Gizmodo: n81

Nokia Rolls Out N85 and N79 Smartphones

John Mahoney — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 11:18:04 EDT

We've had eyes on both of these for a while, but Nokia today has dropped a couple new N-Series phones into the official UK chute, and they are expected to follow stateside soon. The N85 slider (left) appears to be replacing the N81, and the N79 candybar does the same for the N78 (even though it only dropped in the US a few months ago). Gaming and music seems to be the focus of the N85, which adds N-Gage support and ditches the built-in storage in favor of an 8GB micro SD card. An AMOLED screen reduces power consumption for up to 28 hours of music playback. The N79 bumps the N78's camera up to 5MP and adds an LED flash and swappable faceplates. All feature Wi-Fi, GPS and 3G across the board, but the rumored US 3G support we're still waiting to hear for sure on. [Pocket Lint via Electronista]

Nokia's N-Gage Cellphone Gaming Platform Is Up and Running

Jason Chen — Thu, 03 Apr 2008 17:20:00 EDT

The official announcement won't be until next Monday, but the N-Gage blog just let everyone know that their cellphone gaming platform went live today. If you've got an N81, N81 8GB, N82, N95 or N95 8GB, you can go download and install the service now (available on both Mac and PC). If you've got an N73, N93i and N93, you'll have to wait a bit for support. Here's our hands-on of it at Mobile World Congress. In short, it's like Xbox Live for your phone. [N-Gage Download]

The Nokia N81 music phone we got our hands ...

Jason Chen — Mon, 22 Oct 2007 15:06:03 EDT

The Nokia N81 music phone we got our hands on in August is shipping now. Make sure to check out that music video while you're at it. [All About Symbian]

Nokia N81, A Dedication

Jason Chen — Thu, 30 Aug 2007 17:50:40 EDT

Dear Casey, it's been two long years since I've been with a phone. That is, until I met N81. She's taken me from binge drinking and obsessive calls to 976 numbers to being able to love again. I want to dedicate this song to her, my N81. N81, will you marry me? [YouTube]

Hands On the Nokia N81 (Verdict: Really Loud Music Phone)

Brian Lam — Wed, 29 Aug 2007 06:00:27 EDT

You've already seen photos, but you haven't yet been told why the N81, which just went live, is special. Unlike the N9x series handsets this one's designed around music and gaming, not its camera-taking abilities. That explains why its MP rating is a mere 2MP and it's not armed with a Carl Zeiss lens. That also explains why Nokia put the loudest speakers I've ever heard on a mobile phone on this thing:

The side-mounted stereo speakers were so powerful while the phone was placed on a table, bouncing music off the table top. They're far louder than those on an N95, and drivers are protected by a really nice looking mesh screen, and they image stereo with surprising clarity. The headphone jack is a 3.5mm headphone connector, and the phone has 3G (European bands) and Wi-Fi.

As far as gaming goes, the phone's four-way pad works as a D-pad when the phone is flipped on its side (like the Helio Ocean). However, like the Ocean, you can be pretty certain that on launch there won't be a large number of landscape games designed to be played in that orientation. In light of the of the N-Gage announcements and game download service, maybe this is a serious asset to the phone, but last time I checked, N-Gage was still pretty sad.

The phone will be sold in Europe for $599 with 8GB of internal memory, or $499 with 2GB of removable microSD that can be swapped out for a card up to 4GB in capacity.

Nokia N81: Entertainment made simple
With up to 8GB of memory, dedicated music and gaming keys, 3.5 mm headphone connector
and 3G and WLAN connectivity, the Nokia N81 multimedia computer is a true mobile
entertainment powerhouse. With a sleek, polished surface and keys that light up when you
activate them, accessing content on the 3D multimedia menu is fast and intuitive. Equally
impressive, the Nokia N81 is configured to find, buy, manage and play music and games
purchased from the Nokia Music Store and N-Gage games service. The estimated retail price
of the Nokia N81 is 360 EUR before subsidies or taxes. The Nokia N81 8GB is expected to retail
for 430 EUR before subsidies or taxes. Both versions are expected to begin shipping in the
fourth quarter of 2007.

Tomorrow's Entire Nokia Event Leaked?

ybaranovsky — Tue, 28 Aug 2007 21:16:43 EDT

The guys over at Nokia blog supposedly received an itinerary for the virtual Nokia Go Play event. The itinerary mentions the Nokia N81, Nokia N95 8GB, music store, NGage and some more suspect mentions, like "Pjotro dance footage" and "event bloopers." Joke or not, we'll find out in a few hours when the event hits on August 29th, 5 a.m. EST time. [NokiaBlog]

Nokia Set to Release a Whole Slew of New Phones

blongo3 — Tue, 28 Aug 2007 17:26:02 EDT

It looks like the Nokia press conference tomorrow is going to be more like Phone-a-Palooza. According to Gearfuse and their "official" press images, Nokia will be launching at the very least five models tomorrow inlcuding: the N81 (Gaming Phone), N95-8GB edition (Music Phone), 5700, 5610 and the 5310 (XpressMusic). Not much else is really known about the different models right now, except that the n81 is supposed to be running the new N-gage platform, but all that should change tomorrow morning (10am UK time). And as always we'll let keep you all updated the second we find out anything else. [Gearfuse]

This is What the Nokia N81 is Expected to Look Like

AddyDugdale — Tue, 07 Aug 2007 04:19:41 EDT

We got our first sniff at Nokia's N81 back in May and here it is again. Before you get too excited at the gallery below, it's only a model of Nokia's latest cell, but still, the pics are pretty.

It's a lot slimmer than the N80—you can see the two phones compared. The N81 will be announced at the end of the month. [Phone Daily via Just Another Mobile Phone Blog]

Rumor: Nokia N81 and N82 Get Specs, Launch Dates

Jason Chen — Thu, 10 May 2007 21:15:24 EDT

Symbian Guru has the lead on previously unheard of Nokia phones, the N81 and N82, which will both supposedly launch during Q4 2007, and have some pretty fantastic specs. First, the sliding N81 will have 8GB of flash memory, N-Gage gaming, a 2-megapixel camera, quad-band EDGE and HSDPA, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 2.0 with A2DP, and will run the Series 60 3rd Edition.

The N82, on the other hand, is a candybar phone with quad-band GSM, HSDPA, Bluetooth 2.0 with A2DP, Wi-Fi, GPS, TV-out, FM radio, microSD, front VGA camera, 5-megapixel back camera with Carl Zeiss lens and auto focus, and will also be running Series 60 3rd edition. Seeing as the specs on both these phones are so high, we wouldn't expect it to go for anything less than what you're seeing for the other high-end N phones. – Jason Chen

Nokia N82 Imaging KING [Symbian Guru]

Nokia N81 8GB Slider [Symbian Guru]

Ring Nokia