Nokia N81 8GB Cell Phone Review - Imaging
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Alfredo Padilla Published on December 27, 2007 Comment on this |
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Resolution (1.16)
To test the resolution of photos captured by the Nokia N81's camera we take photographs of an industry standard resolution chart and then use Imatest software to analyze them. Imatest produces a score called line widths per pixel height (lw/ph) that measures how many alternating black and white lines can be discerned before they start blurring together.
| Cell Phone | Nokia N81 8GB | Nokia N95 w/ US 3G | Sidekick LX |
| Score | 1.16 | 8.16 | 2.55 |
| lw/ph horizontal/vertical | 511/534 | 1355/1388 | 782/662 |
| Image of Resolution Chart (click to view) |  |
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| Cell Phone | BlackBerry Pearl 8130 | T-Mobile Shadow | LG Venus |
| Score | 4.27 | 2.28 | 2.70 |
| lw/ph horizontal/vertical | 980/450 | 741/746 | 779.9/740.1 |
| Image of Resolution Chart (click to view) |  |
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Color (3.21)
To test the color fidelity of a phone's camera we take photos of an industry standard GretagMacbeth color chart. These photos are then analyzed by the Imatest software, which compares the captured colors to the original ones.
| Cell Phone | Nokia N81 8GB | Nokia N95 w/ US 3G | Sidekick LX |
| Score | 3.21 | 6.84 | 4.00 |
| Color Checker Chart (click to view) |  |
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| Cell Phone | BlackBerry Pearl 8130 | T-Mobile Shadow | LG Venus |
| Score | 5.13 | 5.61 | 6.00 |
| Color Checker Chart (click to view) |  |
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Noise (0.47)
To test how much noise is produced by a camera we take photos of the GretagMacbeth color chart at four different lighting levels ranging from bright to very low. We then use Imatest to analyze the amount of noise produced at each lighting level. The Nokia N81 performed just as poorly in this test as it has in our other imaging tests. Not only was noise very high at all lighting levels, but it varied widely between lighting levels. As a result the Nokia N81 has put up one of the worst noise scores we've ever seen. You can see from the scores below that no camera phone performs particularly well in this test, but in the universe of cell phone cameras, the Nokia N81 is a black hole of suckiness.
| Cell Phone | Score |
| Nokia N81 8GB | 0.47 |
| Nokia N95 w/ US 3G | 1.41 |
| Sidekick LX | 0.76 |
| BlackBerry Pearl 8130 | 1.08 |
| T-Mobile Shadow | 1.23 |
| LG Venus | 0.94 |
Live Preview (3.0)
The Nokia N81's live preview is not particularly impressive. The layout is similar to that found on all Series 60 (S60) devices, which is good. The whole screen is used as a viewfinder and there are a few controls and indicators overlaid but that don't distract you from your subject. The problem is what you actually see on the screen. The images are very noisy and the photos you take don't look very much like what you had framed on the camera. Colors are also washed out, but we can't punish the N81 too much for that as the final photos are also washed out. It doesn't hold a candle to the excellent live preview we saw from the N95, or even the average ones we saw from the Pearl and Shadow.
Unlocked Standby to First Shot (4.44)
In this test we try to see how long it takes to go from the home screen unlocked until we have taken a photo. We do this test repeatedly until we get consistent results. The Nokia N81 took 4.5 seconds to take a photo under these conditions. We found that it took awhile for the camera software to launch and then another while for the photo to actually be captured. You can see below that the N95 took significantly longer, but it has the excuse of having an auto-focus lens. The Nokia N81 with its fixed focus lens is better compared to phones like the Pearl and Shadow, both of which did significantly better in this test. That being said, it's not completely terrible, just don't expect to be able to take many spur of the moment shots with the N81.
| Cell Phone | Time (sec) | Score |
| Nokia N81 8GB | 4.5 | 4.44 |
| Nokia N95 w/ US 3G | 6.5 | 3.08 |
| Sidekick LX | 3.3 | 6.06 |
| BlackBerry Pearl 8130 | 3.16 | 6.33 |
| T-Mobile Shadow | 3.2 | 6.25 |
| LG Venus | 4.57 | 4.38 |
Shot to Shot Time (2.70)
Shot to shot time measures how quickly you can take a series of photos with the phone's camera. When possible we try to use a phone's burst mode to do this test and the Nokia N81 thankfully has one that takes six photos in rapid succession. We were able to take those six photos in 6.6 seconds, which works out to 0.9 frames per second (fps). This isn't a terrible score, and what makes it even better is that unlike many phones with burst modes the Nokia N81 doesn't take lower resolution photos in burst mode, instead you get full 2-Megapixel shots. You can see below that most of our comparison phones scored under 0.5 fps in this test, so the Nokia N81's higher fps and full sized photos stand up pretty well.
