Tuesday, January 19, 2010

Nokia N85

The Nokia N85 is another solid N-series phone, but if you're looking for something different this won't be your bag.

From the model number, you'd think the N85 is a lesser version of the famousN95, but it's actually an upgrade. Is this a case of Nokia running out of ideas, or is it merely honing a deservedly popular phone? We took a good look at the N85 to see whether Nokia has cracked it again.

Design
The N85 is a solid-feeling slider phone that's smooth around the edges, giving it a more up-to-date feel than the blocky N95. Considering how many features it packs in, it doesn't feel chunky or too heavy.

Aside from the keypad, we found all the keys on the N85 well-designed and easy to press. There's even a handy toggle switch for locking and unlocking the N85 quickly. As for the keypad, we found it too flat for our liking, but not unusable.

The double sliding mechanism — which moves around too much on the N95 — feels more solid in the N85, and doesn't slide when it's in your pocket. Equally secure is the N85's camera cover — again, it won't open by mistake in your trousers and take photos of your keys.

We really appreciate that Nokia has placed a 3.5mm headphone jack at the top of the phone instead of on the side, making it much less fiddly to use. You'll also be glad to hear that charging and connecting to a PC can all be done via a micro-USB cable.

Worth noting is the N85's OLED display, which consumes less power than a standard LCD. The screen is bright and large enough to view text messages or watch YouTube videos on. We also found that the Opera Mini browser looked superb on it.

Features
The N85 offers up some truly useful features, starting with HSDPA and Wi-Fi — you can access the web almost everywhere you go. The on-board browser works well enough, but we prefer using Opera Mini, which you can download for free and offers a neat way of viewing full web pages.

GPS means you can find your location and plan trips, using Nokia Maps, which comes pre-installed, or you can download Google Maps. We didn't have any problems picking up satellites, but as expected, the GPS doesn't work indoors.

On the back of the N85 lies a 5-megapixel camera with auto-focus and dual LEDs. It's very easy to use, with a simple interface, and we found the picture quality to be very good, even in low light — the LEDs providing more illumination than expected.

Equally unexpected is the built-in FM transmitter, which allows you to play music wirelessly through a car radio. It's something that's been made available in the past using third-party technology, but having it built-in is really useful.

As we mentioned before, there's a 3.5mm headphone jack and the Nokia N85's dedicated media keys mean using it as a music player is really easy. The music player interface is straightforward and gives you the option to shuffle tracks, adjust the equaliser and create playlists.

Performance
Audio quality during calls was loud and clear, as was the loudspeaker, but we recommend using a Bluetooth headset (the N85 supports A2DP stereo) for hands-free calls. Battery life is quoted at 6.9 hours talk time using GSM and 4.5 hours using 3G. Standby time is 363 hours using GSM or 3G. In real life, we found that with moderate use it lasted over a day before needing to be recharged.

Conclusion
After spending some quality time with the Nokia N85, we're not sure why Nokia didn't just launch this as the N95's successor instead of the N96. The N85 is a refined phone that packs in a whole bunch of features into an attractive casing. Our only disappointment is that the keypad is a little flatter than we would like, but the rest of it left us very happy.

Wi-Fi, HSDPA and a music player you can listen to by simply plugging a pair of standard headphones straight in — great stuff. OK, it's not a revolutionary product, but it is a very good one nevertheless, and if you're an N95 fan looking for something a little smaller and better-looking, you could do a lot worse than this.

