For:

Sleek phone with great QWERTY keyboard. Ovi Maps give you free turn by turn directions and the phone has good messaging feature.

Against:

Clunky user interface, sluggish performance, display has a low resolution.

The Whiz Kid Speaks:

Nokia E73 Mode is 2.3 inches wide, 0.4 inches deep, 4.48 inches high and weighs 4.5 oz. It has a titanium body color. The band is GSM 850/900/1800/1900 (Quadband), phone design is PDA, it has caller ID too. Wireless interface options include IEEE 802.11b/g and Bluetooth 2.0. Additional features includes PictBridge, AGPS, USB, microSD card slot, Speakerphone, GPRS support, Conference calling, Voice command and Voice dialing.

Operating System is Symbian OS 9.3. Messaging & Data Services include Short Messaging Service (SMS), Text messages, Multimedia messages (MMS), Instant messages, Voice mail, Picture messages, E-Mail, HTML Browser, WAP. Included Accessories are Pouch, Micro USB data cable, Nokia charger and Nokia headset. Rated talk time from this battery is 750 minutes for GSM and 354 minutes for WCDMA.

Razzle Dazzle:

The design of this phone is similar to the E72 and we are quite happy with it since we loved the E72′s look in the first place. This handset is quite sleek, it is 4.5 inches tall, 0.4 inch thick and 2.3 inches wide. You can easily slip this phone in to the tightest of jeans and it is comfortable to hold in the hand too. The weight of this device is 4.5 ounces and it is relatively light but the construction is quite solid which makes the phone look high end.

Inside Dope:

T-Mobile and Nokia seems to be a marriage made in heaven when it comes to affordable smartphones. First there was the Nokia Nuron and now the manufacturer has come with Nokia E73 Mode. This is a QWERTY messaging device which costs $69.99 along with a two year contract from the service provider and after a mail in rebate. Nokia says this phone is life and work solution. The feature set is great considering the price and the handset looks quite sexy too. The keyboard is comfortable to type on. The phone is not perfect though, it does have a few issues. We will still recommend this phone as a nice alternative to the more expensive RIM BlackBerry Bold 9700. The phone’s display is 2.4 inches big (measured diagonally) and it has support for 16 million colors along with 320×240 pixels resolution. This is the same as Bold 9700 but the Bold’s screen is much better at 480×360 pixels resolution. Hence the text and images don’t look as good as the Bold but it is still acceptable. The screen is vibrant and clear but in bright sunlight, things get washed out.

Two modes
If you have used any of Nokia’s latest smartphones, you must be aware of this. There are two modes – work and personal. Each mode can be customized with the apps that you want on the home screen. The work mode, of course, will give you work related apps and the personal mode will give you entertainment-centric ones.

Navigation array and keyboard
Nokia E73 Mode’s navigation array is located beneath the screen. It is made up of Talk/End keys, four shortcuts (messages, calendar, contacts and home), two soft buttons, and the D pad which is also the optical trackpad (Nokia calls this the Optical Navi key). The QWERTY keyboard is excellent, the keys have a domed shape and this make them easy to press. We could type easily with almost no errors.

Phone book and PIM features:

Music/Video features
Nokia E73 Mode’s music player supports WMA, AMR-NB, MP3, eAAC+, AAC+ and AAC. There are repeat and shuffle modes, built in equalizer, and the player displays album art. You can also create playlists on the fly. If you are done with listening to onboard music, there is FM radio onboard but you must plug in the wired headset. Supported video formats are H.263/3GPP, RV, WMV, AVC/H.264 and MP4.

Camera
Nokia E73 Mode has two cameras and on of them is located on the front but we don’t think this is a iPhone 4 or HTC Evo 4G rip off. Nokia smartphones have been known to have a front facing camera for video calling. There has not been a lot of interest for the front facing camera but still it is a nice feature to have. On the back, there is a five megapixel camera along with 5x digital zoom and auto-focus. There is also LED flash which can also be used as flashlight. The editing options are standard and the camera can record video too.

Call quality
When tested for call quality, we found that the Nokia E73 Mode was quite good. Audio was great on our side and the volume was loud enough with almost no background noise. Our friends, on their side, said that they heard a bit of static and some ends of our voices were cut off. But this is definitely not a deal breaker and both of us could hear each other clearly.

Call quality through the speakerphone was decent. We heard some hollowness but it not unexpected in speakerphones. The volume was loud enough and we could easily talk in environments with high noise.

Battery life
Nokia E73 Mode has a 1,500 mAh lithium ion battery with rated talk time of 13 hours for 2G, six hours for 3G, and 16 days standby time for 2G.

Verdict:

This phone offers great value for money, it is a sleek messaging phone delivered at an affordable price.

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