When looking at the Nokia N81 8GB, one immediately feels that one is looking at a media-centric handset due to the dedicated media buttons and 3-5″ headphone jack. Media-centric handsets usually have excellent cameras - can the N81 8GB stack up?

Hardware-wise, the camera remains on the level of the N71’s - 2MP, fix focus and a flash LED. Even though the camera software looks like the one found on higher-end models like the N82, the image quality still isn’t exactly high-end even on outdoor/daylight shots(click on the samples below for full-size):

As usual for LED phones, shots in the dark turn out really really bad:

Without flash, images aren’t too much better:

The phone has digital zoom - its effects on image quality IMHO don’t need to be explained:

In the end, the N81 8GB’s camera is a mayor disappointment - yes, the 2MP images are decent and all, but not what you expect from a highend phone…

Tune in soon for a look at the system software!