If quality photos are important, the N73 and its bulkier sibling the N93 (which lacks the 850MHz band used by Cingular in the US) are Nokia’s top offerings. The Nokia N80 has a 3MP camera that’s quite good (once you adjust to the shutter lag), and you’d likely be pretty impressed if you saw the photos it takes. That is, until you see the N73’s photos. The N73 has a 3.2 megapixel camera and adds a Carl Zeiss autofocus lens which makes for sharper photos.
Design and Ergonomics
The N73 is one of Nokia's more normal looking smartphones. It has a straightforward candy bar design and an absolutely standard keypad. It looks more at home with recent MS Smartphones like the T-Mobile SDA and Cingular 2125 than the Nokia N80, N91 or N93. Like the SDA and 2125, a large QVGA display dominates the front face, and while the phone may lack the sexy looks of the N80 or the stainless steel machismo of the N91, the display itself is so eye-catching it gives the entire phone a turn to the stunning. Since normalcy abounds, the phone has a standard keypad with roomy blue backlit keys, a perfectly conformist 5 way joystick that's surrounded by the usual smartphone cluster of 2 softkeys and the call send and end keys. The application launcher, pencil, clear and multimedia applications launcher keys wrap around the keypad in the bright silver surround. All are easy to access and we're thankful the ever-important application launcher wasn't relegated to a side location as with the Nokia N91.
The Nokia N73 and N80 |
Like most other phones (but unlike most Nokias) the N73 has a volume rocker for both speaker sound and in-call volume on the right side (easy controlled by your right thumb when holding the phone in the right hand during a call), and this rocker does double-duty as the zoom control for the camera. The IR window is all by itself on the phone's left side, and stereo speakers under a post-modern looking metal grille are located at the top and bottom edges of the phone. The charger port (the smaller style one found on recent Nokia phones and the Nokia 770) is at the bottom as is the Pop-Port multifunction port (used for USB syncing and headsets). Turn the phone on its side and it becomes a camera, and in fact looks like a point-and-shoot. Slide the rear lens cover to expose the lens and LED flash and the camera application opens automatically. The slider stays firmly in place and lays against the phone's back in an interesting manner to accommodate the sloping lines of the phone. Slide the lens cover shut and the camera application exits automatically. There's a dedicated Gallery button beside the shutter button which allows you to quickly move through your photos in full-screen landscape mode.
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Above the display you'll find the secondary VGA camera used for self-portraits and video conferencing in 3G service areas, the light sensor which automatically adjusts display brightness and the earpiece. the miniSD slot is located on the bottom edge parallel to the Pop-Port connector and the card is hot-swappable. As you'd expect, the battery lives under a door on the phone's back and the SIM card is under the battery. The phone feels and looks very well made, perhaps a bit more so than the N80 (which is indeed well made but looks and feels like the plastic it is). The N73 is mid-to-large sized by feature phone standards and small by smartphone standards. It's smaller than the Treo 700p and 700w, Nokia 7610, Nokia 6682 and all Windows Mobile Pocket PC phones on the market and is similar in size to the Cingular 2125 and T-Mobile SDA MS Smartphones.
Phone Features, Data and Reception
The Nokia N73 has top notch reception, and is among the strongest RF phones. We tested it both on Cingular's 850MHz network and T-Mobile's 1900MHz network in the US. Both incoming and outgoing voice are clear with no distortion, static or other unpleasant audio artifacts. Call recipients commented on how good we sounded, and incoming volume through the earpiece is good, though not deafening. Clarity and volume are excellent through the included Pop-Port stereo headset and is a perfect match for loud places (as is the speakerphone). Like other S60 3rd Edition Nokia phones, the N73 comes with Nokia's voice command software which offers speaker independent speech recognition and dialing (though it does claim to fine tune to your voice over time). As with other S60 3rd Edition phones, it works OK, though its accuracy doesn't compare to Voice Signal software or MS VoiceCommand on Windows Mobile. However, it's definitely better than the N80, which was at best 50-50 for us. In addition the N73 has speed dialing and support for call waiting, conference calls and caller photo ID.
