Nokia N81 8GB Review-Go For It

Nokia N81 8GB Review

Introduction

The Nokia N81 is a very powerful multimedia device that is in some ways like the Nokia N95's little. It’s a really nicely designed slide phone that's heavier than the N95, but slightly slimmer. The first thing that strikes you about the N81 is the huge number of keys and buttons! In addition to the usual number keys and Navi Wheel, there are dedicated keys for playing games and accessing music & video: play/pause, rewind, forward & stop... We found that the whole user interface is built on the idea of complexity, as the menus and settings can be quite overwhelming, but offer full control over every aspect of the device. The N81 is very much a hard-core Smartphone, and if this sounds like your kind of phone, then you'll love it a lot.

There are a few areas where the N81 can't keep up with the N95. More seriously, although the Nokia Wireless GPS module is available as an optional extra. The Nokia Maps application is included as standard. So really the shortcomings of the N81 compared with the N95 aren't too great.

Overview

Weight

 The Nokia N81 8GB feels heavier in the hands than the Nokia N95. In my point of view  the N81 weighs 140 grams, while the N95 weighs 120 grams. It doesn’t look like a big difference, but you can certainly feel it when you hold both of them.

Display

The Nokia N81 has a 2.4 inch display. It is the same screen size as the Nokia N93i. However, it is hard to settle down for this size, knowing that the Nokia N95 8GB has a 2.8 inch screen. I also like that the display is protected by another layer instead of just flat with the whole fascia. The screen is the first thing that you notice: although it's a high quality display with 16.7 million colors and 320 x 240 pixel resolutions, the screen is physically about 15% smaller.

Color

According to the box, the Nokia N81 8GB is warm silver/brown. From an arm’s length, the front of the phone looks like it is black with mocha on the sides. A closer look of the back of the phone shows tiny speckles that shine as light reflects from the panel. Nice and subtle. Available in a choice of Cobalt Blue or Graphite Grey,

Slide

The sliding mechanism is firm. You do not need to slide it in place all the way. It moves by itself with a nice snapping sound when you push it up or down halfway through.

Buttons

When the N81 8GB is closed while hiding the numeric keypad, I counted 18 buttons just on the front part of the phone! If two of those buttons are the dedicated gaming keys that mean the other 16 buttons are packed together with the Navi wheel. Let’s see the keys in that area:

1) Green call

2) Red end-call

3)  Left soft-key

4)  Right soft-key

5)  Main menu

 6) Multimedia menu

7) Clear

8) play/pause

9)  Stop

10)  Forward

11)  Back

12)  Left

13) Right

14) Up

15)  Down,

16)  Center.

Even though there’s a lot of buttons in that part of the phone, Nokia does a great job illuminating only the necessary buttons depending on what you are using. For example, the music keys are dimmed and the gaming keys are off when using the phone in general. When the music player is on, the music keys light up. The gaming keys lights up when playing an N-gage game and also when used to zoom in or out of photos in the gallery.

Naviwheel

The Naviwheel, which is supposed to work like the iPod wheel navigation, is off by default. You have to go to the settings to turn it on. The Naviwheel navigation can only be used in the multimedia menu, music player, and photo gallery. This cannot be said clearly whether future firmware updates will enable it throughout the whole phone. However, I’m glad they provide the option of turning it on or off, instead of leaving it on by default. After playing with it, I actually just prefer turning the Naviwheel option off. I also found the Naviwheel very tight, requiring a lot of effort to press down. While it may not be a major problem to some, I found it annoying to press down hard when scrolling through web pages.

Support

The list of what the N81 can do goes on ... it's a quad band 3G phone that supports video calls with a second front-facing video camera. It's fully equipped for wire free use with Bluetooth and Wireless LAN support, voice-independent speech recognition and voice commands, automatic answering with a compatible headset or car kit, internet calls using VoIP, ... Really there isn't much that the N81 doesn't do, and being a Symbian phone the wealth of 3rd party applications that are available for download is huge.

Memory             

Now let's take a closer look at what the N81 does have. The first feature that really differentiates the N81 from the competition is the whopping 8 Gbytes of internal memory. This is enough to store 2,000 music tracks. As always with Symbian devices there's a tendency for the N81 to be slow or to freeze if pushed too hard, although the 8 Gbytes of memory certainly helps here. To really get the most out of the N81 you'll have to have used a Smartphone before, or be prepared to invest time learning how to use it properly. If you don't like high-tech then keep well away, but if the music and games features appeal, then you'll do well with the N81.

Music keys

 You can press the play button at any time to play the last song you were listening to. What’s cool is that you can do this while doing something else like browsing the web, checking email, or even playing a game. I also like that the title of the song pops up on the upper right corner display if I am not currently on the music player display.

Key guard slide

 Next to the power button is the key lock that slides to the right and goes back to its original position. This comes in real handy if you do not want the music to play randomly while your phone is inside your bag. I was in a really quiet shocked with the Nokia N81 in my backpack and it scared me a lot when something just played out of nowhere. However, you can choose to turn the key guard option on automatically when closing the slide in the settings. This option is not available in Nokia N95.

