n81 vs w890 vs w910 vs n73m

[dtox]

hey guys!

after months of research (and a whole lot of confusion!! still am!!), i hav narrowed it down to these 4 contenders..
I WILL BE USING THE PHONE PRIMARILY FOR MUSIC.. CAMERA MAKES NO DIFFERENCE AT ALL!

adhering to the condition above , who do u think wins in

n81 vs w890 vs w910 vs n73 m (SOUND QUALITY ONLY!!)

1. from my research n81 shd hav the best audio quality.. but lacks megabass which pulls its quality down on the highs

2. w910 has gr8 walkman 3 feaures, shake, accelerometer etc etc...n large screen..

3. sonic experience in the latest w890 seems to be better than 5610 (has a dedicated music processing chip) acc. to review at mobile-review.com..

4. n73m is a legend as it is.. nt sure bout its music quality tho..

u can see y i m thoroughly confused!!! or if u guys can suggest a better MUSIC PHONE within 15k tht wud b gr8!

thnx

[Pathik]

N81 should be it. W890 wd be 2nd. But n81 has a better screen and is a symbian too. And you dont need a good cam. So n81 it is.

[dtox]

^^but is the sound quality in n81 better than w890?? i mean i m really a fan of SE ka megabass.. hwz n81 on the highs?? hav u tested it personally?? i know for a fact that without ne equalizer, n81 kicks ass.. wen u strip it down to the base.. like mobile-review guys did wen they compared w960 n n81.. but wat bout WITH the equalizer?? does the quality improve in SE?? coz megabass surely adds magic!

also.. can u tell me hwz the sound quality for n73m?? hw wud u rate it from the above 4 choices?

[dreamcatcher]

check my w890 review and u will know about megabass..and w890 has 3.2 mp cam while n81 has a crappy 2 mp..n81 luks pathetic,is a fingerprint magnet and a slider(nokia sliders..ask ur local dealer)....if u want a nokia phone,go for the n91 but not the n81..nething but that...and MEGA BASS WILL ALWAYS ROCK!!!

and screen, mobile-review and phone arena says- "one of the finest screens i the market"..and u really dont want to carry that bulk of a phone..do u??..w890 is 10mm thick and will fit in ur underwear pocket as well...

[dtox]

^^ wat u say might be true.. but, wat has really hit me is that n81 beats w960 hands down in audio quality test done by mobile-review... and w960 is supposed to be the best walman in the series as far as sound quality goes!! so i can only assume w890 wont be better sound quality wise...? coz n81 annihilated w960

[dreamcatcher]

man!!!...that is the worst review i have ever come across..mobile-review has been damn biased every thing..they did not even give an explanation as to why they ranked the w960 so low..check their RNAA rests and the frequency tests in the w960 review and u will see it has fared better...trust me..w960 rocks..i have used them and know what i am talking about..u will not regret the w890...and moreover..u will have to shell our more money for the n81 so as to get decent sound quality,..the inbuilt ones are crap..so n81+ep 630...more than 17k..and w890 will cost u 14.5 k with 2 gb card..the n81 comes with 1 gb... best still..u go and check them our yourself..

[dtox]

^^ i already have ep-630

[utsav]

^^ then its better u use those from someone else to listen to its music quality to get experience urself

[ico]

Go for W890 if you need:

• Great music playback & form factor (just 1cm thick)
• HSDPA (consider it as a future investment)
• A good 3.2mp camera without AutoFocus and Flash
• + All the SE Walkman features like MegaBass, Track ID etc.

And do check out AMD64s review of W890 here: http://thinkdigit.com/forum/showthread.php?t=86175

Go for W910 if you need:

• Bigger screen
• Shake control (quite useless in my opinion) and motion sensor
• 2mp Camera without AutoFocus and Flash
• HSDPA (future investment)
• + All the SE Walkman features like MegaBass, Track ID etc.

Go for N81 if you need:

• A heavy phone
• Crappy camera
• Fine sound quality with EP-630
• Symbian
• Plus, it is having some sort of hiccups and many people are reporting

Go for N73me if you need:

• A nice 3.2mp camera with Flash & AutoFocus - which you probably don't need
• Thik-Thak music playback but you'll miss out SE features like Mega Bass, Track ID
• Symbian

I advise you to buy either of W890 or W910.....But I'm more inclined towards W890 as it is also having a better Camera. And yeah, W890 & W910 are cheaper than N81......

[Pathik]

And IMO you should really go and try out n81 and w890i. Music quality is really subjective.

