Nokia N91 Review-An Awesome Phone

Nokia N91 Review

Introduction

The Nokia N91 has been one of the most highly anticipated music phones. It was one of the phones compared to be an iPod killer, as it has a 4GB hard drive similar to the now default iPod Mini. After being delayed for some time now, the N91 is finally here, and Mobile Burn managed to get hold of one for a test drive. The Nokia N91 runs on Symbian OS v9.1 and, like the previously reviewed N71, it also features the much improved 3rd edition of the S60 user interface. Supporting a 2-megapixel camera and Wi-Fi connectivity, the N91 has a lot going for it. The Nokia N91 is a dual mode phone, featuring WCDMA/GSM operation (GSM 900/1800/1900MHz, WCDMA 2100MHz). I do not have access to any 3G SIM cards.

Physical Aspects

Many have commented on how ugly and huge the N91 looks when pictures of it first surfaced on the World Wide Web. I was one of the ones who thought the N91 was too odd, and it just didn't appeal to me. When I first held it in my hand, all thought of that vanished. The stainless steel body of the N91 is of average quality. It has a metal finish, and thus it does not attract fingerprints as much as the Nokia 8800, which is also embedded in stainless steel. The glossy dark grey chrome areas around the screen and music control buttons were also surprisingly resistant to fingerprints. This is definitely a great plus point, since I did not have to spend much time cleaning it each time I used it. The build quality is one of the best I have experienced so far, and there were no squeaks or creaks found anywhere. The slider mechanism is not spring loaded, but it was solid with no looseness felt anywhere.

The first thing you notice about the N91 is that it does not have a second forward-facing camera; this makes it difficult to make video calls. The second thing is the absence of the light sensor so often found in previous S60 phones. Just below the display, you will find the 5-way navigation joystick, which is flanked by the right and left soft keys and Call and End keys. The joystick felt just right and was not too stiff. On the slider, you will find the music control buttons shaped in a rectangular box, which is slightly raised, enabling easy access even in the dark - an important point, as these buttons do not have backlit. The music control keys consist of Play/Pause, Next, Previous, and Stop. The music access key sticking out of the top right corner of the rectangle allows you to easily switch to the music player application.

On the right of the phone, you will find the Menu key situated near the top. This is quite an unusual place for the button, as it makes accessing it difficult for left-handers. It is easy to reach with your thumb when it is in your right hand, but with the phone in your left hand, you have to position your index finger in an awkward position to reach it. The back cover release button is also situated on this side of the phone. Both of these buttons are clad in chrome, a very nice touch, and this adds to the top class feel that this phone has to offer.

On the left, the volume keys are situated just above the loudspeaker. The mini USB 2.0 port is located near the bottom of the phone. I was disappointed when I found out that I could not charge the phone via the USB connector. However, the transfer speeds were decent with the bundled USB data cable. The charging port and microphone are located at the bottom of the phone. On top, you will find the Power button along with the keypad lock switch. Yes, the N91 comes with a switch that allows you to easily lock the keypad, something like the Silent ringer switch found on the Treo 650/700. The best thing about the N91 is the inclusion of a 3.5mm headphone jack, situated on the top of the device. This means you can use your favorite set of headphones when listening to music on the N91. The N91 also ships with a remote control, which doubles as a microphone, along with a set of ear buds.

The 2-megapixel camera is located at the back of the phone. The battery cover is made of stainless steel, and it was secure with no noticeable gaps. Sliding open the N91, the blue backlit keypad seems tiny, like each key is a grain of rice. The Edit key is placed to the left of the numerical keys and the Clear key to the right. It took some time for me to get used to the keypad because of its size, but after awhile, typing an SMS did not seem as tough. The raised profile of the keys helped in providing good feedback, and prevented wrong key presses. Overall, I would have preferred bigger keys, but the N91's keypad works just fine with some getting used to.

Measuring 113.1mm x 55.2mm x 22mm (4.45" x 2.17" x 0.87") and weighing 164g (5.78oz), the Nokia N91 is certainly a huge and chunky phone. However, with the excellent build quality and top-notch materials used.

Multimedia

Display

The main display on the N91 is the same old 176x208 pixel screen, capable of displaying up to 262K colors. I noticed that the N91's screen lacks sharpness, and fonts from the new Symbian OS do not look as refined as they do on higher resolution screens like the ones on the Nokia N80 or N71. Screen brightness is also an issue, as is poor contrast. Another problem with the screen is that whenever you are on a call, the screen flickers occasionally. I am not sure whether this is a common problem or is it a defect. However, it's not a deal breaker, and I am able to live with it.

