Nokia N81 8GB Cell Phone Review - Conclusion
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Alfredo Padilla Published on December 27, 2007 Comment on this |
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Who's It For
Business User
As an S60 smart phone the Nokia N81 isn't a bad choice for business users who also want a lot of storage in a multimedia device. That being said the lack of QWERTY is a big negative and you'll have to download and install additional software to get integration with an Exchange Server environment.
Budget Callers
Not even in the ballpark.
Chatty Teenager
Chatty teenagers will find a lot to like about the Nokia N81. It's not bad looking, it's a great music device with very good software and 8GB of built in storage and, despite our concerns, the keypad can lend itself to quick texting. If you can convince Mom and/or Dad to pay the over $600 for it all power to you. We have to assume, though, that most teenagers won't pull that off.
Media Maven
Media Maven's are going to find a lot to love about the Nokia N81. 8GB of internal storage means you can load it up with music and videos. the S60 music software is excellent and support for standard 3.5mm headsets is also a big plus. What isn't as good is the limited battery life when playing music. We also don't like the video playback software very much, but that can be addressed through third party hardware. Of more concern is the utterly terrible 2 megapixel camera. Really, if you're going to put something this bad on a phone why even try. If you're a media maven that doesn't care about the camera and willing to pay the price go for it. There are better deals out there though.
Conclusion
The Nokia N81 is a strange device in that it excels in some areas while completely dropping the ball in others. On the one hand it's a great music device with 8GB of built-in storage and excellent music software. On the other hand it has one of the worst cameras we've seen on a mobile device. It's a powerful smart phone and will support Nokia's new gaming and music platforms, but we found many of the hardware controls to be prone to errors and the device itself somewhat cheaply made. It's not a huge phone, but it does feel thick and heavy. Given that we can think of a negative for just about every positive, we can't recommend the Nokia N81, especially not at it's current price point. If it was half the price we might be able to say that music and gaming lovers should grab it and ignore it's other flaws, but for $629 we expect a phone that's excellent in all respects, not just a few.
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