[krazzy]

N81 has the best audio quality among these. Also it can go loudest among these phones through headphones and can easily power big cans. This is not something many phones can do. Plus it has a dedicated 3.5mm headphone jack and you also get remote control with it which is really convenient when the phone is in your pocket. It is also the only phone to have dedicated music playback keys. So no matter in which application you are, you can directly control the music. About the bass, it does not have Mega Bass option, but you can easily increase its bass with the manual equaliser. The Mega Bass option anyway isn't that great as it makes the bass boomy and the sound muddy, especially with low-bitrate files and SE's default headphones. With N81's manual equaliser you can not only increase the bass but can also control the other frequencies, something Mega Bass doesn't allow you to do. Also you can create unlimited equaliser presets in N81 music player, which you can't in Walkman phones (only one). N81 also has pretty decent stereo speakers and A2DP. Also you can upgrade the memory of this phone upto 32gb (upto 8gb for now though) and microSD cards are much cheaper than M2 and are available in higher capacities. Think about all these things. IMO, for music playback, N81 is the best among these phones.

Originally Posted by amd64_man2005

....and moreover..u will have to shell our more money for the n81 so as to get decent sound quality,..the inbuilt ones are crap..so n81+ep 630...more than 17k..and w890 will cost u 14.5 k with 2 gb card..the n81 comes with 1 gb

N81 does not cost more than 17k. It costs around 14.7k. And it also comes with a 2gb card.

[dreamcatcher]

well in kolkata it costs round 16k..nokia phones are more costl here..anywaz..sorry for the goof up...isaid n81 +ep 630

and trust me guys..dont go for the n73 anymore..come july.the n78 will be out and n73 will be out of production..and as nokia's history goes..no more firmwares..have ur say...

so comes down to n81 and w890..

i believe..if u want to use symbain features..then get the n81..if u want a good cam and music qualities..get the w890..

[yogi7272]

yup .. very true for n73 .. the upcomming n78 looks very good phone to me..barring looks though ..

[dtox]

thanks all u guys! from ur replies, i have eliminated w910 n n73 from the equation..

it remains n81 vs w890i.. who wins?? i really need a comparative opinion in terms of sound quality.. honestly speaking.. i think 2 gb is more than enuf..

as for 3.5mm jack.. does w890 hav one? considerin i use m4a files encoded at 100kbps (which is quite awesome quality at a very small file size) and or mp3 encoded at > 192kbps , which phone can give me th best sonic experience?

but wats really tilting the balance in w890's favour is the ability to put custom acoustics through firmware hacking.. which i don think is possible in symbian based n81..?? wit custom acoustics, w890 will sound amazing!

and i checked the cost... w890 for 14.8k, n81 8 gb: 15.6k, n81 2gb: 14.6k in PUNE

Originally Posted by gagandeep

Go for W890 if you need:

• Great music playback & form factor (just 1cm thick)
• HSDPA (consider it as a future investment)
• A good 3.2mp camera without AutoFocus and Flash
• + All the SE Walkman features like MegaBass, Track ID etc.

And do check out AMD64s review of W890 here: http://thinkdigit.com/forum/showthread.php?t=86175

Go for W910 if you need:

• Bigger screen
• Shake control (quite useless in my opinion) and motion sensor
• 2mp Camera without AutoFocus and Flash
• HSDPA (future investment)
• + All the SE Walkman features like MegaBass, Track ID etc.

Go for N81 if you need:

• A heavy phone
• Crappy camera
• Fine sound quality with EP-630
• Symbian
• Plus, it is having some sort of hiccups and many people are reporting

Go for N73me if you need:

• A nice 3.2mp camera with Flash & AutoFocus - which you probably don't need
• Thik-Thak music playback but you'll miss out SE features like Mega Bass, Track ID
• Symbian

I advise you to buy either of W890 or W910.....But I'm more inclined towards W890 as it is also having a better Camera. And yeah, W890 & W910 are cheaper than N81......

thanks for the effort man!! ... i just had to thank u for this gr8 post!!

[Pathik]

Nope. You have to use the fastport to 3.5mm adapter. You ll get that with the HPM70.
And yea, N81 looks real good compared to the w890. Or is it just me?

[ico]

Originally Posted by dtox

thanks for the effort man!! ... i just had to thank u for this gr8 post!!

You're welcome.....

Originally Posted by dtox

as for 3.5mm jack.. does w890 hav one?

No, it doesn't have a 3.5mm jack

Originally Posted by dtox

considerin i use m4a files encoded at 100kbps (which is quite awesome quality at a very small file size) and or mp3 encoded at > 192kbps , which phone can give me th best sonic experience?

As far as the Internet is saying, N81 is having good sound quality which is comparable to N91 but again, it is heavy like N91......N91 was 164g and N81 is 140g whereas SE W890 is just 78g + a lot slimmer.....
Will you like to carry the N81 load??

Anyways, Music playback isn't everything. Musical features also matter.....

W890 has Track ID, Mega Bass and Sense Me. + Walkman player as you know. W890 is also having the punch in its 3.2mp camera, so consider it a better all round phone.

W890 also has High-Speed Downlink Packet Access (HSDPA), so it is also going to serve you in the future.

