The Nokia N81 & Nokia N81 8GB are members of the Nokia N-Series which includes other popular phones including the Nokia N73, Nokia N77 & the Nokia N95. The N81 & N81 8GB are identical in design & features but come with differing memory options & the phones have different colour options on their casing. The Nokia N81 & Nokia N81 8GB come with a Nokia headset with remote control, connectivity cable, compact travel charger & battery but the Nokia N81 comes with a 2 Gbyte MicroSD™ memory card. The N81 comes with an expandable memory options which allows the user to add memory card to suit their storage needs & the start up kit includes a 2 Gbyte MicroSD™ memory card.
The N81 is mainly black in colour with highlights of coloured edging around the casing & the navigation wheel. The N81 comes in a choice of two colours which are graphite grey & cobalt blue. The Nokia N81 8GB comes with 8 Gbytes of internal flash memory which allows the user to store much data on their new handset. The N81 8GB also comes with coloured edging around the casing & navigation wheel which are subtly coloured cocoa brown. The handset is solid & robust in design which weighs 140 grams & the overall measurements are 17.9mm deep by 50mm wide by 102mm high.
The Nokia N81 & N81 8GB are beautiful in design & in capabilities. The phones are 3G capable handsets complete with WLAN technology. The phones are media, music & internet focused handsets which come with a simple slide opening casing complete with easy access music, video & function keys. The user can enjoy viewing the large screen when the handsets are open or closed. The screen is large measuring 2.4 inches with a high screen resolution & displays up to sixteen million colours for a quality viewing experience.
Design
The Nokia N81 measures 17.6 mm in thickness and weighs good 140 g. However it's surprisingly pocketable and it's real joy having it in our office. You may notice a rather strong resemblance to the Nokia 6110 Navigator, which we reviewed earlier. Now, as you may probably know there are two editions of the Nokia N81 to be produced - a vanilla one that comes with a microSD slot and a 1GB or 2GB microSD card in the retail package, and Nokia N81 8GB edition, which we got for testing.
The front panel of the Nokia N81 8GB is dominated by the large 2.4" 16M color TFT display with QVGA resolution. As you know Nokia displays are our favorites. Currently, probably only the iPhone display outmatches those.
You will probably notice that all the keys are flush with the design lines. It must be noted that some of them are rather hard to press - some of them need a good, hard shove in order to get them to work. Otherwise, pretty much the whole bunch of the keys has a good tactile feedback. And when we say "bunch" we really mean it - the front panel hosts as many as 11 keys without counting the alphanumeric keypad that is. While some of them may seem touch sensitive at first sight, they are not (except for the Navi wheel that is).
Fetures
Nokia N81 is running on Symbian 9.2 OS and uses the well known S60 3rd edition graphic user interface. The improved Feature Pack 1 is no news anymore, as all recent Nokia smartphones are equipped with it. Among the strong points of the FP1 is the availability of multiple alarms, as well as the voice memo limit increase to a whole hour. Furthermore, it displays blue circles on running applications' icons to remind you to turn them off when you don't need them any more. No one wants used up RAM to slow down their smartphone. All that said, we need to mention that Nokia N81 is armed with the fastest Nokia processor to date (ARM 11, 369 MHz). The same CPU powers the Nokia 6120 Classic and Nokia 5700. Navigating the menus is very fast. All the commands are executed in an instant, which greatly contributes to the impression N81 leaves.
The display of course features an active stand-by mode. You have a bar of shortcut icons for instant access to pre-selected functions at the top of the display, and scheduled events from the calendar together with tasks underneath. When selecting the shortcuts, you can choose any application or even a website. The functionality of the two soft keys is configurable too. There is also a line on the active standby display reserved for the currently running track or radio station.
The phone has an offline mode, switching off all transceivers but allowing the use of the other features of the device. It is the default profile if you start the handset without a SIM card. The offline mode allows full access to the functions of the phone that do not require cellular network coverage.
As with any S60 smartphone, the task manager pops up upon a longer press on the Menu key. It allows switching between applications or turning off any running application by pressing the Clear key. The four different main menu views are becoming standard for Nokia smartphones. The traditional options are the well known grid and list view. The more unusual looks are the V-shape and Horseshoe, which are somewhat uncomfortable to use. That, of course, is our subjective opinion and nobody is obliged to subscribe to it.
