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Nokia
Reviews |
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Nokia
E65 Review |
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In a nutshell: A
high-spec 3G smartphone with a fantastic camera,
music player, FM radio, video calling and loads of
memory. Compact and lightweight for a Symbian phone,
the N73 brings smartphone technology into the
mainstream. Early versions of the firmware were
problematic, but the latest phones seem to be much
more reliable.
The Nokia N73 updates the Nokia N70 3G SmartPhone.
The N73 is a lot thinner than the N70 and weighs
less as well, making it one of the lightest
smartphones. It has a conventional boxy design with
a regular keypad very similar to the N70. The keys
are a little too small for large fingers to use
easily and the joystick can be fiddly too. The
display is very large with an amazing 240 x 320
pixel resolution and 262,000 colours. Its one of the
best displays on any smartphone.
As well as upgrading the display, Nokia have
upgraded the camera in a big way. The N73 sports a
3.2 megapixel camera using the same Carl Zeiss
optics and CMOS sensor that made the N70 a powerful
imaging device. The camera has a built-in flash, 20x
digital zoom, macro mode, plenty of optional
settings and a photo editor. It doesn't perform
quite as well as the best camera phones from Sony
Ericsson, but it significantly outperforms its
predecessor and is a very good camera. Video
recording is at CIF resolution with a framerate of
15 frames per second. Usefully video can be recorded
in either 3GP or MPEG4 formats. A video editor
application is included. There's a second
inward-facing VGA camera for making video calls.
The N73 is also a great music device. It has a music
player that supports a wide range of formats
including MP3, WMA and AAC, and also an FM radio
with Visual Radio functionality to display
information about the artist and track playing. The
music player supports playlists and an equalizer
lets you adjust sound quality. Sound is through dual
stereo speakers or using the stereo headset
supplied.
The internal memory has been expanded to 42 Mbytes
and there's support for a hot-swapable miniSD card.
This will provide bags of room for storing music
tracks and videos, making full use of the
possibility to record videos of up to 90 minutes in
length. Connectivity is via Bluetooth 2.0, USB 2.0
and infrared. Battery life is very good for a 3G
phone.
As always with Series 60 phones, the complexity of
the software means that they are usually slow to
start, slow when browsing menus, and can be prone to
crash. Read through our user reviews below and you
will see that the number one complaint about the N73
is the problem of the phone freezing or shutting
down, often when receiving a call. This is quite a
common complaint in fact, and for this reason we
have deducted two stars from our overall rating. A
phone that doesn't work is not acceptable, however
good it may be when it actually works! You might
consider the Sony Ericsson K800i as an alternative,
although it's not a Symbian phone. If you want a
Nokia, but have been put off the Nseries by this
review, you might like the Nokia 6300, which has
most of the functionality of the N73, but isn't a
Smartphone and is much more reliable and user
friendly.
The latest versions of the firmware do seem to be
fixing the reliability problems however, and Nokia
are very good at making new firmware releases
available. The N73 is such a capable phone that you
might want to take a risk, particularly as there are
now such good offers available on new contracts. For
example, you can get the N73 free from Dialaphone
with half price line rental or a choice of free
gifts including an iPod Nano, a DVD recorder, a Sony
PSP or a Nintendo DS. The Carphone Warehouse have
the N73 available in plum with half-price line
rental. On Pay as you Go, you can find the N73 at
The Carphone Warehouse for £199.95.
Features of the Nokia N73 include:
Series 60 (3rd Edition) SmartPhone (Symbian version
9.1)
3.2 megapixel camera with CMOS sensor, Carl Zeiss
optics, autofocus, flash and 20x digital zoom
Video camera (up to 90 minutes) in MPEG4 or 3GP
formats (352 x 288 pixels, 15 frames per second) and
4x digital zoom
VGA camera (640 x 480 pixels) for video calling
Photo editor & video editor application
Print photos directly from the phone with PictBridge
printer
Display: TFT, 262,144 colours, 240 x 320 pixels
Stereo music player (MP3/AAC/eAAC/eAAC+/WMA formats)
with playlists and equalizer
Stereo FM radio with Visual Radio support
Voice dialling and commands
Push to Talk
Messaging: SMS, MMS, Email (SMTP, IMAP4, POP3)
Document viewer (Word, Excel, Powerpoint & PDF
formats)
Java applications
Web browser
Advanced contacts database with support for multiple
device and email details per entry
Memory: 42 Mbytes plus miniSD memory card (hot
swappable)
Connectivity: Bluetooth 2.0, USB 2.0, Infrared
3G data transfer (384kbps download)
Size: 110 x 49 x 19 mm
Weight: 116g
Quadband GSM plus 3G (WCDMA)
Talktime: 3.5 hours
Battery standby: up to 350 hours |
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