The [AP] Blog

Hey Everyone,

I’ve had the N73 for a couple of days now, and all I can say is that I’m nothing short of amazed. It is a simply incredible phone, with a feature set to blow your mind, and a camera as good as your proper digital camera, to an extent :)

Ease of Use
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I must admit, that this phone isn’t the easiest thing to use. This is down to it being a Symbian series 60 mobile phone, which is a pretty complicated OS. Having said that though, you can get used to anything and this isn’t that complicated.

It most certainly shouldn’t be a deal-breaker, but it is something to get used to. There are many ways of doing the same thing, a bit like in Windows, but it is fine really. The menus are very clear and look really nice, the layout is intuitive, and the camera software is great, very simple and pretty, (very OSX).

Physically, it is also easy to use, the case is very well made, and there is nothing complicated, the MiniSD port cover is a bit odd, took me a couple of seconds to work out what’s going on, you have to pull it out, and it doesn’t physically come off, (quite hard to explain). It stay’s connected to the phone, and you kind of have to push it away when trying to get a card in… Well, that was badly explained, you have to really do it in real life to work out what I’m trying to say!

Overall, the phone is complicated at first, but it’s amazing how you get used to it, I’m very quick with it, and I’ve only had it a week or so. You’ll love the attractive operating system, and intuitive design.

Look and Feel
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As I’ve already mentioned, (slightly), the phone is beautiful, it is amazing how attractive you can make such a functional machine. It comes in three colour combinations, (Mocha/White, Red/White and Plum/Silver). They all look very nice. I have the Plum/Silver, although I would’ve preferred the Mocha/White, but my Operator doesn’t do that. The design is very minimalist; it is simple, but well done.

The front of the phone is dominated by the large, bright and beautiful screen, of a 320×240 resolution, (QVGA), very nice. Above it, the name of the phone, (Nokia N73), and the earpiece. Then there is also the front-facing camera for video calling, (it can also be used as a ‘mirror’ or for fun shots, although it isn’t brilliant), and next to that there is also a small light, that blinks for Bluetooth, and also is a light sensor, so that if it is bright, it can dim the keypad backlight to conserve power.

The rear of the phone at first appears to withhold nothing, just the button to access the battery/USIM compartment. But, slide down that large cover, and the 3.2MP Camera with a Carl Zeiss lens is revealed. (I’ll write a section on that beauty later). When the slide is, well, slid, the camera is automatically activated, (it takes a little while, 5-6 secs), and then you’re ready to take some beautiful pictures.

The sides of the phone aren’t as important, the left contains the IrDA (infrared) port, and the right has buttons for the camera, (Zoom, Shutter and a button to open the gallery).

On the top and the bottom of the phone you will find speakers. They are stereo, and I have to first say that this sounds gimmicky, but it is in fact quite an incredible thing, you can genuinely hear the stereo coming through, (more on that later). On the top you will also find the on/off/profile switch button, and on the bottom you will find the MiniSD port and the charger hole along with the port connector, (can’t remember what it is called).

Overall, I have to say, it is the most well designed phone I have owned to date, and it feels so good, the material, although plastic, feels very solid, and metal-like, really, really great.

Durability and Robustness
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I must admit that I haven’t had any experience in dropping this phone yet, or anything that really stresses either of these factors, although what I will say is that, based on how amazing it feels, it is, in my view, going to be a very robust phone that will hold its own against bangs and drops.

I’ll update this when I have had more experience in this!

Reception Quality
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Well, this is great; I am comparing this really with my old phone, a Samsung E720, which really was not good, in any respect, tinny, rattling, and fuzzy. Compared with that, the N73 is amazing, although I am told it isn’t in the league of Motorola’s quality, (always been the best). It is very smooth, and there is no ‘noise’ no buzzing etc and the voices aren’t washed out during calls.

I also seem to get more reception than I did the old phone, everywhere I go I seem to be getting 80-100% signal. Overall, I can say that this phone is very well connected if you know what I mean, and maybe it is true that Nokia really are ‘Connecting People’.

Battery Life
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The battery life on this phone is very substantial when the screen, the power and the camera are put into consideration. It comes with a Lithium Polymer battery, so it does not suffer from memory problems, and it has an 1100mAh capacity, which is very good for its size. I have found that I will charge it every two days, and that is with frequent texting, a LOT of camera work, some MP3 and radio listening, and a bit of gaming. So, all in all it is very good, and I’m sure as I calm down about having a new phone, the battery life will increase.

The charger is fine, I’ve noticed a lot of people complaining that the charger is non-standard, which isn’t a problem really as the phone, (well mine at least), comes bundled with an adapter so you can use the old style Nokia chargers, which are in abundance everywhere it seems. (I’m not sure why the charger would be a problem anyway…!)

Overall, the battery aspect is great, and you’ll be impressed that a phone with this much power can go for as long as it does!

Camera
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Now, since this is such a major part, I thought I’d add a whole section devoted to this, as it is quite incredible. We’ll start with the basics, it is a 3.2 mega-pixel camera sensor, with Carl Zeiss optics. Furthermore, it has very ‘camera-like’ features such as a mechanical shutter with an actual Aperture.

You’ll find there is quite extensive manual control with the camera, such as ISO control, (although it is not the normal number system it is Low, Medium and High. I keep mine on Low to keep the quality high). Furthermore, there is exposure compensation controls along with white balance and metering.

If you are not into that kind of thing, there are preset ‘scene’ modes, such as close-up, (macro, focusing from 10-30cm), portrait, (largest aperture, (smaller number), to give a shallow DOF, (depth of field, i.e. person in focus, background out of focus).

The camera is simply fantastic, and it genuinely eliminates the need to carry around a small digital camera, and what’s more, you will have a high-quality digital camera wherever you go, which is amazingly useful!

*My personal recommendation is that you buy a large memory card for the phone, I bought a 1gb MiniSD off of eBay, it is cheap, only £12.50 or so, and that will allow for much storage, as the picture files are quite large*

The camera also has a video function, allowing recording up to 352×288, which is great resolution for a phone. I’ve found the video function to be fine, but you don’t want to expect to shoot movies with it, its not that great! (In my opinion, if you are more of a video person, you want to go with Samsung, or the N73’s big brother, the N93).

Overall? The camera is the best part of the phone, absolutely incredible, an amazing piece of kit, that will keep you amused for hours. Here is a shot I took with the phone a couple of days ago:

Conclusion
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I think that I have covered all the major parts of this phone, and one thing I will say to conclude the review is: Superiority. I feel that there is no phone that can match the N73’s mixture of power, with subtlety, design and technological advance, and of course, the camera, it is simply, the best.

If there is anything you feel I have missed out on covering in this review, please let me know. I am leaving out more standard phone features as I no longer feel they are necessary to be covered in a review, as all phones have them, (I mean things like, phonebook etc).

This product is HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

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I hope this review has been of some help to some people, have a nice weekend! :)

Charlie -

(Product Review, Copyright to Charlie Styr 2006. All rights reserved)