My Phone is Sexy

Well, after almost 3 weeks of exploration and discovery on my new Nokia N73, I’m confident enough to give a review. Do bear in mind that I am not a techie person when it comes to phones, so my review will be based in what I use the phone for. It may not encompass the phone’s full functionalities.

The reason why my hubby got this phone for me in the first place is because he noticed that since I started blogging, I would take photos everywhere I go. And being the forgetful person I am, it was more often than not that I left the camera at home. In the end, I had to make do with my old Nokia phone’s camera, and the photos would then come out really blur. Hubby said it would be so embarrassing to display those photos on my blog, for fear the photography queen kutuk and laugh at me! So since I also wanted to get a videocam to take videos of Ethan, hubby suggested that he get me a new phone with a camera and videocam all-in-one! And that’s how we ended up getting the Nokia N73. This is a really a blogger’s phone, because not only does it have a 3.2 MegaPixel camera in it, I can also take videos up to one hour in length! I’ve also had the 128MB memory card upgraded to a 1GB memory card, for kiasu purposes 😛

So…things my phone can do. With this new baby, I can now take awesome close-up shots, especially of yummy FOOD! Now I can click away in wild abandonment when I dine… 🙂 See….this is a picture of the seafood la-mien I had at Dragon-i for lunch just now (review coming up soon, I promise!) ….. I absolutely love the close-up mode which allows me to get really clear pictures which are so, so droolworthy.

Another thing that my camera phone can do is take pictures in different hues. Yup, no need to edit with PhotoShop or whatnot. I can now take cameras in normal hues, sepia and also black and white, to name a few, DIRECTLY from my phone. In addition, I can also adjust the White Balance of the photograph to suit the environment. For example, I would choose Incandescent for yellow lighting, Fluorescent for fluorescent lighting, etc. So this is what I can do…see?

I still can’t seem to take moving pictures quick enough though. I notice there is a Sequence Mode and also a Sports Mode for fast moving things. I’ll fiddle with that later. I really need to learn how to take fast moving pictures, because Ethan is so active and it is getting very hard to take his pictures now. Most of the time I end up taking videos of him. This camera takes videos in MP4 format, which is ideal for burning onto DVDs. The quality is good, though of course the perfectionist in me demands a whole lot better. Still, I am not complaining, because now I can take longer videos. I used to only be able to take a miserable 15 second video with the old camera. The N73 phone comes with a USB cable to enable easy download of the photos and videos into the PC too, if you do not want to use infrared or bluetooth technology. Personally, I find the speed of download using the USB cable the fastest and most efficient.

The Nokia N73 comes with Symbian Software. This is unlike the regular Nokia Operating System which I have grown accustomed to. So while some of the menus remain the same, it took me a little while to get used to sending an SMS. I would inadvertently hit a button only to realize that that button cancels out of the message and takes me back to the main menu. Thank goodness it automatically saves a draft! Oh yeah, I faced a minor glitch when I was trying to send my first SMS. Apparently I had to key in the message center number which I had to call my telco provider for. After I keyed in the number, it was smooth sailin’ all the way. But I do wish the Nokia N73 would come with a Message Counter just like my old phone though. You see, with my current telco plan, I am allowed 20 free SMSes per month and I normally don’t exceed that. Having a counter would certainly come in handy to help me keep track of the SMSes I have sent for the month. The consolation is that the N73 saves all sent messages, so instead of having a number I can refer to for the sent messages, I now have to count the number of messages I’ve sent.

Oh but on the bright side, the non-techie me also just discovered a whole new world of bluetooth! Now I can send images via bluetooth with my phone to another bluetooth device, without having to position the phones at close range with the infrared receivers facing each other. Don’t laugh la, I just tried blue tooth sending the other day, and I really love it. All I need to do was to activate blue tooth on my cellphone and then select the image to send via bluetooth. My phone will then search for all bluetooth devices within range, and I just need to send it to the selected device! Easy peasy!

I’ve got a whole load of tunes to select from too. Not only polyphonicmelodies but true tunes. I’m contemplating downloading MP3s into my phone soon. Maybe use my wedding processional as the ringing tone, or something? Heh heh…Now, on the entertainment scale, when I got my phone, it only came with one miserable game. Apparently all the games were in the 128MB memory card which was replaced by the 1GB card, so I had to ask the phone guy to reload those games back for me. And now it’s like a tiny little video game arcade in there! I have Diamonds (strategy game), Zuma (skill and strategy), Alien Pinball, TAM1942 (a landscape shooting game that is popular in arcades) and The Fast and Furious (something like Daytona, remember?), among others. Although some of these games are difficult to play by using the phone’s keypad, it does its job to keep me entertained. In fact, just 2 days ago, I was playing a game until the battery went flat! And just when I was entering my name for the high score samo!

So in conclusion, this is really a camera that comes with a phone, rather than the other way round. I have absolutely no regrets owning it but the only thing I wish it also came with is a cool pouch holder. Something black and in leather would be awesome. Now I have to make do with a pathetic beige cloth pouch with a drawstring, which doesn’t do justice in disclosing what it contains. Well, so much for judging a book by its cover!