Nokia N73

Two months ago I got a Nokia N73 hand-me-down from Roland thanks to Nokia's Blogger Relations Program. It's a 'smart phone' with a large 320x240 screen, a 3 megapixel camera and more. Before this, I'd been using an old Nokia 3310 brick (monochrome screen) so this was quite a step up. Still, I wasn't particularly unhappy with my old phone because all I really needed was voice calls and SMS. So I was curious myself to see if I'd actually use all the bells and whistles.

The good news is that making calls and sending text messages has become easier. The default interface has a quick launch bar to access contacts, text messages and other features. Selecting a contact by typing some letters is fast and accurate, and the big screen is easy to read. I also have no problems using predictive text input thanks to years of SMS'ing, while the improved controls (such as the 4-way stick) make entering symbols easier.

Managing my contacts is now a non-issue. I edit my entire address book in Mac OS X and just sync it to the phone, including everyone's pictures. Plus, with Adium address book syncing, this means that it automatically imports IM icons for contacts that don't yet have a picture. However, I did try editing contacts on the phone itself, and it was way too complicated.

Now, the first phone feature I really enjoyed was the built-in camera. Unlike most camera phones, the N73 has a pretty good camera and lens, with auto-focus and all the works. The phone also has a flip cover, so to take a picture, you just slide open the cover on the back and hold it like a real camera (including holding down the snap button half-way for focus). There is even a button to go straight to your pictures.

However, there is a big annoyance here: it takes 5-7 seconds to open the camera application. This is way too long and makes it impossible to snap spontaneous pictures. Also, in spite of all the technical wizardry, pictures in low-light conditions and at night look very bad and washed out. The pictures it takes are also compressed too much. There's a 1GB memory card in mine, so I really wish I could save images to (near-)lossless JPEG.