The Nokia N81 8GB is a smartphone with a mix of impressive features… and rather disappointing disadvantages. There’s the obvious advantage of having built-in 8 gigabytes of memory space for applications, games, music, videos, photos, what have you. Some mobile-phone critics have complained about the lack of an expansion slot for more memory, but 8 gigs should be pretty spacious for most people’s needs.
The N81 is a dual-camera 3G phone, but does not have support for HSDPA, which has been available for sometime now. It does, however, let you access the Internet via wifi, so that probably makes up for it. Accessing via wifi in various hotspots -– whether open networks or WEP-enabled secure networks -– didn’t give me any problems, except that websites loaded rather slowly at first. The built-in Web browser is user friendly, though, and looks nice on the 2.4” 16-million-color QVGA display.
As a prolific blogger, I could appreciate the N81 for its Internet capabilities, but then there are the downsides. First off, the keypad is way too small for me. The middle keys are OK, providing good feedback. But the keys on the bottom edge are difficult to use -– my finger keeps slipping!
Perhaps this handset was designed primarily for music and gaming, rather than for serious data input. At the bottom of the screen, where they phone-specific keys are located, there are extra buttons for music: play/pause, forward, rewind and stop. In fact, whatever you’re doing with the phone, you can play music with just a keystroke.
Another downside that I find very surprising is the camera. It’s only at 2 megapixels, and it’s not even a Carl Zeiss lens. Plus, the photos are grainy! No matter that the light is adequate, it can’t seem to take decent photos. Video is even worse.
But if we talk about music, that’s a whole different story on the N81! This handset has full stereo capability, having a speaker on each side of the rather thick body. The output is astonishingly powerful and will certainly delight any music lover who’s in the market for a portable and feature-packed phone-cum-player. And with 8GB, the N81 can store hours and hours of music.
Speaking of hours, the battery is one huge plus factor. Based on my near-abusive usage of the test unit, the N81 lasted two whole days before it bothered to ask me for a recharge. I had wifi turned on for several hours, was listening to music tracks, and texting people left and right during that time. I also had Bluetooth running so that I could listen on the Nokia BH-604 Bluetooth headset.
The BH-604 is an awesome headset! It’s a full stereo system that lets you enjoy music like you were in a concert hall, and it’s totally compatible with the N81.
If you value being constantly in touch with your online contacts, the N81 offers good value. With its wifi connectivity and large memory, you can download a whole range of Internet applications, on top of the pre-installed email and Web programs. I use the Nimbuzz client, which lets me connect to Google Talk, Yahoo! Messenger, Skype, ICQ, etc. all at the same time.
The N81 is also supposedly a gaming console, since it’s Nokia’s effort in promoting N-gage, its gaming platform. But at the retail price of around P17,200, and if you’re in it for the games, you’d probably be better off with a PSP.
One other thing I appreciate in this phone is its content search program. It has a built-in search facility for virtually anything that’s inside the phone’s memory. Search for a keyword, and the program returns results from all over the place, including SMS messages. And the search speed is pretty decent, too.
On the whole, it’s an affordable phone with powerful features. The disappointments could be overlooked, especially if you’re a mobile and music addict.
Nice review Kuya Blogie! I think the downsides can easily be overlooked, as camera phones aren’t really that trust when it comes to capturing photos. I think the fact that it’s relatively cheap and that it has wifi is a total plus in my opinion. I’m definitely considering buying this as my future phone.
But before anything else, I gotta earn some dough first. Hehe. =P
@JM — I’m glad you liked the review. More to come in the near future!