Design and Looks
The first thing that strikes one about the N81 is that it's heavy. It's even a lot heavier than, say, the N95 weighing a little less than 150g. This is enough to make most customers think twice before buying this phone. It is of slider from and typical of Nokia, the slider mechanism is not smooth at all. What is great though is the large 2.4” display that is tailored to give its users a better gaming experience. The phone is very robust and made of strong materials.
At the top of the display you have dedicated gaming keys; the games must be played in the landscape mode to make use of it. There is also the D-pad below the display with a dedicated multimedia key in addition to a dedicated music, call and end keys.
The D-pad hosts a Navi Scroll key which is very convenient to use. Unfortunately the confirming center of the D-pad is very hard to press and will require getting oriented to.
As for the keypad, it is completely flat offering users no feedback or touch orientation which means texters will have to look down at the keypad at all times when sending SMS. This may not be of much concern to people who prefer good ol' voice-to-voice in place of texting but since this phone is built on the N-Gage platform, it is likely to attract text-happy teenagers who will be far from happy the moment they lay eyes on the keypad.
An innovative feature of the N-81 is the lock switch that's present at the top of the phone. Instead of making use of the two-key procedure to lock the keypad, flipping this switch will do the same saving you some effort.
Being a gaming phone does not excuse Nokia from using a below average camera, especially at the price this phone is selling at. And this is exactly what Nokia has done; incorporate a standard 2MP camera that offers picture and video clarity that is barely passable at best.
Other features of the phone are the large 8GB internal memory capacity, a regular 3.5mm port for earphones and a microUSB port for better compatibility.
On the software front, the phone is pre-loaded with three exciting games and media player applications in addition to a great browser, organizer and a PDF viewer. Not surprisingly the phone does not have QuickOffice or ZIPManager pre-installed but they are available for download.
In terms of connectivity the phone offers one with a varied assortment of options with the exception of HSDPA and Infrared.
To conclude, it's hard to justify the purchase of this phone seeing that it's just as easy to play quality games on other phones with more features selling at almost the same price.
Features
- 8GB Internal memory
- Symbian OS 9.2 with S6 interface
- Dedicated gaming keys with new N-Gage platform
- Touch sensitive Navi wheel
- Dedicated music keys
- 3G with video calls
- Wide range of connectivity options
Accessories
- Nokia Music Headset HS-45 with remote control AD-54 (available with phone)
- Nokia Compact Travel Charger AC-5 (available with phone)
- Nokia Stereo Headset HS-16
- Nokia Wireless Audio Gateway AD-42W
- Nokia Bluetooth Speakers MD-5W
