Nokia N81 8GB Cell Phone Review - Intro
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Alfredo Padilla Published on December 27, 2007 Comment on this |
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The Nokia N81 with 8GB of storage is Nokia's newest N-Series device. The N81 is marketed as a multimedia device, with excellent music features, a large amount of storage and support for Nokia's new music store and N-Gage gaming platform, although neither has launched in the U.S. yet. We found the N81 lived up to the hype as far as music and gaming goes, but it fell short in a lot of other areas. The 2-Megapixel camera was one of the worse we've ever seen on a mobile device, the controls were cramped and prone to errors and the handset felt heavy and not very durable. Throw in the fact that it's only available as an unlocked phone for $629 from Nokia USA and these negatives really start to grate on you. Tour & Design - The N81 doesn't look too bad, but its plastic construction, audible creaks, and slider design leads to concerns about durability.
Audio Quality - The audio received and sent by the Nokia N81 was decent, but we felt the sidetone was a little on the low side.
Imaging - Terrible stills camera, but video was above average.
Making/Receiving Calls - We were able to dial numbers very quickly on the Nokia N81.
Messaging - The N81 is a solid messaging device and we were surprised at how well we were able to type on the rather small keypad.
Organizer - As a smart phone the Nokia N81 offers a full range of powerful organizer features.
Multimedia - The N81 has excellent music playback software and plenty of storage for your music.
Software - As a Symbian Series 60 device the Nokia N81 is powerful, extensible and flexible.
Battery Life - Talk time and browsing were both solid but we were disappointed by a rather low music playback time.
Connectivity - The Nokia N81 is well connected as a quad-band GSM device with support for Bluetooth and Wi-Fi, we just wish it supported 3G for a U.S. carrier.
Hardware - Aside from the very good D-Pad we found most of the controls on the Nokia N81 to be difficult to use.
Other Features - The N81 can be used as a modem and has an FM radio built in.
Value & Comparisons - At $629 and with significant flaws the Nokia N81 is not a good value.
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