The forgotten smartphone: Nokia N73

Nokia N73

Twenty years ago already, in the year 2006, Nokia introduced a new multimedia smartphone; the Nokia N73. As the name implied, the phone was part of the N-series and was therefore fully equipped. Nokia managed to score tremendously well with the N73. It managed to be the best-selling N-series phone of 2006 and 2007. Although the device came as a smartphone, it did have to lack WiFi support.

On the front, the Nokia N73 featured a 2.4-inch display with a resolution of 320 x 240 pixels. Above the screen was the front camera and a notification light flashing blue. Below that was the navigation key with joystick. This was quite small and with prolonged use, it starts to get a bit irritating. At the edge of the keys, were a few more shortcuts. At the back, the Nokia N73 was equipped with a camera cover. When this was slid open, the camera was started immediately. I myself also have the N73 lying here, but unfortunately the camera application crashes immediately.

The phone looks very solid, especially considering its age. At 19.0 millimetres thick, it also took up quite a bit of space, in the pocket. On the top, the Nokia had a power button, on the left was the infrared port on the right were the volume key, camera key and music player key. These keys could light up blue. There was also a 3.2-megapixel camera with autofocus, stereo speakers, Bluetooth and a 0.3-megapixel VGA front camera.

Symbian

Out of the box, the device came with Symbian OS 9.1. We see with the N73 the familiar Symbian interface and hidden in the various menus you will find a lot of extra options. Think of a radio, keeping a 'Lifeblog', setting up your phone as a modem, a conversion tool, Quickoffice, 3D display and, of course, a web browser. Movie playback was via Realplayer and a Flash Player could also be found on the Nokia N73.

On board the Nokia we saw around 40MB of storage, 64MB of working memory and the option to expand the memory with a memory card. Added to this was a 220MHz processor and 1100mAh battery. Listening to music could be done via the dedicated audio jack on the bottom of the phone. With the screen off, you had (as with current smartphones) a kind of Always-on display where you instantly saw the time, along with any new messages.

Release

The Nokia N73 was released in the Netherlands for around 250 euros, which was very decent for a smartphone with these features. Later, a Nokia N73 Music Edition also appeared. This was coloured in black, had a music player button and had 2GB of storage. Interestingly; in the Middle East and North Africa, the phone was released during Ramadan, in 2007. A special white-coloured edition appeared with Islamic apps. The regular N73 came in different colours, red, white, pink, silver and black. In most cases, only the back was coloured differently.