(To get the most out of this article, please watch the video above and then read the text below. If you have any comments or questions, please click on the comments link at the end.)
Nokia N81 8GB
What's it like in real life?
The N81 8GB is quite rectangular and looks a bit bulky, though it's actually a reasonable size. It has a wide metal band around its edges with a nice matt finish, but all its other surfaces have a gloss finish, which makes the black plastic act as a fingerprint magnet.
The keypad and other controls appear completely flat, but there are actually clicky buttons hidden underneath the surface so in real life they're fairly comfortable to use.
It's a sliderphone, and the mechanism opens and closes with a very reassuring clunk, though in its open mode it feels slightly loose.
The N81 8GB screen is very bright and clear, and the buttons are very easy to see because they're brightly lit in white, green and red against the black background of the casing.
How is it as a phone?
The N81 8GB is a quadband GSM and single band 3G/WCDMA/UMTS phone.
The first unit sent to me by Nokia had problems with sound distortion during calls, however they sent a replacement which worked fine. If you have any similar problems, do use your guarantee or warranty to get free repairs or replacements, because that's what it's there for.
The flat keypad seemed worrying at first, but once you feel the buttons underneath the surface it works very well. I had no problem typing texts with the N81 8GB keypad.
The N81 has both 3G and Wi-Fi support, so it's suited to making VOIP internet phone calls, though you may find it difficult to set up. Consult your VOIP provider for more instructions.
The N81's direction pad is fine, but the optional naviwheel feature (which is built into the d-pad and works entirely through touch) felt like a waste of time as it wasn't sensitive enough. I normally kept the naviwheel switched off.
The N81 8GB uses Symbian S60 3rd Edition FP1 interface (try saying that after half a dozen rum and cokes). The S60 interface is now much faster and easier to navigate than it used to be, and the icons and option menus have been arranged in a more logical manner, with icons for all the most popular functions immediately accessible in the main menu. Even simpler than this, there's an extremely easy-to-use carousel of key functions which you can access by pressing the large metal button next to the direction pad.
Music Player and Radio
One of the main selling points of the N81 8GB is as a music phone: it has a built-in music player, external stereo speakers, a built-in music store that lets you buy tracks straight onto the phone, A2DP stereo wireless headphone support, built-in music controls, 3.5mm audio jack for standard walkman/ipod-style headphones, an internet radio directory, and of course the built-in 8 gigabytes of storage space (enough for about 2000 to 4000 music tracks depending on quality and length).
The built-in music controls surround the direction pad, and you can press them just like any other button on the totally flat surface of the phone. The controls light up when they're needed and disappear when they're not, so you can't accidentally press them while using the phone for something else. I personally preferred to just use the direction pad itself as the music controls, but that's entirely a question of taste.
The built-in music shop, imaginatively called Nokia Music Store, is owned and operated by Nokia themselves as part of their drive to become an internet services company. You can buy the tracks straight onto the phone, or you can buy them on your PC by visiting the NMS site and then listen on your computer and/or transfer them to your phone. At the time of writing the prices and terms on NMS are more or less the same as other similar online music shops.
You can install an official internet radio station directory on the N81 8GB which lets you browse internet radio just like browsing tracks, and it makes the process of using internet radio much easier than it used to be. There are hundreds of stations in the directory covering virtually every genre including some spoken word stations, though there are major gaps such as a total lack of BBC stations.
There's also of course a built-in FM radio which includes Nokia's usual station preset download service that lets you download presets for all your local radio stations. This is very handy if you're travelling, as you can select presets for practically anywhere in the world.
Camera and Camcorder
Disappointing considering its price, the N81 8GB just has a 2 megapixel camera with LED flash. The photos were fine though, and probably good enough for most people, but if you're making a cameraphone that's just "good enough" then the price should be lowered to reflect this.
The camcorder shoots with a QVGA resolution at 15 frames per second, which is good enough for online video services such as YouTube. Videos made with the camcorder were pretty good, easily adequate for casual use, but once again just good enough rather than spectacular. At this price range one would expect a VGA 30fps camera, so QVGA at 15fps is a disappointment.
There's also a secondary camera for videophone calls cunningly hidden away on the front of the phone, in a tiny hole in the top right hand corner.
The N81 8GB has the usual snazzy Nseries photo gallery which lets you browse photos and videos on a carousel system. You can see an example of it running in the video above.
Other Interesting Stuff
Apart from music, the other major selling point of the N81 8GB is its gaming abilities. It's Nokia's first phone model after the ill-fated N-Gage and N-Gage QD to have gaming-specific buttons. This time round though they're much more subdued, just a couple of dedicated gaming buttons above the screen which are activated only when running N-Gage games, with the rest of the phone looking quite normal. Just like the music controls, the gaming controls light up when needed and vanish when not, which is a rather stylish way of hiding the phone's complexity.
