Preview: Nokia N91
By Jørgen Sundgot, Wednesday 27 April 2005

A 4 GB hard drive, Wi-Fi 802.11b/g and 3G: live from Amsterdam, Jørgen Sundgot sneaks a peek of Nokia's N91, also known as Steve Jobs' wet dream.

Who would have thought: after dragging its feet for several years, Nokia is finally making a jump to the forefront of mobile technology again. Part of the maker's new N series of multimedia handsets, the Nokia N91 smartphone unveiled here today in Amsterdam is destined to give Sony Ericsson's W800 walkman phone a solid run for its money - unless it runs out of battery life first.

Integrating a 4 GB hard drive, the Series 60 based Nokia N91 is a surprisingly small smartphone given its mind-boggling feature set. The stainless steel exterior feels comfortable and solid, but you'd better not be suffering from spotless-related obsessive compulsive disorders as keeping it neat and clean is likely to prove virtually impossible.

First and foremost a music phone, I'm pleasantly surprised to see that Nokia has managed to integrate a 3.5 mm stereo headset jack directly into the handset itself, negating the need for any cumbersome dongles. Audio quality is superb, and although perhaps not as intuitive as Apple's ipod products, the user interface and dedicated menu keys placed in front of the sliding keypad cover is more than good enough.

Format support is reasonably comprehensive with MP3, AAC, WMA and M4A on the slate, and there's also an included stereo headset with remote control - the quality of which could be better, but remains a nice touch. Getting music on the handset should be a breeze; it will show up as a USB 2.0 mass storage device to which users can drag and drop files when connected to a compatible computer, and Nokia will also provide a dedicated application for music management. Incidentally, the USB connector is a plain, non-proprietary mini USB port: bravo, Nokia.

Music playback appears to be quite well integrated with phone functionality, with the N91 among other things pausing playback when receiving incoming calls - and, importantly, resuming playback when hanging up. Also present are dedicated volume controls, as well as an 8-band equalizer and the ability to download music over the air, or alternatively record it directly through a line in connector or from the built-in stereo FM radio of the handset - which also supports Nokia's Visual Radio concept.

Connectivity is abundant in the N91, which offers up GSM/GPRS/EDGE 900/1800/1900 MHz connectivity along with 3G for WAN scenarios. More impressively, Nokia has also managed to cram not only Bluetooth and Wi-Fi 802.11b into the N91, but also 802.11g; a previously unseen feat what regards mobile devices.

As if this wasn't enough, the 160g, 113 x 55 x 22 mm Nokia N91 also includes a 2 Megapixel camera which shoots stills at resolutions up to 1600 x 1200 pixels and records video in H.263, MPEG4 and RealVideo 8 formats - all formats which the device can also stream video in. As is typical of Nokia, image quality appeared to be very good from what could be purveyed through its 176 x 208 pixel display

Other highlights worthy of mention include the Opera based web browser with its exquisite small screen rendering capabilities, as well the same flurry of messaging options and PIM applications typically found in Series 60 based smartphones.

Expected to be commercially available worldwide by the end of 2005, Nokia estimates the retail price of the N91 to fall between 650 and 750 EUR.
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