nokia N97	72.8	67.3	75.8	Good
Nokia N97 mini	68.8	66.7	83.6	Very Good
HTC Touch Pro2	74.6	70.0	78.1	Very Good
LG KF900 Prada	77.1	75.7	82.0	Excellent