Camera

The camera on the N91 does not have an auto focus mechanism, but surprisingly the images taken appeared sharp and in focus. The Nokia N91 can capture images at full 2-megapixel resolution (1600x1200), and in VGA resolution (0.3-megapixel, 640x480). I was quite surprised that the N91 does not make full use of its 2-megapixel sensor by cropping the image when zooming instead of just blowing it up, which rendered the 20x digital zoom fairly worthless.

The menu system in the N91's camera function leaves a lot to be desired. Unlike the initiative and user-friendly menus found on the N71, accessing any option has to be done by first clicking on the left soft key. The white balance options cover most of the situations that you could expect to encounter –

1) Automatic

2) Daylight

3)  Cloudy

4) Tungsten

 5) Fluorescent

 The automatic white balance option worked very well, delivering spot-on color all the time. However, there is no Macro mode in the N91, thus making it impossible to snap close-up pictures.

Overall, the pictures taken with the N91 gave surprising results, as they were pretty sharp for a non-autofocus camera. If you are lucky, some of the pictures might be good enough for print. The Gallery menu in the N91 takes ages to load up any files, though. The widest thing was that I could not access any of the pictures or videos have taken via the Gallery menu. The problem still persisted even after reformatting the hard drive. I am not sure if this is firmware related, but the only way I could access my pictures and videos was via USB data connection.

The N91 records videos in three resolutions - 352x288 pixel resolution in MP4 file format (MPEG-4 video codec), 176x144 pixel resolution stored in .3GP format (H.263 codec), and 128x96 pixel resolution also stored in .3GP format. Users can record in two different lengths - short and maximum. Unfortunately, the maximum length is only an hour's worth of recording. This is such a letdown, as the N91 is equipped with a 4GB hard drive and it would have been possible to record way more than just an hour. We just cannot figure out why Nokia put in such a ridiculous limitation. A mute function allows you to turn off the microphone when recording a clip. Users can also toy with

white balance

1) Automatic

 2) Daylight

3)  Cloudy

4)  Tungsten

5)  Fluorescent

  Color tone

1)  Normal

 2) Sepia

 3) Black and White

4)  Negative

Music

To fill up the hard drive, you will need to use the USB data cable to connect the N91 to your computer. The N91 will then ask you to select one of three modes - Media player, PC Suite, or Mass Storage. PC suite mode will allow you to synchronize your contacts and information along with your music files via Nokia's PC Suite application found on the CD in the sales package. Mass storage is where the 4GB hard drive is most useful. Imagine: you do not have to carry your thumb drive anymore, as 4GB will definitely be more than enough for most of you. Media player mode is where the N91 works seamlessly with Windows Media Player (WMP). As long as you have WMP v10 or above, the N91 will be recognized as music device and you will be able to synchronize your music files easily between phone and PC.

When working in any of these modes, the N91 will switch into Offline mode and you will not be able to receive any calls or messages. The Media Player mode worked well, and you will able to create automatic playlists from within WMP itself. For example, if I wanted only the latest music files added to my PC to be synchronized, WMP will do just that. This works somewhat similar to the way iTunes works with the infamous iPods. My only gripe with this method is the way WMP will convert MP3s into the WMA file format before transferring the songs over. Your original MP3 files will be untouched, as WMP only makes copies of them in WMA format, rather than actually converting your files into WMA permanently. However, these conversions made music transfer very time consuming, especially when you have a whole 4GB library of MP3s to be sent over. Do not despair though, as you still have the mass storage method to transfer your music. Just click and drag all your music files into the appropriate folder and you are set to go. The only setback with this method is the inability to set up automatic playlists, but this is only a minor problem for most of us casual listeners.

After loading up the N91 with your music files, it will then ask you to refresh the music library since it detected a USB connection. You are set to go from then on. There are three automatic playlists on the N91 - most played tracks, recent tracks, and recent additions. Any additional automatic playlists will have to be set via WMP and synchronized over. The N91 supports the usual repeat and shuffle modes. The shuffle mode worked well, as songs did not get repeated often, and it spanned across the entire library randomly. The music menu allows you to browse through your library by song names, artists, albums, genres, and composers. This looks very similar to an iPod menu, which is not necessarily a bad thing. Even the progress bar with the album art, song title, and artist name looks similar to an iPod. The best part about the music menu is the ability for the user to search for the desired name of song or artist by multi tapping on the keypad.

While playing music, you can control playback with the dedicated buttons located on the slider. I really liked the fact that the buttons can still be accessed when the slide was open. For example, if you are typing an SMS and halfway you decide to switch songs, just press on the next button and you are done. However, skipping tracks brought about the N91's weakness. It took about one to two seconds for the next track to play. With the included remote control, music will be paused when a call comes in and automatically resumed when you end the call.

