SMARTPHONES just keep on getting better and better, with Nokia's latest 3.2 megapixel wonder no exception. Here Jonathan Morris, from What Mobile, magazine checks it out. THE big boys have been slow to catch up with the Sharp's three megapixel monster - the 903 - which was released almost a year ago, but that's all set to change.

While Sony Ericsson has opted to employ the established and respected Cyber-shot brand on the K800i, Nokia doesn't have the luxury of a well-known camera brand to call upon.

Instead, they've partnered with Carl Zeiss to give the latest imaging phone credibility.

Ironically, Carl Zeiss provides the lenses to ordinary Sony digital cameras, but in the mobile arena they've worked with Nokia since the release of the N90.

That was only two megapixels, and while the list of features was impressive (3G, Series 60, etc), the slow speed of operation coupled with a long delay to market, resulted in the phone disappearing almost as quickly as it arrived.

Nokia has learned a lot from the N90, and the N73 is both smaller and lighter – making it a decent competitor to the forthcoming Sony Ericsson K800i.
It matches the Sony Ericsson for both camera and screen resolution (3.2 megapixel and 240x320 pixels respectively) and also shares the much more friendly candy bar form factor, with a sliding lens cover.

However, where the K800i gets a proper Xenon flash, with red eye reduction, the N73 has to make do with a LED lamp.

Like all N-series devices, the N73 is a smartphone and ships with the third edition of Series 60, running on Symbian's latest 9.1 operating system.

This is good for the future but bad for the short term, as the variety of software is likely to remain limited until the autumn, as developers recompile applications to work with the new edition.



By comparison, the K800i only runs Java applications, which are restricted in functionality.

With the exception of the N80 and N90, Series 60 phones have always made do with a low resolution screen that isn't great for digital imaging.

The QVGA screen on the N73 is bright and the extra dimensions improve every aspect of the phone, with larger menus (such as an extra row of icons) and the ability to squeeze on much more text.

In camera mode, two dedicated buttons activate the camera or the gallery. Opening the lens cover also activates the camera, with a series of on-screen options able to be selected with the joystick.

Here the large screen comes into its own, making it easy to check how good the photograph will be before pressing the shutter button. The downside is the lack of visibility in bright light, which could make it a bit tricky on a sunny day standing on a sandy beach with light reflecting from all angles.

Whether or not you can see the pictures clearly on the display, the quality is exceptional. The N80 took good pictures without a Carl Zeiss lens or autofocus, but the N73 is amazing in all lighting conditions.

The lack of a proper flash will disappoint for indoor photography, but night-mode images are amazingly noise free and often preferable to the LED lamp, which leaves a distinctly cold colour cast on anything close up.

Saving photos is quick too, as the N73 actually comes with a faster processor than its bigger brother the N80.

The phone has 42MB of onboard memory, with a slot that can take miniSD cards up to 2GB in size (and higher, when they become available).

With 2GB cards going online for £40 or less, music lovers can get half the capacity of the N91 (enough for over 2,000 tracks in eAAC+ mode) in a much nicer footprint.
Unfortunately, the N73 doesn't have A2DP or dedicated music control buttons, but it is still a better all-rounder than its hard drive equipped sibling and has stereo speakers, positioned at the top and bottom of the phone.

The N73 has another ace up its sleeve, which is the photo upload service for Flickr users. Take a photo and an extra option appears to post the image to your online photo album.



It's as easy as sending a picture by Bluetooth or MMS, and also a great way of backing up your photo album.

The controversial web browser first seen on the N80 makes an appearance here too, allowing web pages to be shown as designed.

It may look nicer, and use the same rendering system as Apple's Safari web browser, but the need to scroll around the page (a mini-map speeds this process up) isn't necessarily an improvement over a 'single column' view, as favoured by browsers like NetFront or Opera.

Even though the phone isn't as small as the K800i, Nokia has still managed to include small number keys that can make it tricky to enter text.

The joystick can also be easily pushed in by accident, selecting things you don't want. Anyone that has owned or used a Nokia in the last two years will be used to design taking precedent over usability, and although it certainly isn't as bad as previous efforts, it's worth bearing in mind.

With oddly positioned stereo speakers (top and bottom), another feature of the phone is 3D-sound ringtones. A special application simulates a multitude of surround sound effects, from a circular pattern to 'passing car'.

It's great fun, but you might run the risk of missing a call because you can't tell where the sound is coming from!

Finally, as a 3G phone with oodles of features, battery life makes all the difference for something that replaces your music player and camera.

With a 1100mAh battery (as seen on the 9300 Communicator), the N73 is far better equipped than the power-hungry N80 that makes do with a paltry 800mAh battery.

Originally Posted by Drunken_Ninja Sounds like a bad phone to me and not worth buying just yet... Maybe once they update the firmware it will be a better buy but Nokia always seem to release what seem like BETA versions of thier new phones instead of removing the bugs before release...