Nokia 5130 XpressMusic

Rickety rock'n'roll
Nokia has done a good job of keeping the rock'n'roll look in previous XpressMusic releases. The combinations of glossy black plastics with vibrant electric reds and blues have always given us rock-star-like confidence when we tugged an XpressMusic handset out of our pockets. The 5130 shares the colour scheme of the XpressMusic range, though it feels significantly cheaper in its build than any Nokia we've reviewed in a long time. The stiff plastic chassis looks ready to smash against a tiled floor, and the various mechanical keys around the edges of the handset sit loosely in their sockets, making a disconcerting rattling when the phone is shaken.
While the overall aesthetic of the 5130 works nicely, the handset's 2-inch display is a disappointment. Unlike more refined mobiles, the TFT panel sits recessed behind the glass by what looks like several millimetres. The effect of this is a significant softening of the colours we see, and a poor viewing angle (meaning the screen loses visibility when viewed at angles other than directly straight on).
It's not all bad news for lovers of budget Nokia handsets and music, the 5130 comes fitted with a 3.5mm headphone socket and a microSD card conveniently located alongside the volume controls, and even more conveniently stuffed with a 1GB microSD card. On the opposite side of the phone you find dedicated music control; play, skip and rewind.
Features
A music player and mobile phone for AU$140 is pretty good value, and in a way it's a good thing Nokia doesn't try to overcrowd this XpressMusic phone with expensive extras that might otherwise go unused. Notably missing is 3G networking hardware, meaning the 5130 will access the internet at painfully slow speeds, but those interested in picking up a cheap Nokia really have to ask how much internet they'd like to be viewing via their phone. We would have liked to have seen lightweight social media apps though, something simple for Facebook and Twitter on the move.
At its budget level price, it's no surprise to see a 2-megapixel camera featured on the 5130 instead of a higher resolution model. Even though this is a low-resolution lens and it doesn't have a flash or auto-focus, we have been impressed with the result during our review. The camera fires quickly, eliminating lots of handheld blurring, and the colours tend towards over-saturation making for bright, colourful photos.
Sneaker Speaker
If you pick up the 5130 through Boost Mobile in Australia you will also become the lucky owner of the tremendously daggy Sneaker Speaker. This music-blasting accessory looks like a high-top basketball boot for a toddler with a speaker stuffed inside. It comes from audio company Sound Surgeon, which is a company suspiciously without a website and those responsible for the closed-cup headphones Boost sold with the Nokia 5300.
The Sneaker Speaker: it sounds as good as it looks.
(Credit: CBSi)
Would you be surprised if we told you that a speaker shaped like a shoe produces a terrible sound? Probably not. We weren't terribly surprised by the complete absence of bass, the shallow mid- and high-frequencies or the way the sound distorted when we turned the volume up. What did surprise us was how crumby the shoe looks, the company could have at least made a believable sneaker replica, even if the speaker element is only suitable for listening to audio books.
Performance
Unfortunately, the Sneaker Speaker isn't the only part of this sales package with poor audio quality. Making a phone call with the 5130 is made harder than it should be by an uncharacteristically poor earpiece speaker for a Nokia phone. Ordinarily this is the one area you can rely on with Nokia handsets, but the speaker here produces a muffled sounding call compared with calls made by other handsets. The 5130's 1020mAh battery pack delivers six hours of talk time according to Nokia, which is standard, though the lack of 3G should mean its standby power surpasses what you might otherwise expect from a large screen smartphone.
Overall
There are a few places we can understand that Nokia could skimp on when it comes to building a budget handset; slow internet and a low-res camera are forgivable in a sub-AU$150 handset, but shoddy build quality and poor call quality are not.

When this reviewer got the Nokia 5070 a year ago, it was, personally at least, the ultimate budget phone. It may not have possessed any of the latest features such as Bluetooth and music player, but it was cheap and good. Now, with the Nokia 3120 classic in hand, the bar has certainly been raised for budget phones. The handset doesn't look or feel cheap.

Design
The black metallic casing gives this Nokia a look stylish enough to appeal to a wide spectrum of users. Its metallic frame ringing the edge of the phone gives an overall assuring feel that comes across as solid and impact-proof. The only gripe we have here is its black and glossy body which is a fingerprint and dust magnet. So be prepared to wipe down the handset every time you whip it out to use.

Size-wise, the 3120 (at 111.3x45.4x13.4mm) is two-third the width of the 5070 making it a good fit in the hand. A rubber back casing provides a good grip. However, there was a trade-off for the phone being small; we found the keypad was positioned slightly too low for comfortable use. Nokia probably had to squeeze this down to make way for a display screen that sits over half the phone's length. That said, the buttons were big and easy enough to text on.

