It's not the fabled iPod phone, but we reckon its close enough.With Sony Ericsson and Samsung having released their intentions for a music dedicated phone that will promise a seamless marriage for both MP3 playback and mobile telephony, it was inevitable that the Finnish giant would come up with its own musical rendition.
Upside: At 113.1 x 55.2 x 22mm and weighing 156g, the N91 is a relatively bulky phone that redeems its beefy stature with an amazing 4GB micro hard drive. Though Nokia executives declined to comment on the manufacturer for the storage solution, we are fairly sure that it uses the same Hitachi drive that was implemented in Apple's first-generation iPod mini.
Resolving most user complaints that playback controls and music management on other MP3-playing phones are lackluster, to say the least, the N91 offers both dedicated hardware playback buttons and a music management system that is comparable to those found on Apple and Creative players. We found that the playback controls can slide down to reveal a numerical keypad and our initial impressions of the tactile feedback on the N91 were generally very good.
On first look, we are impressed that the N91 offers ID3 tag search support and allows for multiple user-definable playlists, an option that even some MP3 players do not feature. The built-in 3.5mm jack is also a plus for users seeking to deploy their favourite headphones since most phones offer only a 2.5mm jack at best, which is not compatible with most headphone models.
We like the location of the headphone jack and the Hold button at the top of the handset which is identical to the design aesthetics of most MP3 devices. It seems that Nokia engineers have cracked the jackpot in terms of music convergence design; by thinking about the N91 as an MP3 player first, then as a phone.
Audio fidelity on the N91 using a set of Bose Triport headphones and Nokia's sample tracks seems to deliver acceptable sound quality and we like that the maximum volume on the N91 turned out sufficiently loud. Though we saw a sound equaliser option in the menu, the prototype N91 we inspected did not have it enabled. The N91 also supports popular audio codecs like MP3, AAC and WMA.
Other multimedia capabilities on the N91 also include a 2-megapixel camera that shoots up to a resolution of 1,600 x 1,200 pixels, video capture at 176 x 144 pixels, FM radio, line-in/FM recording and Visual Radio support.
Connectivity on the N91 also runs an impressive gamut of USB 2.0, Bluetooth, 3G and WLAN 802.11b/g/i which is compliant with connectivity standards both current and in the immediate future.
Downside: Besides a maximum 190 hours worth of standby time and up to 4 hours of talktime, Nokia executives also confided that music playback on the N91 is good for up to 12.5 hours, which is about average for MP3 players. However, we felt that with multipurpose usage (Web browsing, downloading, video calls, music playback), the N91 does not inspire confidence in terms of battery stamina.
Outlook: We find that the N91 offers a new way the world will look at phones, though whether it can take a bite out of entrenched MP3 manufacturers like Apple still remains to be seen. It is due to arrive in Australia at the end of 2005.
CNET.com.au's Jeremy Roche contributed to this report.
Looks promising. Did you happen to note whether the music player can play in 'flight mode' without the phone switched on? This is a critical feature for me as a road warrior.