|
|
|
#1
 24th November 2006, 01:37 AM
|
||||
|
||||
 Shop.Nokia & NSeries N73 Handset
Well, the day has come! Am I mental? Am I completely off my trolley? Yes, but read on...
Usually I'd buy my SIM-Free wares from mPhone, TheOrder, Mobilefun etc - but not this time. No, this time I deliberately paid a £100 premium on my order, because this time I ordered from shop.nokia.co.uk - that's a big premium to spend in the name of research! Why spend the extra? Well, the last few SIM-Free Nokia's I've purchased, and other brands for that matter, have been, well, a little less than satisfactory. Hardware issues, software issues, you name it - it hasn't been a pretty picture. So, this time, rather than join the rat race desperate for the latest gismo, I've held off and bought a post-release product from a reputable source - none other than Nokia themselves. So, first off lets talk about the shop.nokia.co.uk service. It's basic, and that's generous. £4.99 for Royal Mail registered postage, and it actually came via TNT as far as I can tell, ordered Monday, processed Tuesday, received Thursday. No tracking. Yes, it's far from the fastest service available, but it's acceptable, and delivery options are available right up to £20. They state that they will only deliver to the registered cardholder address, so I entered a different address instead. Sure enough, I got a call on Tuesday, but after confirming my name and address they went ahead with the dispatch without any futher questions asked. I've had to fax statements over to places like TheOrder before when ordering to a different address than the cardholder address, so this was a welcome improvement. The handset itself arrived in perfect condition. Unlike the N80, the N73 came bundled with a standard-Nokia-charger to new-Nokia-charger converter so those old Nokia chargers aren't redundant anymore. A lot of Nokia chargers are rated differently though, so I'd think twice before using it. The N80 charger is rated the same, FYI, so at least now I have two of the new style. Excuse my spelling, I've had a bit to drink. The handset also came with white iPod-esq headphones, though this, of course, is no iPod. As a music player it's vastly inferior, but we all knew that anyway. The stereo speakers (one top, one bottom) are acceptable. They're an improvement on past Nokia's, but they're no replacement for a stereo. What is a possible replacement, however, is the camera. It's pretty awesome, and that huge screen really makes taking pictures easy. I'd read that lag was bad, but to be honest it's no worse than most cameraphones, and doesn't bother me. This is definitely worthy of taking those wonky pictures we all take when we're out on the tiles, and talking of tiles I'll be sure to put it to the test this weekend. Memorycard-wise, fortunately the N73 also takes the miniSD card so I was able to transfer my existing 2GB card, containing all my applications and text messages, to the new phone. Combined with the S60 transfer facility, used over bluetooth, I had everything over onto the N73 in the blink of an eye. The handset, of course, detected Vodafone and installed all the correct settings, while a few things like changing the security code from 12345 were left for me to do myself. Crashes? Yes. Two in a day to be precise, under heavy usage. One total crash, one reboot. No new software is available yet from Nokia and given that this is a post-release handset I find this a little worrying. Still, the glorious screen (seriously, the Messaging menu and interface on this baby is sublime) and detailed camera is enough to make you forget about this. In a couple of weeks? Well, if there's no new software I'll start to get angry. At least the reception is vastly improved on this over the N80, and the battery life - well that's just astoundingly better, after a days heavy play I'm still on full, where as the N80 could barely manage a day under normal load. The keypad is small and a little awkwardly laid out. The keys themselves, however, are a pleasure to use as on most Nokia's, and they're wonderful for texting. They have a surprising amount of travel. The C key is in a totally random place, and I often find myself pushing the media shortcut key, but that's just from being used to the N80 layout and I'm sure I'll get used to it in time. What I do appreciate is that if I do push the media shortcut key, and press it again to close it, whatever I was doing before returns to the screen unscathed. Call quality is awesome. Enough said. The first call I received, while I was actually transferring my contacts over BT, was markedly better than on the N80, which was already great. The case is sturdy, if a little creeky, and the battery cover is impossible to remove  On the upside of that, it's also difficult to accidentally open the camera unlike the 6680. You really have to see the screen to believe it *dribble*, it must be at least 50% brighter than the N80's and being much more flush to the front fascia makes it much less like using a phone that's the other side of a tunnel. In fact, as you stare at the N73 screen you'd be forgiven for thinking it is actually floating proud of the device!Would I recommend this phone? Absolutely. Would I recommend shop.nokia? The jury is still out. Yes, the handset shipped with the latest software - that's good. However, there are still bugs, which is a little annoying. Only time will tell whether that extra money was a worthwhile investment. Oh, and before I go, if you get one of these phones check the area under the (overchunky) battery. It's very different to other Nokia's, much more 'hardcore', and includes the reassuring 'Made in Finland' badge. It all looks very industrial, and the design of the handset as a whole isn't a million miles of something Apple might produce with iPhone. If only they'd partnered with Nokia for their original iTunes handset rather than Motorola - they might not have needed to create an iPhone at all! This is a Nokia to be enjoyed. Despite missing WiFi, a frankly useless technology on a phone at this moment in time, and HSDPA, again pretty useless unless you need to use your handset as a modem due to not having a lovely HSDPA datacard or USB device, it feels right up-to-the-minute. It's relatively responsive, and the big screen makes all the interfaces an absolute joy on the eyes. Bin your specs and get an N73. Last edited by Ben : 24th November 2006 at 11:03 AM. 
|
|
#2
25th November 2006, 01:23 AM
|
||||
|
||||
Exciting times ahead for you then Ben? The N73 sure looks gorgeous in all of the adverts for it. I admire the brave step of paying a £100 premium just to use Nokia directly, what on earth are they thinking? Perhaps Nokia and "niche" are synonymous when it comes to their shop? They'll never become mainstream like that.