As previously mentioned, one of the best things about the N91 is the 3.5mm headphone jack. you will able to use your  Sennheiser PX100s to listen to all music on the N91. The included ear buds sounded decent, but were very weak in the bass department. I especially liked the equalizer in the N91 - with minor adjustments, the N91 sounded fantastic. Songs sounded clear, and bass was strong without distortion. Apart from that, users will be glad to know that the N91 can support variable bit rate MP3 files with ease. Most of my MP3 files are encoded in variable bit rates of up to 320kbps, and the N91 handled each and every one of them perfectly.

Visual Radio

The N91 also comes with the Nokia Visual Radio application, which takes advantage of a GPRS/EDGE/WCDMA data connection to pull down information from participating radio stations around the world, providing the N91 user with visual and textual information on the artist and song that is playing over the FM radio.

User Interface

Just like the N80, the Nokia N91 runs on the latest 3rd Edition of the S60 user interface. The UI speed is markedly improved over the sluggish N70 and the like. I have always complained about the sluggishness of the S60 user interface, but with the 3rd Edition, things seem much speedier.

Pressing the dedicated menu button on the right side of the phone, a 3x3 icon grid main menu will appear. Unlike the menus in the N80 or N71, where icons are laid out in 3x4 fashion, the icons in the N91 are bigger, and as a result, you get one less row of then. The keypad is linked to the top nine icons in the main menu, and the keys even work when you have scrolled further down in the menu. Icons and folders can be arranged as you please, though you still cannot create a sub folder in a folder.

Standby mode

In standby mode, the N91 includes the Active Standby feature. A line of application shortcuts, as well as a list of upcoming calendar appointments, shows on the standby screen of the device. The 3rd Edition S60 adds an extra icon to the list, so now you get to customize six application shortcuts to your liking instead of just five. You use the navigation joystick to navigate through the six application shortcuts and upcoming appointments. Clicking on the calendar appointment will bring you to the Calendar application, showing you the full details of your appointment. If music is playing in the background, you will be able to see the song title just below the Calendar appointments section as well.

If you do not like the Active Standby feature, you can always turn it off in the Settings menu. With it turned off, you can press on the five different directions of the D-Pad to launch different applications. The directional shortcuts can be customized to your liking, including the left and right selection keys.

 Phone Functionality

The N91 delivered excellent voice quality during calls. I did not experience any dropped calls or poor reception. The volume of the earpiece was adequate - not deafening and not too soft. The Nokia N91 is capable of video calls (if you are subscribed to 3G services). I was not able to test this function, as I had no access to 3G networks. I primarily used the GSM 1800MHz band, but when tested, the N91 also performed well in the 900MHz band.

Profile system

Like all previous S60 phones, the N91 has a nice profile system. There are a number of default profiles available, and you can create your own if you wish. However, support for timed profiles is still missing, but otherwise the profile management is quite good. You can link each profile to one or more groups of contacts, so that the ringer is disabled if the caller is not a member of the appropriate group. The N91 also has an Offline profile, which enables you to use the device in areas where wireless phone use is prohibited, e.g. in an airplane. Another cool feature of this Offline profile is that you can even use the N91 without a SIM card. This will allow use of the N91's multimedia functions anywhere and anytime.

Battery life

Battery life was fair. The phone lasted about 3 days before having to be charged. This was with roughly 30 minutes of calls each day and quite a lot of SMS messaging, taking pictures, and GPRS usage. The N91 lasted for 10 hours and 17 minutes when playing music with the wireless radio turned on but without making any calls and with the screen back light turned off. Basically, I left the phone playing music in Shuffle mode and with the volume at 50%. Although this is almost impossible in real world situations, at least Nokia's claim of the N91 achieving 10 hours of music play is possible.

Voice recognition technology

The N91 supports speaker independent voice recognition technology, so there is no longer a need to pre-record voice tags. Just say the name of your contact, and it will be recognized. The same applies to voice commands (choosing a profile, connecting to the voice mailbox, activating Bluetooth, opening Voice Recorder, or launching any other application). It worked pretty well with English names; however the N91 had a lot of trouble getting it right when I tried voice dialing Asian names.

Connectivity

The Nokia N91 supports GPRS and EDGE networks where available. It has Bluetooth v1.2, and the N91 also features Push to Talk (PTT), Setting up for GPRS was easy, as you just have to choose from a list of service providers, and everything will be set up accordingly.

 Bluetooth

The Bluetooth system in the N91 is version 1.2 and it works well. It supports PC Suite, Headset and Hands Free, OBEX access, and Dial-Up Networking profiles. I face no problems at all during the three weeks that I used the N91.

Wi-Fi

Wi-Fi access on the N91 is very well implemented. The system is stable and supports WEP and WPA/WPA2 encrypted networks. Wi-Fi access was pretty quick for a hand held device, and downloading email or browsing websites was quite good.