Gaming

The N81's other focus is gaming. We've already mentioned the dedicated games keys on the front. Games can be played in portrait or landscape mode, making full use of the fantastic 16.7 million color display. The N81's secret is that it includes support for Nokia's N-Gage series of games. The choice of games is excellent and the quality of the 3D graphics is exceptional. If you're serious about games, then this is seriously highly recommended.

Pencil Key

There’s no pencil key in the Nokia N81, which you can find in other N-series phones. It is useful in copying and pasting text, but since this button is not available in the N81, Nokia provided “Editing options” in the menu where copy and paste are available. It does not bother that the pencil key is gone because the same options can be brought up by pressing the * button while texting as well.

2.0 Mega Pixel at the Back

 There is no auto focus on the 2-megapixel camera of the Nokia N81. That means you can’t hold the camera button halfway to focus on your subject. This means snapping pictures is really quick, but don’t expect the same quality from the Nokia N95 with autofocus. The camera is a poor in comparison of the N95's 5 megapixel camera so, if camera quality is important to you, you'd definitely be better off with the N95.

Music Player

The N81 has a fantastic music player that can give the iPhone a run for its money. The music player supports all common music formats including MP3, AAC and WMA, as well as Windows Media DRM. Managing playlists is a breeze, and the devices can synchronies music with Windows Media Player. There's a 5-band equalizer, support for Bluetooth stereo headsets and a 3.5mm headphone jack. In addition, the RealPlayer media player supports full-screen video playback. There's also a built-in FM radio with Visual Radio support that tells you what song is playing, and other info. Music lovers have everything that they could want from the N81.

Power

 The power button works similar to any other N-series phone. You tap once to bring up profiles like silent, normal, vibrate, etc… then keep tapping to go down the list. Hold it again to activate the desired profile. If I want to turn it off, I just hold the button down.

 Volume Keys

 Nothing special about the volume keys! Volume up  & volume down.

Input and Output

Earphones

 The Nokia N81 8GB came with earphones that go around the back of your neck. It connects to a middle piece where you can control music or pick up phone calls. I prefer regular earphones that go down my neck, but joggers like the ones that go around the neck because it doesn’t fall out easily. You can also use your own earphones if you like, but, people are starting to use Bluetooth headphones to listen to music on their phones. You can find out more about Nokia’s new Bluetooth headsets at Non Stop Living.

Merits

1) Huge number of keys and buttons

2) 8 Gbytes of internal memory

3) Dedicated games keys

4) Fantastic music player

 Demerits

1) Very tight Naviwheel

2) No auto focus on the 2-megapixel camera

3) No pencil key               

Lastly I Would Say…

Overall I like the design of the Nokia N81 8GB. The attention to details like the dimming and the lighting of the music and gaming keys at the right moment is pretty cool. This phone will be great for those who spend a lot of time listening to music, and also want to play games on their phone because of the dedicated gaming keys. But watch your thumbs! It requires more than average effort to press the Naviwheel, and expect accidental key presses because of the many buttons packed together in a small space.

Specifications

General	2G Network	GSM 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900
	3G Network	UMTS 2100
	Announced	2007, August. Released 2007, November
	Status	Discontinued

Body	Dimensions	102 x 50 x 17.9 mm, 86 cc
	Weight	140 g

Display	Type	TFT, 16M colors
	Size	240 x 320 pixels, 2.4 inches (~167 ppi pixel density)
		- Touch-sensitive Navi wheel

Sound	Alert types	Vibration; Downloadable polyphonic, monophonic, MP3 ringtones
	Loudspeaker	Yes
	3.5mm jack	Yes

Memory	Card slot	Micro SD, up to 8GB, hot swap, 2 GB card included, buy memory
	Internal	12 MB storage, 96 MB RAM

Data	GPRS	Class 10 (4+1/3+2 slots), 32 - 48 kbps
	EDGE	Yes
	Speed	Yes, 384 kbps
	WLAN	Wi-Fi 802.11b/g with UPnP
	Bluetooth	Yes, v2.0 with A2DP
	USB	Yes, v2.0 micro USB

Camera	Primary	2 MP, 1600x1200 pixels, LED flash
	Video	Yes, QVGA@15fps
	Secondary	CIF video call camera

Features	OS	Symbian OS 9.2, Series 60 v3.1 UI
	CPU	369 MHz ARM 11
	Messaging	SMS, MMS, Email, Instant Messaging
	Browser	WAP 2.0/xHTML, HTML
	Radio	Stereo FM radio; Visual radio
	GPS	No
	Java	Yes, MIDP 2.0
	Colors	Cobalt blue, Graphite grey
		- MP3/AAC/MP4 player - Predictive text input - Push to talk - Voice dial/memo - Organizer

Battery		Standard battery, Li-Po 1050 mAh (BT-6MT)
	Stand-by	Up to 410 h
	Talk time	Up to 4 h (2G) / 3 h (3G)

Misc	SAR US	0.73 W/kg (head)     0.60 W/kg (body)
	SAR EU	0.81 W/kg (head)

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