On the camera front - is it really on a par with, say, the likes of the SE W900i? The N80 was expected to but despite its megapixel resolution the images I've seen are woefully pale in comparison to the SE, for example. Is the S60 as slick as on the N80 and others or better? One would hope for the N73 to be a development on the previous in these terms. Faster processors, larger cache, all the stuff of faster performance? Nice review, now where's the darned piccies? Edit: Found this on the Software Updates page of Nokia
Quote:
|
|
#3
25th November 2006, 10:13 AM
|
||||
|
||||
|
Quote:
This may be one of the benefits of Ben's extra £100 - Nokia offer only offer updates that match the existing branding on your phone - but on all the S60 boards I have read - the only way people have obtained updates is by sneakily changing the Product ID (NOT the IMEI !! ) to a generic Nokia ID - I know the T-mobile , Three AND Vodafone version of the E61 all return "There is no update available" - whereas the the Generic Nokia code offers an update straight away - this suggest that the "Many Variants" they speak of they mean the various brandings - anyone lucky enough to have a handset that is unbranded / unallocated to any network , I have a feeling will be right at the front of the queue ! Anyway , I can't keep up with you and your new fangled phones - I've just picked up a 6630 ! Seriously though , looks like a nice phone ! ,My mate turned up with one of these the other day - quite a suprise as he doesn't have a clue about phones and previously had a horrible little motorola - I too was impressed with the screen & the camera , and of course , having had my e61 a couple of weeks I have warmed to s60 a bit Looking forward to seeing the pics 
Last edited by miffed : 25th November 2006 at 10:26 AM.
|
|
#4
25th November 2006, 12:17 PM
|
||||
|
||||
|
"There is no software update available for your phone."
 Software V 2.0628.0.0.1 10-07-2006 RM-133 Nokia N73 (39.01) I recharged it last night - it wasn't dead yet, but I didn't want it to die today. It had been absolutely hammered since middayish on Thursday, including using Mobile TV and MSN (both look absolutely fantastic on it), so I'm made up with the battery life. The single most annoying thing about this handset reared it's ugly head yesterday. The screen gets dirty. Not only that, but the cloth Nokia supplied actually makes it worse. I was sat there rubbing the screen, watching it become almost unreadable, getting ready to pop it all back in the box and scream at Nokia, when I grabbed the Apple Cinema Display cloth and wiped it clean with pretty much one firm wrist action. I was extremely relieved I'll tell you! So yes, a good cleaning cloth, microfibre or such likes, is important if you want to keep this phone looking good - other materials will likely make the screen look ruined. Bin the Nokia cloth. I can only compare the performance of the N73 to my other S60 handsets, the 6680 and the N80 - keep in mind that my N80 did appear to be faulty towards the end. Comparatively? The N73 flies. I don't know the technical spec down to processor speed and how this compares to my previous S60 phones, but considering the size and resolution of the screen this thing has to drive the responsiveness really is very impressive. Web browsing is a joy, it's fast and the extra screen real estate gives it a massive edge over the N80, and mobile site browsing (via Services) on Vodafone Live! was equally snappy. Even using Messaging, this is important because all my messages are stored on the memory card and that means the phone has to access the slower interface when I use these options, is far far quicker than on the N80 and I'm using the exact same memory card as before. Picture quality is superb. I'm going to stick my neck out and say that it's a clear beater of the awesome W900i. I'm told it's on a par with the K800i's optical performance, and I can believe that. Some of the pictures are a little jagged around the edges of objects, but eventually I'll get some worthy of you lot inspecting them for yourselves. I still don't like the Nokia Music Player, but then Sony being Sony one would expect them to have something half decent in this regard. I'll build up some photos and add them to this thread.
|
|
#5
29th November 2006, 12:40 AM
|
|||
|
|||
|
FYI - I tried that 'change the product id' trick on a Vodafone mobile -
Did it work? See here: https://talk3g.co.uk/showthread.php?t=3561
|
|
#6
29th November 2006, 11:01 AM
|
||||
|
||||
|
Hehe
 Fortunately as this is an unbranded phone I don't intend to play too much with it anyway!
|
|
#7
30th November 2006, 04:56 PM
|
||||
|
||||
|
Well, a week later and I'm still really impressed with this phone.
My N80 used to hold a charge for about two days. The first day the battery status indicator would report full charge and on the second it would wind down to nothing. This includes being turned off for 5-8 hours a night. The N73, on the other hand, was last charged on Sunday night. It reported a full charge through Monday and Tuesday, went down two bars on Wednesday and a further one bar today leaving 4 bars of battery still after 4 days of use - and I've even left it turned on for the last two nights! The superior camera and faster UI mean I've actually been using the phone more than I'd been using the N80, and I've also transferred pictures over Bluetooth. Talking of Bluetooth, the N80's file transfer speed was pretty bad - as bad as every other BT phone I've used. The N73 is a different story, rapdily transferring data over what I can only assume is properly implemented BT 2.0. Mac users with integrated BT 2.0 will love using it with this handset. I still can't get a software update and there are a few bugs with the handset, but not the sort that actually prevent it from being used fully. My biggest complaint is of the creaky plastic casing (a metal would have suited this phone perfectly) but there you go! I'm in love, for now Edit: Oh, and as my N73 has my Vodafone SIM in it I've also been using it for all the calls I'd normally place over Orange due to their ongoing call quality issue - so battery life really is very good.
|
Show Printable Version
Email this Page
Linear Mode
Switch to Hybrid Mode
Switch to Threaded Mode
