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04-01-2006, 07:53 PM
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N91 finel Review.
Review GSM/UMTS smartphone Nokia N91
Nokia announced a new line-up, going by the name of Nseries in April 2005 – these devices we aimed to become the corner stone of the new handsets positioning concept. The company introduced three phones in the context of the first wave - N70, N90 and N91. The first model appeared to be a maximum approach to the existing smartphones, and as a result the most available of the new line-up. At the same time Nokia N90 was called upon to become the best photo-solution by the company, since it was the first device armed with a 2 Mpix camera. The novelty attracted pretty much attention and was met with enthusiasm on the market – in fact there were serious debates on superiority of glass optics by Carl Ceiss over a standard one incorporated into Sony Ericsson K750i. At any rate, one could draw a parallel between these two devices. Nokia N91 was planned to be the first handset world-over with a hard disk onboard. Considerable storage size initially moved the device to the category of music phones. That’s why the developers focused on this very function – all other capabilities were maintained on the level of other devices, and a bit later the company declined the idea of high-resolution screen, similar to Nokia N90, it was matched to the products of those times. On the whole, the handset turned out to be an innovative solution and drew the audience’s attention in a moment, so it got highly anticipated and discussed. A few manufacturers could boast of attracting such wide attention in a very short time span. Underestimation of Nokia brand has already cost many manufacturers dear, because frequently the slightest miscalculations resulted in decrease of sales volume. And once again, the brand loyalty of consumers to Nokia let the company delay release dates in order to achieve the desired functionality, stability etc. Nokia N91 followed this very route as well – the first announcement, made in April, featured the release date of the end of 2005, according to the intentions of the managers, this device had to become a hit of Christmas sales. However due to several technical reasons, the release was re-scheduled for the first quarter, and again in February the developers postponed the date, this time to the second quarter. These frequent changes gave rise to a number of rumors, according to which the model would hit the shelves in the third quarter. Noteworthy, that in the very moment when the general public discussed the product’s further destiny and its release dates, the company launched the production (it has happened just now). The sales start is scheduled for April, though retail stores will get the device shipped only in the end of April – beginning of May. That’s why many will have a natural question, whether the model is released in due time. As a matter of fact, 4-5 months in the conditions of the modern market of the mobile devices is a long period, which often defines knockout of competing models and price brackets shifts. As to me, having changed the product’s price, the company has secured its attraction. At the same time, the potential of this solution is very high, so it can be considered as the first sign of a whole new line-up of smartphones armed with hard disks. Involuntarily this can remind of first the Symbian representatives, Nokia 7650 in particular. It may seem strange enough, but this handset is still in use.  Curiously, that the release of a direct competitor of this model, Samsung i300 was called into question more than once, as the company didn’t want to introduce a weaker solution at one time with Nokia N91. In this case, direct comparison of specifications resulted in a huge loss of Samsung’s device. Postponement of Nokia N91 release date played into Samsung’s hands – the sales of Samsung i300 were rather good for its price bracket, thus the company managed to claim the title of the first manufacturers which introduced a handset with a hard disk to the European market.Two variations of the models, design, display, life time. Starting with Nokia 6680, the company has preferred making two versions of its smartphones at once, in order to aim one at GSM networks and the other – at UMTS. And this case isn’t an exception, since the manufacturer announced only model Nokia N91-1, though many documents feature its analogue, Nokia N91-5, which lacks UMTS and WiFi support. Additional announcement of the second model isn’t stated in the company’s plans, as it will just be released when the initial demand for Nokia N91-1 goes off. The difference in price will be around 50 Euro, and that’s really nice, though not critical in this category of handsets. In the future the same strategy can be applied to all other most interesting smartphones of the company.  The model has a distinctive design – it’s one of a few devices made almost completely out of metal, as to our case, we have to deal with stainless steel. Metallic coating doesn’t cover only the rear part, to be precise, the area near the camera, in light of the fact the antennas are located right here and any kind of metal shields them. Despite Nokia 8800, which features stainless steel as well, in this model it is not polished, but matt. The phone doesn’t flash and looks pretty solid, but on the other hand this conceals a real problem of abrasion. All scratches are visible on the shell and the fact it’s not polished only intensifies them. And here one can see a reversed situation, when during daily routine the device keeps “polishing” itself. Even though the shell itself is long-wearing, the esthetic side of the appearance suffers a lot. In my opinion, after 6-7 of intensive use, all abrasions will become visible.  In the first place the developer announced three color solutions – silvery, black and grey, although all these differ only in screen’s edging and the music key –
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04-01-2006, 07:54 PM
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the rest parts are completely equal. At first the device will appear in silvery version, the black one will be released later on, and as regards the grey solution, its destiny is doubtful, and it’s more likely not to be introduced at all, as it looks very similar to the silvery variation and maybe this is the main reason of cancellation.
