Nokia N73 Black review

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Nokia's N-series phones are well known for being technologically impressive devices coupled with somewhat challenging looks, and the N73 sticks resolutely to this formula. Built around the traditional candybar design, the N73 looks in picture form to be quite a bulky little thing, but actually hold it and its lightweight, only 116grams, will surprise, as will how comfortably a 20mm thick handset sits in the palm of your hand.

The N73's front panel is dominated by the large 2.6" 240x320 TFT screen, which dwarfs the slightly too small keypad with its unusual button configuration. The decision to make the keypad so small is a strange one as there is no shortage of area around it waiting to be filled up – it's not as if the N73 can claim to be a minimalist design! Depending on the size of your fingers, this smaller keypad will either be a joy or a pain, but shouldn't concern anyone who has used a regular slide phone, most of which have keypads far more cramped than this.

Nokia have implemented their S60 Symbian software as the operating system on the N73, making it a smartphone. Navigating around the menus, which are as easy to follow as a 'normal' Nokia but are not animated, is achieved by the use of a small joystick above the keypad. This is another strange choice as it doesn't feel as precise as it should, but time should overcome this. Symbian smartphones can be customised with software available on the Internet, but with only 42MB internal user memory it's a good thing you will find a MiniSD card slot at the base of the phone to store any new applications.

The MiniSD card can also be used to store the pictures taken with the onboard camera, which is the N73's raison d'étre. Behind a slightly rattly sliding cover on the rear of the handset, a 3.2MP Carl Zeiss branded lens is found, complete with proper flash unit below it. A side mounted shutter release button allows the N73 to be held in the same way a regular camera would, just as the camera takes pictures that look almost as good as a regular camera. We say almost as the performance is still not perfect in lowlight conditions despite the flash, but provided you stick to daylight the results are superb.

Thanks to the fast data connections possible with this 3G enabled device and Nokia's collaboration with Internet photo album Flickr and blogging site LiveJournal, your pictures and pretty much anything else you can think of can be uploaded to your personal accounts and shared with friends and strangers alike. Of course, the N73 also has a great music player, FM radio, the Opera Mini browser, Office document viewer and various organisers and calendars too.

The N73's camera, screen and connectivity options make it an excellent purchase, especially if you're a keen blogger, but phone users who like an ergonomic feel may be slight disappointed as will anyone coming from a non-smartphone, as the S60 software is prone to stability and speed issues. But overcome this and you will have yourself easily one of the best camera phones available.

Nokia N73 Black specs and features

• Quad Band
• 3.2 Megapixel camera with Carl Zeiss optics
• MP3 Player
• 3G
• GPRS
• 40MB internal memory
• miniSD Card Slot (hot swap)
• Symbian OS 9.1, S60 3rd edition
• Document viewer (Word, Excel, Powerpoint, PDF)
• XHTML browser
• Dimensions: 110 x 49 x 19 mm
• Weight: 116 grams
• Standby Time: Up to 350hrs
• Talk Time: Up to 6hrs