Weight: 116 g
Length: 110 mm
Width: 49 mm
Thickness (max): 19 mm

Display: Up to 262,144 colors, 2.4 inch QVGA 240 x 320 pixels display with automatic brightness control

Price: $322.99 - $434.00

The N73 is a candy bar-shaped phone with a vibrant, six-centimetre, 262K-colour display. Nokia ships the N73 in three colour variations: silver grey/deep plum, frost white/metallic red and frost white/mocha brown. It’s quite a large phone, measuring 110mm by 49mm by 19mm, but Nokia keeps the weight of the handset down to a reasonable 116 grams. The keypad is relatively small and cramped, with eight shortcut keys squeezed above and around the numerical buttons. Navigating menus can be tricky as the joystick beneath the screen is small and sensitive.

Over at Nokia they tried to boost the N73 using various technologies so that it could not only impress end-users on imaging front but also offer fair basic functionality. The aim at the mass market has eventually resulted in three different trims - Silver Grey/Deep Plum, Frost White/Metallic Red, Frost White/Mocha Brown, however all they have only the rear and sides painted, while the light front plate remains almost untouched There is not much of a difference between two color schemes (Deep Plum, Mocha Brown) – it’s more about color tones. On the other hand the Metallic Red stands out against the background of its companions and will sure appeal to women. Hereafter the market will see launch of a black edition – whether it will be only an addition to already released trims, or a limited offering materialized owing to another promo-action, we do not know.

Nokia chose respected optical brand Carl Zeiss for the N73’s f2.8/f5.6 Tessar lens. With a resolution of 3.2-megapixels, you can take shots suitable for prints up to 5.1 x 6.8 inches (13 x 17cm), however standard 4 x 6 inch photos (10 x 15cm) will turn out less grainy. The N73 supports four image quality settings, from MMS-suitable shots up to the aforementioned print quality photos. Scene modes include auto, macro, portrait, landscape, sports, night and night portrait; the N73 displays a helpful description of each when you’re choosing the mode. Red-eye reduction flash mode is onboard, but we were disappointed with the N73’s LED-based flash — the xenon flash on the Sony Ericsson K800i does a much better job. Colour tone, exposure, ISO speed and white balance can all be adjusted to pre-defined values for stills.

The smartphones by Nokia are getting smaller with every release, and this case isn’t an exception – in fact, it’s the apex of miniaturization of smartphones incorporating QVGA screen. Today only Nokia 5500 can overcome the N73 dimensions-wise, but it still yields to the latest N7x’s offspring when it comes to display. The Nokia N73 measures 110?49?19 mm in size and weights 116 grams. In future the dimensions in this series will vary within the limits of these sizes, further reduction won’t take place.

The front of the N73 is dominated by the large display, but we’ll touch on that later. The keypad on the N73 is rather small, and one of the things I like least about the device. The combination of small keys and a position very, very close to the bottom of the phone make them rather hard for me to use. If you have small hands it might work out better for you, but then again, the N73 might also feel a bit top heavy for people with smaller hands. The keys themselves work very well, and the joystick and surrounding softkeys and call control keys are also very good. I don’t really like the four chromed buttons that surround the keypad, though. Of the four, only the C key and the main S60 menu keys are really used very often. The C key’s lower right hand corner placement makes it very hard for me to use, as a right handed person.

Key features:
3.2 megapixel camera with Carl Zeiss optics
Large, bright 2.4-inch display
Advanced auto-focus and mechanical shutter
Stereo FM and support for Visual Radio
Download and stream videos with built-in RealPlayer

Multimedia:
Visual Radio*: Listen to music and interact with your favorite radio stations
Find out what song is playing, who sings it, and other artist information
Enter contests and answer surveys, vote for your favorite songs
Download the songs you buy direct to your phone
RealPlayer Media Player
Download and play multimedia files (video and music)
Stream media files from compatible media portals
Full-screen video playback on the phone to view downloaded, streamed, or recorded video clips in larger size
Played formats (decoding): MP3, AAC, Real Audio, WAV, Nokia Ring Tones, AMR, AMR-WB, AMR-NB, AU, MIDI, H.263, JPEG, JPEG2000, EXIF 2.2, GIF 87/89, PNG, BMP (W-BMP), MBM, MPEG-4 and eAAC+
Digital music player for MP3/AAC/eAAC/eAAC+/WMA formats with playlist and equalizer
OMA DRM 2.0 support for music files
Stereo FM radio (87.5 - 108 MHz / 76 - 90 MHz)**
Integrated stereo speakers with 3D sound effect

Browsing:
WAP* 2.0 xHTML/HTML multimode browser

Imaging:
3.2 megapixel camera, 2048 x 1536 pixels with up to 20x digital zoom
Settings for night, brightness adjustment, image quality, self-timer, white balance settings, and color tones
On device photo editor and video editors (manual and automatic)
Camera Specifications
CMOS sensor, 3.2 megapixel (2048 x1536) pixels with autofocus and digital zoom up to 20x
Carl Zeiss Optics, Tessar™ lens
Focal length 5.6 mm
Focus range 10 cm ~ infinity
Macro mode with 10 cm focus distance
Mechanical shutter with 1/1000~0.2s shutter speed
Active slide cover for lens protection
Photography
2-stage capture key for autofocus control
2.4 inch camera viewfinder in landscape orientation and with active toolbar
Slide for camera protection and activation
Integrated flash (operating range up to 1m)
Modes: auto, off, on, red-eye reduction
Advanced camera modes: still, sequence, video
Scenes: automatic, user defined, close-up, portrait, landscape, sport and night
White balance: automatic, daylight, cloudy, tungsten, fluorescent
Color tone: normal, sepia, B&W, vivid, negative
Light sensitivity: high, medium, low, automatic
Video
Video: play, record, stream
Audio recording AAC stereo
Video stabilization
Video clip up to 1.5h (limited by available memory)
File format .mp4 (high), .3gp (normal, MMS)
Video capture: 352 x 288 (CIF) at up to 15 fps MPEG-4
Automatic white balance control
Scenes: auto, night, close-up, snow/beach, cine, old film
Digital zoom CIF up to 4x / QCIF up to 8x
Two-way video call capability
Second VGA camera (640 x 480 pixels) with up to 2x digital zoom
Real time video sharing to another compatible mobile device

Messaging:
Multimedia messaging: MMS for creating, receiving, editing, and sending videos and pictures with AMR voice clips
Email: Supports SMTP, POP3, IMAP4, and APOP protocols. Support for attachments (view jpeg, 3gp, MP3, .ppt, .doc, excel, and .pdf files)
Text messaging: Supports concatenated SMS, picture messaging, SMS distribution list

This entry was posted on Friday, February 22nd, 2008 at 9:05 am and is filed under N-Series, Large Screen, Classic. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.