It's been an odd few days for the Nokia N97 mini with the Nokia Flagship store in London stated they would start selling the mini-marvel on the 23rd October, only to have them later pull the date. However, the good news is that Vodafone is starting its own pre-order for delivery on the 29th October. What's more, you can get it for free, find out more after the jump...

The Nokia N97 mini takes the styling, format factor and OS of the larger Nokia N97 but squeezes it into a condensed version. So, we get a 3.2-inch screen instead of a 3.5-inch screen but you’ll still find 3G, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth is present. Nokia has taken the change in screen size to tweak the keyboard, so that’s a little smaller. However, the big change is the drop in memory size from 32GB on the Nokia N97 to 8GB on the Nokia N97 mini.

Its been up for pre-order at Nokia Online for some weeks now for £429 (inc. VAT) SIM free. However, we've not had any official word from Nokia when it would actually ship.

Nokia N97 mini – Five reasons to get excited

However, over at fonehome the guys have had a little leak preview from Vodafone stating they'll be the first to offer the Nokia N97 mini from the 29th October. You can get hold of the Nokia N97 mini on contract from Vodafone for free as long as you sign up for a 24 month contract on their £35 a month tarriff. Along with the handset you'll also get unlimited texts, landline calls, emails and internet access thrown in.

Anyone signing up online for this deal will also find themselves with an extra 300 minutes of talk time thrown in for free – as the rival ad goes, 'imagine what you could do with that!'

Check out the Vodafone deal on the Nokia N97 mini.

Via: fonehome