Nokia N81 8GB - Initial Impressions
Published by Steve Litchfield at 16:57 GMT, November 4th 2007
So, by happy chance, a couple of Nokia N81s have hit All About Symbian - in the next week you'll have music-angled and gaming-angled reviews from Ewan and Krisse, but first - Steve's first impressions. Others round the net have either slammed the N81 or praised it - read on for Steve's opinion.
It has to be said - the Nokia N81 is a curious mix of the utterly fabulous and the entirely inexplicable. No device is ever perfect, of course, and the N81 goes out of its way to present a few downsides. Good and bad, in more or less equal proportion, ying and yang, and so forth.
- The main frame of the N81 and the slider surround are made of superbly solid metal. Feels great and should last a lifetime....
- ... but the same can't be said of most of the rest of the hardware. From plasticky front face to plasticky and bendy battery cover to cheap and nasty keypad with cheap and nasty printed lettering, all the brownie points earnt by the metal chassis are lost here, I'm afraid.
- The light-up music control cluster is a little cramped, as some have observed, but I like the idea and I think that if I were a young user of the N81, with smaller fingers, that I'd quickly get used to the idea. And, for someone with music always 'on', having dedicated music control keys is a great idea. Ditto the top two gaming keys, though until we see more real N-Gage games, we won't know how successful these will be.
- The slide mechanism rattles. This has to be a downside and doesn't win the handset any prizes in the quality stakes. I do have some sympathy for Nokia here, sliding mechanisms obviously include moving parts and these parts are going to need some clearance. But still...
- I love, repeat love the naviwheel. Whether scrolling round through photos and videos, or through your music collection, the touch-sensitive naviwheel is just so utterly cool...
- ... it's just a pity they haven't put support for it into other applications. Apart from Music player and Gallery, rotating your thumb around does nothing at all in most apps - disappointing. Even worse, for some INEXPLICABLE reason, naviwheel support in its core applications is TURNED OFF! You have to know how to burrow into Settings to turn it on. Whoever decided on this was probably the same guy who was in charge of the Nokia N93i's microphone positions and mirror displays and this is a tragedy as he should have been fired years ago.
- I love the big stereo speakers and the great sound quality - and this also helps with providing game soundtracks. And there's a proper 3.5mm stereo headphone jack - Yay!...
- ... but, next to it, the power button is very, very hard and almost imposssible to press. And, staying with hardware, the camera's a measly 2 megapixels, fixed focus. This was great 2 years ago, but for a 2008 flagship Nseries phone there should be at least the same 3 megapixel, auto-focus plastic-lensed camera as in the E90.
I really wanted to like the Nokia N81 - there's a lot here to like, from the superb music handling to the Wi-Fi to the gaming keys to the solid chassis. But then the designers went and spoiled things by putting in tacky plastic front and back covers, a stupidly low-spec camera for such an expensive device and hiding one of the unique selling points, the naviwheel functionality, inside a Settings menu that no real world user will find.
So, watch this space for more detailed N81 coverage, opinions and reviews from Ewan and Krisse.
Steve Litchfield, All About Symbian, 3rd November 2007
Categories: Hardware, Editorial Thoughts
Platforms: S60 3rd Edition
News Discussion
DevilsRejection
Took you long enough to get my back ;-)
Unregistered
I'm still waiting for a phone which is similar to n95 8gb but has excellent sound quality and versatile sound settings like 10-band equalizer for example...
MWEB
Good review Steve, it more or less echoe's everything i have been hearing about the N81.
slitchfield
No, Stefan, this wasn't your review unit, this was a brand new production device, straight from the Nokia factory 8-)
krisse
The lack of support for the Naviwheel in core apps sounds like they introduced it to the phone far too late in development. The designers possibly didn't have time to get all of the firmware to work with the naviwheel.
However, thanks to the magic of firmware updates they can fix this problem with new firmware which includes better naviwheel support. It's just a question of whether they will bother, which I suspect will depend on how well the N81 sells.
