Nokia has a sweeter fruit for T-Mobile customers. Being the best equipped handset ever Nokia E73 has managed to overrun the king of all mobiles the slider Nokia N80. It features Symbian OS, 5 megapixels backed up by the label of Carl Zeiss, USB Mass Storage, and works with office documents. The interest in this new Nokia phone is overwhelming worldwide. At first glance it may look like the E73 Mode is simply a T-Mobile USA branded Nokia E72, but there are actually some design differences that I personally find make the E73 Mode even better than the E72. Real physical down side is the rather sad 2.4-inch, 320-by-240 screen. While it’s fine for e-mail, it just doesn’t deliver as lively an experience (or as much of a Web page) as the 360-by-480 screen on the BlackBerry Bold.
Symbian is way behind other smartphone platforms—even BlackBerry—when it comes to apps. The E73 comes with Nokia’s Ovi app store, which is an incoherent jumble. If you’re looking for big name apps from the iPhone and Android platforms, you’re unlikely to find them here. While there’s an AP News app and some Glu Mobile games for the E73, I couldn’t find apps from The New York Times, Hopstop, Yelp, Fandango, or several big-name games. Many apps seemed more tailored for European tastes rather than American ones. One the top games involves something called a “currywurst,” a popular street food in Germany.
The phone also has excellent messaging capabilities. Built-in Microsoft Exchange syncing neatly brings in e-mail, a calendar, and contacts. Google, MSN, Yahoo, and other popular e-mail services are supported as well. An on-board IM program handles the mainstream services plus MySpace, and there are third-party IM programs available as well. E-mail attachment support is enhanced by built-in Microsoft Office document and PDF readers. There’s also a business card scanner, file manager, PowerPoint remote control app, and several game demos included.
It works on T-Mobile’s own and foreign 2G and 3G networks, as well as over Wi-Fi 802.11b/g. Reception is average, but voice call quality is just plain great. Voices sound beautiful well rounded and clear.
What ultimately makes the Mode a potential winner, though, is the price we’re talking about $69.99 for a legitimate 5 megapixel smartphone that looks (and feels) like it’s been wrought from a single ingot of steel. S60′s still a tough sell against virtually any other smartphone platform in T-Mobile’s lineup today, sure, but when you consider that throwaway dumbphones like the Samsung Comeback and Highlight are selling in the same price range, it becomes a more interesting proposition. Indeed, Nokia has made no secret of the fact that it’s looking to Symbian to help push smartphone tech deeper into the low end of the market over the next several years and if that means gorgeous $70 hardware, that’s just fine by us.
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