Nokia N91 Review

Overall Rating

Umm, it's silver...

Too heavy
Too big
Battery life sucks
Firmware is attrocious

I got the Nokia N91 phone from an online company (e2save.com) and it's caused me nothing but heartache since receiving it! I realise e2save is a subsiduary of The Carphone Warehouse that sells seconds, but I was assured that all phones are checked and 100% guaranteed, just like a new phone.

It was free on the tariff I chose (hence the value for money rating above) and that is why I got it. And I mean the only reason.

I have always had Sony Ericsson phones, and I wish I hadn't swapped! I know I was unfamiliar with the operating system, so I have no bones with that, but everything else is pants.

To start, the battery lasts about 3 days. I am writing this on a Monday evening. I charged this phone last night (Sunday) and the battery is already down to 2 'bars' from full (7 is totally full). I have talked to a friend for about 10 minutes this morning and sent/received about 10 texts. That is it. The battery will die tonight unless I charge it again now. So that is about 24-30 hours from full, and not a great deal of use out of it.

And this leads me on to charging it. It will not charge unless I turn the MP3 player on. If I just plug in the charger unit (I have to play about with the plug for 5 minutes to get the damn thing to charge anyway) it will charge for about 4 seconds, then stop. Try and think how long it took me to work out the MP3 player needs to be playing before it holds a charge...

Also, if the battery totally dies on you, it is next to impossible to charge it again as it won't charge without the MP3 player working. Try turning on the MP3 player when the battery is dead!

Now the firmware (Built in software). If you try and do something on the phone too fast (write a text for example) the phone freezes. You need to remove the battery and start again to get it going. This would not be too bad if the phone turned on quickly, but it takes about 30 seconds from pushing the power button to being operable. That does not sound much but it is really annoying when you are in a hurry.

Nokia do have a firmware upgrade bit on their website, but this phone is not supported so you are stuck with it!

The screen on this phone is fantastic. The sound quality is superb. The hands-free option is brilliant (you don't need to talk into the phone to program the hands-free dialling thing. The phone works out how to pronounce the name and calls it when you say it, if you see what I mean.) The downside to this trick is there is no option to call either the person's mobile/home/work number. You tell the phone which number to use as a default and that is it. So if you need to call someone at their home and their mobile is the default number, you cannot do it with the hands-free dialling.

This phone also weighs a ton. Nokia say it is because it has a 4gig hard-drive inside, but that is rubbish. My 30gig Ipod weighs a damn site less than this phone.

The design of this phone is great. Real metal (more weight) gives it a great feel (sort of thing) and looks the poodle's privates. The slide action is neat and feels solid, as do the buttons, but the bad points really out-weigh the good points. And, as mentioned above, MY phone is a second, but so many other reviewers have said the same thing about the firmware freezing, the battery life and the size/weight, so my unit is not the exception.

I am now looking on eBay to buy an old O2 phone so I can have one that works well, and one that is preferably a Sony Ericsson.

All in all, I would not wish this phone on anyone. Nokia have come up with some fantastic phones in the past, but this one fails on almost every level.