I posted a note that I'd be doing some evaluaton of the N73 and N93 graciously provided by the Nokia Blogger Relations Program. I will indeed do that, but I'll also share the pain along the way.

It's a good starting point to recognize that I'm a longtime Verizon Wireless customer, and Verizon doesn't do Nokia. That means the first step to testing is to get service. Since I've got two phones and want to do really thorough testing, I tried to set up something workable. I went to T-Mobile over the weekend and bought two pre-paid SIM cards with 1000 minutes each. You have to understand T-Mobile's model. The SIM card with an introductory 30 minutes or so costs $50. I added $100 to each card because then your minutes don't expire for a year. So I spent $300 out of pocket over the weekend to put together what I thought I needed.

What I thought. Reality is an interesting twist. So I'll say first off, as telephones burning minutes, both Nokia's do a splendid job of handling telephone calls.

If you want the features you need to make them useful, maybe the next step is a data plan. I'll be investigating. So far, beyond a voice call and the ability to receive SMS/MMS messages, both are flawless, I've set the N93 aside until I'm satisfied that I've got everything I can on the N73.

SMS and MMS messages don't send. Network failure. The Flickr interface doesn't work, probably because I don't have a data plan. I'm not going to invest $50/month on a two-year contract for testing purposes, and I can't find any data plan prepaid arrangement that anyone at T-Mobile can explain. Let's just say T-Mobile is reinforcing my commitment to Verizon Wireless as my carrier of choice.

All this shouldn't matter because the Nokia comes with software and synch cable to connect to the PC and do some really cool stuff. Ok. I've installed it on two computers and when I get to the "connect the phone" step, the computer doesn't recognize a handset is connected. So I've got lots of software, that so far, can't talk to the phone.

This all may be quite simple and intuitive, but at this point, I'm setting it aside for a day. I can't invest any more time. I'm sure if this were a supported phone that T-Mobile bundled in a package, everything would just come up and work. I'm not even close to that sort of user experience so far.

Caveat - This could all be pilot error problems on my part. I openly acknowledge that. I just don't have time to wade through it further right now. I'll keep you apprised of what my solution is and how I work through it all. I'm very impressed with the phones features and functions, as documented. Being able to use them is another issue. And that's a function of the carrier and service plan, not the handheld device.


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