Like most Nokia handsets, there's a directional button at the top centre of the phone, which sits rather flush on the surface and may take some time getting used to especially for those with large digits.

Features
For a basic phone, this candybar packs some pretty decent features targeted at the masses. There's a 2-megapixel camera with flash, though as with all budget camera phones, don't expect startling clear snaps, particularly in low light. Interestingly, the 3120 classic comes with a front-facing VGA camera for video-conferencing via 3G, not something we would have expected to find in an entry-level model.

Nokia has also packed on-board Bluetooth, so transferring music and images will be easier among friends. There's no data cable provided in the retail unit though.

There's 24MB of internal memory (about 20MB is available to the user), which is absolutely insufficient if you plan to store lots of pictures and music files. Fortunately, this comes with a microSD card slot at the back of the phone to expand to an extra 4GB.

The 2-inch display is big enough for watching your videos and view pictures without straining your eyes too much. Even under bright sunlight, we found text and pictures still legible.

Performance
Music reproduction was good, although the equaliser wasn't impressively powerful enough. It hardly makes any difference when switching between rock, pop, jazz and classical equaliser. When played through the loudspeaker, it sounded flat to our ears.

Call quality was loud and clear, although ringtones produced through the loudspeaker tended to be a tad soft, causing us to miss a few calls as a result.

Nokia rates the phone's battery life at 12.5 days on standby and three hours 20 minutes of talk time. In actual use, which comprised making calls, photo-taking, text messaging and listening to the radio, the phone lasted a good five days before the next charge.

Conclusion
At AU$299, the phone is certainly worth the money. Although the camera is just 2-megapixels, it's hard to find a more handsome budget phone out there with 3G, Bluetooth, and MP3.

Sony Ericsson's camera-phone range has revolutionised the market and consistently pushed the boundaries between mobile phones and standalone digital cameras. From the K750i's autofocus capabilities to the K800i's xenon flash, Sony Ericsson has hit the nail on the head when it comes to giving users what they want. Given its pedigree, it's no wonder that we had high expectations for the K800i's successor, the Sony Ericsson K810i. What would Sony Ericsson bring to the table this time round? And would this handset get closer to giving us the best of both camera and mobile worlds, or would it leave us yearning for more?

Design
The main differences between the K810i and its predecessor are aesthetic. It seems that Sony Ericsson has been affected by the new wave of shiny phones that line the shelves of high-street mobile phone stores and given the K810i a glossy front section. It's also added a rather interesting keypad that features small circular silver keys.

The K810i offers an improved camera cover over its predecessor, a small but useful improvement.
We were rather underwhelmed by the keys, which feel too small and too far apart, making texting less enjoyable than it could be. The navigation joystick also left us a little deflated, as it's rather awkward to press -- it doesn't stick out enough and in contrast to the keys on the keypad doesn't have enough space around it.

Other than that, it's still a candybar phone with a large colour screen, a keypad and a camera on the back. The new one is 5mm slimmer, though, due to a new and improved camera cover. This is set in between two ridges to stop it opening in your pocket, a problem many K800i users will be familiar with.

Features
There's no doubt that the camera on the K810i is good, as it has the same spec camera as the K800i. There's a 3.2-megapixel sensor, autofocus and a xenon flash, which left us puzzled since we frankly expected a little bit more from the K800i's successor.

In terms of the camera's software, it's the same story -- you can shoot still pictures and video, adjust the white balance and picture quality and send your pictures to friends via MMS, email or blog them to a Blogger blog, which the K810i will automatically set up. All of which you can do on a K800i, too.

You can also shoot photos using BestPic mode, which lets you take nine photos in quick succession when you press the shutter button and then choose the one you want to keep. The only real difference in terms of camera software options is something called Photo Fix that automatically adjusts light balance, brightness and contrast.

We were disappointed that Sony Ericsson hasn't updated the Web browser, because it simply can't cope with non-WAP Web sites and doesn't have a desktop mode, so you can't view pages as you would on your computer's Web browser. An alternative is to download Opera mini on to the K810i--it's a much better browser.

