I've been using the Nokia N73 as part of the Nokia Blogger Relations Program for a week or two now, but using it with some constraints.

First, I'm a Verizon customer, and their CDMA network doesn't support Nokia GSM phones. I wish it did. But for testing the N73 and N93 I went a picked up a couple of prepaid SIM cards on the T-Mobile network. So for starters, I'm constrained to somewhat basic telephony...no data service. I'll be rectifying that shortly with a Cingular SIM, and my testing will continue for some time to come. But you need to understand the constraints I set on myself for starters.





I had some problems with the PC Suite software initially. It wouldn't connect via cable, but worked fine over Bluetooth. An uninstall/reinstall of the PC Suite took care of that problem. Like Phoneboy, I'm finding that once I've synched information over, I really lie connecting and using the N73 as a portable drive. It's the easiest way to get pictures and videos where I want them on my laptop.

As a phone, this unit is sleek and sexy, but not pretentious. Sounds like a fine wine, and it is. This is a phone that can simply be desribed as classy. Trim lines, clean look. Easy to use dialpad. I found the five-way navigation button a tad awkard with my large hands, but I quickly adapted.

I've had no dropped calls or problems in that regard. The controls all work well. It's a nice littel speakerphone. I've done two rather long conference calls with it lying on the desk and had no problems hearing or being heard. I'd rate the speakerphone a tad better than the one in my Treo 700w.

It's got all the necessary applications built in and they've worked flawlessly for me. PDF reader works for what I've tried, although reading PDFs on a phone screen is always an iffy proposition, If I have a complaint about the applications, it's the functionality of QuickOffice. The suite works well enough, although without a workign bluetooth keyboard, it has limitations. But the lack of ability to create documents is, for me, problematic. I need to be able to connect a keyboard and create a new document.

The Outlook synchronization all seems to work without a hitch. Again, the only drawback I found was attempting to work with the dialpad rather than a QWERTY keyboard. As a basis for capacity, I loaded about 1600 contacts, appointments, to-dos and notes into the phone with no problem at all.

The camera is one of the best I've seen in a smartphone...period. It's
been noted by others, and while it doesn't begin to match my Nikon D50,
it has to be among the best cameras available in smartphone today. What I noted is how quickly the display scrolls and follows camera motion. It has a lesser quality secondary camera so when you take your own picture you don't have to run to the bathroom and use a mirror. Actually, it works really well and, in the right network environment could be handy for video calling.

The sliding lens cover on the back for the camera is, as many people have noted, smooth. A great cover and an easy to use feature. I liked that a lot.

One personal use for a smartphone camera for me is in meetings. I commonly take pictures of whiteboard drawings and send them to myself. These wind up becoming parts of Visio diagrams, Powerpoint presentations and the like. I have to say the 3.2 megapixel Carl Zeiss lens ias far superior for this than the camera in my Treo.

Low light photography is, as I expected, marginal. That really requires a quality camera to pull off well. The focal length doesn't allow for any real closeup work either. I believe the new N80 supports closeups and I'm really hoping to get my hands on one of those when they're rolled for bloggers to review.

Like Luca, I didn't have an min-SDIO card to use with the phone, but the built in memory was plenty for testing purposes. If I were to use it every day, I'd put a 2 gig mini-SDIO card in the slot.

 Here's a webcam shot to show the display



I found SMS and MMS to work nicely, and as expected. There's a network limitation on MMS file sizes, so sending video just didn't work well. I transferred both pictures and video over cable, Bluetooth and infrared too. All worked seamlessly and without a problem. It was interesting beaming pictures from the Nokia to my Treo, but worked the first try.

Another feature I liked is the built in voice recorder. Lots of phones have them and many don't. I couldn't figure out how to shortcut it to a button or erally easy access, but it worked great. It's another reason to insert a large capacity min-SDIO card.

For me, the coolest application on the N73 is one I haven't been able to use. There's a Flickr application that let's you easily send straight from the phone to Flickr. Without an Internet data plan of some kind, that doesn't work. Rest assured, I'll be testing it and posting about where you can see the pictures once I've got a Cingular SIM and some time to get those done. Flickr's the premier photo sharing site on the web.

Speaking of photos, I'll actually be creating some full Flickr photosets from both the N73 and N93 (along with any other phones I'm able to test) and tagging them for easy location. Once that's all done and underway, I'll write up a post on where the photosets are and linking to them.

The Lifeblog software that's included is a nice feature addition, but only works with Typepad blogs. I think that makes it a software set that 75% or more of the people who use the Nokia's will just not use. I've uninstalled it myself. But the idea has huge potential as smartphones become the tools we use to document our daily lives.

At this point, this is the mobile handest I'd recommend to anyone who needs a good solid phone, and doesn't require the QWERTY functionality of full email integration. I'd recommend it to my mother. Actually, once her current contract is up, I will recommend it to my mother. It's a great phone with only minor drawbacks.

Drawbacks

• One drawback is the PC connection cable. Or the fact that the phone won't charge from the PC when connected.
• The mini-SDIO slot cover is somewhat difficult to open and put back in place. I'd probably just rip it off and throw it away at some point.
• I'd like to see the QuickOffice suite enhanced to ease file creation, but that's a need that doesn't apply to everyone.
• I've yet to see a Nokia phone with a vibrate function to alert to calls. Silent doesn't work for me. Neither does beep. I couldn't find it here and I know there are sound engineering reasons not to vibrate a device like this. Still, for me personally, that's actually an important feature. When you spend almost all of every day in meetings, sounds, no matter how unobtrusive, can present a problem.