The Nokia N81 is a slide design phone, with a focus squarely on entertainment. The phone is a bit of a chunk, and weighs in at 140g. The phone has a shiny black finish, with the edging trimmed off with a metal plate. The screen is a large bright 2.4” QVGA screen supporting up to 16 million colours, ideal for viewing videos and playing games.

The music player supports a wide variety of formats, including MP3, AAC, eAAC+, AAC+, WMA/M4A and WAV. You can create playlists to group your favourite music together, and there are bespoke media keys (Play/Stop, Fast Forward, Rewind) The Nokia N81 has built in stereo speakers, plus you can add separate speakers to the phone or use your own headphones via the 3.5mm plug. The music player has a 5 band equaliser and dedicated 20 step volume keys

If you grow tired of listening to your own collection of music over and over, the Nokia N81 comes with an FM Stereo radio and stereo headphones so you can catch up with your favourite radio station, listen to the latest news headlines, etc. If you are in a WiFi area, and you know the details, you can even listen to your favourite internet radio station with the Nokia N81.

On top of all this, the N81 on Virgin is a top of the range S60 phone. So that means you get the excellent S60 web browser, email functionality and the option of installing further third party software of your choice.