Symbiosis60

Here it goes again. I LOVE GADGET. Thanks to the courtesy of good people at WOM World I scored a nice shiny N81 8GB edition for a review. ALso for your information this whole review is being published on my new toy, an N810 tablet which i got as a gift but that's for another review. In this review i will focus strictly on N81.


Currently I'm in Poland once again for about a month so WOM was nice enough to send the device here instead of Chicago which gives me enough time to fiddle around with it and put it through its paces. Immediately upon powering up the phone I've noticed how much faster it was. I would dare to say it's at least 30 percent faster than my N95-3 (US Edition). This could be due to the fact that the device has 8GB of internal memory which I'm sure makes the OS run smoother. This is a DEFINITE plus. I don't like when I read the description of some device claiming that it's "lighting fast" when in reality when I pick it up it still feels sluggish. Luckily this was not the case with N81.
When I took the phone out of the box I still could see the fingerprints" of the person that was handling the device before me. Again the phone is nicely designed but I'm not a big fan of the "piano-black" finishes on devices that usually tend to be held in ones hand for the major part of the day. One thing though that striked me was that the device could be a nice iPhone killer if it was a bit bigger. So a note to nokia..give us some "non rubberized", "non shiny" black finishes. All we want is a good looking phone that won't look like some greasy handed child handled it right before us. While mentioning iPhone (for the record I can not stand iPhone) I do have to say that i like the "Navi wheel???".. You may ask why the question marks.. Well, as much as i like the touch "wheel", it's not a wheel but a square which feels weird to navigate. I think the device would feel much nicer if the directional wheel was really a wheel. Look at iPods..they have a wheel yet also incorporate up, down, left, right functionality and people seem to like it. So... note #2 to Nokia: DO NOT try to reinvent the wheel. Make it round, not square.

Since we are on the slider mechanism part let's mention a few things here.. When it's closed - it's solid as a rock. When it's opened up, it's another story. Bobble head toys come to mind....wobble wobble. The slider is mounted on a different mechanism than the one of N95. N95 incorporates a "lip" sliding rails. Peeking under the slider and against the light (no WOM..I did not take the phone apart) it looks like this line of N series devices uses a "pin and tube" kind of metal sliding "hinge". This is a BIG plus for the sturdiness of the whole slider but the issue here might be that the tubes sliding over the pins are too short which causes the slider to wobble immensely while in open position. I've seen the same kind of sliders on Samsung phones but they are rock solid and there's no issue with them. One thing that would work very easily as a "cushion" for the slider would be to place a paper thin commercial grade velvety felt padding under the slider. I've seen these things used in a few devices.

Now comes the part that I loved from the first second i touched the device..spring loaded slider. N95 uses a magnet holder and no spring..it gets a nice "click" action but N81 uses a spring loader which literally shoots the screen up.
It feels almost like a spaceship on "Start Trek" being docked at cargo bay. It gave me a feeling of "Snap, lock, dock, I'm ready to rock"...a definite I LIKE on my list.

The keypad of the phone is completely flush with only a tiny bumps (think Moto RAZR). Some might like it however I'm not a fan of flat keypads as they require more attention when you text and make you look at the buttons to make sure you're pressing the right one. I am the kind who is texting while walking, driving, sleeping and prefer not to look at the keyboard but instead focus on the text on the screen. The keyboard does have a slight tactile feedback so not feeling each key press is not an issue here. It´s simply a matter of preference.

One of the disappointments right out of the box was the camera. I have to say that the picture quality is BAD. I'd even say it's mediocre. As they say a picture is worth a thousand words... On top is a picture taken with N95 set at 2 MP (to match the resolution of N81) and on the bottom is the shot from N81 (but is there really a need to even indicate?). HOW Disappointing. True.. N95 is an imaging device where N81 is geared towards the Younger music/games/fun crowd but the camera part is also included in the FUN bucket so why Nokia, WHY is it so bad. The images are Way too grainy and the green hue is an absolute KILLER.

As you can see there's simply no comparison. Same light, same time, SO MUCH difference. The issue here may be that N81 is a fixed focus camera phone where N95 is an auto focus one but I doubt this would be THE issue. It should make a difference only in the sharpness department of the picture. There are many 2MP cameras that have a better image reproduction that that of N81. The imaging sensor is at fault here. Hopefully for the users that will decide to purchase this device, this will be fixed in the next firmware update.

