As long as we’ve heard rumors of a Verizon iPhone, we’ve also heard rumors that a lighter, smaller, cheaper iPhone was in the works behind closed doors in Cupertino. Sticking to the theme of constantly rehashing rumors until they come true, The Wall Street Journal reported over the weekend that Apple is indeed working on a bite-sized iPhone that will soon become a reality. Codenamed “N97,” the new iPhone will be half the size of the current model and could be available for as little as $49 on contract. It may include a “voice navigation” feature as well, providing a more flushed-out catalog of voice commands. We’re also starting to see a variety of designers issue mockups of the device, which would certainly shake up the mobile industry and spell further trouble for Apple’s competition. If The Journal’s report is accurate, however, the mockups we’ve seen thus far are likely way off base considering the rumored new iPhone model is said to feature a screen that “goes to all of the edges” of the phone. Finally, it is worth noting that an iPhone of this size would likely have to do away with the iPhone’s current home button configuration, a sentiment in line with our exclusive report from last month.

Read [WSJ report] Read [mockup]

Today, Nokia announced that the ever-efficient Swype keyboard will be coming to Symbian S60 5th edition devices. The software keyboard, which is currently being launched as a limited beta, supports the N97, N97 mini, X6, 5800, and 5230 Nokia handsets. As Nokia explains: “Swype and Nokia have been hard at work to deliver a limited beta release to Nokia S60 5th edition device owners. Your feedback will be valuable to us in the coming weeks, and we are especially interested in how well Swype interfaces with the many types of applications you use every day.” If you are interested in getting Swype on your S60 device, hit the jump to see a quick video followed by the download link.

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It looks like Symbian freaks based in Canada who already have the N97 from Bell will be able to get themselves a new plaything this summer, as Rogers is launching the Nokia N97 Mini. The device isn’t actually for sale yet but is rather being shipped out to dealers across the country, but barring any last minute chances it looks like the outright price of the N97 Mini has been set at $499.99 while the 3-year price is $99.99. Anyone planning to get this, or are you going to avoid it just like you would the plague (or N97 for that matter)?

Thanks, anonymous!

If you happen to live in Canada, have $199.95 burning a hole in your pocket, are more than happy to sign away three years worth of discretionary income to keep it running and don’t mind rolling with something that feels like it’s straight out of 2007, you might want to stop by a Bell dealership and check out the newly-launched Nokia N97. If you happen to become smitten with it and walk out of the shop with it, stand proud, for as Bell said, if you rock the N97, “you’ll be one of a kind”. Literally.

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In recent years, Canada’s Bell has done a good job of transforming its image of a boring carrier with humdrum handsets to a fiercely competitive purveyor of cutting-edge smartphones such as the Bold 9700, iPhone 3GS, Omnia II and Palm Pre. And as we mentioned last week, this Thursday will see the carrier release its first Android handset in the Samsung Galaxy. But that’s not the only first that will occur that day as the folks over at MobileSyrup have it on good authority that Nokia’s flagship N97 will also see its North American carrier debut on the very same day. As with the Galaxy, the handsets subsidized and unsubsidized price has yet to leak out, but we can’t imagine it would go for anything more than $249.95 on a 3-year contract.

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News flash: Nokia managed to keep a pair of handsets a secret leading up to official announcements at Nokia World! Alongside the oft-talked about N97 Mini, two previously unknown music-centric devices, the X3 and X6, became official — but we’ll get to them in a moment. The N97 Mini, as we’re sure most of you know by now, can be summed up pretty quickly: Slightly smaller than the N97, tilting 3.2-inch resistive touchscreen display, sliding QWERTY keypad, 5 megapixel camera with Carl Zeiss lens and dual-LED flash, Wi-Fi, aGPS, 8GB of internal memory with microSDHC and UMTS/HSPA connectivity. Not great, not bad, but we’re also not too sure exactly who would take it over the N97, which is already free on contract in many countries.

As we said before, the X6′s announcement came as a total surprise — one that is actually quite nice. It’s a full-touchscreen (capacitive) candy bar that can pump out tunes from its 32GB of internal memory for up to 35 hours. It runs S60 5th of course; shame it isn’t Maemo-powered. Beyond that you’re looking at a 5 megapixel camera with a Zeiss lens and a dual-LED flash and as far as connectivity goes, the X6 has that lovable trifecta of HSPA, Wi-Fi and aGPS. The X3 is the alphanumeric slidin’ baby cousin of X6 that runs on S40 and has a 2.2-inch QVGA display, 3.2 megapixel camera, 46MB of internal memory, FM tuner and quad-band EDGE. Both the X3 and X6 will ship in Q4 for 115€ ($163 USD) and 450€ ($640 USD). As for the N97 Mini, it will be released next month for 450€ ($640 USD). Hit the jump for videos of each of these three handsets and let us know what you think.

