Nokia N91

What can I say, this device rocks! There was me getting excited about the Sendo X2 and then the Nokia N91 moves the goalposts to a whole new planet.

When you consider that Nokia shipped more Series 60 phones in Q4 2005 than Apple shipped iPods, Apple have to take seriously the threat to their business. Sure the N91 didn't due to ship until the first week of April 2006 in Europe, (it was earlier rumoured to be available in March), but the specifications make the iPod nano look like a childs' toy.

If the 4 or 8 GB hard disk, MP3 and AAC playback, FM stereo Radio (with Visual Radio), UPnP, and WiFi alone make the iPod look pale, then add in a 3G phone with 2 megapixel camera and all the usual S60 goodies. Can you surf the web, email, IM and irc from your iPod?

Amongst the N91's claims to fame is that this is the first phone to be announced with version 9 of the Symbian operating system, but is it better than the Walkman branded Sony Ericsson W950?

• Symbian's press release
• All About Symbian device specifications, FCC approval information
• N91 Specifications from Forum Nokia
• Mobile Music Blog - Nokia's Mobile Jukebox
• Rui on the Nokia N91
• Irish Eyes 4GB of MP3s in the N91, and much more
• InfoSync World : N91: Steve Jobs' wet dream
• Matt and Gustaf ruminate about the N91 and the iPhone
• Fony.sk : N91 Gallery
• The Nokia sponsored All about Nokia N91 blog
• Nokia France's rather stuffy N91 blog: I am my music - Je suis mon musique, non?
• Wikipedia - N91 coverage
• Rudy De Waele - N91 kills the iPod - great examples of how the N91 matches the iPod at its core task, and then adds many more killer features
• Andy Abramson - 15 top tips for the N91
• MobileBurn - N91 8GB details

Reviews:

• MobileBurn - N91 review
• Mobile Today - Retailer Review
• Camera Phones Spot - N91 Review
• Mobile Gadgeteer - N91 Review
• All About Symbian - in-depth N91 review, and superb real world usage review
• Ewan's long term review for All About Symbian. Easier to use than an iPod? Is that heresy?
• The Smartphones Show - N91 video review
• Mobique - N91 review
• Howard Chui : Nokia N91 review - very brief review of a beta model, seems to be based on about 2 minutes playing with the phone, includes grainy photos of screenshots!

Something to bear in mind when shopping for the N91 is that as Darla points out there are at least four variants of the N91, two of which don't have WiFi, these are the:

1. N91-1 WCDMA + WIFI (APAC, Europe, Africa, US, SA etc) Light blue and Dark grey depending on where you live.
2. N91 GSM, no WIFI (for China mainland PRC) Dark Grey
3. N91-5 GSM, no WIFI (for APAC) Light Blue
4. N91 8GB edition - which gains a bigger disk and the Bluetooth A2DP profile for stereo headsets. Black

There are other Specific Phones in the S60 and Nokia Nseries ranges, but most won't make you say "Wow!" quite so loudly.