The Nokia N81 can operate in vertical or horizontal mode, and most games let you flip the screen if you want the controls on the other side.
Introduction to the N81
The Nokia N81 was introduced in late 2007 as an entertainment smartphone, featuring lots of music features and special "gaming keys" above the screen intended for use with the new N-Gage platform.
There are two variants, the normal N81 and the N81 8GB, but they're exactly the same phone internally. The only difference between the models is that the 8GB version has a built-in 8 gigabyte memory card, while the normal version has a removable memory card slot instead. The following reviews apply to both models equally.
All About N-Gage's opinion of the N81 as a gaming device:
From the very beginning the N81 was touted as being designed for use with the new N-Gage platform, thanks to a couple of dedicated gaming keys above its screen, which could be used with the phone when held in horizontal mode. Unfortunately for the N81, the N-Gage platform's launch was so delayed that by the time N-Gage games were available the N81's had already been on the market for many months.
However, the N-Gage games are now out there, the N81 has now launched, so how well do they go together? Very well, as it happens. We've been using it with N-Gage for quite a while now and here are our thoughts.
The gaming buttons above the screen aren't visible when the N81 is in normal use, but light up when the N-Gage application launches a game in horizontal mode. They're both on the same bit of plastic covering the earpiece, but they press quite separately. The pressing action is quite shallow, the buttons don't move very far when you press them, but this actually works very well in games because it means you get a fast response, and it's also very easy to repeatedly press them if you're playing a button-mashing game.
Holding the phone in horizontal mode definitely feels more comfortable during gaming, even when you're just using the d-pad. It somehow makes your hands more relaxed, the way they would be while reading a book. Long gaming sessions on the N81 are made much easier by holding the phone horizontally.
Incidentally, the gaming buttons aren't labelled in any way except for illuminated circles, but games refer to the upper button as A and the lower button as B. Most games generally just use A, but some of them use B as well.
The N81's direction pad is pretty good for gaming by phone standards, though it would have been even better by being as wide as the N93's. On some games it was perhaps not quite smooth enough, but most of the time it was absolutely fine.
If you're worried about which side of the screen the d-pad and gaming buttons are, you don't need to. All N-Gage games let you flip the screen to any orientation, so you can have the d-pad on whichever side of the screen you prefer. Kudos to Nokia for giving people this option, as the last people to allow it were Atari on their cult Lynx handheld console (which had a flip screen button).
The fly in the gaming ointment is the lack of horizontal support for non-N-Gage games. The N81 has no built-in horizontal mode outside the N-Gage application, so if you're playing S60 or Java games you can generally only display them in vertical mode. This isn't so bad though: despite its smooth surface the N81's keypad has clicky keys hidden beneath its surface so you do get proper feedback from button presses.
Overall, the N81 does a pretty good job as a gaming phone. It looks and works just like a normal phone so you don't feel nerdy using it in public, but it's also surprisingly comfortable to use when playing N-Gage games. It's a shame the horizontal support doesn't extend to other kinds of phone games though.
Our sister-site All About Symbian's in-depth multi-part review:
Nokia N81 Review Part 1: The hardware, naviwheel and carousel
Nokia N81 Review Part 2: Listening to the music
Nokia N81 Review Part 3: Looking through the Microsoft music window
Nokia N81 Review Part 4: Rounding up the N81 experience
The Nokia N81 "Boyband" Promos:
As a viral campaign to promote the N81, Nokia made a spoof boyband video featuring an aged group called Pop4Real (somewhat similar to New Kids On The Block) singing about their love for the N81, along with an authentic-looking "making of" feature. A karaoke version was provided for free download from the Pop4Real website so people could record their own versions, and some of Nokia's own staff took part.
Also, bizarrely, there was an apparently non-ironic Chinese version of the N81 boyband video featuring a young group called "N-Serious Boy".
Anyway, here they all are for your enjoyment!