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It looks like Nokia has a few tricks up its sleeve in the near future as a blurry photo reveals a number of unreleased and unannounced handsets. First is the N97 mini, which is easily distinguished from the full-sized N97 due to its lack of a d-pad on the keyboard. Next is a device that looks much like the 5800 XpressMusic, except the one pictured above (to the right of the N97 and N97 mini) has a chrome bezel. Could it be the rumored 5900XM? The white slider below the N97 mini has us baffled and yet completely uninterested. We’re also guessing that the black slider pictured to the next to the 5900XM is the same handset as the white slider, though the blur-factor makes it a bit tough to tell. Bottom line: 1) Expect a few new devices next month from Nokia World and 2) Nokia has a thing for chrome.

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A little over a month ago, a fearless (or stupid) Vodafone forum moderator got excited and blabbed about two unannounced handsets that would eventually be making their way to Voda — the BlackBerry Storm 2 and the Nokia N97 Mini. The former has been seen grazing in the wild many times already but the latter has managed to elude the digirazzi… Until now, that is. Behold, the Nokia N97 Mini. Maybe. While the authenticity of these first live N97 Mini shots has yet to be confirmed, they do depict what we would imagine the handset to be — a smaller N97. Of note, the phone pictured has a cluster of four arrow keys at the right end of the keypad in place of the d-pad found on the left of the N97. Also, for those who enjoy dropping a space between words with their left thumb from time to time, the space bar is still off to the right of the pad (though slightly closer to the center this time) and it’s still tiny. Whether or not this turns out to be the actual device, we can only hope the N97 Mini hits the US with a slightly more realistic price tag since the odds of a carrier snagging it aren’t great. Hit the jump for a shot of the back.

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Sure it hit the street less than a month ago but that’s plenty of time to rope in the early adopters when it comes to hot new high-end handsets. As such, Amazon.com has just dropped the price on Nokia’s new flagship handset to $599.99 with free shipping; still a bit high for some but definitely inching closer to attainability. While this isn’t the best advertised price we’ve seen thus far for the Nokia N97 — Nokia USA had it on sale for $594 late last month — it is the lowest total price including taxes so far. Any takers?

Also of note: Amazon.com dropped the price of the N79 to $300 lining it up with the 5800XM and E71, and the N85 is currently listed at $330. All are unlocked of course, including the N97, and waiting for your SIM card of choice.

[Via Symbian-Guru]

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Hoping to have some solid bug fixes and a few new additions in place on your shiny new Nokia N97 before you start partying this weekend (or even today if you live North of the border)? Well we told you it was coming and this morning it dropped — say hello to 11.0.021. Even the most staunch Nokia fanboys seemed to take issue with the release firmware on Nokia’s latest flagship handset and as such, this update is most definitely a welcome one. The firmware should be available in most regions and if you can’t get it OTA, fire up Nokia Software Updater and give it a go. As for what you can expect from this release, hit the jump for the change log. If you’ve installed it already, let us know what you think in the comments.

Side note: The N96 was updated today as well to 30.033. Yay.

Thanks, Joseph!

• USB detection error fix
• PC does not detect N97 or USB charging connection not detected.
• Widget
• Home screen online/offline widget crash fix
• Fix for “Alphabetical and Number input are mixed in facebook until end key is pressed.
• Widget UI improvement – New facebook widget fixes a problem of Home Screen background visible on soft-key area.
• Browser fixes to improve widgets stability.
• MfE related fixes
• Partial fix for Messaging/calendar entry lost.
• Mail for exchange calendar entry synchronization error fix.
• UI transition error fixes (Portrait <-> landscape transition, there is a home screen corruption.)
• UI transition (Slowness and bad effects)
• Slow Touch UI response
• Picture of the device lock appears half of the screen when transitioning the UI sometimes
• Landscape: in some cases the soft buttons on touch (right hand) show the Home Screen in background (install maps.google.com)
• Photos thumbnail performance and stability improvements
• Device performance deteriorates when lots of content in the device – especially photos
• Partial fix no display backlight illumination when unlocking lock-key – CAP Genius reported already
• New version of Accueweather to improve the “Connection error” situation
• Device reset when browsing with high speed packet access (for Malaysia)
• “Browser soft key UI doesn’t work after putting Chinese character with qwerty keyboard”
• Java fixes (TCK, Pre-install app disappearing, *#7370#*)
• Operator fixes (CMCC, Hutchson and Telefonica, Vodafone)
• Ovi store client now embedded in the core image

Just in time to make America’s birthday even more special, it looks like N97 owners will be enjoying a shiny new gift from our friends at Nokia this July 4th weekend. Just as the firmware version was recently updated on Nokia’s RDS service, so too will the firmware be updated on the N97. According to Nokia Conversations’ Twitter account, “N97 SW 1.1 (11.x.021)” will find itself in the hands of the people this Wednesday, July 1st. Rejoice! Sure, a firmware update isn’t going to resolve all of the issues we had with the handset — such as an off-center space button on the keypad (how?!) — but it will hopefully go great lengths to eliminate many of the bugs users are currently experiencing. As for exactly which regions/product codes will have access to the new firmware right out of the gate, unfortunately there’s no way of telling until the 1st rolls around.