For the only two issues (slider and a camera) that I have with N81 I do have to say that it packs quite a nice set of features. I'm a big fan of sturdy phones and besides the wobbly slider - ONLY IN OPEN MODE - the phone feels like a sturdy brick which could be used as a self defense tool. I don't recommend it since your fingerprints will be ALL OVER and VERY VISIBLE :-)
I capitalized "OPEN MODE" for a reason..when the slider is closed it somehow is VERY tight and solid. It's feels as the phone suddenly becomes a real solid piece of a mono block. It doesn't wobble a bit.
When I looked a numerous times at the front of the phone, I can clearly say that it's a semi match in the design department to iPhone. Yes... I said it.... and I like it. Nice clean front with touch sensitive "Navi wheel" makes it look like a device that can proudly be displayed in the public. I would dare to say that for certain people this may be iPhone killer. It has a decent touch navigation wheel, a nice design and the battery seems to be "ok". The screen would be a bit bigger but it's nice..It's quite brighter than N95 too..


There's not much to tell about the OS...it's a standard S60 v3.1 (FP1). The menu layout is a bit different and the icons are placed differently than on other N series phones. I guess there must be some logic behind it (although in this incarnation I find it a bit confusing and some things are hidden deeper in the hierarchy than on my N95.
The phone lacks an internal GPS however as with newer (read S60 v3) devices Maps application is preloaded on the device so in this case you just have to add an external GPS.

Also another thing worth mentioning is the now standard on N-series devices 3.5mm audio jack. No need to buy special headphones. Just pop in your high end headphones and rock the music... speaking of which...the phone has dedicated music buttons. In my opinion a nice touch and they hit the demographic that the phone is geared towards. They are backlit and when the backlight dims out, all you have to do is slide your finger on the navi wheel and the light comes back on. The speakers are LOUD. That's all I can say. Sometimes people complain that their ring tones are too quiet and can not be heard in the public. Let me say that this will NOT be an issue with this phone. Just make sure you have some decent ring tone preloaded. Otherwise you risk being laughed at since EVERYONE around you and withing 30 meter radius will hear it too. It would wake up the dead...

Nice set of audio drivers may be shoved into this "soap bar" due to the fact that this is a music/gaming device. I downloaded a trial of "Asphalt 3D" racing game (a 3D car racing game which is not a brainer) which needs some processing power and this phone delivers it both in the speed and sound department.
The sound was loud and the game was very smooth while using D-Pad was quite comfortable although navi wheel would be a nicer feature. Maybe one of the N-series devices down the road will completely replace square and pad and use a real wheel instead and allow it to be used in games.

(update 03-22-2008) ... since I'm not the kind that ever reads the manual books I sometimes tend miss a few things which I'd know immediately had I looked through the pages of the book of wisdom...case in point..I decided to do a full factory reset of the phone as something did not seem right with it. Immediately N-Gage icon appeared on the menu screen which was probably accidentally deleted by the previous reviewer. When I clicked it - N-Gage welcome demo was launched and in addition to my big surprise TWO SECRET hardware buttons were revealed. These buttons are used in addition to the soft menu buttons. The are located on the left and right side of the ear piece. Later on I realized that I did not pay attention as these buttons also light up when the picture gallery is launched. One (the square) puts the thumbnailed picture into the full screen mode AND zoom in while the other one (circle) does the opposite (zoom out and out of full screen mode). What's weird is that while in shooting mode these two buttons are not used for anything. It took me a second to realize that in order to use zoom (only digital..so stay away from it) I had to press the volume rocked which was not the most convenient thing to do. Those two keys would make more sense as this allows you to hold the camera still with two hands while using volume rocker seemed to make it a bit shakier.


A thing to mention about S60 OS...it seems that the OS is "the same" yet "so different". I installed an update to Share Online v3 on N81. After installation on N81 a plug in appeared on the main stand by screen showing which services are active (Flickr and OVI) and two more indicators along.. a * and a comment bubble with numbers next to them. These indicate comments made to your pictures and the asterisk indicates something I'm not aware of (I have not tried it that much) but I guess it is to show you how many new pictures are uploaded or something else... Being jealous and craving for more plug ins on my N95's poorly organized stand by screen i tried to install N81 version on my N95... to my surprise this said plug in does not show up on N95...see below



One of the things that I've seen that people complain about on N81 is the power button. OH MY GOD. This has to be the worst power button I've touched. It's VERY hard to press and on top of that is so deep into the body of the device that one has to use pinky finger to turn it on or off. The lawsuits will pile up once teen queens will start breaking their nails during the power-on-off cycle. :-)

Tomorrow I will try to put the phone through some other ultimate testes... My cousin is coming home for the holidays. He falls into the designated N81 demographic crowd - 24 years old - I'll see what he will have to say about the device. There will be an infatuation with it for a moment as he has not played with S60 phone before (at least not that I know of) so it will be interesting to see his reaction to all the features.