 Attentive readers can note that all official pictures of Nokia N91 feature a light indicator, located under the screen on the right, however our device doesn’t have this bar. Moreover it’s not present in the handset, presented at FCC certification, and this let us make a conclusion that this indicator isn’t incorporated into serial models – in fact it’s not essential there, since the keyboard is covered by the sliding part with music keys, opening of the panel automatically activates backlight and owing to the fact the buttons are deepened, the backlight is required in most of the cases. On the other hand, all music keys don’t need backlight, and, among all other things, the indicators slightly, but still increases energy consumption. The design of the dual keyboard is quite innovative and later on it can be applied to numerous solutions. Even now BenQ Mobile offers a similar device under the index of EF51, which is also a music phone. But it features a hinged keyboard, rather than a sliding one. Other manufacturers are preparing analogous solutions as well:  When closed, the device practically doesn’t have any gap at the bottom – it’s insignificant and refers to the peculiarities of the design. One can move the panel with music keys using only one finger, as it easily slides, even taking into account absence of auto-completion mechanism – what really makes it so easy to open it is small size of this part itself and minor weight. Owners of small hands may experience certain difficulties with closing the device, since it’s pretty challenging task to take a finger aside so far (the full height of the opened device is 14 cm).[Only Registered users can see links . Click Here To Register...]  If you take a look at the rear side of the sliding panel, you can see the plastic base of the music case and also several wires, since they are not covered. Such solution materialized as a result of weight control, because its mass is already quite considerable. Actually this model has some paradoxes, as it somehow combines a base solution with certain dimensions and a hard disk, which requires reliable methods of cell protection. By the way, the weight of the hard disk itself is only 13 grams, as you see, it doesn’t significantly affect the overall mass of the handset, though the shell does. Use of metal parts and strengthened gears are forced steps, taken in order to protect the disk from falls, shakings and vibrations, rather than a fresh designers’ idea. We’ll cover this question more elaborately in the section, devoted to the hard disk, and now let’s get back to the shell. The total weight of the device is 164 grams – it exceeds the standard mass of 110-125 grams, residing in this type of devices. Judging by this parameter the handset can be named typically male one, though not all men will find its weight acceptable, as the fashion type of models is also represented by Nokia 8800 and senior handsets of this line-up. Strictly speaking, functionality of the device is the only factor, which can force one to shut his eyes at the weight. I would like to note however, that the weight is one of its most critical disadvantages – women won’t find this handset suitable for sure, since their feedback was mostly negative due to weight factor.  Measuring 113.1х55.2х22 mm, the smartphone appears to be larger than all other devices of this category, but it is bearable. The bottom part of the shell has the thickness of around 18 mm, though the camera’s module takes up 22 mm – these dimensions stress one more time the fact this handset is aimed at male audience. [Only Registered users can see links . Click Here To Register...]  Assembling quality is quite good – there are no evident gaps between the parts, though the early prototypes weren’t lacking these flaws. The weakness of the design is the key lock button, located on the upper side, since as with time it becomes rickety – if you shake the device, you’ll hear how it shifts in the slot.