On a side note, the new N-Gage platform is a great improvement on the old. This time round the games are available on a wide range of ordinary-looking Nokia phones including the very popular N95, and will probably eventually be available on all of Nokia's new S60 devices. Instead of expensive and difficult-to-find game cards the new N-Gage titles are sold as cheap downloads straight onto the phone. The graphics of the games has also been greatly upgraded, with absolutely gorgeous titles such as Creatures Of The Deep and System Rush. Online gaming and interaction between players has also been improved, with a well-designed and intuitive N-Gage application that lets you buy games, download demos, message other players, join in with multiplayer tournaments, read reviews, or just track your high scores on the online leagues. Games can be paid for by credit card or charged to your phone bill, which can make purchases rather tempting.
You currently have to install the N-Gage application on the N81 8GB manually, though presumably at some point in the future Nokia will make it a standard feature of the firmware. The easiest way to install N-Gage is to get it directly onto your phone, click here for instructions.
Getting back to the N81 8GB, you use the gaming buttons holding the phone horizontally, like a portable console. The games let you choose whether the direction pad is on the left or the right, so left-handed people are catered for. You can also play the games vertically if you prefer, in which case you won't be using the gaming buttons at all. At first it feels a bit strange using the buttons, but you soon get used to them and they actually work pretty well. There isn't much give in the gaming buttons, but that is a good thing as it makes them more sensitive and easier to press repeatedly than normal phone buttons.
Moving on from gaming, another major feature of the N81 is its web browser, a standard part of the S60 platform. It works using the same Webkit core that is used by Apple's Safari, and it can render most websites like a PC. Unlike Apple's iPhone, the S60 web browser can also cope with Flash-based websites, and you can for example browse the Homestarrunner.com site on the N81. Sites can be viewed at full scale, or you can zoom out and in if you prefer. There's also a rotate function so the browser can be used vertically or horizontally. It would be better with a touchscreen of course, and a higher resolution would be nice, but it's still darn good for a phone-based web browser.
The N81 8GB is a Symbian S60 3rd Edition smartphone, so you can install and use S60v3 games and apps. These are generally much better than Java apps and games, because they can access the phone hardware more directly. Unfortunately the N81 8GB has no way of rotating the screen into horizontal mode for S60 or Java titles, so you can only use them in vertical mode. This is especially annoying for games, because they usually play better in horizontal mode, and you cannot use the N81 8GB's gaming keys with S60 games at all.
The N81 8GB can also be used as a video player with MP4 and 3GP files, which you can create using a free PC video conversion utility available from the Nokia website. The screen's brightness and clarity suit video playback very well. There are various third party S60 apps which let you watch YouTube videos directly on the phone.
Who would like this the most?
Someone who enjoys phone gaming and music. N-Gage games are currently by far the best titles available on phones, and the music store, internet radio directory, 8GB of storage and 3.5mm headphone jack make this a very decent music phone.
Overall
The N81 8GB looks a bit chunky, and its launch price was very high for what it is. Nokia has brought out several technically superior models both before and after the N81 8GB which have had similar or lower prices.
Those in the market for a general S60 smartphone might be better off with the 6120 Classic or E51 (which are far cheaper), while those who want a music and gaming phone with the bonuses of a far better camera and built-in GPS might go for the original N95 (which can now be had for a similar price as the N81 8GB, and whose multimedia keys also work as N-Gage gaming keys).
However, if you can get the N81 8GB at a low price, and if you don't want a super-slim phone, then you may get a lot out of this model. There's nothing especially wrong with it, everything does what it should, the gaming buttons do work well in games, the playback buttons do work well for music, the 8 gigabytes of storage is probably enough music for almost anyone, and if the phone's design suits your personal tastes then go for it.
The Nokia Duck Says: Quack Quack Quack
Photos (click to enlarge):
Technical Details:
Year of Launch: 2007
Weight: 140g
Battery Life: Talktime 4 hours, standby 17 days.
Phone: Quadband GSM 850/900/1800/1900, 3G/WCDMA/UMTS 2100.
Screen: 240x320, 16 million colours.
Camera: 2 megapixel still, QVGA 15 FPS video, LED flash, secondary camera on front of phone for videophone calls.
Memory: 8 gigabytes built-in storage, 42 megabytes of free RAM for running your own applications.
Connections: MicroUSB port, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, 3.5mm audio jack, FM radio.
Platform: Symbian S60 3rd Edition FP1.
Software Compatibility: Symbian S60 3rd Edition, N-Gage, Java J2ME, Flash Lite 2.0 (including Flash website support in browser).
Other Notable Features: Built-in music controls, built-in gaming controls.
Click here to see the full official Nokia N81 8GB technical specifications.
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