Nokia N91 8 Gb

In this article we put through its paces one of the strangest upgrades in Nokia’s history. Why Nokia N91 didn’t get “i” index like the rest of the updates, and sports the offbeat “8 Gb”? Why was it announced along with Nokia N70 and N73 Music Edition, at least in leaflets and ads it is linked up with the ME? In fact the market hasn’t seen a smartphone more music-heavy than the N91, so what this special edition is all about? Finally, why the end-users are allowed to know only about the increased hard drive capacity and kept unaware of some other decent additions? Incidentally, the reviews on this very handset available on the Web right now contain inaccuracies that might affect your decision. For this article we got our hands on the N91 8 Gb’s commercial version, meant for retailing, in other words the very final edition of the smartphone and I do hope that after this review’s release date, no further updates to the software will be made.

The structure of this review differs from what you have come to expect, as there aren’t too many things I can dwell upon, therefore I am just running through the foremost changes and draw a conclusion on whether the 8Gb edition is worthy of your original N91’s place. Now let’s take the plunge.

- The most important, craved-for and hyped update – support for A2DP. Hold your breath now, as it is… in! And don’t trust those claiming that it is missing on the N91 8Gb – we managed to pair up Nokia HS-12W and SonyEricsson HBH DS-970 with the handset. In the former case the headset displayed track title properly, but fell flat in terms of sound quality, which could be barely rated as “good”. The “opposing” gadget never delivered any issues with connection or stereo-sound transferring, but track title was missing on its TFT display. The DS-970 offered us excellent sonic experience – its volume level proved to be sufficient and a bit more than that all the time. Both headsets had no problems with volume control and track switching. In passing, the handset’s user guide features Nokia BH-500 as a recommended accessory.

- A glimpse of changes to the software, some of them come as a big surprise and are most welcome. Repeating the same old words about the platform is senseless – you can learn more about it from a dedicated article here. As regards the highlights of the N91 itself, corresponding review will shed some light on its features. For now, let us begin with the player-related changes. First, while at playback screen, the display’s top part holds a status bar presenting you with charge indicator, signal strength, active connectivity protocols, etc. This is a really big plus and the thing that will cater to music aficionados, as they will spend most of the quality time with the device at that screen and thus will still be able to keep track of what is up with the phone. By comparison in the N91 to check battery status you had to go back to the music library. Second, the player menu now feature Visualization item, enabling you to pick a still image, animated oscillograph and spectrum. To my mind, an appealing add-on, at least it will do for some playing around at first and showing off. Visualization effects can be engaged only from the playback mode.