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04-01-2006, 07:55 PM
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Fortunately there are no other creaking details – actually there couldn’t be any due to metallic covering. I should warn you in advance that critical dimensional features between parts can be up to 1 mm – these are structure peculiarities rather than flaws. However, you can always examine the assembling before purchasing a device.
  The functional keys are made in a traditional style and are quite convenient in use. The five-position joystick reminds of the same in Nokia 6820 in many respects, and it’s just as good in operation. Having pushed the panel with music keys, you will see the alphanumerical keyboard, which has blue backlight. All symbols are engraved near the buttons and well-distinguishable; even though the buttons themselves are pretty compact and dense, you won’t experience any negative feeling while working with them; the only thing you should keep in mind is that buttons have to be pressed with your finger-tips. On the whole the keyboard leaves favorable impressions. [Only Registered users can see links . Click Here To Register...]   The display, featured in the devices meets the standards of six months’ prescription, when QVGA screens were considered as innovative solutions. The resolution, featured in the device is 176х208 pixels (35х41 mm), the screen is capable of displaying up to 262 K colors (TFT). The display’s specifications are fair, though putting it lightly, they are not acceptable for a top-model, which used to be a leading device. The screen doesn’t fade in the sun, information is easy to read. The back panel of the device features a module of 2 Mpix CMOS camera, which is equal to the ones in the other models. The characteristics of the camera are average – it’s only capable of providing fair quality of photos and nothing more.  We have left uncovered only control elements in this review – the left side features a double key of volume control and the loudspeaker next to it, which is very loud, and despite the one incorporated into Nokia 3250, a bit more powerful. Near the bottom edge one can find USB-connector.  The right side hosts the Menu key – this is pretty convenient when you need to work with the phone one handedly, as there is no necessity in the numeric keyboard. Though it’s notable, that in order to use the device with the help of only single hand, you have to be a lucky owner of really big hands in the full sense of this word. On the upper part one can find the power button, key lock bar and a standard 3.5 mm headphones cutoff point, which is combined with the control console connector (also included in the package).  The sliding half at the bottom features the microphone – due to considerable length of the shell it’s as close to the speaker’s mouth as only possible, that’s why it fairly reproduces the voice.The rear panel can be easily lifted in case you exert strains in the right way. Behind the cover one can discover a lithium-ion battery BL-5C with the capacity of 970 mAh. According to the manufacturer’s statement, it can provide up to 190 hours of operation in stand-by mode and around 3-4 hours of talk time. We won’t mention here all possible operating modes here, in light of the fact they will be described in course of this review, the only fact we should note here is that the charge on the battery lasts for one day with one hour of talk time, 3-4 sent and read messages, one hour of listening to music and also a pair of visited links. Energy consumption of the hard drive isn’t too high, though it still affects overall battery life time, when it’s used. In ideal conditions, when you don’t listen to mp3 and only make calls, answer messages etc., the handset will work for around two days. However it’s not acceptable for majority of users, that’s why many of the will be forced to recharge the battery each day. Noteworthy that the cradle, featured in the kit, can really lighten this process, at when plugged in, Nokia N91 is constantly being recharged, and in this case energy consumption will become a secondary question.
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((((Sihmar_Online)))) Not Dead Yet! Last edited by Sihmar_Online; 04-01-2006 at 08:00 PM.
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04-01-2006, 07:58 PM
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Lack of batteries with increased capacity, available for this model is also a disadvantage, since there is still some free space for them in the handset. The only explanation of the initial low capacity of the battery is weight of the device, as the engineers wanted to cut it down. Full recharge time of the device is around 2 hours
  The idea of a cradle would have been realized really well, if only the developers had incorporated a synchronization cable into it. It’s obvious that the user of Nokia N91 will have a certain PC, from which he will upload content and music. And besides these technical issues, a cable near the cradle looks slovenly and leaves an impression of incompleteness.  