Even in the US where we must rely on EDGE, the N73 is a fast phone for data, getting 150K on average using Cingular's MEdiaNet service. For those of you in Europe or those who visit there, the phone has 3G (WCDMA UMTS) on the 2100MHz band (in the US we use the 850 and 1900MHz bands for both voice and data, including 3G). The phone will automatically switch between GSM and UMTS networks where applicable and can fall back to good old slow GPRS if neither EDGE or UMTS are available.
The N73 and Sony Ericsson K800i
(Please note: The messaging and email applications on the N73, N80, N91 and N93 are identical, so you'll notice great similarity in these sections of our review). The Messaging application supports POP3 and IMAP email as well as SMS and MMS messages. If you leave the Messaging application running, it will automatically check for new mail and notify you (it retrieves headers only until you tell it to download the full message) and it does not support push email (consider the Nokia 9300 or Nokia E61 if you need push email, particularly BlackBerry Connect). In addition Nokia includes an IM client, but it's not for AIM or MSN out of the box- you'll need IM support from your carrier (this doesn't exist in the US) or use a service like yamigo.com. Alternatively, download Agile Messenger and install it for turnkey IM support on MSN, AIM, Yahoo and ICQ.
Display, Sound and Multimedia
The display really hits the sweet spot in its combination of size, resolution and color depth. Though lower resolution than the N80 (352 x 416 pixels), the Nokia N73's 2.4" 240 x 320 QVGA display is larger (the N80 measures only 2.1" diagonally) and that's just the right fit to make photos look stunning and keep video sharp yet easy on the eyes. This and the N93 with its identical display, are my favorite S60 displays. While the N80's display is a bit sharper (given the higher resolution and smaller screen size it should be), it's a bit too small to show off small image and video details as well as the N73. Both do an equally excellent job of rendering readable and clear text. The N73 display is brighter than the N80's (it has a larger battery, so it can afford the added brightness) and has more contrast, which most folks find pleasing. In fact photos sometimes look better on the phone's screen than a PC's screen thanks to the added contrast. The N73's non-smartphone 3MP autofocus competition, the Sony Ericsson K800i, has a bit more contrast, but given the N73's already very high contrast, it might look good, but can be misleading when viewing photos taken with the camera. The N73 takes display contrast as far it should go without distorting or "misrepresenting" camera images.
The display has phenomenal color depth and is capable of displaying 262K colors (18 bit color). Like other recent S60 Nokia phones, the N73 has a light sensor which adjusts display brightness relative to ambient lighting (there's a slider so you can tweak but never completely override the display brightness setting).
Stereo sound is increasingly popular in high end feature phones, and the N73 has jumped on the bandwagon, adding 3D sound effects for ringtones as well. Once you turn 3D sound on, you can set the sound trajectory (circular, zigzag, fly-by, meander or random) , set the trajectory speed, enable the Doppler effect and set reverb (off, living room, cave, railway station, forest, duct). And yes, you really can hear the difference between most of these settings. Sound out when watching videos or listening to music is good through the stereo speakers, and is quite loud. But tiny phone speakers can't compete with a decent set of headphones for quality music playback. To that end, the N73 comes with a stereo earbud headset with integrated mic, call send /end button and volume slider (Nokia HS-23). This headset also acts as the antenna for the phone's FM radio. We were pleasantly surprised by the Nokia's sound quality when listening to MP3s: music is clear, highs aren't shrill and bass is full. It won't send you running for your iPod. Nokia sells an optional Pop-Port to 3.5mm stereo headphone jack should you prefer to use your own high quality set of cans. You won't be able to use headphones for a phone call (even if they have an integrated mic) and they can act as the FM radio's antenna, though we found Nokia's own headset gave better FM reception.
