The word from Nokia is that the Nokia N81 8GB has been shipped and will be available globally in the next few days. According to sources, the price is around €430 for the 8GB variant. That is roughly about £299 in the UK.
The Nokia N81 8GB comes pre-loaded with three playable demos of FIFA 07, Asphalt 3: Street Rules, and Space Impact Light. Those same games will be available for free download-and-preview over HSDPA when the service goes live sometime "later in 2007."
Espoo, Finland - Mobile entertainment just got more fun with the Nokia N81 and Nokia N81 8GB multimedia computers now available globally. Designed for the best in music and gaming, these devices come with dedicated music and game keys and are loaded with memory so you can store more and play more.
The 3D Multimedia Menu introduced in these devices is the first step to bringing a new user interface to the Nokia Nseries range. The new menu makes it easy to discover and enjoy your digital content and the Internet, and share your experiences with others.
"Accessing your portable music and games collection is not enough anymore," said Jonas Geust, vice president, Multimedia, Nokia. "Today people want to be more in control of how and where they consume their digital entertainment. They want to discover new favorites and share them without being confined to one location - and it's devices like the Nokia N81 that facilitate this."
The Nokia N81 and Nokia N81 8GB also offer the discovery of millions of tracks through the Nokia Music Store*. And, with their integrated Nokia Music Players, creating playlists and managing music collections on the move is a breeze. For enhanced sound quality, compatible high-quality headphones or speakers can be used with the standard 3.5mm headphone connector.
A preview of the N-Gage games service is also available in the devices, including playable demos of EA SPORTS(TM) FIFA 07, Asphalt 3: Street Rules and Space Impact Light. After the launch of N-Gage later this year, the full N-Gage application will be available for download. Players can then try all N-Gage games for free and buy only the ones they want.
The estimated retail price of the Nokia N81 is 360 EUR before subsidies or taxes. The Nokia N81 8GB is expected to retail for 430 EUR before subsidies or taxes. Nokia.com
