My love affair with Nokia cellphones started 10 years ago. And now I'll continue my take on the new Nokia N97 mini -- my new love.

Going back to my previous column, I mentioned the key features that we truly love and adore in the N97 are also present in “mini”. Features are relatively the same.

It is a Quad band GSM and tri-band 3G supported with 3.6 Mbps HSDPA. It has a slide and tilt 3.2” 16M color resistive touchscreen of 640 x 3360 pixel resolution equipped with features such as ARM 11 434 MHz CPU, WiFi connectivity, integrated GPS receiver and Nokia Maps.

It has bluetooth, built-in accelerometer, proximity sensor, stereo FM radio with RDS support and a digital compass. However, the big difference lies in its built in memory. Compared to its big brother’s built-in memory of 32GB, N97 mini comes only in 8GB.

The N97 mini obviously as its name suggests is the smaller and lighter version of the original N97. With its dimension of 113 x 52.5 x14.2 mm against its big brother of 117.2 x 55.3 x 15.9, N97 mini appears compact making it more “pocket friendly” as it is likewise lighter with its weight of only 138 g! Indeed, a big difference from its original weight of 159 g.

The front and side layout of the N97 mini is the same as its big brother. The front houses the earpiece, video call camera, ambient light and the proximity sensor (switches the display automatically off when held next to your ear) all situated on top of its resistive touchscreen.

The touch sensitive call and end button as well as the regular menu key sits below the screen. Take note, this somewhat regular looking menu button not only allows access to the menu and task manager, it likewise blinks intermittently signaling missed calls, messages or other events.

The Nokia N97 mini is based on Symbian S60 5th Edition with kinetic scrolling that is unbelievably smooth. Kinetic scrolling is scrolling through a long list by just a flick or a brush of a finger.

Just like its big brother, the N97 mini’s homescreen is likewise widget-enabled. You can personalize your homescreen with icons, widgets for weather, calculator and links to your favorite social sites, contacts and websites.

There are plenty of widgets to choose from and arranging them is fun. With dedicated widgets on your homepage, you can manage your email, calendar, and music easily. These applications are on the homescreen and are just a click away.

It supports GPRS, EDGE, 3G with HSDPA connectivity. It has bluetooth (A2DP) and USB; both version 2.0. The memory card slot located under the battery cover can accommodate 16GB microSD cards.
In summary, N97 mini did not fall short to our expectations.

Its design, sophistication, form and features are definitely at par with its big brother. Truly, big things come in smaller packages.