| Cell Phone | FPS | Score |
| Nokia N81 8GB | 0.9 | 2.70 |
| Nokia N95 w/ US 3G | 0.42 | 1.26 |
| Sidekick LX | 0.21 | 0.63 |
| BlackBerry Pearl 8130 | 0.34 | 1.02 |
| T-Mobile Shadow | 1.76 | 5.28 |
| LG Venus | 0.36 | 1.08 |
Shutter to Shot Time (11.76)
Shutter to shot time is how long it takes the camera to actually take a photo once you've pressed the capture button. On the Nokia N81 shutter to shot time was very quick and 0.17 seconds. You can see below that's the best score amongst our comparison phones, which did pretty poorly in this test. The N95 has an excuse as it has an auto-focus lens that always takes longer to capture, but the other phones with fixed focus lenses just go schooled.
| Cell Phone | Time (sec) | Score |
| Nokia N81 8GB | 0.17 | 11.76 |
| Nokia N95 w/ US 3G | 1 | 1.96 |
| Sidekick LX | 1.2 | 1.67 |
| BlackBerry Pearl 8130 | 0.48 | 4.17 |
| T-Mobile Shadow | 0.9 | 2.22 |
| LG Venus | 0.82 | 2.44 |
Interface (9.0)
Photo Album Software Internal (7.0)
Manual Control (2.0)
The Nokia N81 lacks most manual controls like manual white balance or aperture priority mode. What you do get, however, are a good selection of scene modes like sport and landscape.
Zoom (1.0)
The Nokia N81 has a 20x digital zoom, which is useful sometimes, but really isn't worth much. All digital zoom does is crop and enlarge your scene, which is no different than what you might do with photo editing software.
Focus (0.0)
The Nokia N81 is a fixed focus camera, which means what you see in the scene is what you're going to get. This is in contrast to phones like the N95 that have an auto-focus lens that try to put the scene into focus before you take a photo. We don't award points for fixed focus lenses.
Flash (3.0)
The Nokia N81 has a simple LED flash that really only works out to a range of about three feet. Metering (2.0)
Unlike some phones that have started to include true metering controls the Nokia N81 lacks these. It does have an exposure compensation control, which is like the brightness control found on many phones. True metering controls allow you to control from which point or points in the scene light is judged.
White Balance (2.0)
The Nokia N81 has a decent selection of white balance presets, as we see on most camera phones. What it lacks is more advanced white balance options you see on real cameras like evaluative white balance mode.
Image Handling (8.0)
Gallery on the Nokia N81 provides some excellent image handling options. You can crop, resize, adjust contrast, fix red eye and a bunch of other options. Most phones offer very few, if any, image handling options so we're very happy to see these on the Nokia N81.
Video
Overall Video Score (7.0)
The Nokia N81 captures video at 320 x 240, which is good quality for a cell phone, albeit not as good as the 640 x 480 video captured by the N95. The Nokia N81's video is good enough to use for Youtube and looks decent, if a little pixelated, on a laptop monitor. We wouldn't play it on a big screen TV though.
Video Resolution (6.72)
To test the resolution of video captured by the Nokia N81 we take video of the same resolution chart we use for the stills camera. We then take frames from this video and run them through Imatest to produce a line widths per pixel height (lw/ph) score, which tells us how many alternating black and white lines can be discerned before they start blurring together. The Nokia N81 performed well on this test, not as good as the Nokia N95, as you would expect, but still better than any of our other comparison phones.
| Cell Phone | lw/ph horizontal/vertical | Score |
| Nokia N81 8GB | 247/272 | 6.72 |
| Nokia N95 w/ US 3G | 336.5/428.1 | 14.17 |
| Sidekick LX | n/a - no video capture | 0.00 |
| BlackBerry Pearl 8130 | 171/190 | 3.25 |
| T-Mobile Shadow | 155/168 | 2.59 |
| LG Venus | 237/247 | 5.85 |
Video Compression (4.0)
The Nokia N81 captures video in either Mpeg-4 or 3GP formats. Mpeg-4 is used at the highest capture settings while 3GP is used for lower quality settings including MMS video. We like having the option between the two formats, most phones limit you to a single format.
Interface (8.0)
The camcorder interface on the Nokia N81 is very similar to the stills camera. The whole screen is again used for the viewfinder with icons on screen showing you what mode you're in and how long you can record video. On the right side you have another ribbon of icons for quick control, although there are fewer options available for the video camera. We like it just as much as the stills camera interface. Manual Control (0.0)
The Nokia N81 doesn't offer any manual controls for video capture.
Zoom (0.0)
As with the stills camera you have a digital zoom for video capture on the Nokia N81. As we stated above this is of limited utility, and the problems are even greater for video capture since the starting resolution of video is so much lower than stills.
Editing (6.0)
The editing options for videos on the Nokia N81 aren't as good as the stills options, but are still significantly better than what most phones offer. You can merge multiple videos, add a soundtrack or text and cut the video to remove sections you don't want.
Modes (4.0)
The Nokia N81's camcorder offers a mode for shooting at night and also allows you to set the quality lower specifically for MMS video.
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