N-RICH YOUR WORLD

Built for music, videos and gaming, the N81 8GB is sure to surprise you

A glossy black finish, a stunner of a screen and buttons that enhance the design contours. The Nokia N81 8GB is the multimedia messiah that threatens to turn every known mobile experience on its head. Built with the sole purpose of providing music, videos and true gaming, the light and easy-to-use slide phone is it even a phone any longer? is the perfect way to enter a world you8217;ve only dreamt of.

The 16 million colours displayed on a 2.4-inch screen give the interface a smooth and translucent sheen. The multimedia menu key, right next to the hot keys that fire up the media options, finally does away with the annoying list or grid view. Instead, there are 3-D menus that you can literally browse through. If you don8217;t want to listen to music, just flick the direction key and a smooth menu of games roles out. Don8217;t want that either? Another flick will bring you to contacts, Internet access, maps or the camera. It8217; not just the rolling screens that grab attention, but also the sheer speed with which you can zoom through to what you want.

With 8 GB of space to fill out and access points that range from Bluetooth 2.0 to the trusted USB, you have enough space and plenty of ways to store what you want, when you want. Nokia has gone the extra mile just to prove this: the phone comes preloaded with 10 English songs, 10 English music videos, 10 Hindi songs, 10 comedy scenes from Hindi movies, and the full three hours of Sholay. The phone has built-in speakers that can handle most scales and comes bundled with ear phones. In a smart move, instead of making propriety connections, the N81 8GB comes with the standard 3.5-mm jack. So you can connect it to all the speakers you already own and the next time you go to a party, you can take your music and set the floor on fire.

The music doesn8217;t end here. Nokia plans to launch a music store in early 2008, from where you can buy and download the latest music on to your phone. Besides the static viewing and listening, the phone has an N-gage gaming with two buttons next to the screen so that you don8217;t ruin the keypad with excessive pressure. It has three trial version games: Space Impact, FIFA 07 and Asphalt 3, which neatly cover the mindless shooting, simple strategy and rubber burning urges of any gamer. If you want any more, Nokia will be launching the N-gage platform by 2007 end; so you can sample games and buy just the ones that satiate your virtual bloodlust.

Then there8217;s the Internet. The N81 8GB comes with wireless LAN to surf the waves of your WiFi connection. It8217;s also e-mail enabled, so no matter what the format, you can stay connected on the move. To top it all, there are the maps and quick search options. In India, mapping is now slated to tsunami through most devices, and this phone comes loaded with it. You can easily find places and the interface starts with the earth8212;beautiful to look at, even if a bit slow. The search, is well, standard.

Though multimedia-empowered, the N81 8GB has one chink. The 2-megapixel camera with built-in flash and a plethora of options doesn8217;t live up to expectations. And there is a catch. All this action, options and fun, come for a price: Rs 26,249. But take a look. A single browse could change your mind.