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Hi everyone! This is a place where I share my experiences with the devices I come across and use. Hopefully, you'll find the info here helpful in your search for geeky stuff...

Friday, November 9, 2007

Nokia N81 8GB

I've had this N81 8GB prototype for a while now but I haven't written anything about it cos I'm having a hard time coming to a conclusion to what or who it's for.

There's 3G but no HSDPA, so the experience is not as good as an N95 or E90. The camera is a weedy 2 megapixel unit with a near useless LED flash. The interface is half baked compared with the S60 3rd editions that we're used to by now on the latest Nokia devices. These are just a few of my gripes about the device.

Anyway, let's get on with the pics.

Front view


Back view


Side views



Top and bottom views



SIM tray


Slider open


Extra gaming rocker buttons integrated togther with the earpiece


Side by side pics with other phones:







You can see from the pictures that Nokia meant for it to be quite a good looking device. However, the execution is a bit off. Instead of looking classy-ly glassy, it ends up looking more plasticky cheapie. The phone itself is put together well, feeling sturdy and firm. It has the stiffest keys I've ever come across in a phone, requiring quite a bit of strength to press. This is probably done to ensure longevity when gaming, which is what I think this phone is made for. The extra rocker buttons on either side of the earpiece emphasizes gaming intentions.

The speakers are pretty powerful. Much louder than the N95's, they will make gaming more enjoyable I suppose, if you're the type who likes a big soundtrack while playing games. The audio output through the 3.5mm, I must say, is very very good. It's noticeably cleaner and more defined than the N95 and even my iPhone.

The weight of the N81 8GB is pretty hefty. It's weight is closer to the E90 than the N95, giving a further impression of sturdiness.The action of the slider feels very good. The tension of the slider spring is taut, making it feel much better than that of an N95.

There is 8GB of built-in memory and no removable media slot. With the advent of 8GB cards, this is not good, as with all current 8GB models from Nokia. There seems to be plenty of user accessible RAM. I still can't seem to make it crash despite turning on as many applications as I can.

The arrangement of the keys deserve a special mention. Under the screen are 16, yes SIXTEEN command keys. Not the most ergonomic and definitely very prone to accidental presses. But I suppose acceptable given the space constraints.


The keypad keys are very flat and one dimensional, making text input not as tactile as a more contoured keypad. However, it's not too much of a chore.

New in this device is this thing called Naviwheel. It's similar to the iPod concept where you run your finger around the silver square to control the cursor. The thing is, it works only in a couple of menus and it works like a drunk iPod. Sometimes it works, other times it misses. And it's turned OFF by default. Weird. But if Nokia gets this right, it'll be a great navigation tool.

This is a 3G phone with no HSDPA to turbo charge things. Web browsing over 3G is acceptable I suppose, but it ain't no N95 or E90. Wifi and bluetooth work as usual. They took out the infrared port on this device which I don't miss at all.

Being used to Nokia's latest interface on the N95, I'm finding this interface lacking. The thing that irritates me the most is that there's no WLAN scanning menu on the desktop, something that I would think people would wanna use all the time. You have to press the applications button and select "Extras" before you can see the WLAN menu. Too many steps to get to something so commonly used.

According to other reviews, the search 4.0 application is included in the official release, and that's a great thing. It's like the file browser on the Apple OSX finder. This shot of the search 4.0 application on my N95 8GB placed beside my Powerbook screen:


Let's talk about the camera. I'll just let the pictures do the talking. I've taken pictures of 2 subjects using the N81 8GB, N95, E90 and iPhone. You judge for yourselves. All the phones are simply set to Automatic. I just pointed and shot. All the pictures are compressed with iPhoto with the same resolution settings.

Taken by the N81 8GB (yes, the flash was ON)


Taken by the N95


Taken by the E90


Taken by the iPhone (which we all know is 2MP has no flash)


Round 2.

Taken by the N81 8GB


Taken by the N95



Taken by the E90


Taken by the iPhone


So the N81 is supposedly made for gaming. Trying out the preloaded Ngage demo games, I don't see much difference in playing the same games on my N95 8GB. In fact, playing Asphalt with my N95 8GB proved to be more pleasurable due to it's bigger screen. However, with a fighting game that required 2 hands, the extra buttons beside the earpiece proved to be indispensable. Here a video of that fighting game:



So at the end of the day, who is this phone for? I can't figure it out. I guess if you're someone who is a hardcore phone gamer, someone who values sound quality, someone who doesn't care too much about the camera quality, someone who doesn't use 3G much, someone who likes loud phone speakers, someone who like taut slider springs, this one's for you.

I guess there won't be too many takers...

