Nokia N73 Music Edition

Cellphone apart from being a necessity has become a multi-functional device which none of us can do without.With so many cellphones out there it becomes hard to pick and chose one.N73 is one such device which is a perfect blend of style without compromising utility.

Here are its specs:

• Dimensions:110 x 49 x 19 mm
• Weight 116g
• Display:256K,TFT
• 3.2MP Camera with Autofocus and Carl Zeiss optics
• 3D sound stereo speakers
• Light sensor
• GPRS:Class 10 (4+1/3+2 slots), 32 - 48 kbps
• HSCSD:Yes
• Edge:Class 10 (4+1/3+2 slots), 32 - 48 kbps
• 3G: 384 kbps
• Bluetooth ver 2.0 with A2DP
• Symbian OS 9.1, S60 3rd edition

So much for the specifications but there is more to this black beauty. It also features stereo radio which has become a standard is most of the mobiles nowadays. The difference between the vanilla and the music edition is that Nokia bundles a 2 GB MiniSD memory card along with better earphones with the music edition making a complete pack.Lets examine N73 step by step.

Design

Its shape looks rectangular from front but seems trapezoidal from aside.The buttons are cramped to give way to the big 240 X 320 screen it sports.The camera cover is a slider which is a bit wobbly but does the job well.The body is full black and the feel of the plastic is also elite.The infrared sensor has been placed on the side along with the volume control button,camera release button and a quick image/video gallery access button. The speakers have been cleverly placed at top and bottom. So other than the keypad everything seems perfect!

Memory Card,Keypad,Display and OS

The 2GB comes bundled with the music edition which is pretty easy to insert into the card slot as card slot is provided at the bottom above the pop-port. As this model was introduced some time back it supports MiniSD cards against the MicroSD cards that seem to be the standard with all new Nokia models these days. The phone also has an inbuilt 42MB memory which is good enough to install applications and store messages.

Keypad is the negative point of this phone as it has been squeezed and hence is far from being ergonomic and easy to use.You are bound to press the red button instead of ‘3′ while typing out a fast message.The keys have also not been separated properly making typing a message a pain.But the backlighting to the keypad is good and you won’t need to dig your eyes deep in the night.

The display is one of the best thing that this phone has as Nokia has moved away from VGA resolution to give way to QVGA resolution ie. 240 X 320 which can be seen on this model. The screen size is one of the largest for its category and it produces brilliant,sharp and crisp images.

N73 features OS9.1v3 operating system which although it the predecessor to OS9.2 but it continues to enjoy support from developers across the globe who keep churning out great applications for this platform.You can find hundreds of great applications for this platform which is what makes this device a powerhouse.

Camera and music player

The 3.2MP camera is another stronghold which makes this phone unbeatable.There are not many phones in market which take pictures as good as this one does.The pictures have low noise,vivid colors and have aptly lit provided you have proper lighting conditions.The interface of the camera is very easy to use and Nokia has been kind enough to include manual settings like manual exposure,white balance and color settings.It also comes with 8 preset shooting modes and also has red-eye reduction feature.Self timer and sequence mode take it at par with an entry-level digicam.

Some of the weak points of the camera are its weak LED flash and night pictures.The LED flash is not strong enough to provide lighting to night shots. Purple fringing is prevalent in night shots and hence you would be better off a standalone digicam for this purpose.The video quality is good for close ups but loses quality drastically when you zoom in.

Music player can be launched directly from the dedicated music key which can also launch the radio application when pressed for a longer duration.The music player remains pretty much unchanged and you can view tracks according to artists,albums,genre and composers.You can create your own playlists. You can either select one of the 6 preset equalizers or create a custom one suiting your need.Coming to the sound quality of the loudspeaker, it certainly a league apart from other Nokia cellphones with it being loud and clear. You don’t expect any bass from the such small speakers and so is the case.Beats and vocals are clear and all in all its sound can be compared to some Sony Ericsson phones.The bundled earphones are not good and I recommend getting good pair of earphones like Creative EP-630 to be able to enjoy music at it best.

Other features

Radio quality is very good and I have not heard better radio or any other cellphone.Phonebook is a charm to work as it provides you with many details you can fill about your contacts and also make groups to separate them. The default internet application lets you surf only in portrait mode and has limited features.But the new Opera Mini v4 works perfectly and you would be better off installing it if you surf net daily.The picture gallery is slow to be frank and you won’t find it pleasing if you have to open it often.Menu navigation is fast.Open office documents and PDF files is possible as QuickOffice and Adobe Acrobat comes pre-installed with the phone.Other features like alarm clock and stuff are nothing to boast about.

Pros

• 3.2MP Camera
• Big and brilliant display
• Symbian OS
• Loud stereo speakers
• 3G Compatible

Cons

• Cramped Keypad
• Wobbly camera cover
• No WiFi
• Average bundled earphones

Final thoughts

The N73 is a perfect device is you don’t like carrying around a cellphone,your MP3 player and a digital camera along with you all the time.It manages to fullfill all their needs to a certain extent.If you are a WiFi junkie that you would have to give this a miss and start hunting for another one.The battery life is decent with 8 hours of music playback,3 days standby. So Nokia has rightly called this as a “multimedia computer”.