The Nokia N91 musicphone's main selling point is its 4gb microdrive, yes that's right not a typo it has a whopping 4 gigabytes of memory, equivalent to the smaller Ipod mini mp3 player. Although not confirmed its suspected that the hard drive is actually a Toshiba made unit that is the same one used in the 4gb Ipod, in its 113 x 55 x 22mm N91 housing it adds to the rather chunky 160 gram weight.

Although not exactly light we think you can forgive the Nokia N91 as what it adds in weight it also adds in features, first up this is still a phone and a tri band GPRS / 3G equipped unit at that. The MP3 playback is more than just an after thought, Nokia have ensured that the N91 reads ID3 tags and supports MP3, AAC, AAC+, eAAC+, Real V8, WAV, WMA, M4A file formats.

Plus driving the N91 is made easier as the 4 way pad on the keypad sleeve directly controls the MP3 playback and enables browsing of the hard drives contents. In case you were worrying about using some second rate cheap headphones Nokia have fitted the N91 with a standard 3.5mm audio jack. If you manage to exhaust your 4gb of audio (around 1500 tracks) then there is also an inbuilt FM radio which supports visual radio, the system that gives you images of the track playing on air. Visual radio is only used in a very limited number of countries at present and in the UK only Virgin Radio has said it will operate the standard.

Based on the Symbian v9.1Operating system, Series 60UI 3rd Edition the N91 is a good platform for multimedia applications and gives the N91 plenty of grunt when it comes to handling processor intensive applications, the internal 30mb of memory also helps in this department.

Audio is only half the story with the Nokia N91, the rear of the phone houses a 2 mega pixel camera that is capable of producing 1600 x 1200 pixel images and it wasn't that long ago that this was the standard for digital cameras! Of course the downside with most camera phones is that they lack the optical zoom meaning that the N91 like most phones relies on the dreaded digital zoom.

Nokia have equipped the phone with all the usual applications allowing you to sync your calendar and contacts plus browse email and send SMS / MMS messages and the sliding keyboard cover reveals a workable keypad for basic phone operation and short messages.

Perhaps the real bonus for us is the wireless connectivity of the N91. We've all come to expect Bluetooth and sure enough its here, but alongside the 10 meter limited 1.2 standard is full on 802.11g WiFi giving the N91 a whole new purpose. This allows you to connect the phone to your home or work network and to make the most of wireless hotspots that are appearing all over the UK from train stations to your favourite coffee bar.

The XHTML browser is a small improvement over those currently in operation within the Nokia range and is more than adequate for surfing using the small 176 x 208 pixel screen. All of this WiFi and music playback takes its toll on the Nokias battery. While Nokia claim 12 hours music playback from a full charge and a 3 - 4 hour talk time, its seems likely that if you use all the toys that your charger may become the most important feature.

There is sadly no removable storage, the reduced size MMC card seen on the latest series 60 phones is absent from the N91, we guess Nokia thought a 4gb hard drive would reduce the need for more storage and this will leave you reliant on the WiFi connections to share files.

Expected to hit the UK stores in Q4 2005 the Nokia N91 should show its face in time for the Christmas handset frenzy and perhaps cause a few would be MP3 player purchasers to consider a combined offering.

Published - 22/05/2005

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