Nokia E73 Mode (T-Mobile)

Put down that BlackBerry. Nokia has a sweeter fruit for T-Mobile customers. If you've been considering a BlackBerry Bold 9700 ($199.99, ), take a look at the Nokia E73 Mode. For a great price ($69.99 with contract), the Mode does many things better than the BlackBerry.
That said, the Mode exemplifies the dramatic gap that's forming between messaging-focused smartphones on one side, and Android and the iPhone on the other. While the Mode is a great little messaging and music machine, it doesn't have the speed, screen quality, apps, or ease of use that we take for granted with today's top-of-the line smartphones.
Physical Features and Voice Calling
The E73 Mode looks a lot like its predecessors the E72 ($359, ) and E71 ($500, ). To wit: it's what the latest BlackBerrys should look like, a sleek metal slab with a small, but comfortable keyboard and an almost perfectly well-balanced heft (4.48 by 2.3 by 0.4 inches—HWD; 4.5 ounces). As a regular E72 user, I can tell you it fits more comfortably in a pocket than a BlackBerry Bold.

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The only 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, or the 320-by-480 screen on the myTouch 3G Slide ($179.99-429.99, ).
The Mode is a very good voice phone. It works on T-Mobile's own and foreign 2G and 3G networks, as well as over Wi-Fi 802.11b/g (for more on that, see below). Reception is average, but voice call quality is just plain great. Voices sound beautiful—well-rounded and clear. There's no in-ear feedback of your own voice, which may cause some people to yell while on the phone. Transmissions from the phone also sound very good; a little bit of background noise comes through, but not enough to bother you. The speakerphone is too quiet to use in noisy outdoors areas, but its sound quality is very clear.
The E73 had no problem pairing with our Aliph Jawbone Icon ($99, ) headset or triggering voice dialing over Bluetooth, but Nokia's voice dialing system had trouble recognizing names in my tests. The E73 Mode delivers about 6 hours of talk time, which is good for a 3G phone.
A standout feature: T-Mobile's seamless, invisible Voice-Over-Wi-Fi. Included in all new service plans, if your E73 is on a Wi-Fi network and T-Mobile's signal is poor, it will switch over to the Wi-Fi network to make calls (and still charge you minutes.) This worked perfectly in our offices and is an interesting solution for in-building coverage.
A third-party app to turn your E73 into a Wi-Fi hotspot, JoikuSpot, didn't work on our review unit. Nokia said the manufacturer is working on a new version for the E73.
Apps, Web and Video Calling
A Symbian S60 3.2.3 device, the E73 is running an aging but popular smartphone OS that's common outside the United States. The "Mode" moniker comes from Symbian's ability to switch home screens with the press of a button, for instance, between home and work setups. Symbian works well on the E73, but it buries way too many options deep in complicated menus. The overall feel is more 2003 than 2010.
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 E73 has a front-facing, VGA video camera, but no built in video chat software. For video chats, you need to use the third-party VoIP program, Fring. I just couldn't get Fring to work for video calls. While it made clear audio-only phone calls to both Fring and Skype clients, video was a mess. I couldn't get a single video call to work properly with a Sprint HTC EVO 4G ($299.99, ) running Fring, a desktop Skype client, or a Nokia E72 running Fring. Nokia tells me that Fring is working on a new version for the E73, which should be out around launch time.
One app that stands out is built-in: Nokia's free Ovi Maps (Free, ), which we reviewed earlier this year. This is a full, free, and good-looking walking and driving directions app with detailed and readable maps. If you need transit directions, you can download Google Maps instead. Ovi Maps single downside is that it doesn't work indoors, as it requires a clear satellite signal and won't do cell-tower or Wi-Fi-network triangulation unlike the iPhone's mapping programs.

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.
The E73's app deficit may drive you to the Web, and there's much better news there. Nokia's browser has the same WebKit core as Apple's does, plus limited Flash support. So Web pages on the E73 look clear and true. The Opera Mini and BOLT browsers are available as third-party alternatives. The lack of a touch screen makes zooming more awkward than on some other phones, but at least this is a better experience than on a BlackBerry.
Multimedia and Conclusions
The E73 is a very good music player, and not quite as good a video player. The 218MB of free memory can be enhanced with a MicroSD card slipped into a side slot; a 4GB card came with our unit, but a Kingston 16GB card also worked fine in my tests.
The 3.5-mm headset jack lets you plug in your favorite headphones, and the phone also worked with our Altec Lansing Backbeat ($99.99-129.99, ) stereo Bluetooth headset. You can sync your music using Nokia's own, free syncing software or the free download doubleTwist (Free, ), which will sync unprotected iTunes playlists. The phone plays unprotected MP3, AAC, or WMA music files.
If you don't have a major music collection, there's an FM radio and a somewhat spotty podcast client on board. The podcast client found some of my favorite podcasts, but not PCMag Radio. Streaming services are mostly out, though: there's no Pandora, Slacker, MOG, Rhapsody or Nutsie in the Ovi Store.
Videos looked a bit cramped and dim on the small screen, more a function of its size than anything else. WMV and MP4 videos in 320-by-240 resolution played smoothly, but the phone couldn't handle H.264 or XVID videos.
The E73 has a 5-megapixel camera, but it's almost perfunctory. This just isn't a great camera phone. The camera has serious focus problems, especially at short/macro distances. Outdoor shots looked notably soft when zoomed in. The video camera takes 640-by-480 videos, but at a somewhat jerky 15 frames per second.
The Nokia E73 Mode bests BlackBerry at its own game, at least for consumers. Nokia has taken the traditional BlackBerry form factor and made it sleeker and prettier. The lack of big-name apps in the Ovi Store, and the low-res screen, may cause some buyers to lean towards the BlackBerry Bold 9700. But the E73 bests RIM's top-of-the-line phone on Web browsing and direct Exchange syncing for consumers. Although the E73 doesn't compete with glossy super-phones like the Google Nexus One ($179.99-529.99, ), it works perfectly for the voice-and-text-focused.