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04-01-2006, 07:59 PM
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Hard drive
The prehistory of Nokia N91 release is rather interesting, as it is the first device armed with a hard drive, though initially it had slightly different specifications – at first the disk was capable of storing only 2 Gb of data, however the announcement of Samsung I300 release confused this intention. As a result on the 27th of April the journalists were shown working prototypes, but with 2 Gb hard drives. Literally in the very last moment the company took a decision of arming the handset with a 4 Gb disk – back then, it was the maximum capacity of this hard drives type. The drive is manufactured by Hitachi, I shall remind you that it has purchased the division of IBM, which claimed the title of pioneers in the field of these devices. The name of the line-up was corresponding - Microdrive. Nokia N91 features a new model of this drive – Microdrive 3K4-4. Its characteristics are quite good and to some extent can be compared to flash memory:
The cover has a pressure sensor, so once the battery's cover is removed, the disk automatically turns off. This process takes up to one second. Another precaution is acceleration sensor – in case the device is falling from a height more than 1 meter, the hard disk switches off, so it may avoid a certain amount of damage, since exactly when turned on, the disk is vulnerable to mechanical effects. For good reason we didn’t try to carry out stress tests, since all throws could hurt the screen, rather than the hard drive, because protection level featured in Nokia N91 is higher than in all other devices using Microdrive. There are some numbers regarding durability of iPOD Mini – after a certain period operation most of devices work fine, and no wonder about it, as here the developers also used the system, applied to N91. Temperature conditions, stated by the manufacturers are 0-70 degree centigrade. At the same time the User guide features the fact that one should observe the temperature conditions, otherwise the hard disk will just switch off, though no exact numbers are stated. Taking into account Russia being a country with cold climate, we decided to test the model in the conditions of temperature below zero. In order to carry out this test, we used a freezer with the handset inside it. At five degrees below zero the device worked without any visible errors – it kept playing back music and even didn’t turn off. At -10 everything seemed to be the fine, though at twelve degrees below zero, the phone refused to work with hard drive. In practice this means that the handset endures any winter conditions and temperatures, as you will carry it only your pocket. However the shell remains very cold – metal is metal anyways. Each manufacturer tries to tie the amount of external memory to a certain number of tracks which can be stored on the handset. At this they make a footnote that all calculations were carried out on the basis of some exact length of each track etc. The reason of all these complicated actions is concealed from me, since stating storage size is already more than enough. I doubt whether many remember how many space requires this or that album or all tracks in sum. In short, there is no need in providing users with such information. Energy consumption is an essential parameter for a hard drive and here Nokia N91 is riding high. It was very easy to check how much time the device will last with network part turned on and constant tracks playback. We uploaded around 900 songs with mp3 extension, which totaled 3.7 Gb, set them for random playback (this prevents cache buffer use), plugged in headphones and adjusted volume to the middle. In these conditions the device managed to work around 10 hours and this is really worthy performance, comparable with most of the modern MP3 players life time, which use the same hard drive (e.g. Creative MuVo2 4Gb with announced 14 hours of life time, though in practice it lasts not more than 11-12 hours). Detailed specifications of Microdrive, used by this player were described a year ago, thus I don’t see any reason why I should repeat myself. The hard disk menu now features a special item, which is titled on default volume of free and used space. Among additional options we should note a possibility of naming the disk, defragmenting it, scanning for errors (the two latter options require the charger to be plugged in, in order to prevent any malfunctions). Disk scan may take up to 25 minutes. The other options feature full disk format – on default the drive has FAT16 file system applied. Using PC, one can relabel the disk, though it’s not worth doing, since you’re risking to corrupt several sectors, so they won’t be recognized by the handset. The disk in N91 is marked with E letter – absolutely similar to flash memory, since there are no differences in accessing these two storage types
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04-01-2006, 08:06 PM
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Communication possibilities with PC, other devices – Bluetooth, USB, WiFi, few words about DRM
