The N73 Music Edition is a candy bar mobile measuring 110 x 49 x 19 mm and weighing 16 grams, it is the latest in the N70 series building upon a solid base of middle range function while adding small layers of either business smartphone like technology or multimedia capabilities. This N73 opts for the multimedia buyer and differs from the standard N73 in only a few ways. The first is obvious with the previously silver design now clad in stealth black a move mirrored from the Sony Ericsson range.

The N73 Music phone is a tri band data enabled mobile and as seen in the standard N73 it is a rugged little performer running the Symbian OS 9.1 S60 3rd edition. The screen is the same stunning 262k colour 240 x 320 pixel unit which is chosen for its clarity as part of the standard N73 camera phone model, here it has all those features plus makes for a great interface for the media player functions. Below the screen sits the now standard Nokia button set-up for a candybar design, there 2 soft buttons provide quick access to a variety of menu options and there is a surprisingly shallow navigation joystick which is more fiddly than normal.

In addition to the normal tightly packed keypad there are also 4 dedicated function buttons, the menu and text settings keys are to the left and to the right lie the media player key and cancel button. This media player button is essential to this model and gives you rapid access to the multimedia functions, however there is no difference between this and the standard N73 where the button is also present.

We performed some basic tests first working our way around the phones standard features, text and mms messages, basic pim features include a document viewer and data connectivity with GPRS and 3G. Call quality proved excellent and it handled poor signal strength well hanging on for all but the last bar, on top of this the phone sits neatly in the hand and gives an air of quality with just the right balance of weight and material choice.

Battery life is also excellent with the N73's 1100 mAh battery managing a real world 4 day standby with a good 4 hour talk time even when using 3G and the loud and clear built in handsfree speakerphone. When using the Nokias media player we managed a full 10 hours playback before we'd run down the battery and started to get the recharge beep. All in all a good all round mobile, but that is also true to the standard N73.

So does the media player tag amount to more than just branding? First up one of the big changes is a lifting of the 1Gb limit on the mini  SD card storage to 2gb on the Music edition which puts it on a level playing filed with a small MP3 player. The media player supports MP3, AAC, eAAC, eAAC+ and WMA audio files meaning it can work with most music stores although it struggles with DRM on almost all formats. There is a nifty bit of integration with Windows media player in which the PC can see the phone as a media player and you can choose which tracks to sync with it using Microsoft's Media Transfer Protocol (MTP).

Getting the audio out of your N73 music edition is a mixed bag, it has one of the loudest sets of stereo speakers we've heard on a mobile (the same as the standard N73) and although they'll never win prizes at an audiophile convention they are worth using. Sadly things take a dive when you head for the earphones, the standard proprietary plug ones supplied with the N73 are very good and also act as an aerial for the FM radio, however they are proprietary. This means you can't plug in a 3.5mm set without using an adaptor which is easily lost or forgotten, a bit of a let down for a music phone!

Then there is Bluetooth and the new A2DP standard which would allow for a good quality stereo signal to be sent to a set of A2DP equipped earphones. That would be if Nokia had opted to equip the music edition with this standard, which they have not.

However as the Music model is based on the normal N73 you do get its main selling feature a massive 3.2 mega pixel camera which hides behind a protective shutter in the rear of the phone. Images we took with the camera were very clear and crisp without the blurring seen on other Nokia cameras, there is a 20 X digital zoom which we avoided like the plague and the whole thing is simple to use with a dedicated shutter switch and a LED flash which is ok for very close shots.

The extras and applications available for download on the series 60 platform are plentiful and you can load them via Bluetooth 2.0 + EDR, Pop port (USB), IR or on the SD card. Nokia have thrown in one new feature we hadn't seen before, 3D tones. This little application allows you to add some 3D effects to ringtones and music using a delay system on the stereo speakers. You can choose between (living room, cave, railway station, forest, duct) a bit like some of the EQ systems on the cheaper MP3 players!  It is a gimmick but fun to play with and something you won't find on your mates phones.

In truth the Music edition is little more than a standard N73 with whatever tweaks could be bestowed on it via a firmware upgrade. If we could buy it for the same money as the standard N73 then we'd say got for it, the colour scheme and higher SD card limit are worth having, but don't pay a premium for this sheep in wolfs clothing.

Published - 21/01/2007

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