Have you tried installing third party music applications?
However, thanks to the magic of firmware updates they can fix this problem with new firmware which includes better naviwheel support. It's just a question of whether they will bother, which I suspect will depend on how well the N81 sells.
Quote:
| I'm still waiting for a phone which is similar to n95 8gb but has excellent sound quality and versatile sound settings like 10-band equalizer for example... |
viipottaja
IMHO, the only relevant price comparison is with other unlocked, unsubsidized 8GB phones around. There are not many of course. N91 8GB is old and therefore cheap. N95 8GB is new and expensive. SE W960i is, AFAIK, rather expensive too. What else.. iPhone is subsidized, locked, and not a smart phone.. are there others?
Unregistered
Seems like Nokia wouldn't be Nokia if they didn't mess up any gaming related phone in some way.
Besides all it's hardware shortcomings there's the price:
Here they sell the zero gig version on 2y contract for just 60€ less than the N95, yet some 70€ buy an 8gig microsdhc card ... seriously Nokia, wtf?
I realy hope they show some good landscape gaming on the N95, with media keys working in games, when they start the n-gage service. It's like the last hope for a decent gaming phone atm.
Besides all it's hardware shortcomings there's the price:
Here they sell the zero gig version on 2y contract for just 60€ less than the N95, yet some 70€ buy an 8gig microsdhc card ... seriously Nokia, wtf?
I realy hope they show some good landscape gaming on the N95, with media keys working in games, when they start the n-gage service. It's like the last hope for a decent gaming phone atm.
Unregistered
There's a detailed review of N81 already in mobile-review.com, also in gsmarena.com. I saw some contradicting reviews however. They say it has 8-band equalizer but as seen on screenshots it's only a 5-band equalizer. According to mobile-review the CPU speed is 332MHz, while gsmarena says it's 369MHz. Which is true?
hargs48
The N81 has the 369MHz processor found in all FP1 phones not the Dual CPU @ 332MHz as found in the N93,N93i,N95,N95 8GB & E90...but free RAM has improved to the 20mb odd to 42mb, read all the tech specs here: http://www.forum.nokia.com/devices/N81_8GB
Unregistered
N81 also lacks hardware graphics acceleration. N95 is the king, the N81 is just a range filler!
viipottaja
Unregistered,
Nokia does NOT sell ANYTHING on contract, the carrier does. Pricing is the carriers decision as well.
Nokia does NOT sell ANYTHING on contract, the carrier does. Pricing is the carriers decision as well.
Unregistered
The n81 has only 5-band equalizer which is really bad for music phone but the frequency response diagram of n81 looks good(mobile-review.com). I'd be happy if all s60 3.1......3.x phones have 10-band equalizer so I don't have to buy 3rd party application. The processor of n81 should run at 369 MHz. My nokia 6290 has also the same processor but NsysInfo shows that the processor speed is 192.0 MHz and so do other applications.
Waynester
Hi Steve
interesting read my friend
can you clear something up for me?
does the N81 really have as good Audio Quality as the N91 8GB ?
i use this handset all the time along with my N95
i havent found anything as good for listening to MP3`s and that includes ANY ipod
cheers
interesting read my friend
can you clear something up for me?
does the N81 really have as good Audio Quality as the N91 8GB ?
i use this handset all the time along with my N95
i havent found anything as good for listening to MP3`s and that includes ANY ipod
cheers
slitchfield
I'm not the world's top audiophile, but I'd rate the N81 8GB's output as good as the N91's....
I think Ewan's been impressed so far, too.
I think Ewan's been impressed so far, too.
krisse
Quote:
| Seems like Nokia wouldn't be Nokia if they didn't mess up any gaming related phone in some way. |
They put a couple of buttons on the top but that's a million miles from being a games-oriented design.
A much much more games-oriented design is the N93, it's pretty much the same controls as a GBA SP, and as it has a horizontal screen I think it's the most gaming-oriented phone ever made, even more than the original N-Gage. But the N93 was never hyped as a gaming phone, so no one really thinks about it in those terms.
