Nokia brings N97 mini to India….supercool features but the pricing isn’t ‘mini’ at all

Nokia has recently come up with the N97 mini in India and it promises to offer you all the exciting features that its elder brother N97 had….but the only problem is that it comes with a price tag of 30 k, which is also not very different from original N97.

Let’s take a look at some of the cool features it has on offer;

• N97 mini will be Nokia’s first device to feature Lifecasting with OVI; which is a partnership with Facebook and will enable users to update their Facebook status directly from the phone’s screen. The users will also have access to the OVI store that will allow them to add new applications, widgets, ringtones etc to the phone. It also has Ovi Maps and is integrated with A-GPS and compass along with voice navigation for driving or walking.
• The phone has a 3.2-inch touchscreen and full QWERTY keyboard built into its 14.2mm thin frame and measures 113 x 52.5 x 14.2mm. It has a similar tilting touchscreen display and a home screen that can be customized with widgets
• N97 mini has 8GB of storage and can be expanded upto 24 GB along with the addition of a 16 GB microSD…a total of 48 GB…Now that’s a cracker of a storage capacity! The platform remains the same Symbian S60 OS
• It features a 5 megapixel camera with 4 digital zoom and dual LED flash and video light.
• In terms of battery life – it supports up to 12 days standby time and up to 28 hours music playback. It supports video playback up to 210 minutes
• Connectivity options include WLAN IEEE 802.11b/g, microUSB connector, Hi-Speed USB 2.0, 3.5mm stereo headphone plug and TV-out support (PAL/NTSC). The phone has Bluetooth 2.0 with A2DP stereo audio, enhanced data rates (EDR) GPS receiver with support for assisted GPS (A-GPS)
• It is available in 3 colours — Cherry black, Garnet and White

The features look great, but I’m still wondering, if the price had to be the same(almost), what is the strategy behind launching this phone? It isn’t ‘mini’…neither in features nor in price…!

It will be interesting to see how successful it is India! Let’s wait n watch