Nokia N97 Mini Released in the U.S.

The Nokia N97 Mini was announced early this fall as a smaller version of the flagship N97 smartphone, and it launched in Europe in October. This Symbian S60 device is now available in the United States.

This smartphone uses  the same general "slide-and-tilt QWERTY" design as the N97, but it excludes the directional pad and offers a smaller touchscreen.

It's being offered on the Nokia USA website for $580, but other online retailers have it in stock at this price, too. The standout is Amazon.com, whose price is just $480.

This version of the N97 Mini is a quad-band GSM phone (850/900/1800/1900) with tri-band 3G mobile broadband (900/1900/2100).

An Overview of the Nokia N97 Mini
Despite its name, the N97 Mini is only slightly smaller than its big brother. It does have a smaller touchscreen, but at the same resolution: 640 x 360 pixels.

It also features less internal memory (8 GB vs. 32 GB), but still includes a microSD memory card slot supporting up to 16 GB cards. And the camera uses the 5 megapixel, Carl Zeiss Tessar lens, auto-focus and flash also found in the N97.

Built in support for Nokia Messaging, Ovi Contacts, Ovi Maps, and the Ovi Store tie the N97 Mini to Nokia's service offerings while also enabling other third-party software to be easily downloaded and installed.

Other features include Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and a GPS receiver.

Source: Nokia