By Allan D. Francisco
The traffic, the dust, and the smoke-belching jeepneys—the Pinoy’s idea of a mass transit system—could not keep me from making my way to Intramuros once again. Well, partly because almost two-thirds of the way is now covered by the Santolan-Recto LRT, which makes travel almost like a breeze. But mostly because my editor told me I could lay my hands on Nokia’s latest offering, the N91 multimedia-playing smartphone. But there was a catch; the phone would be mine for a week if and only if I would personally pick it up from his office.
Is there anything that can keep me from a new electronics gadget? Can the pope keep himself from saying Mass? I thought so too. So, off to the walled city I go.
Well, the N91 is not ugly, but neither is it the prettiest piece of mobile device I have set my eyes on. A music-phone masquerading as a smartphone (or is it the other way around?), the latest N-Series handset has a 4GB hard drive for its most distinguishing feature. This enables the Symbian 60-based mobile phone to offer up to 12.5 hours of music.
Music Player
Equipped with a standard 3.5mm jack, the N91 supports a range of digital music formats covering MP3, M4A, AAC and WMA among others. It is compatible with a long list of audio accessories from leading manufacturers, such as Bose, Harman, JBL, Kardon, and Sennheiser. Loaded with several connectivity options including WCDMA, WLAN, and Bluetooth, the handset offers easy downloading of music files, applications, and other data. The unit, however, lacks an infrared port, but I was too busy testing its wide collection of features I almost failed to notice.
Set beneath the five-way navigation key of the N91 is a sliding face, which aside from serving as a cover that protects the phone’s keypad, also comes with a set of dedicated music-playing controls. The unit also has a volume control at its upper right side, while the menu button sits on the opposite side.
One thing that I couldn’t figure out though was how to make the unit function as a mass storage device. Marketing literature from Nokia says the phone lets you (the user) “drag and drop your personal music collection from your PC to your Nokia N91 or synchronize your recent music purchases with your PC via USB 2.0.” In fact, upon connecting the handset to the PC using the USB cable (a non-proprietary accessory that comes standard with the whole package, bless you Nokia) the user would be prompted by the phone whether he or she would want to connect through the media player, mass storage device, or the PC Suite mode. All but the last option would make the phone hibernate or go to Offline status.
My PC at home and a couple of PCs at my friendly neighborhood Internet café, however, failed to interface with the mobile phone. I suspect an installation CD should have come with the package.
Desperate for a solution, I surreptitiously downloaded a copy of the Nokia PC Suite while none of the Internet café’s staff was looking. Lo and behold, I was able to transfer MP3 files from my CDs to the phone like I have been doing that for years. Finally, I was able to listen to compressed songs by James Taylor and Billy Joel on the N91. They sounded pleasant enough on the headset that comes standard with the phone. Though, to have a more intimate feel of the handset’s audio power, one could link up the N91 with any decent amplifier and multi-channel speaker system.
One can also record music directly from the handset’s FM radio, but what makes the N91 a step ahead of rival handsets (that would be the Samsung SGH-1300 and the Sony Ericsson W800 walkman phone) is its feature that lets users share their playlists with friends while on the go.
Video Player Too
But the N91 is not merely an audio player, it also plays video. Its 256K-color TFT LCD, while toting only an average 176 x 208-pixel resolution, offers adequate viewing pleasure. It is good enough for viewing the photos and videos recorded using the mobile phone’s 2-megapixel camera.
The evaluation unit I had came pre-loaded with a number of video files featuring some of today’s hottest foreign acts. Nokia was kind enough to send packed with the phone a Bose Companion 2 powered speaker system and a TriPort headphone.
Serious About Connectivity
Before one gets the idea that the N91 is all fun and no work, this hardworking mobile device supports UMTS and GSM 900/1800/1900 networks. It has Class 10 GPRS and EDGE, while it can handle data at 384kbps through the 3G pipeline. It also features Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g. And while it lacks an infrared port, it can connect to other devices, such as the PC, using Bluetooth and USB.
The phone’s Symbian operating system includes an XHTML web browser, e-mail client, Java support and PC synchronization functions. Its being a Series 60 device allows for easy addition of third-party applications and games.
Conclusion
While the N91, at 160 grams and 113 x 51 x 22mm, is a little bit on the big and heavy side, it certainly is a lot sexier than the other 3G phones in the market today. I just wish it had a slot for memory card expansion. But with its 4GB hard drive, I might sound a little bit of a storage glutton, but then again maybe not.
All in all, the Nokia N91 is one highly capable phone. Though a little bit odd-looking, it grows beautiful as time goes by, and for those willing to spend the time and effort to learn about its secrets and quirks, the phone will repay them with dependable functionality and exciting features. That it plays music so well is an added bonus.
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