The music player supports MP3, AAC, eAAC, eAAC+ and WMA files and has OMA 2.0 DRM. So you can listen to copy protected content using that standard and non-copy protected iTunes music (the tunes you've burned from CDs). The player has an equalizer, playlists and the usual playback controls. Battery life when listening to music with the screen dimmed is excellent: we played tunes for 5 hours over headphones and had more than 50% battery remaining. The FM radio doesn't offer the same reception as a dedicated radio but it does a good job of picking up even weaker stations on manual tuning and strong stations on automatic tuning. You can set your favorite stations as pre-sets and sound quality is surprisingly good. When using a Nokia Pop-Port headset, music playback will automatically pause and audio will switch to voice when a call comes in. It will resume playback when you hang up.
The large, colorful and bright display is perfect for viewing videos on the go. The phone can play 3GP, MPEG4 and RealPlayer format files and it handled our QVGA 500k/bps video, AAC stereo test video with aplomb.
Camera
Clearly the camera is the focus of this phone. The 3.2 megapixel camera uses a CMOS sensor (as do other camera phones and even some dedicated cameras and digital SLRs like Canon’s). Though the Nokia N80 also has a 3MP camera, the N73’s Carl Zeiss autofocus lens helps it pull clearly ahead with sharper, more colorful and detailed photos. Autofocus also makes depth of field shots possible, for example in portrait mode your subject is in focus while the background is pleasingly blurred (though we couldn’t get a pronounced depth of field shot with the N73). It even does better in low light situations with considerably less noise than the N80, though Nokia isn’t leading the pack in low light capabilities overall. At its best, you really can’t tell the difference between the N73 and a dedicated 3MP camera. In challenging situations (low light, extemely bright light) it looks better than any other camera phone except the Nokia N93 and Sony Ericsson K790 / K800i which are on par. With good balanced indoor or outdoor lighting, the camera can take amazing pictures. it’s well suited to most any outdoor picture (sunny or cloudy) and well lit interior shots such as offices and malls. Dark interiors raise noise levels and you’ll notice the phone’s attempts to smooth out the noise, though it’s still capable of taking some really lovely outdoor shots at dusk (see the Hooters sign photo; and no we don’t endorse Hooters ). The flash helps at close range but an LED flash can only do so much (and more powerful flashes eat batteries fast). See the photo of Sammy the cat, taken indoors with very poor lighting and flash to get an idea off what the camera can do in dim locations.
Like all autofocus lens camera phones on the market (there aren’t many), the N73 focuses when you press the shutter half way down and on-screen indicators turn from red to green when focus is achieved. This takes about 1 second and then you can press the shutter button all the way down (or press it all the way down to start and wait for the camera to focus before it shoots). Unlike the N80, there is no shutter lag and the image is taken when you hear the shutter sound. However, each manages to take a shot in about the same amount of time (wait 1 to 2 seconds for the N80’s shutter to trip or wait a second or two for the N73 to focus then take the shot). This means that the N73 isn’t an action photographer’s dream— a fast moving subject might have passed the ideal point by the time the N73 captures it. The camera has sequence mode to help: it will take several shots in a row so one of them might capture the perfect moment of action.
The camera’s ergonomics and on-screen active menus are perfect for the serious shutterbug. Slide open the active lens cover to launch the camera application and rotate the screen to landscape orientation. The shutter button falls naturally to the top right and the zoom rocker is on the left top so you feel like you’re using a camera rather than a phone. The on-screen active menus quickly and intuitively take you to settings to switch between photo and video mode, change scene type ( auto, user defined, macro, portrait, landscape, sports and night with default at auto), flash mode (on, off, auto or red-eye reduction), self timer, switch between single shot and sequence, EV settings, white balance, color tone and ISO. In short, a photographer’s dream. Compared to the 3MP autofocus Samsung a990 on Verizon, this camera is a dream to use, and the settings are even easier to manage than the solid N80’s. Image quality beats the competition and gives the Sony Ericsson K790i / K800i a run for its money (though the SE may win by a very modest margin, especially in low light thanks to its Xenon flash).
