Nokia N81 8GB Cell Phone Review - Hardware
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Alfredo Padilla Published on December 27, 2007 Comment on this |
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Keypad
Text Words Per Minute (6.88)
It took us 27.9 seconds to type a sample phrase on the Nokia N81 using two-hand and predictive text entry, which works out to 34.4 words per minute (WPM). This is a pretty good score for a phone with a standard keypad. You can see below that it performed significantly better than the Nokia N95, which also has a slide out keypad, but not quite as well as our phones with true or hybrid QWERTY keyboards. Although we were able to type quickly on the Nokia N81's keypad we didn't find it particularly comfortable. It took a lot of practice before we were able to achieve an average time in five trials of 34.4 WPM. We found the keypad on the N81 to be small with poor tactile feedback, poor differentiation between keys and very prone to errors. You may be impressed by the WPM score here, but note that it comes at the price of cramped fingers and a lot of practice. | Cell Phone | Words Per Minute | Score |
| Nokia N81 8GB | 34.4 | 6.88 |
| Nokia N95 w/ US 3G | 29.28 | 5.86 |
| Sidekick LX | 46.1 | 9.22 |
| BlackBerry Pearl 8130 | 42.4 | 8.48 |
| T-Mobile Shadow | 37 | 7.40 |
| LG Venus | 46.31 | 9.26 |
T9 and Auto Complete (5.0)
The Nokia N81 support T9 predictive text entry to make typing with the keypad easier but does not support auto-completion of words.
One Hand Usability (7.76)
We know that many people prefer to type on their phone one-handed so we do our words per minute (WPM) test a second time using just one hand to both hold and type on the phone. We found that it was actually easier to type on the Nokia N81's cramped keyboard using only a single hand. We were able to type our test phrase in an average of 24.4 seconds, which works out to 38.8 WPM. It is rare but not unheard of for a phone with small keypad to be easier to type on one-handed rather than with two hands.
| Cell Phone | Words Per Minute | Score |
| Nokia N81 8GB | 38.8 | 7.76 |
| Nokia N95 w/ US 3G | 29.64 | 6.48 |
| Sidekick LX | 22.1 | 4.42 |
| BlackBerry Pearl 8130 | 33.57 | 6.71 |
| T-Mobile Shadow | 32.4 | 6.48 |
| LG Venus | 42.55 | 8.51 |
Keypad Backlighting (4.5)
The characters on the Nokia N81's keypad are backlight in white. We found the backlighting to be clear and even without being too bright. The keypad backlight uses the same timer as the screen and there is no light sensor to judge when to turn it on or off.
Controls
D-Pad/Joystick (7.0)
The D-Pad on the Nokia N81 is pretty good. It's a little on the small size but the raised edges and recessed center select button make it accurate and easy to use. In fact it's probably the best control on the whole phone, which is more of an indictment of the other controls than praise for it, but we'll get to that in just a sec. Touch Screen (0.0)
The Nokia N81 doesn't have a touch screen.
Jog Dial (3.0)
The Nokia N81 lacks a jog dial as found on older BlackBerry devices, but it does have an interesting feature that allows you to scroll up/down lists like a jog dial. The outer edge of the D-Pad is touch sensitive and by running your finger along it clockwise or counter-clockwise you can move up or down lists. By default this feature is turned off, so in order to use it you'll have to go into your settings and turn it on. Once on it also doesn't work everywhere in the interface, which disappointed us. We found that although not as fast as a true jog wheel it does come in handy at times.
Soft Buttons (3.0)
The Nokia N81's soft buttons are located just under the screen, right where you would expect them to be. Like many of the controls on the Nokia N81 we have some issues with them. First of all the buttons are not well differentiated from surrounding buttons, which makes finding them by feel difficult and mistaken presses a common occurrence. When they're actually pressed the tactile feedback provided is very slight as is key travel. We feel like the effort to "style" the controls all on one piece of plastic here overrode actual usability.
Volume Control (4.0)
The volume buttons on the Nokia N81 are located on the right side of the device just under the right loud speaker. Like most volume controls it's a rocker that sits just above the surrounding plastic so you can find it by feel. Up and down is differentiated by a small indentation in the middle of the key that isn't very easy to feel. Key travel is only slight, but it does provide decent tactile feedback when pressed. We've seen better but it's not as bad as some other controls on the N81 like the soft keys.
Power and Standby (5.0)
The power button on the Nokia N81 is located on the top of the device and is sharply recessed so you can't hit it by accident. We appreciate protecting it like this, but since the button is also used to adjust profiles we found that the difficulty in pressing it came into play more often then we would have liked. A long press on the button will turn the phone off while a short press will bring up a menu that allows you to lock the phone or change the profile.
Other Buttons (8.0)
In addition to the buttons mentioned above the Nokia N81 has a plethora of additional buttons. Directly to the right of the D-Pad is the multimedia button, which brings up a rotating carousel of "tiles", each of which is assigned to a phone function. Below the send key is a dedicated menu button that anyone familiar with the S60 interface will recognize. A single press on this button will take you to the application launcher, two presses will take you to the home screen and a long press will bring up the multi-tasking menu.
Opposite the menu key is the "C" button that is also an S60 standby. This key is used to delete items, for instance as backspace when typing or to uninstall a selected program. On the right side of the phone there's a dedicated camera key near the bottom. Last up is the "lock" switch located on the top of the device. This is a switch that locks or unlocks the device. It's on a spring so you move the button to the right and then it snaps back into place. Finally are two buttons located to the left and right of the loudspeaker, but we are only awarding these half points because they're only used when gaming. We are disappointed that none of them can be re-assigned to a different function, something Windows Mobile and Palm OS devices allow for many of their buttons.