For the first time in Nokia’s history we can see standard miniUSB-jack (B). When cable is connected to PC the phone offers three options:
 Neither of these modes will activate charging from USB-jack, this is N91’s feature. In you’re your PC is running under Windows XP Service Pack 2, the phone will be recognized automatically, and there won’t be any problems with using it as Mass Storage, drivers will be installed automatically. From this moment you can start working with N91 just like with any other USB-drive. You can see content of hard drive, copy to or from it.  Manufacturer claims that the phone supports USB 2.0, this means high data transfer speed. Judging by drive’s parameters the speed should be around 5-6 mb/s. Unfortunately all samples that we had included USB 1.1, which provides speed capped at 0.7mb/s. There were no comments made regarding N91 being supplied with USB version 1.1, so we believe that this is problems of the samples we had, not the final product.  Network part of the phone will be turned off automatically when Mass Storage and Media Player modes are activated. The phone switches to Offline profile. You should remember that, because when you leave your phone connected (copying music, for example), you should be aware of missing important calls. PC Suite mode is simple, it is used for synchronizing data from PC. You can see memory of the phone and the hard drive, copy data, move it, use organizer and contact synchronization with MS Outlook or other PC software. I’d like to highlight that Nokia is using OBEX over USB protocol in this mode. Usually possibilities of standard software are not so important, access to phone’s memory is required instead. In this case you should use OBEX over USB driver which works with most smartphones from Nokia (all models that use DKE-2 cables). The driver can be [Only Registered users can see links . Click Here To Register...]. After installing this driver you will be able to access phone’s memory from standard programs, file managers, and perform same operations as in case with PC Suite, but this time you will not need the PC Suite itself. I highly recommend trying this method, it is very comfortable. The last mode is Media Player, it is used for synchronizing with Windows Media Player 11 or higher in the first place. Why? The answer is as follows: starting from Windows XP Service Pack 3 OS will support Media Transport Protocol. It uses USB 2.0 and its predestination is to provide secure transfer of protected content from PC to mobile device. The protocol’s concept is conforms to copyright system for content from Microsofot - Janus DRM. Usage of Janus DRM is planned to activate from June, together with new OS version (update) from Microsoft. DRM. Things are kind of messed up with music, content copyrights in Nokia N91. Manufacturer claims that the device is ought to support OMA DRM 2.0, as well as Windows DRM (Janus). First type of copyright protection is de-facto standard for the industry and is developed parallel by all manufacturers, meanwhile second type, Janus, is not so clear and understandable. This standard was developed by Microsoft as opposite to evergrowing Apple iTunes popularity, as well as other internet shops where the copyrighted music is sold in protected format. This means that the user pays certain fee for a song, and later on he can use it, in other words – listen to it as much as he wants. Same can be done with files protected by Janus, but the shops that give songs for rent are the advantage for this one. This means that you are not buying the composition, you just rent it (usually for a month). Subscription fee is at fixed cost, you pay monthly and get the ability to download certain amount of songs (for example 20, 25 hours, or unlimited amount). Downloaded files are bound to your computer, in most simple case you cannot transfer it anywhere or listen somewhere else. On the other hand you can choose other variants like ability to play the song certain number of times, like 10. In this case the song/video can be sent to another device that supports Windows DRM (we mean Janus), but defining the number of allowed playbacks for this user beforehand. The counter on main device will decrease by the amount specified. Nokia’s managers were generous at saying that product’s release is bound to release of DRM from Microsoft as well as realization of OMA DRM v2.0 In reality priority was set to realization of OMA DRM, a lot of moments in this one require to be optimized and finalized in Symbian 9.1 This version is backed up by the fact that almost all devices that work under this version of OS were rescheduled for later release dates. For Nokia N91 it was impossible to delay release any longer, that’s why it got released in the way it currently exists. This means that limited version of OMA DRM v2.0 will be presented first shipments of N91. Supposedly, updated version of OS will be released in June or July. DRM Settings can be found in the phone itself, there are appropriate certificates and stuff of a kind. But updated security model does not integrating device with existing services without problems or additional