Nokia N73

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The good the bad and the downright ugly of the Nokia N73

I bought my Nokia N73 in April 2007 and have been using it since.

My primary reason for choosing it was the 3.2 mega pixel camera and the multimedia features and of course the Micro SD expansion capability.

Whats in the box?

In the box along with the phone was:

  • USB cable
  • 128MB Micro SD card
  • Hands free cable (stereo headphones)
  • Software on CD
  • Cloth Lens Cleaner
  • Manuals
  • Charger
  • Adapter for using the older Nokia chargers

First impressions

First thing to do was to install the software on to my PC and auto update it online before connecting the handset. This was a pretty simple step. Once the handset was charged up and connected then the wizards that are provided are pretty good at helping you configure the phone the way you want right down to downloading and updating the firmware on the phone itself. Also provided is a backup utility which is an especially handy utility to have.

Integration with my XP desktop was pretty good. Once the phone is connected you can use your PC to send and view text messages and multimedia messages. It integrates with Windows explorer too so it is easy to browse through the contents of the phone.

The camera

As one of the main attractions the camera itself overall is better than you would expect from a camera phone but it still does not match what you would expect from a conventional digital camera. The lens is Carl Zeiss and there is an LED flash. Picture quality out doors is pretty good but there does seem to be a blue tinge on some pictures.

The phone

If you have ever used a Nokia phone before then the N73 will be very familiar. For me though it does seem to be very slow. For example pressing a button to bring up the SMS menu takes about 2 seconds. Okay that might not seem a lot but it does get annoying especially if you need to add multiple recipients to a message.

Bundled software is pretty good. The internet browser is outstanding and by far the best I have ever seen on a handheld. There is an office suite that allows you to view but not edit the usual Microsoft Office documents.

The multimedia player playback quality is also quite good although you will be limited to the supplied head phones as it uses the proprietary Nokia connection on the handset. There is also a built in FM radio which can only be used with the supplied headset. I presume this is because that is where the antenna ls located. The radio quality is pretty good although I do find the interface to the radio clumsy at times.

Call quality has excellent clarity and so far I have had no distortions other than those you would expect in low coverage areas.

The bad

Overall it is quite an excellent phone but it does have some drawbacks. Considering the phone cost €350 the supplied 128MB Micro SD card seems a bit on the scant side.

The blue tinges to some outdoor shots on the camera can be a bit annoying since the picture might look okay on the handset itself but when transferred to a computer they can be somewhat disappointing. Indoor shots at night are especially bad and to be avoided.

Also battery life seems to be pretty bad. Once I changed the settings to disable 3G then it improved somewhat but a full charge may only last me for about 4 days on standby.

Also sometimes the phone will hang and require a reboot. It happens for various reasons and can be really annoying at times. I was hoping that by now there might have been a firmware update but as of the time of writing this it is already at its latest version.

Conclusion

It is a nice phone but not one of my favourites of all those that I have had before. It is versatile and looks good and is a good performer overall. Some of the quirks can be annoying but hopefully these may be addressed in future firmware updates. But there is one final really annoying feature. there is a blue LED on the front of the phone that flashes every 3 or so seconds. At night time this is really annoying as it is really noticeable in a dark room. What makes it even more annoying is that it can't be turned off. Just don't forget to place the phone face down before you go to sleep!