Nokia N91

I’ve been using the phone for a little over a week now, and so far, first impressions have been terrific. Having owned a high end Nokia N-series phone before (N80) I’m pretty used to the user interface, which I think Nokia stands out from the rest of the higher end cell phone manufacturers (Sony Ericsson, Samsung, Motorola, Sharp, and LG). The build is solid, connectivity is great (as long as you don’t desperately need quad band), the dedicated mp3 functions are amazing, and the battery life is definitely much better than other Nokia smartphones in its class (like the N80).

Drawbacks

Having said that however, one of the weakest parts of the phone is its camera. Although 2mp, the quality of the shots look closer to that of VGA, they don’t stand a chance against the 2mp Sony Ericsson models or any of the 3mp Nokias or any camera with a dedicated Carl Zeiss lens. So if you’re planning on using the camera extensively you might want to do a little more research before taking the plunge. Finally the cell phone doesn’t have the 850Mhz quad band connection, so you may experience frequent dropped a lot of calls if you’re in a basement or elevator.

MP3 Playback

As for MP3 playback, I sold my iPod video a few days ago and replaced it with the Nokia N91 full time and so far it’s done a solid job. Syncing was relatively simple after I transferred my playlists from iTunes to Windows Media Player and did a one click sync. Only some of the album art transferred with the songs, but otherwise everything went pretty smoothly. Two things that I do miss relating to the iPod video is the audiobook features (being able to remember the last played position), and a sleep timer. But I guess you have to make some sacrifices going with a do it all device like the Nokia N91.

With the exception of those details, this is by far the best phone I have owned, and I would highly recommend it.