Nokia N81
RATING
Pros
- 3G
- Wi-Fi
- N-Gage gaming
- Symbian OS 9.2
- Music player
Cons
- No HSDPA
- A little heavy
- Average camera
- Cramped front keys
SUMMARY
3G slider phone with a music and gaming focus. Decent phone. Only a little cheaper than a discounted N95.
Review
The Nokia N81 is a music and gaming focussed 3G slider phone. It's a feature-packed mobile phone. It's only a little cheaper than the Nokia N95 - you can now buy the N95 for just £30 more than the N81.
Design
Comparatively heavy - 140 g. The N81 is 20 grams heavier than the Nokia N95, 5 g heavier than the Apple iPhone.
The N81 has a glossy plastic casing. Nokia call it a "...sleek, polished surface". We call it a slightly "cheap glossy plastic surface".
The N81 is optimised for music, entertainment and games. The front panel keys reflect this - media keys, multimedia menu key, touch-sensitive scroll key and 2 game keys.
Cramped front panel keys: Navigation and media control keys sit beneath the 2.4-inch screen. The central navigation key is big, with a big confirmation key in the centre.
Navi Wheel: Slide your finger around the silver touch-sensitive rim to scroll through:
- Songs in the music player
- The gallery
- Multimedia menu
The end and call keys are pushed to the side, to make way for all the other keys. They're a little thin. The selection keys, menu and cancel keys complete the line-up.
Those with chunky sausage fingers might well find everything to be a little cramped. There is always the risk of accidentally hitting the wrong key - there's little separation between the media keys and the surrounding keys.
Flat glossy keypad: Slide the front panel up to reveal the keypad. Thin lines separate the rows. The keys are a decent size and easy to use. The keypad is flat.
Slider: OK. When open, there was a bit of a gap between the front panel and keypad.
Memory card slot: On the left side. There's an N81 8 GB version - the 8 GB version has 8 GB internal flash memory, but no memory card slot. A 2 GB microSD memory card is included in the box (supports up to 4 GB).
Game keys: Located above the display, each to the side of the earpiece. The game keys light up in game mode. The game keys can also be used in several other applications.
2.4-inch screen: Good.
Connectors: 3.5 mm audio jack and a micro USB port.
Features
2 MP camera
Just a 2 MP camera with LED flash and no autofocus. Image quality is OK (very subjective), providing you take the photo in good light and the lens has focus. Press the camera button on the right side of the phone. Photos are taken in landscape mode.
Options include: scene mode, sequence mode, colour effects, digital zoom, editor, white balance, capture tone, image quality, extended digital zoom and self-timer. Images are saved in .jpeg format.
Video capture: 640 x 480 (VGA) at 15 fps. Better than most other mobile phones on the market. Especially the feeble Sony Ericsson video capture capabilities. Video files are saved in mpeg or 3gp.
N-Gage
The N81 comes with "Discover N-Gage" - a preview N-Gage application with 3 demo N-Gage games - Space Impact Light, Asphalt, Fifa soccer 2007.
You can download the full N-Gage application, for free, from the N-Gage Web site (from late December 2007).
N-gage was a mobile phone and gaming combination device launched in 2003. The N-Gage didn't sell well - no surprises there given its design. Nokia decided to instead offer its N-Gage games on its NSeries smartphones.
N-Gage is compatible with just a few NSeries mobile phones at launch (Dec 2007) - N73, N81, N82, N93 and N95. It's free.
N-Gage Games: Are N-Gage games good? Maybe. View the list of available games at the N-Gage Web site. Games include:
Hooked on - Creatures of the deep
Asphalt 3 - Street rules
Snakes subsonic
FIFA 08
Mile High Pinball
Brothers in Arms
The Sims 2 Pets
World Series of Poker
One
Midnight Pool 3D
Pro Series Golf
Space Impact Kappa Base
Dogz
Block Breaker Deluxe
Brain Challenge
System Rush: Evolution
Bounce Boing Voyage
With N-Gage, you can find new games, try and buy, find other players, access scores, events and chat. For the full N-Gage experience, you need a data connection - check your mobile data price plan.