50 comments:

Anonymous said...

E90 got this eerie blue tint to it with or without flash huh?

chickenbackside said...

Yup, the blue tint on the E90 is quite apparent.

Anonymous said...

Nice phone but it s really heavy thats right n95 8gb looks much bigger but its an suprise. But with the speakers you mean the ones of the n95 ore the n95 8gb ? Ok it isnt so important it s all the same hardware just different settings. N95 is louder than the n95 8gb version which trys to sound better threw the speakers. N81 is comparable to the n82 from the sound of the speakers ore? THX

chickenbackside said...

I mean the original N95, not the N95-8GB. From the speakers, the N81 sounds better than the N82. I don't like the sound that comes out from the N82, it's a bit piercing and distorts easily.

Anonymous said...

N82 sounds like a n73 but louder? And is it louder than the n81? Sorry for this questions... but I am only dissapointesd by the n95 8gb in this terms. THX again.

chickenbackside said...

The N81 has the loudest speakers out of the 3 phones you've mentioned. It's startlingly loud, like some SE phones.

Anonymous said...

So its louder than the n82? And which se phones do mean they are only loud when you put the eq settings to max i dont know if you ever tried this whis the n73 its even startlingly loud ore try it with the n81. On the n95, 95 8gb n76 it does not work at all.

chickenbackside said...

Yes, at the same EQ settings, the N81 is louder than the N82. Even the N95, 95-8GB and 76 are not as loud as the N81 playing the same song with the default EQ settings at 100% volume.

Anonymous said...

Thank you, do konw the w550i? Is it as loud as this phone ore is the n73 still remaining as the loudest nokia phone (sorry i cant send you any videos ore post them) What about the quality threw the headphones you said is it good is it comparebel to the n91(8gb in this case;)And is as loud threw big headphones with a high impandance. Thats it for now good night.

Anonymous said...

One qeustion to the n95 8gig when i have about 100 ore maybe less tracks on my phone and i wanted to delete one it starts lagging this lag is terrible is this normal ? On the outher hand the gallery with imagies and 1gig movies works very well is that a reason to switch the device ? Dont know what is it already the second device with that bug.

Anonymous said...

Ahhh man, I'm upset :-( Was looking around for the right cell for weeks, and the N81 was the verdict, but after reading this negative review I'm lost again.

Seeing that we're in the same field of work (I'm a pro music producer/mix engineer) maybe you can help me out.

Priorities:
Good external speakers
Looks good
Wi-fi
Stereo bluetooth

Cam is not too too important.

Was initially looking at the iphone, but heard about so many flaws such as no stereo bluetooth, no user eqing on sound, call quality not consistent, etc.

The N81 sounds like it has great sound though. The N82 is about $150 more, is it worth it?

Sincerely,
Completely confused.

chickenbackside said...

I don't have a W550i on hand for comparison, so I cannot say. Compared with the N73, I'd say the external speakers are louder and sound a bit better.

Sound quality through headphones is good. I'd say very very close to the N91-8GB, except that the N91-8GB has a more powerful amplifier to drive headphones.

I just tried deleting one song from my N95-8GB, which has 78 songs. No lag whatsoever. Weird.

Completely confused:
As a sound guy, you should know that no phone speakers actually sound anywhere near decent. That being said, you might want to try an N95-8GB. It has everything you're asking and more.

I have the iPhone. The only thing it's good for is watching youtube and web surfing. I put it beside my bed to surf just before sleeping. There is much potential, but not just yet.

N81 does sound slightly better than the N82 through headphones, but it's barely discernable.

N82 has a great camera, sounds almost as good, very usable GPS, better interface..etc.

So you gotta decide if those things would make the extra $150 worth it. To me, it is.

SergeMoley said...

I think, N91 has the best sound both in terms of quality and power across all makes and models of mobile phones as well as any flash drive MP3 player. Among other reasons is N91's hard drive which makes it possible to deliver truly Hi-Fi Quality Sound. Therefore, whatever flash drive memory music player is out there it is of lower sound quality than that with HD inside of it, and N91 is probably the only such "music phone" worthy of serious cosideration if you want to enjoy high quality music on the go. Just make sure you use some quality earphones as well (I prefer ones by Sony), not original ones that come along with the n91.
That said, it should be mentioned that I find N91's sound in every aspect more to my taste than what I get from my 20Gb iPod, too.

Anonymous said...

Nokia N81 Preview blog at mobile zone blog

Anonymous said...

This is one of my dream phone....most people called it the Nokia N81 - Multimedia and Gaming Monster

Well for me I have to own it first before I agree to that...Lol!

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