Video quality is also excellent by camera phone standards. The N73 can take videos at a maximum 352 x 288 resolution with audio at 15fps in MPEG4 format (high quality). It can also take “normal” and MMS sized video in 3GP format. Video is sharper thanks to the autofocus lens and colors are well represented with little of the typical camera phone’s blockiness and only moderate noise (less than moderate by camera phone standards). Digital zoom will introduce some blockiness, so use it only when you must if you want the best quality. The camera has a video stabilization feature which does reduce handheld jerkiness but as with the N80, also gives the image a bit of an over-smoothed look. Audio and video are in sync in all quality settings and audio is clear and loud. The camcorder is definitely good enough to capture and save those special moments when a dedicated camcorder isn’t handy. While the N73’s camcorder can’t beat the VGA camcorder in the N93, it’s very good and beats the Sony Ericsson K790 / K800i.
Bluetooth
The N73 has Bluetooth 2.0 + EDR which is a real treat when transferring files to another computer with 2.0 + EDR (Enhanced Data Rate). When transferring files to a Mac PowerBook and the Sony Vaio UX180P micro PC, both with 2.0 + EDR, transfer speeds were 2x faster than the Nokia N80 (90KB/s vs 45KB/s) and other Bluetooth 1.2 phones. DUN (dial up networking) also benefits and Bluetooth is no longer the bottleneck when using the phone as a wireless modem for data connections. The N73 supports most every common protocol except A2DP (for Bluetooth stereo headphones). It has the headset, handsfree, FTP, object push, HID (primarily for keyboards), basic printing profile and SIM access profile (used primarily so your car's handsfree kit can download phone numbers stored on the SIM card). Nokia phones generally play well with most Bluetooth headsets on the market, and the N73 is no exception; we got good range, volume and clarity with the Bluetooth headsets and car kits we tested including popular offerings from Plantronics, Cardo and Motorola.
Battery Life
A large-screened phone with Bluetooth, high speed data capabilities, a 3 megapixel camera with flash and video playback capabilities faces challenges in the battery life department. Even more so when it's a smartphone with a faster CPU, multitasking and a good deal of memory. Happily, Nokia put a large capacity battery in the N73, their 1100 mAh BBP-6M Lithium Ion battery. Our phone easily made 3 days on a charge with high to moderate use: playing videos for 30 minutes, listening to MP3s for 45 minutes, surfing the web over EDGE for 45 minutes, using the PIM apps and Quickoffice several times per day, checking email manually 8 times per day, taking lots of photos and talking for 20 minutes (all figures are per day). If you're in the US or in an area with no UMTS service, save battery power by changing the phone's setting to GSM only (rather than automatic switching between networks). If you are in a UMTS area, we hear that 3G reduces battery life by a bit, so you might expect 10% less runtime. Nokia estimates talk time at 3.75 hours on GSM networks with over 6 days of standby and that seems a bit cautious as ours did a bit better.
Conclusion
If you’re a smartphone user and love to take photos, this phone is a godsend! No more deciding between a useful business phone and one that’s fun to use and can take simply wonderful photos. The N73 has one of the best cameras of any phone on the market, with only Nokia’s own N93 and the Sony Ericsson K790 / K800i competing. If you don’t need smartphone features, then the Sony Ericsson offers serious competition but it can’t compete with the Nokia on syncing, powerful PIM applications, Office viewers, PDF viewer and 3rd party software. The phone has excellent reception and call quality with fast data rates over EDGE and good ergonomics (though the straightforward design might seem boring it does make for an easy to use phone). Bluetooth is fast which is a plus when transferring those big photos and videos. The screen is gorgeous! Battery life is good and the smartphone is responsive in all tasks.
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