Display
Primary Screen Gross Resolution (8.00)
The Nokia N81's screen resolution is 320 x 240 pixels (QVGA). You can see below that this is pretty standard, with only the Sidekick LX sporting a higher resolution display. Nokia has settle don QVGA as its standard resolution with only a few phones like the Nokia E90 deviating from this standard. QVGA does a solid job, but we can't help but hope that we start seeing devices with full VGA displays sometime soon.
| Cell Phone | Resolution | Score |
| Nokia N81 8GB | 320 x 240 | 8.00 |
| Nokia N95 w/ US 3G | 320 x 240 | 8.00 |
| Sidekick LX | 400 x 240 | 8.50 |
| BlackBerry Pearl 8130 | 240x260 | 6.50 |
| T-Mobile Shadow | 320 x 240 | 8.00 |
| LG Venus | 320 x 240 | 8.00 |
Primary Screen Pixels per Inch (8.34)
Pixels per inch (PPI) is a measure of pixel density, or how tightly pixels are packed onto the screen. High pixel density makes for sharper images on the screen and richer colors. Lower pixel density screens can seem pixelated and washed out. The Nokia N81's screen measured 166.7 PPI, which is right around average. You can see below that the LG Venus beat it out by having the same screen resolution but a smaller display, while the T-Mobile Shadow with the same resolution and a larger display has a lower pixel density. You can see that as screen sizes get larger pixel density gets lower at the same resolution. This is one of the reasons we want to start seeing higher resolution displays on devices as we appreciate the extra screen real estate but don't want to give up the pixel density.
| Cell Phone | Pixels Per Inch | Score |
| Nokia N81 8GB | 166.7 | 8.34 |
| Nokia N95 w/ US 3G | 153.8 | 7.69 |
| Sidekick LX | 152.4 | 7.62 |
| BlackBerry Pearl 8130 | 164.57 | 8.23 |
| T-Mobile Shadow | 153.8 | 7.69 |
| LG Venus | 200 | 10.00 |
Screen Physical Size (6.00)
The Nokia N81's screen measures 2.4 inches across. This is on the higher end of the normal range for phones, which tend to fall between 2 and 2.4 inches. You can see below, though, that some phones are starting to see larger displays, with the Sidekick LX's three inch display near the top of the heap. We're pretty happy with 2.4 inches, it's large enough that you can watch video without straining too hard but small enough that the device doesn't end up being giant like the Sidekick.
| Cell Phone | Size Diagonal (inches) | Score |
| Nokia N81 8GB | 2.4 | 6.00 |
| Nokia N95 w/ US 3G | 2.6 | 6.50 |
| Sidekick LX | 3 | 7.50 |
| BlackBerry Pearl 8130 | 2.15 | 5.38 |
| T-Mobile Shadow | 2.6 | 6.50 |
| LG Venus | 2 | 5.00 |
Screen Brightness (5.5)
The Nokia N81's screen brightness measured 75 lux. This is about average, you can see below that it falls in the middle range of our comparison phones. The lighting controls for the Nokia N81 are pretty standard. You can control the screen brightness and set the time for the backlight to turn off. There's no light sensor to turn the light up/down/off as needed.
| Cell Phone | Brightness (lux) | Score |
| Nokia N81 8GB | 75 | 5.50 |
| Nokia N95 w/ US 3G | 72 | 4.85 |
| Sidekick LX | 106 | 14.05 |
| BlackBerry Pearl 8130 | 80 | 8.50 |
| T-Mobile Shadow | 54 | 2.70 |
| LG Venus | 63 | 2.65 |
Screen Bright Light Performance (6.5)
The Nokia N81's display held up well in bright light situations. We were able to see the icons and even make out text. This is much better than what we saw from Sidekick LX or LG Venus, which had definite problems in bright light situations.
Color Depth (10.0)
Like most high end S60 devices the Nokia N81's screen is capable of displaying sixteen million colors. This is at the extreme high end of what we're seeing from phones nowadays and means the Nokia N81 will be able to display just about any color you'll need no matter what you're viewing.
| Cell Phone | Colors (thousands) | Score |
| Nokia N81 8GB | 16000 | 10.00 |
| Nokia N95 w/ US 3G | 16000 | 10.00 |
| Sidekick LX | 65 | 6.00 |
| BlackBerry Pearl 8130 | 65 | 6.00 |
| T-Mobile Shadow | 65 | 6.00 |
| LG Venus | 65 | 6.00 |
Ports & Storage
Power & Data Ports (4.0)
The Nokia N81 has separate ports for data and power. For the latter it uses the same slim line proprietary charging port that we've seen on all modern S60 devices. We're not fans of proprietary ports and don't understand why Nokia is sticking with it when there's a perfectly good Micro USB port on the device that can handle power as well as data duties. Micro USB is the updated version of Mini USB, and although we're not awarding as many points for it right now as Mini USB simply because it's not as wide spread it is an emerging standard, and we like standardized ports. This lack of power support for the Nokia N81 also extends to its lack of support for USB charging. Headphone & Jack Compatibility (8.0)
Given our love affair with standard ports you can imagine we're happy to see that the Nokia N81 supports a very standard 3.5mm headset jack. We're also very happy to see that it supports wireless Bluetooth stereo headphones.
Internal Storage (8.0)
The Nokia N81 comes in two different flavors. Our review device has 8GB of internal storage but lacks an expansion slot. There's also a version of the phone with more modest storage but that supports Micro SD cards. Given how quickly Micro SD cards are doubling in size we can't be sure which is better, but 8GB should be sufficient storage for the vast majority of users.
Expansion Slot & Format (0.0)
The Nokia N81 with 8GB of storage that we are reviewing does not support expanded storage. We understand the idea that 8GB is plenty of storage, but we're sure there are power users out there that want both.
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