The Nokia N97 vs. N97 Mini vs. N900 Comparison Table

A comparison of the N97, N97 Mini, and the N900.

Considering buying an N900? How about an N97 mini? Yeah, Nokia’s bringing two more touch-screen devices to the table, both suspiciously similar to the original N97 on the surface. But what about underneath?

Let’s see how they stack up. (”winning” features in green)

	Nokia N97	Nokia N97 Mini	Nokia N900
Operating System	S60 5th Edition	S60 5th Edition	Maemo 5
Processor	ARM 11 434mhz	ARM 11 434mhz	ARM Cortex-A8 600mhz
Memory	32GB onboard, 16GB microSD expandable, 128MB RAM	8GB onboard, 16GB microSD expandable, 128MB RAM	32GB onboard, 16GB microSD expandable, 256MB RAM, 768MB virtual memory
Talk Time	6.66 hours GSM, 5.33 hours WCDMA	7.2 hours GSM, 4 hours WCDMA	9 hours GSM, 5 hours WCDMA
Battery	BP-4L, 1500 mAh	BL-4D, 1200 mAh	BL-5J, 1320 mAh
Dimensions	117.2 x 55.3 x 15.9 mm, 150 g	113.0 x 52.5 x 14.2 mm, 138 g	110.9 x 59.8 x 18.0 mm, 181 g
Screen Size	3.5″ widescreen TFT resistive touch-screen, 640×360 pixels	3.2″ widescreen TFT resistive touch-screen, 640×360 pixels	3.5″ widescreen resistive touch-screen, 800×480 pixels
Bands	GSM 850/900/1800/1900, WCDMA 900/1900/2100 or 850/1900/2100	GSM 850/900/1800/1900, WCDMA 900/1900/2100	GSM 850/900/1800/1900, WCDMA 900/1700/2100
Camera	5 megapixel, Carl Zeiss, 30 VGA fps video, dual LED flash	5 megapixel, Carl Zeiss, 30 VGA fps video, dual LED flash	5 megapixel, Carl Zeiss, WVGA 25 fps video, dual LED flash
Bluetooth	2.0, with EDR and A2DP	2.0, with EDR and A2DP	2.1, A2DP
Price	550 Euro, $750 USD	450 Euro, ~$656 USD	500 Euro, ~$729 USD
Release Date	Released Q2 2009	Q4 2009	Q4 2009
X-Factor	The original that started it all.	Smaller, lighter, and cheaper N97.	Runs Maemo and has a Mozilla browser. And a fast processor.
Biggest Weakness	Buggy; subpar interface	Still runs S60 Fifth Edition	No WCDMA 850mhz band, aka no 3G on AT&T

So what’s the bottom line? Is it that the N900 is just a superior phone over the others? Yes and no. Yes, the N900 is the newest and technologically most advanced phone of the three, so yeah – for the most part it’s better overall. But that’s not the point.

The point is that, with these two new phones, you now have choices as to how you like your fairly high-end touch-screen Nokia phone. You can go budget (N97 Mini), go original S60 5th Edition (N97), or go for broke with Maemo (N900).

Personally, I’d love to pick up an N900 and see how Nokia’s improved the Maemo interface and geared the device towards regular users. S60 5th Edition has been a disappointment, and I’m starting to find myself looking in a new direction.