USB

USB data connectivity also allowed the N91 to be used as a modem with a laptop or PC. I was able to achieve a transfer speed of roughly 1MB per second when transferring my entire music library to the N91

Messaging

There is not anything new here. The N91's email client supports both POP and IMAP protocols. Creating a new message is simple, as is attaching a file of just about any type. You can define multiple email accounts, and the N91 features automatic retrieval of messages. You can schedule it to retrieve email automatically on any day of the week, at any time. T9 can be used when typing out emails, SMS, and MMS. Text input was fast and there was no noticeable thing.

The SMS system works flawlessly. Instead of clicking on the recipient's name field to access your contact list, you can easily multi tap the letters of the intended recipient's name. The N91 will then pop up a list of all the names beginning with those letters, and you can just select the right one. Confirmation receipts pop up briefly on the display before being stored in a separate folder. New words can be added to the T9 dictionary, and the system was fast enough to catch up with my typing. If you type in a word that is not already in the dictionary, it will be saved automatically. The bad news is if you accidentally misspelled a word, you have no way of removing or correcting it.

Applications

The N91 also comes with Nokia's new web browser, which was also featured in the N80. Websites are rendered the way they were meant to be, so what you usually see on your desktop will appear just the same way on this fantastic new browser. A transparent window called the Mini Map helps you tell where you are on the page when moving the pointer around. When pressing back, you will be shown thumbnails of all the previous pages found in the cache. This helps you to visually select the page you want to go back to. you love this web browser and it really has set a new benchmark for other manufacturers to beat, especially when Wi-Fi is so well implemented in the N91. However, Nokia made it confusing, as they also included the old web browser in the N91. Both the browsers are represented by very similar icons - a blue globe. I was wondering how I turned off the Mini Map function when I finally realized that I was actually using the old browser instead of the new one.

Calendar

The fully featured calendar application is much like the ones found in earlier S60 devices. New appointments of several different types can be created. Start and end times and dates can be set, where appropriate, and alarms can be configured to remind you before the appointment takes place. The calendar can be viewed in either month or week view, and when a particular date is highlighted with the navigation joystick; the appointments contained therein will be listed at the top of the screen in a small pop-up box.

Other Features

Apart from that, you will find things such as a clock with an alarm, Nokia's Life Blog, and a dictionary installed on the N91. Quick Office applications commonly seen in previous S60 phones are absent in the N91. This is understandable, as the N91 was designed to be a music phone. Nokia also decided to omit games from the N91. This isn't really a problem, as the S60 platform allows users to download and install games and applications with ease.

Final Words

Finally it’s an awesome phone its firmware version 1.00.028.13, 29-03-06, RM-43.I love the Nokia N91. Although its ease of use and the need to convert files into WMA before synchronization might still be lacking behind in terms of user friendliness, it has everything that a phone should have. With a 4GB hard drive and a well implemented music player, the N91 becomes a very powerful music jukebox. With all that said, the Nokia N91 earns a highly recommended rating, Camera is its plus point and body structure is awesome.

Specifications

General	2G Network	GSM 900 / 1800 / 1900
	3G Network	UMTS 2100
	Announced	2Q, 2005
	Status	Discontinued

Body	Dimensions	113.1 x 55.2 x 22 mm
	Weight	164 g

Display	Type	TFT, 256K colors
	Size	176 x 208 pixels, 2.1 inches, 35 x 41 mm (~130 ppi pixel density)
		- 5-way configurable navigation key

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

Memory	Card slot	No
	Internal	4 GB/8 GB storage (microdrive), 64 MB RAM

Data	GPRS	Class 10 (4+1/3+2 slots), 32 - 48 kbps
	EDGE	Class 10, 236.8 kbps
	Speed	Yes, 384 kbps
	WLAN	Wi-Fi 802.11b/g
	Bluetooth	Yes, v1.2 (A2DP - 8 GB version only)
	USB	Yes, v2.0, miniUSB

Camera	Primary	2 MP, 1600x1200 pixels
	Video	Yes
	Secondary	No

Features	OS	Symbian OS v9.1, Series 60 UI 3rd Edition
	CPU	220 MHz Dual ARM 9
	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	Light Blue Chrome, Dark Gray Chrome, Black (Music Edition)
		- Predictive text input - Voice dial - Voice memo - Organizer

Battery		Standard battery, Li-Ion (BL-5C) 900 mAh
	Stand-by	Up to 190 h (2G) / 170 h (3G)
	Talk time	Up to 4 h (2G) / 3 h (3G)
	Music play	Up to 10 h

Misc	SAR US	0.74 W/kg (head)     0.58 W/kg (body)
	SAR EU	0.48 W/kg (head)

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