(Update). My cousin is home for the holidays. I don't know what it is with youngsters these days...for him the phone felt heavy (well..it's not the lightest device but at the same time is STURDY like a brick) and he prefers flip phones (can you hear me vomit?). Besides that his eyes lit up when he realized the phone has a touch navi wheel. This was really "cool" in his opinion. Next was when I launched Asphalt 3D game. Ok...the guy is 24 years old so he's not a teenager anymore (young adult I'd say) but his first response was "Oh my God..this is f..king nice. It's just like the game I play on my PC (Need for Speed)..". Of course when I played the game I was crashing the car on on the second bridge all the time. My cousin on the other hand was a SMOOTH DRIVER. It seemed like he knew how to handle the device and the game without any instructions. Next came a short trial of FIFA 2007. Again... his words were "It's the same as on PC".

This means that Nokia has accomplished the task of hitting the g-spot of teenagers and young adults by creating a good gaming phone with a KICK ASS graphics and a processor that can handle all tasks without a single hiccup. My cousin will be reviewing the camera as well (I enabled my OVI account on the phone so we may see some "young adult smut" :-) Don't hold me accountable for anything.

Now to a couple of other things worth mentioning. Like most $3XX and up N-Series devices this phone is no exception to what's included under the hood. You will find a Quad band GSM and a single band WCDMA (2100) with HSDPA. Also included is WiFi (g-flavour)...it almost feels like a standard inclusion and would be a faux pas had Nokia chose to remove it. I'm sure if the device was available in the USA market some Nazi operator (let's call them h8&t) would decide to have it disabled. Next down the list you get a standard plate of bluetooth, GPS mapping application; it should be mentioned that N81 DOES NOT have GPS built in - only software is preloaded so you would need to but a bluetooth GPS receiver in order to make the full use of the application which supports A-GPS so the satellite signal acquisition should be a snap.

While talking about S60 os above I forgot to mention that the phone DOES NOT have the Quick Office application (viewing of Exel, Word, Power Point files) preloaded out of the box however it's available free of charge through the downloads catalog along with a few other applications. I guess Nokia decided that the teens/young adults do not need this application out of the box (Personally I have used it ONCE on my N95 so saving a few kb's of memory on the device may be justifiable).

Standby screen now has Nokia Search application plug in showing up. A feature N95 users have been longing after for a while (I believe N95-8 GB (EMEA and US) and N95-1 most recent firmwares have it but the Yankee N95 classic is still on the "Desired plug in" list to have it enabled).

The "Navigation" portion of the phone (all buttons on the slider) look a bit "busy" but were ok to use. There's a little "dash" button squeezed in that gives the access to shortcut menu called "tiles" It includes Music, Games, Gallery, Contacts, Internet and Maps tiles which are a nice replacement for the "U-Shaped" menu found on the original N-95...it was nice and colorful but pretty much a complete system hog. I don't know how such menu as that found on N81 will behave on N95 but even though it does not have all the bells and whistles of the previous one, seems to make more sense.

One more thing DEFINITELY worth of mentioning is the screen protection. N95's lcd screen is fully exposed and only protected by some kind of flimsy coating this prone to scratches if not properly handled (Thank GOD for Zagg aka Invisibleshield and their kevlar screen protectors). N81's screen is also prone to scratches BUT here the screen is not an actual part of LCD - it's a translucent plastic that is a part of the whole slider laid on top of LCD - like in every other phone on the planet. Of course you can use screen protectors to prevent the scratches but the LCD itself is well protected from the junk that you may be carrying in your pocket if you will happen to carry the device in such a way.

A few days have gone by and unfortunately my cousin had to leave earlier so I did not get a chance to get a fully fledged review from "young adult's" point of view. What I got from him at the beginning was "WOW" which was exactly what Nokia wanted. The first impression is always the most important. If you don't capture user's attention within a few seconds, you may as well put the device to rest. None of the carriers in Poland has this phone available, however if it was, my cousin would be the one to get it. I on the other hand was "wow-ed" by the nice design and the overall sturdiness of the device although I'd like to see a few more curves...think something in between Moto PEBL and N81. Coming towards the end of my review I have to say that this device is not for me. I'm spoiled by auto focus camera, larger screen and the overall more multimedia oriented feel of N95 HOWEVER If I was a 20-something teen/young adult, who plays games on his device no matter where he/she goes, and needs to snap a few occasional pics of their "like so cool" friends at the mall sticking their tongues out, wearing a hoodie and being the way the are, just because they can...well I'd get that kick ass phone.

Having said that, this does not mean the device can not be a killer business phone. After all it's S60...you make it "You"

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