If you aren't inclined towards Symbian & Ngage games, then go for W890.

As GSMArena is saying, N81 captures video @15fps whereas W890 captures video @30fps........Another plus point for W890.

Also, N81 is having some sort of glitches as people are reporting in the forum.

Originally Posted by dtox

but wats really tilting the balance in w890's favour is the ability to put custom acoustics through firmware hacking.. which i don think is possible in symbian based n81..?? wit custom acoustics, w890 will sound amazing!

Yeah, this also add a positive point towards W890.

Anyways, I'm also getting W890......

[rohan_mhtr]

go for n81 , it does not look that good in pictures from various websites but actually it looks very good when seen personally . It is the best sounding among the 4 followed by w890 , w910 then n73 . It is no doubt loudest among all through headphones as well as loudspeaker . Currently it is best sounding nokia mobile after n91 . I agree that nokia phones are slightly overpriced but they have better after sale value and will fetch more if you sell them . Also You wont get bored with the symbian operating system easily.N81 will cost you around 16k but if you want to save about 2k then w890 is not a bad option .But you should certainly go with n81 if camera is not that important plus 3.5mm jack is a big advantage .

[acewin]

I am glad to hear so much good about N81, heehe. ANd interesting to.
I really think getting a very good camera in mobile phone is becoming hard they release so many camera phones. LOL.

So my question is how good is the 2MPix of N81 compared to other 2MPix.

[dtox]

^^ not good..

this is wat gsm arena says:

"It's astonishing that Nokia has decided to integrate a 2 megapixel fixed focus camera into the Nokia N81, instead of trying to close the gap in the three megapixel race"

"The image quality of Nokia N81 is just what you would expect from a 2 megapixel Nokia camera - slightly below average for that pixel count."

.. its becoming harder n harder to find a phone which can be labelled an "all rounder".. specially SE models.. last i checked my old w810i was the ONE!

[krazzy]

Originally Posted by rohan_mhtr

I agree that nokia phones are slightly overpriced but they have better after sale value and will fetch more if you sell them.

+1 for that. Yesterday I went to a shop to see how much my year old W710i will get in exchange for N81. The shopkeeper said 2.5k. That too for a phone which is in decent condition and 1gb card. New W710i costs 8.8k. Upon enquiring why the price is so less, he said that SE phones get less resale value.

[dtox]

@krazzy
yeah.. i am also aware of that fact.. resale value of SE is lesser than nokia.. btw.. did u happen to ask hw much was n81 was retailing for?? the 8gb version..??

[rohan_mhtr]

latest n81 price in navi mumbai is 15.3k and 8gb is 17.6k
My verdict will be to buy the normal version of n81 since it can support 8gb cards when they are released .

[dtox]

Originally Posted by rohan_mhtr

latest n81 price in navi mumbai is 15.3k and 8gb is 17.6k

thanks a lot!!

[krazzy]

It was out of stock in the shop where I went though.

[dreamcatcher]

well..in kolkata..noun buys nokia for a change...my 5700 was sold for 57oo while my friends w610 bought 2 months before me sold at 6800....well..and btw..w710 has a low price coz w710 is out of production..go to a mobile-store outlet..you will know ehich has a better resale value..

so dtox-decided yet?

[dtox]

^^ things r lookin strong for w890.. i hate its design tho.. to me n81 is more appealing.. its still touch n go..!! how i wish i had friends who owned nice mobiles like ur friends!! i wud really like to test them both out myself!!

[dreamcatcher]

yeah...dont worry..i will review the g900 and the c902 too.. ..if u want to wait till then that is...and the shiho and XPERIA (mine and my best friends respectively) ...

bte..have u actually held both things in hand...go to any store and ask them to give a u a demo..rather go to a sony showroom and check the w890...

and check the nokia in a local shop...u will like the w890..i feel it luks greak..sleek and powerful...

[ico]

Originally Posted by dtox

^^ things r lookin strong for w890.. i hate its design tho.. to me n81 is more appealing.. its still touch n go..!! how i wish i had friends who owned nice mobiles like ur friends!! i wud really like to test them both out myself!!

Well if you don't like W890s design, you can also go for the W910....It is just having a 2mp camera instead of the 3.2mp of W890s........
+ it has Motion Sensor, a bigger screen & shake control......

Personally, I like W890s design.....

[dtox]

Originally Posted by gagandeep

Well if you don't like W890s design, you can also go for the W910....It is just having a 2mp camera instead of the 3.2mp of W890s........
+ it has Motion Sensor, a bigger screen & shake control......

Personally, I like W890s design.....

problem is, i hav read that the w910 music quality sucks.. even 5610 beats it acc. to mobile-review.com..

[dreamcatcher]

check esato for news..according to them the new frmware has really boosted the sound quality...or u can wait for the w760..3.2 mp cam,accelerometer,gps...will be out on 26th may..