Nokia N91 Review

Overall Rating

First phone with 4Gb memory capacity on-board
It's a Nokia
Crowd pulling hi-tech item that everyone will want

I waited 6 months for Nokia to launch the phone after announcing it

Once Nokia told us they were releasing the Nokia N91 mobile phone, I just couldn't wait to get it. After 6 months waiting I bought the phone without even seeing it, and I was naturally a bit unsure about how it would actually look, feel, and how easy it would be to use. I shouldn't have worried.

From opening the box, I was sold on it immediately. The phone has such a quality look and feel about it, but hidden under that was my old friendly Nokia menu and operating system, so it was like I knew it from day 1.

To keep this review short, if you use a 7650, 6600, 6630 or any other late Nokia phone, you are just going to love this one. Nokia have tidied up the interface, so important items are shown on the screen all the time, and as such, are just a button push away. The camera is stunning, and there is no other word for it. Even on a 17" monitor, you can't see a pixel, and the pictures truly are digital camera quality (best I have ever seen from a phone). Obviously, the 4Gb hard drive and music playing abilities are going to be important to you if you are considering this phone. Well, it's easier to play a track on this than it is on my iPod, and of course, it's got a great speaker, so you are not stuck with headphones. Sorting from Artists, Tracks, Genre and Albums, is all a breeze, and downloading from your PC is simplicity itself.

If there is a spot to hit, well Nokia have done it with this phone, and quite simply, I think it's the best phone available anywhere at this time. Just nothing else comes close. If you want a fantastic designer accessory, you've got it, but you have also got a fantastic hi-quality Camera, Phone, MP3 Player and Organiser all in one amazing package.

GO OUT AND BUY ONE!!

Members' Comments onbazthecat's Review

• bazthecat on 19th May 2006

  Long awaited Nokia N91 still has problems. The N91 is a fantastic phone in many ways, in fact the best I have ever used, but it has a fault that frankly I just can't live with. The usual way Nokia stores music files is in its gallery section. The N91 does exactly the same, but there is no need for it to do that, as you don’t access the music files that way, you access them through the MP3 player functions on the front of the phone, (so you don’t have to open the gallery at all). The effect is, that once you have say 1 gig of music in the gallery, it then takes 30 seconds or so for the phone to open any other gallery function (as it accesses the hard drive) that means with just say one picture in your gallery, you can't just show it to anyone without the 30 second wait till the hard drive finishes doing its stuff. Even when taking a simple picture, it means a 30 second delay before you can even preview it, which pretty much makes it unusable as a camera or video phone. With no music files on the phone, gallery access is instant. The upshot is that with the phones 4gig hard drive, it appears that loading 3 gig of music or 1000 songs (as Nokia keep banging on about) logically, it will take 60 seconds or more, just to access a single picture. I appreciate I am one of the early users of this phone, but Nokia have been delaying it and delaying it, but now its released, it just does not do what it says on the tin, but all because of how it stores its files. Great phone ruined by silly software issues. I contacted Nokia who were completely unhelpful and told me to take my 3 week old phone to a repairer (not happy with that) but I rang the Nokia approved repairer and they had never even seen a Nokia N91…………. I hope they will sort this issue as I know I have communicated with two N91 users that have the same problem. MY ADVICE, DON’T GET AN N91 YET, WAIT UNTIL THIS ISSUE IS RESOLVED, OR IT WILL DRIVE YOU TO DISTRACTION. 2 out of 10 Nokia – Can do better work.

• Muhammed949 on 25th May 2006

  Thanks, this review was a great help. Now i know what phone to get as i wasn`t really sure before. Cheers

• Nixon7 on 13th Jul 2006

  No offence dude but i think you are leading people off a bit by endorsing the camera on this phone so much, it is however only 2 mega pixels and does not have a carl zeiss lense like its predecessor the Nokia N90. Again not trying to criticise but you must not have seen/used many cell phone cameras as this is by far not the best. It is actually quite inferior when compared to others available today.

• bazthecat on 13th Jul 2006

  I have to answer the "dude" who wanted to knock the N91 camera. The N91 is a phone, not a camera, but as the camera comes as part of the phone, I had to give an opinion. Forget the number of pixels or who makes the lens, fact is I thought the camera was just a free feature. I was amazed when i loaded a picture onto the PC and found it filled a 17" monitor and looked great. I have had mobile phones since they have been available in the UK, many of them in the last few years with cameras. They had always been OK for reference shots, but todays camera phones are beginning to deliver real quality. Re the N91, my daughter has the latest Samsung with 2MP, ny son has the best Sony Erricson and my wife has the Razor, all are good, but the picture quality of the N91 is better, simple as that. I think the "dude" that left the comment probably purchased his phone as a camera. I purchased the N91 because it is a fantastic easy to use and easy to handle phone that looks great, has an amazing 4 GIG hard drive, a good screen, a great address book, a terrific MP3 player and oh yes, it has a camera too. You can bang on about other phones, but quite simply nothing out there offers the amount of facilities as the N91 - Period

• rose05 on 22nd Jul 2006

  Good information, I'm always review the Consumer reports or what costumers have to said about a product and the best site is this kind of forums. Thanks for posting such detailed information.