Nokia Teams Up with Facebook

The holiday season is coming and tech companies are scrambling to get out their latest and greatest just in time for the holiday rush. Nokia, the largest smartphone maker, is attempting to claw its way to the heap of the pack with the N97 mini, the newest edition to the N97 series. Described as the N97’s little brother, the 4.4 x2 x0.5 inch device is only slighter smaller than the original.

Aside from the redesign, the mini comes with some solid features including a 3.2-inch touchscreen display with 16:9 widescreen and 640 x 360p resolution. The phone also takes some decent still images thanks to the 5 megapixel Carl Zeiss Tessar lens with autofocus and flash. It also captures video 640 x 480 pixels at up to 30 fps and supports RealVideo and Flash Lite 3.0.

But the real buzz behind this phone is the partnership between Nokia and Facebook. Thanks to the deal, the mini will be the first phone to feature Lifecasting with Ovi. The app is Facebook widget that allows users to update both their location and Facebook status from the homepage as well as upload photos, much to the delight to all you oversharers out there (you know who you are). Travel junkies will enjoy the premium access to Lonely Planet, Michelin and Wcities. Lonely Planet gives users 155,500 points of interest via Lonely Planet guides while Michelin and Wcities gives you the scoop on the best restaurants. To further personalize the homepage experience, app addicts can check out the Ovi store to keep things interesting.

The mini comes with a music player with a built-in equalizer to get your music just right and has approximately 28 hours of music playback time. Talk time weighs in at a respectable 7.1 hours and 3.5 hours for video playback. There is 8GB of internal storage but it can be expanded up 24GB with a 16GB microSD card.

While it’s not the mythical iPhone killer that Apple’s rival companies yearn for like the One Ring, it is a solid competitor in the smartphone market that makes it a worthwhile purchase.