The thing is, the new N-Gage platform isn't meant to be for gaming hardware, its whole point is to be for phone hardware, for devices that don't have gaming-specific controls. The new N-Gage is here to take on Java, not to take on the consoles.
Unregistered
Which is the only phone featuring dedicated game keys? N81.
When you go to n-gage.com, which phone shows up first? N81.
When you go to the n-gage.com phones page, which phone's most prominent? N81.
When you watch the "Entertainment. The next episode." ad's on nseries.com, which phone is shown under gaming? N81.
What does the nseries.com phones overview say about the N81? "Superior mobile gaming with popular titles and high-res graphics."
Seriously, stating that the N81 was merely a gaming related phone by accident is just nonsense. It's completely obvious that Nokia markets it explicitly as a gaming and music oriented phone.
Just because they didn't get the gaming hardware right doesn't mean that it wasn't their original intention to produce a gaming phone.
When you go to n-gage.com, which phone shows up first? N81.
When you go to the n-gage.com phones page, which phone's most prominent? N81.
When you watch the "Entertainment. The next episode." ad's on nseries.com, which phone is shown under gaming? N81.
What does the nseries.com phones overview say about the N81? "Superior mobile gaming with popular titles and high-res graphics."
Seriously, stating that the N81 was merely a gaming related phone by accident is just nonsense. It's completely obvious that Nokia markets it explicitly as a gaming and music oriented phone.
Just because they didn't get the gaming hardware right doesn't mean that it wasn't their original intention to produce a gaming phone.
gibberishy
Hi, for the person above and any other N91 owners. I was a loyal N91 user for the past year and a half and took the plunge--just bought a N81 when it first came out a few days ago.
Not disappointed at all! Has the same user interface (updated) in Music as N91, I'd say the sound quality is better, but just a little bit quieter. Newer CDs when ripped to MP3 play very loudly on high setting, but older CDs sometimes are a little quiet, but not to the point where you would wish you had your N91 again.
This phone is to the N91 like the 747 is to the Wright brother's plane. If you are worried about switching, don't, you won't be let down at all!
Not disappointed at all! Has the same user interface (updated) in Music as N91, I'd say the sound quality is better, but just a little bit quieter. Newer CDs when ripped to MP3 play very loudly on high setting, but older CDs sometimes are a little quiet, but not to the point where you would wish you had your N91 again.
This phone is to the N91 like the 747 is to the Wright brother's plane. If you are worried about switching, don't, you won't be let down at all!
Unregistered
OK, does anyone know what the point was in launching both a 2GB and 8GB version?
I'm guessing that Nokia thought it would be competition to the iPhone because the price difference between the two models is minimal.
I'm guessing that Nokia thought it would be competition to the iPhone because the price difference between the two models is minimal.
Rafe
Well the 2GB version is actually has a memory card slot (and is bundled with a 2GB card). That means you can use multiple cards - some people may prefer this...
Dan the man
You're right in saying that the 2GB does have the memory card slot making it a more attractive purchase.
Movie buffs and music lovers can fill memory cards quite easily with their favourite films and tracks and sometimes carry more than one card with them for long trips and holidays, so the 2GB version is definitely a plus.
The trouble is working out who's selling which one, a lot of retailers are automatically calling the N81 the 8GB version.
http://www.phoneslimited.co.uk/Nokia/N81+8GB.html
http://www.phoneslimited.co.uk/Nokia/N81.html
Movie buffs and music lovers can fill memory cards quite easily with their favourite films and tracks and sometimes carry more than one card with them for long trips and holidays, so the 2GB version is definitely a plus.
The trouble is working out who's selling which one, a lot of retailers are automatically calling the N81 the 8GB version.
http://www.phoneslimited.co.uk/Nokia/N81+8GB.html
http://www.phoneslimited.co.uk/Nokia/N81.html
Unregistered
i love this phone 2 bits just wish the camera was better but then again thats y i hve a digi cam!!