Performance
The camera performs identically to the K800i's, producing great shots (relative to other camera phones), particularly in low light using the xenon flash. The only problem we had is there's a small amount of shutter lag when you take a shot, which causes blurring if you don't hold the camera still until it's finished.

When you activate the camera the 1, 4, 7 and asterisk keys turn into camera hard keys that give you direct access to some of the camera settings.
There is one small hardware feature change, but again it's not the improvement we expected. When you activate the camera, the 1, 4, 7 and asterisk keys turn into camera hard keys and give you direct access to some of the camera settings. These are marked out by small blue backlit icons. You can adjust picture quality, macro mode on/off, timer and flash.

Most of the other features on the K810i are pretty straightforward and again identical to the ones found on the K800i. There's Bluetooth (including support for A2DP), infrared and 3G connectivity, a VGA camera on the front for video calling, an MP3 player, an expandable Memory Stick Micro M2 slot, support for POP3 and IMAP4 email accounts, an RSS feed reader, an FM radio and a Web browser.

The MP3 player sounds good, as does the FM radio. Unfortunately, you don't get a 3.5mm headphone adaptor in the box so you can't plug in your own pair, but you could always buy an adapter. You can also listen to music wirelessly via a pair of stereo Bluetooth headphones, which also sounded good.

The speakerphone mode works as expected. Battery life is good, lasting for over two days of moderate use before we needed to recharge it. Sony Ericsson quotes up to 400 hours of standby time and 10 hours of talk time. We did find that the battery life drained faster using 3G, but you do have the option to switch to GSM only.

Aside from the awkward keypad, which might not suit everyone's texting tastes, this is a good camera phone -- but there's something missing. Yes, it has a better camera cover than the K800i, some fancy blue lights and a glossy makeover, but that's the problem -- it's only a makeover and nothing has really changed.

We rated the K800i as being one of the best camera phones we had seen so far and we expected its successor to blow it out of the water with some new fancy features, which the K810i hasn't produced. Basically, if you own a K800i then you might as well keep it.

Alternatively, you could have a look at the Nokia N95 and its whopping 5-megapixel camera, or the K810i's successor, the K850i, which also sports a 5-megapixel camera with autofocus.

Design
The main differences between the K810i and its predecessor are aesthetic. It seems that Sony Ericsson has been affected by the new wave of shiny phones that line the shelves of high-street mobile phone stores and given the K810i a glossy front section. It's also added a rather interesting keypad that features small circular silver keys.

The K810i offers an improved camera cover over its predecessor, a small but useful improvement.

We were rather underwhelmed by the keys, which feel too small and too far apart, making texting less enjoyable than it could be. The navigation joystick also left us a little deflated, as it's rather awkward to press -- it doesn't stick out enough and in contrast to the keys on the keypad doesn't have enough space around it.

Other than that, it's still a candybar phone with a large colour screen, a keypad and a camera on the back. The new one is 5mm slimmer, though, due to a new and improved camera cover. This is set in between two ridges to stop it opening in your pocket, a problem many K800i users will be familiar with.

Features
There's no doubt that the camera on the K810i is good, as it has the same spec camera as the K800i. There's a 3.2-megapixel sensor, autofocus and a xenon flash, which left us puzzled since we frankly expected a little bit more from the K800i's successor.

In terms of the camera's software, it's the same story -- you can shoot still pictures and video, adjust the white balance and picture quality and send your pictures to friends via MMS, email or blog them to a Blogger blog, which the K810i will automatically set up. All of which you can do on a K800i, too.

You can also shoot photos using BestPic mode, which lets you take nine photos in quick succession when you press the shutter button and then choose the one you want to keep. The only real difference in terms of camera software options is something called Photo Fix that automatically adjusts light balance, brightness and contrast.

We were disappointed that Sony Ericsson hasn't updated the Web browser, because it simply can't cope with non-WAP Web sites and doesn't have a desktop mode, so you can't view pages as you would on your computer's Web browser. An alternative is to download Opera mini on to the K810i--it's a much better browser.

