Nokia N73

...as I really appreciated the Nokia 3220 my friend had lent me after my old phone went swimming in a pint of lager I had started thinking about getting a new phone anyway. This was mainly due to the rise in popularity of camera phones. Even though it had a camera, the quality of the pictures were pretty poor and whilst all my friends were showing me pictures on their phones when I tried to show anyone pictures on mine they could never work out what ...
...remember I have always owned Nokia handsets. There was a very brief period where I had a Sony Ericsson phone but I really didn't like it, I couldn't get on with the menus and I found it very, very frustrating to use. It was then I decided I was never going to stray from my trusty Nokia's ever again.

After much deliberating I decided to purchase a Nokia N73 handset. I did consider getting an N80 but Dave has one of them and I found ... more

Everyone has something that they are into, not so much a hobby but an interest - say for instance most men like gadgets, most women like shoes and handbags. I would say that mine is toiletries and cosmetics which I think is probably reflected in a lot of the reviews I have written on Ciao. Ask me a question about the latest perfumes on the market or who makes Airflash foundation and I am pretty sure to know the answer however ask me anything about technology and gadgets and I am quite useless!

Luckily for me my fiancé Dave loves his gadgets and anything technological so if I ever have a query about what MP3 player I should get or what the best kind of stereo system is he is usually on hand to answer my questions. It is him I have to thank for my latest technological purchase - my new mobile phone.

I don't have much luck with mobiles - the last two I bought have been broken by a friend of mine who has a tendency to be a bit unsteady on his feet and has spilt drinks over them. Now this has happened to me on a few other occasions and I have managed to rescue my phone after drying it out in the airing cupboard but for some reason this particular person always manages to kill them off. He is like poison for mobiles!

After he broke the last phone which I had only bought three weeks previously I was given a handset by a friend to use as I couldn't afford to buy another one. This is one of the pitfalls of Pay As You Go mobiles - if you break or lose the phone you have to pay for a new one. Admittedly I could've claimed for the breakage of the handset via my house insurance but by time I had paid the excess it really wouldn't have been worth it.

As much as I really appreciated the Nokia 3220 my friend had lent me after my old phone went swimming in a pint of lager I had started thinking about getting a new phone anyway. This was mainly due to the rise in popularity of camera phones. Even though it had a camera, the quality of the pictures were pretty poor and whilst all my friends were showing me pictures on their phones when I tried to show anyone pictures on mine they could never work out what it was I was trying to show them because the picture quality was so rubbish.

I decided that I would try and save up some cash and when I had saved enough I would get myself a nice new handset - obviously keeping it out of my friends reach, we don't want anymore drink related accidents. I started looking at the newer handsets on the market to try and work out which one I might like to get.

For as long as I can remember I have always owned Nokia handsets. There was a very brief period where I had a Sony Ericsson phone but I really didn't like it, I couldn't get on with the menus and I found it very, very frustrating to use. It was then I decided I was never going to stray from my trusty Nokia's ever again.

After much deliberating I decided to purchase a Nokia N73 handset. I did consider getting an N80 but Dave has one of them and I found some of the buttons hard to use and found the phone itself rather bulky and so he suggested I try looking at the N73. After having a play around with somebody else's phone I decided that I really quite liked the N73 and quite fancied looking into getting one. I searched out for the best price and ended up getting a brand new Nokia N73 off Ebay for £140 a pretty good price as these particular handsets hold their price very well and can reach up into the £200 mark.

After I purchased it I couldn't wait for it to arrive so I could start playing about with it. Sure enough the day after my nice shiny brand new silver sexy looking mobile appeared at my door accompanied by a very friendly Postman. With the phone came a charger, data cable for transferring files to and from your PC, in ear headphones, a Nokia PC Suite CD ROM and an instruction booklet etc. To go along with these I also purchased from Ebay a 2Gb memory card to give me extra storage space for pictures, videos and music.

With a 3.2 megapixel camera the N73 has Carl Zeiss optics, 20x digital zoom, built in flash, macro mode and autofocus along with a host of other optional settings. With a mechanical shutter the phone is capable of printing out real photo quality prints of up to 10" x 8" (25 x 20cm) via an attached printing device.. The phone has a large 2.4" display, integrated stereo speakers with 3D sound - you can even upload your pictures onto the Flickr photo sharing internet community. The camera is so easy to use too - all you need to do is slide back the cover and then point and shoot using one button on the side of the phone. You also have the option of taking videos by switching the settings to video mode using a simple menu and one touch button option. Your pictures and videos are then stored in easily scrollable photo albums which are easy to look through.