setting-up. Basically this is stumbling-block for Nokia, the device should be fully compatible with existing internet shops, and should not face any problems with DRM realization. Another topic is support of Janus, it seemed that the company should support model of music rental, instead of buying it. No comments were made regarding this aspect neither inside the company, nor outside. It seems that Nokia is just trying to include all possible technologies aimed for Windows Mobile in its devices, in order not to let them acquire tactical advantage. Nokia N91 is an experimental model in this case. Development of music protection technology for music players has been active for over a year, and here everything is done in order to hide the content of music folders from the user. For example you will not see any music or video files when you connect your player through USB Mass Storage profile. And it does not matter if you are using protected files or the ones from your personal collection. Unfortunately it seems that such vision is typical for mobile phone manufacturers as well. Such DRM initiatives are not that much required in some countries, the users speak about them with big skepticism, they prefer using unprotected content. At the same time copyright owners are trying to persuade everyone to use protected content. They figure up various strategies for this.
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04-01-2006, 08:08 PM
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Music component
This phone takes key position in eXpressMusic family. This is flagman of music devices by Nokia. Once we got acquainted with younger model Nokia 3250, that got released before N91, we got the idea that company’s engineers are not going to improve much in the upcoming model, they would rather use existing solutions from other models. Fortunately Nokia completely changed software part of music player in N91, this turned music component in smartphone into truly music part, not just a title written on the box, even though there are some problems too. 3.5mm jack is located on top of the phone, remote control jack is located nearby. The jack on remote control cable is joined, you can connect your headphones to the remote, or in case you don’t need it, plug the headphones directly into the phone. [Only Registered users can see links . Click Here To Register...] Remote control is identical to one used in Nokia 3250, the only difference is the jack, youth model has Fast Port (3250 lacks 3.5mm output jack in its case). The remote control has hold button, protects from accidental key presses. Joined volume control button allows adjusting the volume by 10 positions (first one stands for mute), manufacturer claims that there are 20 positions, oh well, we did not find them. You can press Play, Pause, Skip and FF buttons on the navigation pad. The FF is not progressive, when it is activated sound will not be heard in the headphones Finally voice dialing button, it is also used for accepting incoming calls. Except for this button the remote control replicates music buttons on the phone itself. As a matter of fact the ones located on the phone are big, nicely positioned – it is comfortable to use them. One of the disadvantages is lack of backlight, it’s not that convenient in complete darkness. On the right you can see separate button, it is used for activating player, pressing it again will minimize the application. This is sort of a switch between music and the rest. It is more convenient to us it instead of holding Menu button and choosing Music Player from the list.  The headphones included in the package do not look expensive, that would match the model. These are typical in-ear headphones, plastic is covered with foam-rubber, they can be removed. Headphone size is quite big, they will not fit everyone. At the same time their quality was surprisingly good, the sound is crystal clear, default headphones are capable of showing the phone’s true potential. Unlike lots of custom headphones, these were able to provide maximal volume. For example, it was not comfortable to enjoy music when volume indicator was set to 6-7, music starts deafen you. At maximal level volume is close to the one in loudspeaker mode (well, almost).     Among additional accessories on Nokia web-site a large selection of original headphones from various manufacturers specialized in this kind of products can be found. Professional and semi-professional models for music lovers attract attention. This is a major move – attracting professional headphone manufacturers to advertise their products on Nokia’s web-site as well as presenting N91 as “serious” product. This became possible only because of 3.5mm jack, and its location is not that important, it can be either on the case or the remote. A strong and successful marketing move by Nokia. You can always choose the headphones you like more. Although this option was available for all music phones from various manufacturers, Nokia is not the first ones to figure it out.I’d like to point out that presence of several headphones that we tested in the official accessories list lead us to conclusion that big is not always best. I mean it might not be optimal solution to use big and expensive headphones. They playback the music, but phone’s capacity is not enough for full playback of whole diapason, as a rule, bass level fails. Headphones from Nokia re optimized for this exact model, that’s why they perform nicely in all frequency diapason.  