Flashback: the Nokia N91 was legendary for its audio quality, but was a one-off

22 December 2019
It failed to kill the iPod as it was intended to do. Also, its micro HDD and slider with music controls design didn't catch on.

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  • ?
  • Anonymous
  • IVS
  • 23 Dec 2019

6288, 22 Dec 2019Nokia failed because they didn't knew how to make good touc... moreWhoa.. I had to correct you on this.. Nokia PERFECTED the touchscreen gesture interface with the N9.. Please see this video..

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=43uerOfOTz8

This was on a single core 1 GHz processor with just 1 GB of RAM..

    Oh man I remember these days so well, my first Symbian phone was the Nokia N80, but I remember wanting an N91, problem was that the N91 had a crap display and weird keypad that I simply could not get used to, it was also very top heavy as it was shaped almost like a hammer, lol. Despite all this I still really liked the N91, especially when the N91 8GB arrived.

    I miss that era of smartphones, it was the beginning of Convergence devices, but at the same time you had to browse the web and find forums with enthusiasts who knew how to get the best out of these beasts back then, so many websites like Symbian Freak, All About Symbian, Howard Forums, IP Mart etc... ahhhh good times.

      I guess that I have bought around 3 or 4 n91 till now (I already have 2 with me).. :)
      It is quite relative to like the quality of the sound, to me, with its unprecedent bass and audio level, nokia n91 always beats the rest of the phones.
      Although I own lg v20 and v30 these days (which have very good sound quality), I still think that I get the utmost pleasure from N91.

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        • Onywatch
        • J2M
        • 23 Dec 2019

        I guess that I have bought around 3 or 4 n91 till now (I already have 2 with me).. :)
        It is quite relative to like the quality of the sound, to me, with its unprecedent bass and audio level, nokia n91 always beats the rest of the phones.
        Although I own lg v20 and v30 these days, I still think that I get the utmost pleasure from N91.

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          • AnonD-731363
          • SH3
          • 23 Dec 2019

          Anonymous, 22 Dec 2019These days phones don't even need a good DAC like Toshiba o... moreThis is so true.
          Now are all phones alike.
          Only price matters.
          Brand name just adds more price but no guarantee of quality.

            Hehe brings back memories.
            The first phone i bought was N70,i remember buying it for over 350$ at the time.
            Lonelycatgames was my favorite company,who remembers Slick,x-plore and Jukebox from them?
            Amazing back then :D

              it would be nice for 2020 version of this, basically an audiphile quality phone with 3.5mm unbalanced and 4.4mm or 2.5mm balanced audio, aptx hd, bluetooth 5 and ldac, dedicated dac and even nice chunky capicators for noiseless power supply, maybe even a oled inline remote as well, sony should do one, a flagship phone version of their US$800 nw-zx507 but with larger screen a 5" 16:9 screen with snapdragon 855 and 8gb ram probably cost US$1300 though.

              Imagine a pure nokia music phone or a sony walkman phone for 2020.

              i don't care if it's 14mm -16mm thick as long it sounds like the heaven.

                • a
                • ahmedelneklawy
                • fk1
                • 23 Dec 2019

                which allowed you to download podcasts directly on the phone over Wi-Fi (you couldn’t do that on an iPod). THERE IS NO WIFI IN THIS PHONE IN THAT PERIOD.

                  • ?
                  • Anonymous
                  • nI8
                  • 23 Dec 2019

                  Ah, stainless steel body ...

                    I was fascinated by all the phones that Nokia brought out at that time. except for the N91, it was just too ugly

                      • ?
                      • Anonymous
                      • 3xy
                      • 22 Dec 2019

                      Mine kept reseting even when new if the hardrive didn't crash then it was the cpu having a meltdown nice idea poor all rounder compared to the mighty N95.

                        akw, 22 Dec 2019what is hdd?Hard disk drive. A small Toshiba was inside and you could hear it spin.

                          • C
                          • Carol
                          • nUI
                          • 22 Dec 2019

                          6288, 22 Dec 2019Nokia failed because they didn't knew how to make good touc... moreNope, they weren't, they had touchscreens before ios existed...

                            • a
                            • akw
                            • 3Sc
                            • 22 Dec 2019

                            Jtrogr, 22 Dec 2019I loved this phone...until the HDD died...what is hdd?

                              • d
                              • davisrases
                              • uwL
                              • 22 Dec 2019

                              Still own one and I power it on whenever I feel nostalgic. Amazing days when owning one of the n series made you feel special and owning the n91 made it extra special. Great audio quality for that time and it could rival many new ones too. Combined with the right headphones it can give a few modern phones a run for their money. Make sure to couple it with a high impedance headphones else be prepared to be disappointed.

                                • C
                                • Chris
                                • aj%
                                • 22 Dec 2019

                                Love the Community, 22 Dec 2019Unfortunately, no one makes phones that has more powerful a... moreI think that the lack of proper advertisement confuses people a lot when it comes to audio capabilities. For example, take the iPhone - it has Cirrus Logic amps which are of *very good* quality. Even more, there was this comparison between the Apple lightning-to-3,5mm adapter and other, more “audiophile” grade adapters (all of them MFi certified) and guess what? Apple’s was better than each and every one of them!
                                I think the snake oil syndrome gets to most of us with ease. I use a pair of Audeze LCD-2 for home listening and pair them with an OPPO HA 2se when listening from the phone. I did a lot of A/B listening between the OPPO and Apple’s adapter and apart from a higher volume (which the OPPO easily could output) and higher peaks in the upper range of the frequency (which are also specific to the OPPO), i could tell little difference between the two of them!
                                When i switched to my desktop dac/amp, though... things changed 180 degrees. So my guess is that nowadays’ phones (flagships) have a good enough sound quality that most of us won’t be able to tell the difference between them (used with an adapter) and a dedicated (portable, in this case) dac/amp (combo).

                                  • t
                                  • taweee
                                  • 7Xi
                                  • 22 Dec 2019

                                  reading on your reviews on audio quality in Nokia phones before I think the Nokia E5-00 have also a good ang clean audio output. Also one of Nokia with 256Mb ram. Only cons for most users is the transmissive display

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                                    • Vezli
                                    • N7%
                                    • 22 Dec 2019

                                    I have n73 in good condition with all accessories and box

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                                      • noisymind
                                      • a3T
                                      • 22 Dec 2019

                                      Don't you remember the SonyEricsson W900 and then W950 with Walkman Brand?

                                        I loved this phone...until the HDD died...