It's taken an age, but I finally upgraded my ancient Nokia 6230i and got myself into the 3G stream with a new Nokia N73. My brother's been at me for ages to "get rid of that feckin' thing and get a decent phone woudya." I ummed 'n' ahhhed for ages, but when my pal Dec showed me what he's up to thanks to 3 Mobile I finally cracked...
Getting a new phone, or any major gadget, is such a buzz what with all the research beforehand, the drooling and the wishing, the acceptiing and the investigating 'n all. Savage biys, savage. I love it. The only problem with phone shopping - and it's a general thing with Irish networks - is that the range available here is always slightly out of date. The phone I really want is the N82 but that's not supported over here, and won't be for ages. I guess that, as Dec pointed out, when Ireland's entire population is the size of a UK city, then we're just an outlet market to the English phone companies. Pity they don't see that when it comes to call costs, but that's a different story...
Anyway, I did a lot of reading up before I chose the N73 and, with this model being out for a long time, there was lots positive reviews especially after Nokia updated their firmware to eliminate occasional crashes. It was also bang in my price range so there was no question really - I went "Yes, thank you, you can help me, yes. Please call O2 and tell em you're signing me over to 3, and then give me a shiny new N73 please."
Ten minutes later the deed was done - I'd unshackled myself from a stoopid O2 contract and got a good phone into the bargain. Sorted. So now I'm sitting here and getting used to the new phone. And it takes a bit of getting used to I must admit. Going from Nokia's much older operating system to this new one is a is a rush - it's so different it may as well be a Sony Ericsson or something. Everything's laid out differently it seems at first, though a few hours spent going in and out of the menus has me pretty well orientated by now. So let's see what's what.
The phone is quite big and solid, more so than I expected, but that's probably cos my old phone was so much smaller. The screen on the N73 is big and roomy at 2.4" and accounts for the big size of the phone. The number pad is great, with a lovely tactile response. I found the grooves on the buttons to be a treat, and makes keying in numbers and letters a breeze. One thing I'm still getting used to is the placement of the backspace key outside the main numbers. I'm used to it being on the top right, just below the screen, whereas on the N73 it's the bottom right corner, one of 4 Function buttons that border the main keypad. This is proving fierce awkward for me to reach with my thumb - I've to fold the lad in on himself just to reach the key. I'll get used to this I'm sure, but it's well annoying at the moment - especially cos the whole predictive text thing means I'm a tad prone to typos!
Round the back a solid feeling cover slides aside to reveal a 3.2 Megapixel camera sporting a Karl-Zeiss f2.8/f5.6 Tessar lens. This fancy shmansy soundin' yoke takes really good pics, especially in daylight. However, I suspect my nocturnal escapades will be let down by a weakish LED flash. It's good, but not the best really - not like the xenon version in equivalent Sony Ericssons. No doubt Nokia have this sorted in more recent phones but with so much else going on in this one it's a pity there's no proper flash.
There's some good editing facilities on board the N73 though. You can crop and rotate the image, change contrast, brightness and colour tone, and adjust ISO speed, exposure and white balance too. You can even add text over the photo if you want. They're all a bit 'pre-setty' but they do a pretty good job nonethess. Resolution is decent too, with the camera able to export printer ready images up to 15x10cm (6 x 4 inches), though a size smaller results in better prints. The resolution is good at 2048 x 1536 pixels at the highest size.
Video is recorded at a respectable 352 x 288 (CIF) and there's some really nifty editing facilities for cutting, splicing, and doing all that's necessary to create your own movies included. As I explore these I'll pass on the results which will be saved in MP4 or 3GPP video formats, probably MP4.
Connectivity is via 3G, Bluetooth and Infrared. I couldn't afford a Wi-Fi phone which, with 3, means the €550 N95, which is way outside my budget! On the 3 network the 3G fairly rocks, and the Internet on the mobile looks great. There's loads of content on My 3 with TV shows, Sport, Games and a load of other good stuff, all there for you to browse - and that's before you step out into the big bad world of the web proper. I downloaded some games too - Medal of Honor is ok, though I don't know if I'll keep on with it. Splinter Cell, on the other hand, kicks ass... Gonna get my €7 worth out of that one, for sure! I think I'll become a game addict cos the graphics look great on the big screen.
One thing that I was worried about was whether the software bundle would work on the Mac, and true to form the CD is PC only. However, us Mac Heads are a resourceful lot. Rather like viola players, we learn to cope from a young age with the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, though in our case it's from PC Users rather than violinists. Anyway, being used to thinking laterally, I headed off to the Nokia website and found a Mac version that sort of works like the supplied PC Suite. I tried it out and it was flawless - miles better than the version of PC Suite that came with my old phone and that I struggled with on my work PC. I'll install this PC version and see if it's any better, but honestly, the Mac software is just so simple to use I think I'll be using it out of preference. There's even plugins that install into iTunes and iPhoto making it a doddle to transfer Choons and Photos too and from the phone. Another utility plugs in to iSync on the Mac meaning, as the name implies, that I'll be able to keep my Calendar and Address Book synchronized no bother.
The only downside is that the headphones that come supplied aren't generic 3.5mm. Instead they're proprietary Nokia ones and mine aren't working properly - the cable is dodgy meaning that the sound intermittently chops to mono. I'll go into 3 tomorrow and get another set and see how I get on. Can't wait cos with the 2Gb card I bought for the phone I'll be able to load it with 500 or so songs. Pity I can't use my Sennheiser headphones though, I'd love to hear how the Nokia shapes up compared to my iPod...
So with a good camera, excellent applications, a great Internet experience, logical, if complex, interface and a shiny slick look to the thing, I think I'm gonna enjoy my life with the N73. Proof will be in the pudding of course, but soon I'll be sticking stuff on this blog that I'll have taken and edited on the phone, so watch out for em. We'll see what the phone's like together!
Comments