Thanks, Nok-eee-ugh!

Do you have a burning desire for a new Symbian smartphone but an even deeper burning desire to save money? How does 15 – 50 percent off select shiny new Nokia handsets sound? For only three hours starting at 9pm Central/10pm Eastern, here’s what you’re looking at:

• N97 – $594
• E75 – $265
• E71 – $295
• 5800 XpressMusic – $299
• N85 – $320
• N95 8GB – $378
• E63 – $167
• E66 – $245
• N79 – $279

While a few of those price points might still be a bit steep, we’re generally looking at some solid deals on these brand new, unlocked, warrantied handsets. Anyone eying one of these bad boys and planning to pounce tonight?

Thanks to everyone who sent this in!

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It’s no secret that we had our issues with Nokia’s 5800 XpressMusic, but has the Nokia N97 changed our minds? It is, after all, their flagship device and is packed to the rim with goodies. We already said the Touch Pro2 was the best Windows Mobile device to come out of HTC, is the N97 the Pro2′s match for the Symbian world? Hit the breakage for the review and what we thought!

Keyboard:

It’s hilarious that when Nokia finally listens and tries to make a somewhat normal QWERTY keyboard layout (we bitched and moaned that the Z key was always incorrectly right under the A key on previous devices) they mess it up even more. Like honestly, you’re expecting people to use something with the spacebar key stage right? If the layout isn’t bad enough, the keys certainly are. While the texture of the keys is actually pretty stirring, there’s absolutely positively the smallest tactile feedback imaginable when pressing in a key. For comparisons sake, the T-Mobile G1, whose keys aren’t the best in that department, is worlds better than the N97′s keyboard. It’s really disappointing because Nokia just can’t seem to nail this keyboard area. You could argue that there’s a virtual on-screen keyboard, but that’s so useless we’re not going to entertain the idea of you bringing it up.

Screen:

Man… this is a tough area. Some people are going to viciously attack us for saying this, but, is this the best you can do Nokia? If it is, you’re out of touch with the entire cell phone world because this is one of the most disappointing screens we’ve seen in a long, long time. Besides being a poor resistive touchscreen with good resolution — it’s poor because they try and allow it to decipher touch actions separately from select actions — it looks like there’s a weave pattern behind the display. It gets really infuriatingly annoying. We’re assuming it’s the digitizer, but seriously, learn how to make a touch display. This isn’t 2003. Every single flagship phone has a display 10x better than yours. If you want us to break them down because you’re too out of touch to realize it, we’re glad to do so:

• HTC’s Dream and Magic — wonderful bright and crisp capacitive displays
• RIM’s BlackBerry Storm — awesomely vibrant capacitive display
• Palm’s Pre — packed tight with resolution, vivid and capacitive
• Apple’s iPhone 3G/3G S — an amazingly accurate clear capacitive display with incredible accuracy

Noticing a trend here?

Hardware / Build quality:

Nokia has been around the block for a long, long time. They’ve had their share of hiccups, but man… they know how to make a phone and make it solid. And a sexy phone at that. The N97 might feel lighter than you’d expect at first, but it really has a quality feel all around. The metal bezel is actually plastic and is probably the cheapest-feeling part of the device. But all in all, the build quality is top notch and we shouldn’t expect anything less from the world market leader Nokia. The 5 megapixel camera also doesn’t disappoint — just what you’re used to if you’re a Nokia Nseries fan.

Feel:

This is kind of the same as build quality in a way, because the feel of the device will change depending on the build quality, but the overall feel of the Nokia N97 in your hand is a pleasant one for the most part. Not a huge fan of the matte finish/texture on the back of the device, but button placements are very standard Nokia and comfortable. Power button on top, dedicated two-stage camera shutter key, volume keys, etc.

Connectivity:

This is the second Nokia handset with tri-band HSDPA and it’s awesome they’ve finally come around. In addition to the UMTS sex appeal, you’ve also got a quad-band EDGE radio, Bluetooth 2.0, an FM transmitter (yep, it will allow you to tune to a radio station and listen to your music), A-GPS, and Wi-Fi all built in. Very, very cool.

