Nokia N73 Review

Overall Rating

Camera
MP3 Player
Battery life
Ear phone design
Phone call quality
Large screen

Jack of all trades, master of none

I have bought the Nokia N73 phone one year and a half after its release with the view that a year is plenty of time for initial teething problems to be resolved. My little bundle of communication has no faults that it is so often associated with.

It is a fairly solid phone: it feels nice in the hand and perhaps a little heavy - but it's certainly no brick. Texting is easy, all the more simplified by that you add your addressee prior to sending. The sound quality of a phone call is pretty good, and absolutely fantastic in comparison to the Motorola phones I've owned.

The battery life is better than of any phone I've owned. I tend to listen to music a fair bit on it, and I can go for 5 days without having to recharge.

This is a fantastic jack of all trades phone.

The camera is alright in comparison to a decent digital camera; in comparison to a phone camera it is fantastic. Many of my photos on facebook appear from this phone. The video, unfortunately, is still of similar quality to most phones - but better than most nonetheless.

A big bonus for this phone is that it has such a large screen. This means that you can actually see what you're doing without poking your nose into the phone. I love that you don't have to scroll and rescroll to read a text message.

The MP3 player is user friendly, and with a 2GB card I can store a heck of a lot of music. The ear phones are very comfortable. I've never owned a SE, so cannot compare, but the music quality is decent. One thing that annoys me is that if you wanted to switch to different ear phones - you can't, the ear phone socket is of specific design. But I like the ones supplied, so it's not a problem for me. Another annoyance is that the phone does not recognize MP3 format - you have to convert all the music you want on your mobile into the M4A format (which you can do with the software provided with the phone). This doesn't take too long, and it does mean that there's plenty of storage for other things on the phone, so not a great evil.

The phone in itself is pretty simple and user friendly. It didn't take me very long to figure it out. If you were to sit down and play with it for half a day upon getting it (as people generally do to get over the initial excitement of getting a shiny new toy), you're sure to find it easy to use.

The FM radio works great, however I use it very rarely seeing as all my favourite tracks are on the phone ready to be listened to.

In fact, there are many features on this phone I have used rarely, if at all. However the ones I have used - I use regularly and I am happy with them.

Summary: this phone is a good all rounder. The camera and MP3 player aren't the best on offer, but they're good enough to substitute the real thing. Battery life is surprisingly good for a phone with such a large screen. And to top it all off - you can use it to make phone calls too.