Nokia Maps
The N81 has Nokia Maps. There's no integrated GPS. If you want GPS, you need to buy an external GPS receiver. Example: Nokia wireless GPS module LD-3W (£59.95).
Nokia Music Store
Try and buy music from the Nokia Music Store. At the time of writing, singles cost 80p, albums cost £8. Also take into account data transfer costs. The N81 has Wi-Fi - downloading over your home broadband WLAN would be a good move. See NSeries Music and Nokia Music Store links in the useful links section.
Symbian 9.2 OS
Download applications, browser, PIM tools, document reader and more.
Music player
Good. Supports aac, aac+, eaac+, mp3, wav, wma. View songs by albums, artists, playlists, genres, composers. Album art, visualizations, shuffle, repeat, equalizer, audio settings.
The Nokia N81 has a 3.5 mm audio jack - plug in your own high-quality earphones. The supplied earphones are OK. The N81 speaker is quite loud and a little tinny.
Connectivity
EDGE, 3G, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, 3.5 mm connector and micro USB. There's no HSDPA.
Nokia N81 vs N95
The Nokia N95 has better features - a 2.6-inch screen (0.2 inches bigger than the N81), HSDPA, a 5 MP camera, integrated GPS and the N95 is 20 grams lighter than the heavy 140 g N81. The N81 build quality isn't as good as the N95, and you can also download the N-Gage application and get Nokia Music Store on the N95.
The N81 does have Nokia Maps - if you want GPS, you'll need to buy an external GPS receiver. Example: Nokia wireless GPS module LD-3W (£59.95).
The N81 does have a couple of game keys above the 2.4-inch display. These are useful when playing games in landscape mode.
Having a quick look at Amazon's N81 SIM free prices:
N95: £371.91
N81: £339
N81 8 GB: £386
Summary
Decent phone. Only a little cheaper than a discounted N95. You can get the N95 or N81 free on a mobile phone contract, or choose to buy SIM free or PAYG.
= coming soonFeatures / Specifications
* confirm features at manufacturer's Web site.
4 x 2 x 0.7 inches
4.9 oz
- 2.4-inch TFT
- 240x320 pixels
- 16000000 colours
- 128 MB phone memory
- microSD memory card (4 GB max)
- Quad-band (GSM 850, 900, 1800 and 1900 Mhz)
- EDGE
- 3G (UMTS 2100 Mhz)
- Talk time: 4 hours
- Standby time: 408 hours
- 3G talk time: 3 hours
In The Box
Nokia N81, music headset, USB cable, battery, charger, 2 GB microSD card, user guide, software CD, remote control, get started guide.
Connectivity
- Wi-Fi
- Bluetooth 2.0
- USB 2.0
- 3.5 mm jack
- Video calling
Camera
- 2.0 MP Camera
- features: Video editor, image editor, N-Gage application, Discover N-Gage application, 20x digital zoom, scene mode, sequence mode, colour effects, digital zoom, editor, white balance, capture tone, image quality, extended digital zoom and self-timer
- VGA video resolution
- 15 FPS video capture
- 0.1 MP front camera
Messaging
- SMS, MMS, Email
Entertainment
- Games: Space Impact Light, Asphalt, Fifa soccer 2007
- FM radio
- Visual Radio
- Music Player
- Video Player
Internet
- Nokia Web Browser with Mini Map
Installed Applications
- Nokia music store, Nokia Maps
- Document viewer
- PIM: Alarm clock, calculator, calendar, flight mode, notes, phone book, stopwatch, tasks, timer
- Voice commands, voice dialling, voice recorder
Prices
Prices coming soon.
TAGS: 3g, music, wi-fi, smartphone, slider phones
Useful Links
| Official Site: | Nokia N81 |
| NSeries: | Flash site |
| N-Gage: | N-Gage |
| NSeries Music: | N81 Music |
| Nokia Music Store: | Nokia Music Store |
| YouTube Videos: | Nokia N81 Videos |
| Images: | Nokia N81 Images |
