Nokia Targets Multimedia Fans With N81 DeviceNokia Targets Multimedia Fans With N81 Device

Just a week after announcing its 8-Gbyte N95 smartphone, Nokia on Monday began shipping its N81 Nseries handheld designed for music and gaming.

The N81 8Gbyte uses GSM/WCDMA wireless technology and has dedicated music and game keys for accessing multimedia. The smartphone, which Nokia markets as a "multimedia computer," comes with a new 3D user interface, making it easier to find digital content on the Internet and share it with others.

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.

"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," said Jonas Geust, Nokia's VP of multimedia.

N81 users can get access to millions of songs through the Nokia Music Store and listen to them on the phone's built-in music player. For gaming enthusiasts, Nokia is making available the N-Gage application where users can try games for free and buy the ones they like.

The N81 8Gbyte is shipping now, along with the standard N81 device, which has a microSD card slot for expandable memory. The N81 costs 360 Euro (about $500), while the N81 8Gbyte costs 430 Euro (about $600).

Nokia last week also began shipping its 8Gbyte N95 smartphone, which is an upgrade to the original 120-Mbyte N95 Nseries that Nokia first unveiled last year. With expanded memory, the N95 uses HSDPA 3G cellular technology and offers up to 20 hours of video or up to 6,000 songs, according to Nokia. The N95 8Gbyte, however, comes with a hefty price tag of 560 Euro, which translates to about $800.