It's truly an impressive package, I never seen such creative effort in a retail package like this, although I have seen sophisticated designs, such as on the 8800 Arte box.

For starters you can enjoy my summarized review on the phone, and unboxing pictures as well. My full review will be here soon. The reason I will be doing this is that not everyone wants to know every single detail on the phone, most people just want a phone to live with, and to the loyal mobile enthusiasts, they can get an introduction on the device from here. The unboxing pictures gallery is at the bottom of the post.

With Sony Ericsson Walkman phones taking over, Nokia had to get something into the market fast...and they did...with added style and power. At its price and category, the N81 8GB is the ultimate multimedia smartphone.

The N81 8GB comes with a pair of BOSE Quiet Comfort 3 for further multimedia enjoyment, although they are only included in a limited edition.

The phone itself is a slider with a glossy external appearance on the top, bottom and in the hidden keypad. It does make the device look more glamorous but it's a fingerprint magnet that not only reduces visibility on the display, but also damage the looks of the phone itself.

Concerning to software, Symbian OS9.2 was chosen to run the phone at its peak power, just like in all NSeries. The platform and UI used are S60 v3.1. Adding smartphone capabilities to a multimedia focused product only makes it more powerful, and this was what made possible NGage to run on it. For gaming, there are two extra hidden keys on top of the display, which only lit up in gaming mode.

Nokia has been working in their legendary gaming platform for some while, and when first unleashed NGage on the N81, it couldn't have been better. The graphics of the games possible to download are breathtaking, and remove the need to carry another device around, such as a PSP, but most importantly, it brings convergence onto the device.

In terms of sound, the music player performs poorly as it is slowed down due to the amount of music tracks filed on the phone (8GB can be up to 2000 tracks). It takes long to perform any command on a music file, such as play or stop, reducing the enjoyment that should be taken from the dedicated music keys around the Navi-wheel, or from using the navi-wheel itself.

The S60 platform running on the N81 8GB brings along many other applications such as Nokia Maps (if a external GPS is available), and the famous S60 browser. However, as this is one of the first Nokia phones with a Navi-wheel, there is a low functionality to it, although this should be solved with new firmware versions.

The hardware present is future-proof to what concerns to music phones. A navi-wheel, 8GB of built-in flash memory, a spring-mechanism functional lock key, a 3.5mm jack, Bluetooth v2.0 with A2DP, and did I mention the Bose headphones? These feel like cushions in the ears, and isolate any non-needed frequency thanks to their noise cancelling technology, and when put on Bass Booster mode on the N81's equalizer, they can cause serious head injury. They will be talked about in a separate review.

The features don't stop here, to the music addict who needs to be always connected, there is 3G included, as well as a front camera for video calls, and WLAN to make use of hotspots. A microUSB port enables the phone to be used as a flash drive, a music device, or as a modem through Nokia PC Suite.

To add up, it doesn't matter if the phone only has a 2 megapixel camera or lacks on Sony Ericsson Walkman software, its sheer functionality is enough even to a businessman: the software and the connectivity available let Nokia live up to their promise. The excess gloss might be the biggest disadvantage, but the phone gets a thumbs up from me!

Advantages: 8GB built-in memory, Navi-wheel, Bose headphones, NGage capable, Symbian OS9.2 with S60 UI v3.2, WLAN, 3G.

Disadvantages: Glossy material attracts many fingerprints, Music player application rather slow, Difficulty in distinguishing numeric keys due to no physical separation between them.

Rating: 8.2/10

Unboxing pictures:

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