Nokia N81 8GB Cell Phone Review
By Mark Brezinski
Reviewed.com Editorial Staff
December 31, 2007
The Nokia N81 is a multimedia cell phone with a full 8 GB of storage space. It's being marketed as a multimedia device that competes with the iPhone, and it certainly lives up to that title. It does have a lot of storage, support for Nokia's new music store, and includes Nokia's redesigned N-Gage gaming platform. On the downside, it has a pretty bad camera, is a little on the heavy side and the device itself doesn't seem very durable. It seems as though its own heft could cause it to break if you dropped it. The kicker for most people, however, will be its price: $629. Unlocked phones are more expensive than those offered through the carriers because carriers subsidize their phones to get customers to sign up; with the N81, ou pay the full cost yourself.
Placing a call is quick and easy on the N81, though the top row of the keypad was a bit hard to use; it is located too close to the top half of the case (which slides up), so it made hitting the top row of keys a little awkward. Once you've gotten used to it, however, you should be fine. Contacts and organizational software all receive better than average treatment, but power users won't find smart phone technology here. But this is a media handset, if you need more spohisticated ornizational software, buy a BlackBerry.
Audio quality, overall, was on the better side of average. With incoming sounds, the phone over-emphasized higher-register sounds a bit, making incoming oices sound slightly reedy. In terms of your own voice, the N81 tended to overemphasize lower-register sounds, makign your voice sound a bit boomy. The phone's side tone – the amount of your own voice the phone plays back so you can gauge how loudly you're talking – was a bit softer than it should've been. This will make you talk a little softer than you normally would, but not by a huge margin.
In terms of music and video, the N81 provides good functionality, with the exception of the camera, which performed poorly Ifa good camera is important, the N81 is not for you. The still capture is downright horrible. Video capture, however, is much better, which was a nice surprise. The music and video software was also much better than average, as the N81 inherited Nokia's standard media player software. In terms of playback alone, the N81 lives up to its "media handset" label.
As a Series 60 Symbian handset, the N81's software is excellent in general. Series 60 Symbian is a powerful, extensible, and incredibly responsive operating system. It also comes with the best browser we've reviewed to date. The messaging software isn't quite up to BlackBerry level, but again, for a music handset, it's far above average. In terms of gaming, the N81 is one of the launch phones featuring the new N-Gage gaming platform. We felt the N81 was a capable handset for gaming, offering games that look an awful lot like PlayStation 1 titles. It won't repalce a Nintendo DS, but it's fine for casual gaming.
In battery life, the N81 put up good numbers everywhere except for where it counted: music playback. Call time and browsing life were both over average by about an hour (both lasting about 5 and a half hours apiece). Music playback only lasted for 4 hours, 19 minutes, which is about half of where it should've been – especially considering this is a media handset. Phones that depend on music playback really need good battery life; if your iPod runs out of batteries after a few hours, it won't kill your cell phone.
It's hard to say most of Nokia's devices are good deals simply because US buyers aren't used to paying full price for a phone. The iPhone may have convined many people that a decent phone is worth paying for, but the N81 is more than double the price of Apple's first phone. As it is, the N81 is a great phone with excellent functionality, but there are simply better deals offered by carriers – the phone's price doesn't take this competition into consideration. Therefore, though we'd certainly like to, we can't recommend this phone unless its price fell considerably.
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