Phone calling / speakerphone:

There’s no if, ands or buts about it — Nokia seriously knows how to make for some damn good voice calling. Their radios are usually on point (besides the disastrous Nokia E71-2 scenario and we guess some 5800 problems), but for the most part it doesn’t get much better than Nokia. Some could argue RIM is almost on Nokia’s level in terms of RF performance and voice quality, but Nokia, in our view still has a slight edge. Phone calls made with the N97 were loud and sounded bright instead of dull like some phones we’ve been testing. Callers reported to hear us just fine and sometimes thought we were calling from a land line phone.

One thing that’s funny about Nokia is that their speakerphones range from horrible to pretty good. We’d say the N97′s is right in the middle. It’s no where as loud or clear as the Touch Pro2′s but it’s decent enough to be used. Anyone ever had a Nokia phone where the ear speaker was louder than the actual speakerphone? We have!

Usability:

Here’s one fairly large issue for us — the slide/flip up screen. The mechanism is actually very well-built, but it’s the angle of the screen and the non-adjustableness (forgive us) that get us going. For instance, to see the screen at the perfect angle when flipped up means that the keyboard is going to be pointing straight up at the ceiling. Wait, what? Yeah — you can barely use the keyboard comfortably when navigating through on screen applications and the like. It might not be a big deal for some, but for a keyboard that it feels like your typing on a pad of Post Its, it’s a big deal for anyone remotely interested in typing something.

The directional pad also suffers from the same issue as we mentioned earlier in the keyboard section — zero feedback. It’s unfortunate but it really doesn’t enable you to accurately navigate as well as it should. As far things like home screen widgets go, they’re cool. But just because you have live widgets on your home screen doesn’t mean people will overlook how out of date and poorly designed S60 is becoming. It’s almost like Nokia keeps bandaging the OS up and it’s starting to get more and more difficult to use and less and less relevant.

Conclusion:

Nokia tried really hard here, but to be honest, speaking from my personal opinion, the second I saw the N97 announcement I skipped right over it in my head. I’m the biggest N95-4 fan you’ll find — but S60 5th Edition with a resistive screen, horrible keyboard and horrible navigational buttons? No thank you. The problem with the Nokia N97 is — and please don’t take this the wrong way — that this exact phone could have been launched 2 years ago and no one would have blinked. What other phone can you take out of it’s current place, drop back two years, and have no one question where it came from? Take the Palm Pre for better or worse, and bring it back to 2007. People would have heart attacks. What about the iPhone? Well, you know how that turned out. BlackBerry Storm? People would have broken through glass to get it. But, no one really would care about the N97 and that, besides not being a device we enjoyed using, is the larger issue. Nokia has lost its place in the sun when looking at the consumer smartphone market and until they get back on track, RIM, Apple, Windows Mobile, Palm and Android are going to continue eating more and more of their lunch.

Nokia is a in a really weird place right now. They’re the #1 handset manufacturer in the world, yet we’d all be lying if we said they didn’t have to work to stay there. RIM and Apple are the new wonder boys and they are steadily stealing market share away from Nokia. Heck, even Windows Mobile is a real contender nowadays. Enter Nokia and their flagship device for 2009, the Nokia N97. Can it compete? Is this phone going to be the phone to finally bring that extra dash of Tabasco sauce back to Finland’s finest?

Well, you’ll have to wait for our compete review to find out! We will, however, give you a couple quick impressions… First off, the screen while large and in charge really is a tad bit disappointing. The actual screen itself seems to have a really weird “texture” to it and appears to be the digitizer behind the screen. Picture a piece of cotton over the screen and drop the opacity of it to around 3% and you’d get the idea (if you even get what we just said). The keyboard and directional pad are pretty bare with practically no feedback and the hinge mechanism is either genius or the stupidest thing we’ve ever seen cross the factory assembly belt. Happy moments? The camera is wonderful as expected, the build quality on the unit seems top notch, video playback is nothing short of awesome, and hey, it actually works as a phone.

That’s all we’re going to give up for now, but in the meantime, check out our photo shots!

Click on over to our Nokia N97 Hands On gallery!

So maybe the iPhone 3G S announcement left you a bit unimpressed this morning. We can’t say we blame you, but there’s plenty more in store for mobile fans this month. Among the hoards of hot phones dropping in June is Nokia’s new flagship handset, the N97. Sure it’s a bit pricier at $700 than the 3G S but those who have been recession-proof at this point deserve to splurge a bit from time to time. S60 5th Edition, QWERTY, side-sliding/pivoting 640×360 pixel touchscreen, 5 megapixel shooter, 32GB of memory… It’s all good. The N97 will reportedly be available from Nokia Flagship stores starting today — who’s in?

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