Nokia N81 (8GB)

( Review )

 

Nokia N81 (8GB)

The Nokia N81 8GB is a very powerful smartphone with massive 8 GB space, the fastest ARM 11, 369 MHz processor, Symbian 9.2 OS along with new N-Gage platform which implies rich smartphone functions along with abundant storage for multimedia and entertainment.

        

Looks wise it is very elegant, made up of very good quality material  but  weight (140 gms) and size (102 x 50 x 17.9 mm ) are not the plus points here. The slider is smooth though. The phone’s 8GB onboard memory is the USP of this phone since you can just transfer directly all your music and videos from your PC and enjoy on the way. 8GB is a big space.

          

Display: The 2.4" display supporting 16M colors and QVGA resolution has amazing picture quality and is a good size. Under the display is a whole lot of controls in a crowded D-pad. The Navi Scroll key is at the centre which is unique and offers exceptional navigation. Unfortunately the touch sensitive Navi wheel cannot be used for browsing the menu. Its functionality is limited to the music player and multimedia menu only. The other keys here include four dedicated music keys and the silver multimedia key.

                 

Keypad: Opening the slider reveals the numeric keypad, which is absolutely flat with very thin lines separating the keys. Although the keys are quite large but the absolute flatness makes it a bit inconvenient for texting and no they are not touch sensitive, they need to be pressed.

                   

The two stereo speakers are symmetrically placed on the upper left and right side of the phone which gives good sound quality. The volume and the dedicated camera key are on the right side of the phone. On the top is an interesting hard lock key which is a convenient tool against the normal two-key combination in most phones. The back of the phone has only the 2-megapixel camera lens with LED flash.

           

Nokia N81 comes with five preinstalled N-series themes. They can be downloaded from the internet too. N81 also has voice recognition feature for dialing contacts or starting applications which is not voice dependant and doesn't require pre-recording of the commands also.

        

Operating System: Nokia N81 operates on Symbian 9.2 OS with S60 3rd edition graphic user interface. All recent Nokia smartphones are equipped with improved Feature Pack 1 which ensures availability of multiple alarms, one hour voice memo and displays circles on running applications'  icons as a reminder.

Nokia N81 has the fastest Nokia processor to date (ARM 11, 369 MHz). So navigating the menus and commands’ execution is very fast.

            

Music: The audio quality of Nokia N81 is simply superb. The Navi wheel function with the music player is very nice. The audio formats supported are MP3, AAC, eAAC+, WMA and M3U. Interestingly, the music files are automatically added to the music library once downloaded to the phone. Music files can be easily transferred to the phone via Bluetooth, USB or by downloading from the net. The player has five equalizer presets. Unfortunately, the music player of Nokia N81 cannot be switched off once it is started. The FM radio is also there that automatically scans and saves the available stations in your region.

Apart from the usual SMS editor and MMS editor, this phone has an audio message editor too that can create an audio message by either recording the message using a pre-recorded sound clip.

             

The Gallery: The 3D rotating gallery operated upon by the Navi wheel is wonderful and makes browsing your pictures and videos a great experience. Zooming up to 8x is amazing. The video player automatically displays the videos in landscape or portrait mode depending on their aspect ratio. You can also switch to full screen. The gallery also offers good file management facilitating selection and sending of multiple files. Although the usual Symbian file manager and application manager are there too. An interesting "Search" application is also present in Nokia N81 which can find almost everything on your phone using the given keyword.

Nokia N81 also features Real player and Flash player.

            

Camera: The 2 mega pixel camera is mediocre in performance too. No autofocus. The main camera only shoots in landscape mode. The picture quality is not at all impressive in stills or in video recording. The dedicated camera button is also small. Although the camera interface is Ok. Nokia could have accommodated a better camera in such a nice phone.

           

Internet: Surfing the internet is a pleasure because of the large display size. The web pages fit on the screen just like on PC. A mouse cursor can also be operated from the D-pad. You can zoom in and out on the page as well. Scrolling and zooming is pretty fast too. The browser can also display Flash content on the site and can handle Java scripts also. So, you will never miss your PC again.

                

Organizer: Nokia N81 features rich smartphone functionalities. For example, the calendar is displayed in Month, Week and Day views. You can schedule events like Meeting, Anniversary, Memo and To-do list in the calendar along with their respective fields and settings. Converter, Calculator and Voice recorder are available. Although more office applications could be expected.

              

Games: Nokia N81 has 3 preinstalled games of new N-gage platform – Asphalt 3 N-gage version, FIFA, Space Impact light. The dedicated gaming keys enhance your gaming experience. The graphics are excellent and will keep you absolutely engaged in your free time. Apart from these, you can download as many games as you want as space is no constraint.

                   

 

 

Features at a glance:

Memory

Phonebook- unlimited entries and fields, Photocall

Call records- Detailed, max 30 days

8 GB internal flash memory

96 MB SDRAM memory

No Card slot ( not required)

OS

Symbian OS 9.2, Series 60 v3.1 UI

- ARM 11 369 MHz processor

Data & Connectivity

GPRS - Class 10 (4+1/3+2 slots), 32 - 48 kbps, HSCSD,

EDGE, 3G -384 kbps, v2.0 microUSB,

Bluetooh- v2.0 with A2DP,

WLAN- Wi-Fi 802.11b/g with UPnP

Display

2.4 inches, 240 x 320 pixels, TFT, 16M colors, Navi wheel interface

Messaging

SMS, MMS, Email, Instant Messaging, T9 support

Browser

WAP 2.0/xHTML, HTML

Camera

2 MP, 1600x1200 pixels, video(QVGA 15fps), flash; secondary CIF videocall camera, Rotating gallery with Navi wheel

Music

Stereo FM Radio, MP3/AAC/MPEG4 player

Ringtones

Polyphonic (64 channels), Monophonic, True Tones, MP3, Downloadable,

 vibra alert

Organizer

PIM functions, Calendar, to-do list etc.

Games

3 preinstalled games of new N-gage platform –

Asphalt 3 N-gage version, FIFA, Space Impact light

Plus download as many as you want,

Java MIDP 2.0

Network Support

GSM 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900, UMTS 2100

Dimensions

102 x 50 x 17.9 mm, 86 cc, 140 g

Battery

Type: Lithium Polymer 1050 mAh

Stand by time: Up to 410 h

Talk time: Up to 4 h

 

Disadvantages:

 

~ 2 MP Camera – mediocre

~ Weight and size of the phone are not the plus points

~ Keypad not very convenient

~ D-pad crowded

~ No Infrared port

          

Advantages:

~ 8GB storage space, maximum till date

~ ARM 11, 369 MHz processor, fastest

~ Symbian OS 9.2 S60 3.1 UI

~ Wi-Fi support

~ magnificent gaming experience with new N-Gage platform and dedicated keys, Graphics are too good

~ Decent display size to view videos

~ Touch sensitive Navi wheel

~ Dedicated music keys

~ hard keypad lock switch

~ good multimedia menu

 

So, if you need to store lots of music, videos and games or may be few movies then this is the best phone to buy. 8 GB space is massive as far as mobiles are concerned.