Audio components of N91 are nicely matched. The sound playback is very clear, it has rich diapason. This aspect of the phone is one of the leading ones on the market, it shares top position together with Sony Ericsson W950i. And my preference goes to Nokia’s product, the sound here is better. Although in our test group opinions divided equally. This shows that music comprehension is fully subjective matter, you should listen and find out for yourself. In case we make parallels with digital music players, sound in Nokia N91 can be compared to such products, as iPod Nano, iPod Mini and alikes from other manufacturers. After describing software keys and sound playback impressions, I’d like to move on to software settings. The phone supports following music formats – mp3, AAC, AAC+, eAAC+, Real, WAV, WMA, M4A, AMR-WB, True Tones, AMR-NB. Bitrate for mp3 files can be inconsistent, there are no problems with that. On the whole around 900-1000 songs with various bitrate length (not lower than 192 kbit/s) can be stored. It is enough for listening to music for whole 2 days of continuous playback. In Software terms the player reminds the one used in other Nokia’s products, but it has some differences as well. When you enter Music menu you will see the list consisting of the following items:
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04-01-2006, 08:10 PM
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Quick search can be used in each of these lists, it is similar to the one used in phonebook, you can simply type first letters, and you will see titles that match them. In each list only main criteria for search, it means that in Album category you can look for albums (not song titles), and so on. The search works quite fast in short lists, like Albums, but when you have 300 or more songs, the search gets really slow. The phone responds slowly to key presses, it lacks performance (although the phone has the best solutions from Nokia in its class). The full search turns into mockery, you often type in order to get one letter, instead you get another.
[Only Registered users can see links . Click Here To Register...]           There is no way to associate albums, not even in the way of small icons, maximal integration with graphics is achieved when a song from an album is played, icon will be displayed. The graphics should be put into same folder as songs. Playback window is very simple – artist name and song title are displayed, information bar showing current playback mode (repeat, shuffle) follows next. The player can work if it is minimized, in this case you will see song title and current playback time in stand by mode. Channel balance should be highlighted from other additional sound settings, it works flawlessly. Stereo widening decreases volume, but affects sound quality in a good way, though it’s not that noticeable. This effect is nominal, just like Loudness effect (bass booster). The phone has equalizers, each of them has 8 tracks. The following equalizers are preinstalled: Acoustic, Bass Booster, Hip Hop, Pop, R&B, Rock. The user can create custom settings, new types of equalizers. There is no big need in this, since equalizers do not improve sound quality, it’s vice versa. A typical situation: when equalizers are active, at diapason barrier sounds start falling out, this affects bass most. Unfortunately, such situation is typical not only for Nokia N91, but many other Nokia models. These effects simply don’t work. [Only Registered users can see links . Click Here To Register...]         Music playback will be interrupted (paused) in case of incoming call, after you finish the conversation, playback will resume from the very same place. There was one time when I accidentally pressed Play button on the remote control, I was talking to a friend at that moment, and to my surprise music player resumed playback. The person whom I was talking to could hear the music clearly. You will not find anything about this mode in the User Manual, but I do not think this was an error, since this way you can share your impressions of the song you’ve just heard, let other person hear it too. The phone is aimed at sharing your music tastes with friends, you can choose any playlist and send it via Bluetooth or as an attach in MMS. Interesting fact is that manufacturers did not limit possibility to send songs either, this means that you can use Bluetooth in order to send them to other devices (However, protected files (no matter what protection system is used cannot be sent). Considering predefined folder structure on the hard drive, I got a theory that the phone will not look for music in root folder, or in my own custom folders. Fortunately, it isn’t so, you can create as much folders as you want, and whenever you update the library, the phone will find it and add it.
