Despite respectable sales, in industry circles the phone was considered a hardware and software "disaster" that contributed to Nokia's decline.

[citation needed] The device's initial software met a mixed reception, prompting the release of new firmware in October 2009.

Many first-party applications would install only on the root partition and with around 50MB of free space, this was used quickly in competition with the needs of temporary OS files.

[18] Steve Litchfield of "All About Symbian" wrote in a 2011 blog post: "The N97 really was the device that should have ruled the world - it had, almost literally, everything.

"[19] Nokia acknowledged that on many units the covers and lenses were mounted too closely, resulting in scratches from dust and debris.

The phones lost track of their current locations, making Nokia's free turn-by-turn navigation software unusable.

Users were offered under-warranty repairs for lens cover and GPS issues at official Nokia service centers.

The user interface of the S60 5th edition software platform, built on top of Symbian OS 9.4, was criticized by the TechRadar site as inconsistent, insofar as menu items required two taps to activate.

The N97 Mini reduced some features of the original N97, such as 8 GB of storage memory, 3.2-inch (81 mm) touchscreen, and a shorter battery life.

[30] The user interface of the S60 5th edition software platform, built on top of Symbian OS 9.4, was criticized by the TechRadar site as being inconsistent, insofar as menu items required two taps to be activated.