The Nokia N97 Mini is a great phone when it comes to browsing the internet, thanks to the large and responsive touchscreen and smooth-running operating system. Using different software can help you get a lot more out of it, however, from flash video support to tabbed browsing, offering a full internet experience on your mobile. To find out how, read on after the jump…
There are several internet browsers available for the Nokia N97 Mini’s Symbian S60 5th Edition operating system, but here we’re looking at Opera Mobile 10 and Skyfire 1.5. These two applications are both free, and offer a host of advantages over the standard web browser, including flash video support on Skyfire 1.5, and tabbed browsing in Opera Mobile 10.
Skyfire can be downloaded by going to m.skyfire.com in your Nokia N97 Mini’s existing web browser. Once it’s downloaded and installed, you’ll find a hugely different browsing experience from the regular Nokia web browser. It’s a lot quicker, for a start, with web pages loading up in a fraction of the time.
As soon as it opens, you’ll be able to start typing a URL, without having to click ‘Go to’ or pressing any other buttons. The home page is tabbed, with Bookmarks and History. You’ll also find a vertical list of tabs comprising Video, Social, News and Sports.
It’s very comprehensive, but for us a little too much. We tend to stick to the same couple of sites using our Nokia N97 Mini, and the separate tabs means you’ll have to go through a couple of clicks to find the right site. Thankfully, you can also leave the bookmarks as unsorted – so you’ll be able to open your favourite ones straight from the home page.
In addition to the speed that pages open at, Skyfire also comes into its own with regard to support for Flash, outdoing all other mobile web browsers. With it installed, you’ll be able to visit full web pages, watch videos and listen to music. It really is impressive, taking full advantage of the Nokia N97 Mini’s great screen.
If you don’t visit sites with Flash, or are more interested in running multiple web pages, then Opera Mobile 10 is probably the better browser for you. It can be downloaded from opera.com/mobile, and also delivers a desktop-like browsing experience, with full web pages loading quickly and smoothly. Zooming is a better experience than you’ll find on the standard Nokia browser, and it’s easy to scroll around pages with a flick of your finger.
Opening Opera Mobile 10 brings up a set of nine favourite websites, with large thumbnails used to launch each one. It’s more user-friendly than Skyfire, and typing also brings up a search using Google.
A button on the bottom lets you flick through your open tabs, or back to the home page, and it works beautifully. It’s not quite so rapid as Skyfire, but while the text on Skyfire looks a little blurry as it’s loading up, and pages tend to load in sections, Opera Mobile 10 loads in one go. This is a lot better when browsing the web on a train, for instance, as it doesn’t matter so much if a connection is lost when you’re halfway through reading an article.
Overall, both Opera Mobile 10 and Skyfire 1.5 offer an outstanding way of browsing the internet on your Nokia N97 Mini. Choosing between them is difficult, as it really does depend on what you use the internet for. For us, opening a couple of pages and flicking between them is more important than Flash, so Opera Mobile 10 is currently our default choice. We’ll be bringing you a full review of each in the next week or so though, which may help you to make up your mind.
What web browser do you currently use? Let us know which you prefer on your Nokia. Check out the gallery below to see Opera Mobile 10 and Skyfire 1.5 in action:
