Nokia N81 8GB Review Nokia N81 8GB is not the best in any one thing. In fact, it has many shortcomings. But for the market position, and what people would appreciate from their mobiles, it's a refreshing entrant into the smart/musicphone side of things. And like the iPhone, makes you expect just a bit more from the device in your pocket. The Nokia N81 and N81 8GB are mid-range models. They have some of the features of their sibling, the more expensive Nokia N95, but not all. As you might expect, the N81 8GB adds an additional 8 GB of storage, but loses the microSD memory card slot that's in the standard N81. Both are Symbian devices with S60 Feature Pack 1 (the latest operating system available) and are focused more on entertainment than productivity. They are capable of being business devices, but a few minutes with one will make it clear that the N81 8GB was made to rock out.
Design
The N81 8GB is a very sleek device, even though it reminds me of a well chiseled brick. It's heavy, but not too much so. When the slider is closed, you see a device that begs to be touched. My first reaction to it was that it was a touchscreen model. The front buttons looked more like heat-sensitive controls rather than standard buttons, and I could easily tell that that was probably the thought when designing them. The front face slides up to reveal the number pad, which is too small for my fingers, but several people I talked to (mostly women) had no issues with it. Still, using the keypad was a good bit easier than I thought it would be; though the keys are small, they give excellent feedback The other buttons all around the device are completely flush, yet easy to touch and give adequate feedback. The power button was the only one I really had a problem with, as it was too hard to press and required a bit of a dent into my finger to access it. The screen is a so-so affair. Until I changed the default theme, it was nearly unreadable in direct sunlight. It seems to take in all the sunlight and give nothing back. Nevertheless, indoors, the ... more>>>