NOKIA N73 reviewed completely

What's better than a review of Nokia's king-of-the-hill candybar, the 3.2-megapixel N73 with virtually every desirable feature under the sun? How about three reviews? Early reports suggest some discontent with the N73's build quality and processor speed, not to mention that the lack of WiFi leaves us wanting -- but viewing the phone as the N70's heir apparent puts everything into perspective for us.The quad-band GSM is virtually a written invitation for the S60 lovers among us to get their import on.


You really can't accuse Nokia of failing to differentiate their range of S60 3rd Edition devices - each one has been wildly different from the rest, at least to the trained eye. The N73 has been widely touted as a natural successor to the best-selling S60 2nd Edition-powered N70, but that's only really half the story.


The truth about the N73 is that it's all about the camera. And what a camera, 3.2 megapixels with greater clarity, far less compression artefacts and better colour than even Nokia's own flagship N93. Where the N70 was perhaps 70% smartphone and 30% camera, the Nokia N73 is a true half and half. With such a strong imaging focus, it won't appeal to the 'why do I need a camera in my phone' brigade, but I doubt Nokia will mind.

The N73's camera has the obligatory Carl Zeiss optics, a mechanical shutter and a good autofocus lens, though not with optical zoom (as on the N93). And, in case you were wondering, video capture is at the Nseries 'standard' of 352 by 288 pixels and 15 frames per second, OK for casual clips of family and friends but ultimately blocky. So if you buy the N73, it's going to be for the stills capability.
It's worth noting that, as alluded to above, camera performance in dim conditions is less than stellar, as with virtually all phone-based cameras - there simply isn't enough light to produce good results on such a small CMOS sensor. Still, the N73 is no worse than other similar cameras and in fact I was quite impressed with results in pitch black conditions using the built-in LED flash, which is used both for auto-focussing and taking the actual picture.
But we're getting ahead of ourselves. The N73 is a successor to the N70 in terms of form factor and looks, at least, with an almost identical form factor, size and key layout. It's light at 116g. There are lots of detailed differences though, many of which aren't necessarily positive, so bear with me while I talk you round the hardware.
The most obvious difference is the screen. It's a full 2.4" diagonal, the same fabulous display as in the N93 but thankfully this time not waving around on the end of two swivel joints. Resolution is 240 by 320, a definite improvement from the old 176 by 208 pixel standard, even though fonts do still look a little blocky on the large screen.
Away from the screen things are not quite so rosy. The overall construction of the N73 screams 'plastic' at the top of its lungs. The silvery keypad feels cheap, with a horrible ridged top to each numeric key and a joystick and surround that look as if they belong in your local 'pound' shop. Squeeze in the side of the N73 and you'll feel a distinct flexing, with an accompanying ghastly creaking noise. And to keep this noise company there's a rattle from the camera slider on the rear of the phone, which doesn't seem to have been made of sturdy enough plastic.

Below the keypad is the miniSD slot, hidden behind a very close fitting door. The manual says to use a fingernail to open it, but in my case I had to resort to a jeweller's screwdriver and a few scary moments in order to get at the card slot. Admittedly, few of us change cards very often, but I can't see why so great lengths are taken to protect the card slot when the just-as-vulnerable Pop Port and power socket are completely exposed a couple of millimetres below.


On top and bottom of the phone are cosmetic 'grilles', hiding both stereo speakers and microphone. Maybe it's just me or maybe these are supposed to be 'retro' but I found them unattractive.


The right hand side of the N73 is devoted to buttons. Several of them. At the top is a rocker switch, marked with a zoom icon and designed for zooming in and out in the camera and in displayed Gallery images. It also, sensibly works in telephony, for changing volume, and with the same function in the Music Player and RealPlayer.
At the bottom is the main camera shutter button, in the same location as the 'alternative' shutter on the N70. This works well, in conjunction with the camera interface, working exclusively in 'landscape' mode. So far so good.

Just as on the N70, there's a good LED flash system, with it activated during focussing and during actual image capture. And, just on the N70, I'm sure a utility will be along shortly letting you keep the LED on to use the N73 as a torch.
It's S60 3rd Edition, of course, and Nokia have continued the trend of fiddling with the placement of application icons in every single device. Whether this is simply because they believe different devices need different application emphasis or whether they simply aren't happy with the 'mix' yet, I couldn't say. But at least some thought is going into the initial user experience, with the first six icons being Contacts, Messaging, Calendar, Music, Gallery and Games - pretty much what the newcomer would want to try first. Below these are three Internet shortcuts (Search, Services and Download!), with three folders endnig out the '12' and providing homes for the majority of the S60 mini-apps. All pretty logical, though I really hope Nokia standardise on a layout sometime soon. Maybe this one is 'it'.

In use, the N73 isn't particularly speedy, but it isn't slow either. Any experienced S60 user will feel very quickly at home. The design choice of the joystick won't be too everyone's tastes though and some games, in particular, will suffer - the N70's navigator key was far, far faster for game use.
After booting, the N73 follows the S60 3rd Edition trend so far by having just over 20MB of RAM free, although doing anything that involves landscape mode (e.g. starting Camera or Gallery) will knock 4MB off this immediately. So, the usual multi-tasking caveats apply with regards to the really heavy RAM-hungry applications, such as Opera Mini, Web or a sat-nav solution.
In terms of connectivity, there's infrared and Bluetooth but no Wi-Fi, another differentiator from the N93. Not that I missed it, normal GPRS/3G data seemed to work just fine. And the N73 is quad-band, so the one model should work more or less anywhere in the world, which is good to see.
This being an Nseries device, there's Media Player 10 integration and WMA file support, along with stereo audio output. Music quality didn't seem as crisp as on other Nseries devices though, despite me fiddling with the built-in 'Equaliser' and the maximum volume of playback was only just sufficient in a quiet office - I sincerely doubt that the N73 could currently power music playback in a noisy environment such as a train station or on a bus. Visual Radio is also here, though why they persist with this rather than simply calling it 'Radio', I really don't know.
It's a fairly standard Nseries software bundle, with the viewer component of Quickoffice and Adobe's PDF reader. There's also Yahoo Go!, if you're a big Yahoo fan, though watch your data useage and battery life if you do use the application. There's also a completely pointless application shortcut to F-Secure's Anti-Virus, included presumably to do a favour to their fellow countrymen - guys, you're saying 'Hey, we've got a new OS and it's fabulously secure' but then also saying 'Err... better check out some anti-virus, just in case'. There's a mixed message here that could do with resolving.
I've been through something of a roller-coaster ride with the N73. My first impressions were awful, with the over-plastic feel and noisy case, plus tacky joystick and number keypad. But then I was completely bowled over by the stills camera and the pendulum swung in the other direction.
The N73 may yet be an adequate successor to the N70, provided the Gallery activation key problem is fixed in firmware and provided a little more attention is paid to hardware quality control back at Nokia's manufacturing plant. Other niggles, such as the low volume of the built-in Music player may have to be solved in a component change for future manufactured devices.
With the way firmware updates can significantly improve the performance and functionality of a device, especially in these days of DIY updating, it's tricky to give a one-off verdict. The N73 certainly has potential, and the form factor and general camera capabilities are extremely impressive.