Nokia N81 8GB Cell Phone Review - Making/Receiving Calls
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Alfredo Padilla Published on December 27, 2007 Comment on this |
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Dialing Speed (6.58)
To see how easy it is to dial a number on the Nokia N81 we time how long it takes to go from the home screen unlocked until we have dialed each of five phone numbers. We were able to dial a number on the Nokia N81 in an average of 3.04 seconds, which is a pretty good time. You can see below that only the Pearl beat that time amongst our comparison phones. We're actually a little surprised by this as we had some concerns about the Nokia N81's keypad and controls. Our fingers constantly bumped up against the lip of the upper part of the slider when using the top row of the keypad and we don't like the lack of differentiation between the send key and surrounding buttons, as we discuss below. Despite those concerns, though, it was very quick and easy to make a call on the Nokia N81.
| Cell Phone | Time (sec) | Score |
| Nokia N81 8GB | 3.04 | 6.58 |
| Nokia N95 w/ US 3G | 4.62 | 4.33 |
| Sidekick LX | 4.2 | 4.76 |
| BlackBerry Pearl 8130 | 2.71 | 7.38 |
| T-Mobile Shadow | 3.44 | 5.81 |
| LG Venus | 2.64 | 7.58 |
Talk and End Buttons (3.0)
The talk and end buttons on the Nokia N81 are located to the far right and left of the control keys that surround the D-Pad. Frankly we find the plethora of buttons on the Nokia N81 to be a little distracting; it might take a while to learn the layout. While the talk and end keys aren't differentiated from surrounding buttons, they are located near the edge of the handset, which will aid in navigation by feel. Key travel and tactile feedback is a little funny, because the whole piece of plastic on which they sit moves rather than just the button itself. A clear creak is emitted when they are pressed, which we guess is some feedback, but not the kind we like to have. We also found that it was very easy to hit the surrounding buttons by accident. Point is: not good.
Call Management (8.0)
The Nokia N81 provides a very good selection of call management features. The call history includes filter to see just your dialed, received, and missed calls. There are also call timers available. During a call the left soft key is assigned to speakerphone while the right one opens a menu with additional options like mute. All other features on the phone are available, as you would expect from a multi-tasking device. About the only thing we're missing is the ability to record phone calls.
Startup to Call (2.96)
Like most smart phones the Nokia N81 takes awhile to start up and make a call if you turn it off completely, 33.8 seconds to be exact. You can see below that it's not quite as bad as the Sidekick LX or T-Mobile Shadow, but nowhere near as quick as the BlackBerry Pearl. Most regular phones only take between fifteen and twenty-five seconds to start up and make a call.
| Cell Phone | Time (sec) | Score |
| Nokia N81 8GB | 33.8 | 2.96 |
| Nokia N95 w/ US 3G | 36.4 | 2.75 |
| Sidekick LX | 56.54 | 1.77 |
| BlackBerry Pearl 8130 | 6.21 | 16.10 |
| T-Mobile Shadow | 78.36 | 1.28 |
| LG Venus | 25.11 | 3.98 |
Ring Volume (9.61)
We measured the Nokia N81 ring volume at 96.1 decibels. To get this measurement we turn the volume up to maximum and then run through all the ring tones on the device using a sound pressure meter to gauge loudness. Although not quite as loud as the Nokia N95, you can see that it's still quite a bit louder than most of our comparison devices, which generally fall into the 80-90 decibel range.
| Cell Phone | Volume (decibels) | Score |
| Nokia N81 8GB | 96.1 | 9.61 |
| Nokia N95 w/ US 3G | 105.3 | 10.53 |
| Sidekick LX | 84.5 | 8.45 |
| BlackBerry Pearl 8130 | 85 | 8.50 |
| T-Mobile Shadow | 85.4 | 8.54 |
| LG Venus | 85.8 | 8.58 |
Ringtone Customizability (8.0)
As with other N-Series phones we've reviewed the Nokia N81 allows you to use any Mp3, AAC or WMA music file on your phone as a ring tone. You can also use voice recordings as ring tones.
Non Audio Alerts (10.0)
The vibrate on the Nokia N81 is decent, but not good enough to feel in jacket pocket. If it's in your pants you should be fine. We also like the Series 60 feature that makes your screen blink when a call comes in, this makes it much more noticeable if you're not looking straight at it.
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