Display & Audio
While the N73's 2.4" TFT display is not Nokia's highest resolution display, it's still one of the best screen's you'll find on a mobile handset. Displaying 262,000 colors over 320 x 240 pixels (QVGA resolution), the screen exhibits amazing depth of color and benefits from higher contrast than the N80 (which boasts a higher resolution).
Nokia's Series 60 interface is clean and easy to navigate, offering a more PC-like experience than most mobile phones. Menus are viewable as lists or grids, and submenus are intuitive and logically laid-out. Themes, wallpapers, and text are all user-customizable, as is the previously mentioned Active Standby screen. The phone also features an ambient light sensor which automatically adjusts the screen's brightness to suit external conditions.
Though cutting-edge mobile displays now boast more pixels at up to 16 million colors, the N73's leaves very little to be desired, particularly if you'll be using it to view photos and videos. The roomy 2.4" screen looks great, particularly when held horizontally - or in "widescreen" view - and while a phone like the N80 or E70 might render text a bit sharper, the N73 provides a wonderful mix of resolution, color depth, and size.
I tested the N80 on T-Mobile's network in the San Francisco Bay Area. A Quad-Band GSM handset, the N73's performance was uniformly excellent. Audio was clear on both mine and the other end of calls, and the phone had volume to spare whether on standard or speakerphone mode. While the built-in dual stereo speakers didn't do much for me when it came to listening to music on the phone, they did provide a little extra oomph when it came to alert tones and speakerphone calls.
The N73 comes with a wired stereo headset with an in-line microphone that worked quite well for voice calls and also pumped out decent stereo music. The headset also serves as the antenna for the integrated FM radio. Nokia makes a Pop-Port to 3.5mm adapter with an in-line mic, which I used to plug high-quality earphones into the N73. This increased the quality of stereo audio tremendously. I'm surprised that Nokia doesn't include an adapter in the N73's retail box.
Bluetooth headsets are supported, though A2DP stereo over Bluetooth is not. The N73 paired easily with a headset and voice quality during calls was quite good.
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4.7