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04-01-2006, 08:13 PM
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Music stores – this is another innovation for this model. Briefly, the manufacturers allows setting up profile that will allow accessing the site you want via GPRS, EDGE or WiFi with predefined login and password in case its required. After you perform this, browser will be activated, and you will be able to browse your store, download songs and commit payments. This is not a stand-alone service, just an addition that simplifies the whole thing, improves usability. You can peform same operations with any other device that has a built-in web-browser. There isn’t any integration with music service.
 Software specialties, cameraThe model is built on S60 Third Edition platform, this makes the phone similar to Nokia N71, Nokia 3250, Eseries. Full description of the platform and all standard applications, interface can be found in the [Only Registered users can see links . Click Here To Register...], there is no reason to go through this one more time.  We’d like to point out that the model is not compatible with all software that is available on the market at the moment, this is because of new OS version. Only software that will work is the one optimized for S60 Third Edition. There are certain limitations for Java-applications as well, although here the compatibility is better.A software that most smartphone users are used to is used as standard web-browser. There is no updated version that was supposed to be released alongside with new devices. The browser has certain problems with displaying pages that have medium difficulty level of marking, for example, our forum was displayed with huge font size, that would occupy whole display space. Some sites work fine, others jus don’t. The phone has 30mb of built-in memory, its enough for the user, especially because there is high capacity hard drive inside. There is no big difference in where you place your files, the response speed is approximately the same. Camera’s module is 2mpx CMOS, it matches other smartphones by this parameter, take N70 for example. Once again the manufacturers changed rendering algorithm, on handset’s display they don’t look as good as they do on desktop PC. But this time output speed (showing the photos) has been increased, perhaps that’s the reason why?         On PC you can clearly see noise on photos, this is related to all photos, even those made in perfect lighting conditions. You often get blurred photographs. Outdoor photos are okay, average. The model is certainly losing when compared to Sony Ericsson K750i in terms of settings, lack of autofocus, macro mode, and the final shots quality. The camera is not phone’s central part, it’s more of a side-kick, supporting actor.
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((((Sihmar_Online)))) Not Dead Yet!
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04-01-2006, 08:15 PM
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Photo sample Sony Ericsson K750 - Nokia N91:
  (+)увеличить, 1632x1224, JPEG(+)увеличить, 1600x1200, JPEG   (+)увеличить, 1632x1224, JPEG(+)увеличить, 1600x1200, JPEG   (+)увеличить, 1632x1224, JPEG(+)увеличить, 1600x1200, JPEG   (+)увеличить, 1632x1224, JPEG(+)увеличить, 1600x1200, JPEG   (+)увеличить, 1632x1224, JPEG(+)увеличить, 1600x1200, JPEG   (+)увеличить, 1632x1224, JPEG(+)увеличить, 1600x1200, JPEG Following settings can be highlighted: Photo resolution – 1600x1200 pixels, 640x480 pixels. Quality can be one of these three: High, Normal, Basic. Types of shooting – normal, series of photos, timer (10, 20 or 30 seconds). Night mode is present, White Balance settings are here as well: Sunny, Incandescent, Fluorescent. Color settings are standard, they are sort of SFX: Sepia, Black&White, Negative. There is no Flash in this phone. When you are in the shooting mode, you can use Zoom function by using the joystick. Zoom is not optical, it’s digital, that’s why there is no big reason in using it, since right in the built-in editor simple photo can be zoomed in viewing mode, meanwhile the quality will be a lot better. The video recording quality is rather poor, available resolutions are 352x288, 176x144 and 128x96 pixels, frame rate – 15 fps. Recording format is 3GP, sound can be disabled, there are no limitations in video length, unless you are using MMS mode. [Only Registered users can see links . Click Here To Register...]
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((((Sihmar_Online)))) Not Dead Yet!
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