Rumors of an N97 Mini gained traction on Wednesday with images that may represent the device. These pics were hosted up on http://www.symbianfrance.com/2009/07/29/nokia-n97-mini-photos-et-specifications/ but got taken down.
The Blog Post said (French to English Translation) :
“You had already mentioned a few weeks of persistent rumors of a Nokia N97 mini. We friends of the blog N97 have a nice scoop out today by offering the first pictures of the mini N97.
At this level it is certainly a rumor but I dare not doubt the veracity of these pictures. I am however very surprised by the small difference in specifications between the 2 devices. At this level only the screen size (302 against 3.5 inches) and memory (8Gb against 32GB) seem to differentiate the 2 devices. The keyboard is different, the pad of the N97, which is very practical-is replaced by 4 keys guidelines.
So, hot I almost want to say that is there in N97?
The smartphone almost exactly mirrors the larger Nokia phone but removes the directional pad and moves buttons to shrink the overall size, including the screen. The rear camera has also lost the protective cover present on the full N97 and many other Nokia smartphones.
At this stage, it’s not apparent whether the device shown is actually a Nokia prototype or else a third-party clone. Inadvertent statements by Vodafone as well as a side-by-side comparison against the regular N97 support the notion that it may be a lower-cost version of the N97 that may trim the price by using the smaller display, a lower resolution camera and reduced internal storage.
Comments are more than welcome