The camera not only houses one but two cameras - it has the regular camera on the back but also a front facing lens which you use for video calling but can also be used for taking pictures of yourself - no more trying to aim in your direction when you can't see what your doing if there is nobody else available to take a picture. This is a feature that I find quite handy though I will say the photo quality using the front facing camera isn't quite as good as the rear one.

I was slightly worried that this phone would be too advanced for me as I have very basic knowledge of mobiles with high specifications and am used to having a brick which can only just about ring and text people but I have found it really easy to use. The menu options are laid out really well and it is easy to get used to the way the all the various features work. The picture quality is really good, images come out looking sharp and crisp even for an amateur like me and with the added autofocus you don't end up with blurriness on the pictures.

The phone also has a built in digital music player and stereo speaker. You can transfer your music onto the handset using the Nokia Music Manager application which is part of the Nokia PC Suite, just attach your phone to your computer using the data cable and you can move music, pictures, numbers etc from phone to PC or vice versa. This again is so simple to use - if a total technophobe like me can do it without assistance then it must be easy! The phone supports MP3, WMA and AAC and also has an FM radio with visual radio function which can display information about the artist and track playing, handy for that annoying record you don't know the name of but really, really like.

I really don't tend to use my phone for listening to music as I have a separate MP3 player for that but I know I should really try and utilise the music features more often as it seems silly that I am not making the most of them.

This phone which is a 3G smartphone is one of the lightest versions available on the market, it is the bigger brother (or sister) of the Nokia N70 but is thinner and weighs less at 116g. It still retains the square shape of the N70 with a regular keypad, large screen and a central joystick. The keys could possibly be difficult for larger fingers, so this may be better suited to a lady rather than a man some users also have problems with the joystick however luckily for me I only have very small hands so I haven't encountered any problems so far.
The internal memory of the phone is 42 megabytes which has been increased from the previous model and as I mentioned previously you can buy removable mini SD cards to increase your memory size. Something that you need when you can record videos of up to 90 minutes long.

This phone is packed with high spec features. For example the screen display is not only very large but also boasts an amazing 240 x 370 pixel resolution and 262,000 colours making it one of the best of any smartphone.

As I am still getting used to this phone there are lots of features that I haven't really used yet such as the inbuilt office, web browser to connect to the internet, IM Instant Messenger, Flash Player, Lifeblog. In fact there are so many features I can't actually remember them all and probably will still be finding stuff out about this phone in months to come!

Personally one thing that has really surprised me is the battery life of this phone, it seems to last for ages. I use my phone regularly and the battery lasts a good 2 - 3 days without a charge, it doesn't take long to charge the phone when it requires it either.

The only problems I have encountered is that occasionally the N73 does freeze up and sometimes switches itself off which can be annoying if you are in the middle of something. However Dave has made me aware that there is an update available for this phone and hopefully once we have loaded the update onto the handset some of these problems will be rectified.

Available in 3 finishes - silver, black and plum I think this phone looks really stylish. Since I got it a number of people have commented on it and said how nice it looks, I have also had very positive comments about the picture quality on photos I have taken using the camera.

There is an inbuilt tutorial which explains some of the main features of the phone which I have found quite helpful. It is good to know that if you really get stuck then you can refer back to it for guidance and help - especially as you're not likely to carry the full instruction manual around with you (well not unless you are totally sad of course).

I won't list all the full technical specifications as they aren't really very interesting and I don't want people to think I am trying to bulk up my review with them. They are easily obtained by doing a google search on 'Nokia N73 Technical details' if you so wish to find them out.

Obviously you can do all the basic things using this phone - send text messages, send picture messages and photos……you can even make and receive calls on it - Wow! I hear you gasp!

I absolutely love this phone - not only does it look nice, doesn't weigh a ton and is easy to use for simpletons like me but it has lots of great features and a fantastic camera. I would certainly recommend it to anyone who is looking at a newer phone but doesn't want to commit to purchasing the Nokia N85 or N95. This has almost all of the same features and looks just as good. I personally think that this would be a fantastic phone from the N Series for a lady as it is more streamlined and less bulky than some of the other phones in the series.

I would award this phone 4.5 out of 5 - it loses half a point because of the current problem where it freezes and switches itself off. However I am hoping that when we run the update on it then it'll stop the problem and then it will deserve a full 5 marks.

Thanks for reading my review.

Shazza xxx 

...less