Music
Playing Music. I don’t really spend much time with the music player in my phones, but for reviewing purposes, I actually enjoyed playing music with the Nokia N81. Accessing music on the Nokia N81 couldn’t be any easier. Another way to play music is by pressing the the multimedia key where you can instantly play shuffled music or any of your playlists.
The interface will remind you of the iPod, so you know it’s not complicated at all. The Naviwheel scrolls up and down lists… yes, just like an iPod. My problem with the Naviwheel is often when I press down, it thinks I’m rotating the wheel. This happened so many times, that I just decided to turn off the option in the settings.
The speakers are also loud, perfect for a music device. I would hate it if this device falls unto the hands of those annoying people who likes to play their musicphones without headseats or earphones in public like the trains and buses. If you don’t know what I’m talking about, take a train in New York City around 4-5pm.
Transferring Music. I’m a Mac user and Nokia provides the Nokia Multimedia Transfer application to transfer music, photos, and files with compatible Nokia phones. Unfortunately, the Nokia N81 is not yet compatible with Multimedia Transfer. To transfer music to the Nokia N81, I had to connect in Mass Storage mode then transfer the files over to the Music folder, the same way I would transfer files to a USB stick.
After transferring the files, the Nokia N81 recognizes the new files and asks if I want to refresh the music library. When I chose no, I couldn’t find a menu option to try refreshing the library again. Nokia should add this as an option or just refresh the music library automatically.
Buying Music. The music store is not available yet and you will see a web page that requires a password login if you try accessing it. Unwired View captured a great video demo of the Nokia Music Store. Watch it below.
Album Art. Album art is not automatically transferred with the songs. For PC users, All About Symbian wrote a guide to adding album art to the music player with a PC. They find the procedure a pain. There has to be a better way for a better music experience.
Extra Settings. The Nokia N81 music player comes with loudness and stereo widening effects as options. I played with these settings on different songs. Results varied. Sometimes the differences are barely noticeable, while others are obviously better or worse. This really depends by preference, but leaving both options off are also fine.
Games
The Ngage service cannot be fully accessed yet, but they provided three games for preview: Space Impact Light, FIFA 07, and Asphalt 3: Street Style. Nokia says the service will be available in November. In the meantime, you can also install other non-Ngage games.
The dedicated gaming buttons I mentioned in the first part of my Nokia N81 review becomes active and lights up when Ngage is running. I’ll tell you how they are used in the three Ngage preview games:
Fifa 07. What’s cool about Fifa 07 is that you have two options of landscape views. You can choose whether you want the directional pad on your left or right when playing. Replays are fun also. You can rewind or forward and change camera views. I’m not amazed at the graphics, but I’m impressed I’m playing a 3D soccer game on a phone. In defense, one button to change player, the other for slide tackle. In offense, one button for passing player, the other for shooting.
What I didn’t like about the game is that you need to hold the ‘5′ button to sprint. The defenders will run after you and steal the ball if you keep the ball too long. You’ll be fine if you play in upright portrait mode, but that’s not as fun.
Asphalt 3: Street Style. This is my favorite of the three games. Simple, not bad-looking, and fun. Landscape view is the only way to play this game. The dedicated buttons prove to be useful. One for turbo, the other for brake.
Space Impact Light I’m not a big fan. You basically just move around most of the time while the ship automatically shoots. The dedicated button is for shooting the special weapon.
The preview for Ngage in the Nokia N81 is not a perfect representation of what’s to come. With Ngage, we’re supposedly able to play against other people throughout the world, and instantly download and preview games into our phones. Surely, I’ll be checking it out once Nokia announces it is available. Check out a video from Unwired View to have a sneak peek.
Conclusion
If you are looking for a phone with good camera, video, or GPS, you are looking at the wrong phone. The Nokia N81 is for people who want music and games. It’s fast to play music and the dedicated gaming keys really enhances the playing experience. With Ngage nearing its grand opening, the Nokia N81 is looking to be the ultimate gaming phone.
Negative. There are a few negative points that I want to point out. Syncing music with a Mac is currently nonexistent and album art is a pain to add to the phone. We’ll see if software updates fix these problems.
