Camera Phones Plaza

The N73 is one of Nokia's newest S60 3rd Edition phones and was released at the end of July 2006. The Nokia N73 is a quad band GSM world phone with will work anywhere GSM service is available. It has EDGE and UMTS 3G on the 2100MHz band (for Europe, not the US), Bluetooth 2.0 + EDR, 240 x 320 QVGA display, miniSD card slot, full PIM applications with easy syncing to Outlook (and the Mac with little trouble), MS Office document viewers, MP3 player, FM radio, stereo output, email client and a full HTML web browser.

But what is the Nokia N73: well, a camera that just happens to have a smartphone attached. If great photos aren't your thing, Nokia offers a wide variety of Symbian OS Series 60 phones with with lesser cameras and other strong points such as the Nokia E61's QWERTY keyboard and the N91's 4 gig hard drive for MP3s aplenty.

MobileTechReviews made a review of this sensational phone and here are some of their conclusions:
If quality photos are important, the N73 and its bulkier sibling the N93 (which lacks the 850MHz band used by Cingular in the US) are Nokia's top offerings. The Nokia N80 has a 3MP camera that's quite good (once you adjust to the shutter lag), and you'd likely be pretty impressed if you saw the photos it takes. That is, until you see the N73's photos. The N73 has a 3.2 megapixel camera and adds a Carl Zeiss autofocus lens which makes for sharper photos.

Camera

Clearly the camera is the focus of this phone. The 3.2 megapixel camera uses a CMOS sensor (as do other camera phones and even some dedicated cameras and digital SLRs like Canon's). Though the Nokia N80 also has a 3MP camera, the N73's Carl Zeiss autofocus lens helps it pull clearly ahead with sharper, more colorful and detailed photos. Autofocus also makes depth of field shots possible, for example in portrait mode your subject is in focus while the background is pleasingly blurred (though we couldn't get a pronounced depth of field shot with the N73). It even does better in low light situations with considerably less noise than the N80, though Nokia isn't leading the pack in low light capabilities overall. At its best, you really can't tell the difference between the N73 and a dedicated 3MP camera. In challenging situations (low light, extemely bright light) it looks better than any other camera phone except the Nokia N93 and Sony Ericsson K790 / K800i which are on par. With good balanced indoor or outdoor lighting, the camera can take amazing pictures. it's well suited to most any outdoor picture (sunny or cloudy) and well lit interior shots such as offices and malls. Dark interiors raise noise levels and you'll notice the phone's attempts to smooth out the noise, though it's still capable of taking some really lovely outdoor shots at dusk (see the Hooters sign photo; and no we don't endorse Hooters ). The flash helps at close range but an LED flash can only do so much (and more powerful flashes eat batteries fast). See the photo of Sammy the cat, taken indoors with very poor lighting and flash to get an idea off what the camera can do in dim locations.

Like all autofocus lens camera phones on the market (there aren't many), the N73 focuses when you press the shutter half way down and on-screen indicators turn from red to green when focus is achieved. This takes about 1 second and then you can press the shutter button all the way down (or press it all the way down to start and wait for the camera to focus before it shoots). Unlike the N80, there is no shutter lag and the image is taken when you hear the shutter sound. However, each manages to take a shot in about the same amount of time (wait 1 to 2 seconds for the N80's shutter to trip or wait a second or two for the N73 to focus then take the shot). This means that the N73 isn't an action photographer's dream— a fast moving subject might have passed the ideal point by the time the N73 captures it. The camera has sequence mode to help: it will take several shots in a row so one of them might capture the perfect moment of action.

The camera's ergonomics and on-screen active menus are perfect for the serious shutterbug. Slide open the active lens cover to launch the camera application and rotate the screen to landscape orientation. The shutter button falls naturally to the top right and the zoom rocker is on the left top so you feel like you're using a camera rather than a phone. The on-screen active menus quickly and intuitively take you to settings to switch between photo and video mode, change scene type ( auto, user defined, macro, portrait, landscape, sports and night with default at auto), flash mode (on, off, auto or red-eye reduction), self timer, switch between single shot and sequence, EV settings, white balance, color tone and ISO. In short, a photographer's dream. Compared to the 3MP autofocus Samsung a990 on Verizon, this camera is a dream to use, and the settings are even easier to manage than the solid N80's. Image quality beats the competition and gives the Sony Ericsson K790i / K800i a run for its money (though the SE may win by a very modest margin, especially in low light thanks to its Xenon flash).

Video quality is also excellent by camera phone standards. The N73 can take videos at a maximum 352 x 288 resolution with audio at 15fps in MPEG4 format (high quality). It can also take "normal" and MMS sized video in 3GP format. Video is sharper thanks to the autofocus lens and colors are well represented with little of the typical camera phone's blockiness and only moderate noise (less than moderate by camera phone standards). Digital zoom will introduce some blockiness, so use it only when you must if you want the best quality. The camera has a video stabilization feature which does reduce handheld jerkiness but as with the N80, also gives the image a bit of an over-smoothed look. Audio and video are in sync in all quality settings and audio is clear and loud. The camcorder is definitely good enough to capture and save those special moments when a dedicated camcorder isn't handy. While the N73's camcorder can't beat the VGA camcorder in the N93, it's very good and beats the Sony Ericsson K790 / K800i.

Conclusion

If you're a smartphone user and love to take photos, this phone is a godsend! No more deciding between a useful business phone and one that's fun to use and can take simply wonderful photos. The N73 has one of the best cameras of any phone on the market, with only Nokia's own N93 and the Sony Ericsson K790 / K800i competing. If you don't need smartphone features, then the Sony Ericsson offers serious competition but it can't compete with the Nokia on syncing, powerful PIM applications, Office viewers, PDF viewer and 3rd party software. The phone has excellent reception and call quality with fast data rates over EDGE and good ergonomics (though the straightforward design might seem boring it does make for an easy to use phone). Bluetooth is fast which is a plus when transferring those big photos and videos. The screen is gorgeous! Battery life is good and the smartphone is responsive in all tasks.

View full review here.