Performance
The camera performs identically to the K800i's, producing great shots (relative to other camera phones), particularly in low light using the xenon flash. The only problem we had is there's a small amount of shutter lag when you take a shot, which causes blurring if you don't hold the camera still until it's finished.

When you activate the camera the 1, 4, 7 and asterisk keys turn into camera hard keys that give you direct access to some of the camera settings.

There is one small hardware feature change, but again it's not the improvement we expected. When you activate the camera, the 1, 4, 7 and asterisk keys turn into camera hard keys and give you direct access to some of the camera settings. These are marked out by small blue backlit icons. You can adjust picture quality, macro mode on/off, timer and flash.

Most of the other features on the K810i are pretty straightforward and again identical to the ones found on the K800i. There's Bluetooth (including support for A2DP), infrared and 3G connectivity, a VGA camera on the front for video calling, an MP3 player, an expandable Memory Stick Micro M2 slot, support for POP3 and IMAP4 email accounts, an RSS feed reader, an FM radio and a Web browser.

The MP3 player sounds good, as does the FM radio. Unfortunately, you don't get a 3.5mm headphone adaptor in the box so you can't plug in your own pair, but you could always buy an adapter. You can also listen to music wirelessly via a pair of stereo Bluetooth headphones, which also sounded good.

The speakerphone mode works as expected. Battery life is good, lasting for over two days of moderate use before we needed to recharge it. Sony Ericsson quotes up to 400 hours of standby time and 10 hours of talk time. We did find that the battery life drained faster using 3G, but you do have the option to switch to GSM only.

Aside from the awkward keypad, which might not suit everyone's texting tastes, this is a good camera phone -- but there's something missing. Yes, it has a better camera cover than the K800i, some fancy blue lights and a glossy makeover, but that's the problem -- it's only a makeover and nothing has really changed.

We rated the K800i as being one of the best camera phones we had seen so far and we expected its successor to blow it out of the water with some new fancy features, which the K810i hasn't produced. Basically, if you own a K800i then you might as well keep it.

Alternatively, you could have a look at the Nokia N95 and its whopping 5-megapixel camera, or the K810i's successor, the K850i, which also sports a 5-megapixel camera with autofocus.

Nokia N82

Design
Unboxing the N82 is a tiny bit underwhelming. The stainless steel fascia immediately reminded us of Sony Ericsson's super-stylish and super-slim W890i, but the N82's chunky form factor ends the similarities. If the N82 had been released 12 or 18 months ago we'd have looked past the N82's thick frame, but in 2008 the N82 is one noticeably hefty handset, nearly identical in size to the much older N73.
Next we encountered the ridiculously tiny keys. Similarly unusable slivers left the mobile world shaking their heads when Sony Ericsson incorporated them on the W880i last year. To see the same lousy design element 12 months on had us rolling our eyes in disapproval. These keys are uncomfortable to use and owners of the N82 will complain about them until the day they thoughtfully recycle their N82 handsets.
Thick frames and stupidly-sized keys aside, the N82 is still quite a stylish looking phone. The front and sides of the handset are a pleasant mixture of reflective and matte-finished stainless steel, and the back is beige plastic with a subtle herringbone patterning; interrupted by the hulking big camera module. The N82 also comes in a piano-black finish, similar to the N81 and the N95 8GB, which we saw a few months back.
Nokia have side-stepped a few common design hurdles by placing the micro SD card slot on the side of the phone — for swift swapping of memory — and having included a 3.5mm headphone port at the top of the handset. Both of these features are desirable and necessary on a media-focused N-series device.
Features
If you've been eagerly awaiting the release of the N82 it's probably for one reason: the 5-megapixel camera. It features a similar Carl Zeiss lens system as the ever-popular N95, but improves on it with the assistance of a Xenon flash. On the software side, the N82's camera features nearly as many settings and adjustments as we saw in LG's Viewty. Between scene modes (a combination of numerous camera settings), image size, white balance and flash settings you have more than enough control to take excellent snaps.
While the camera is superb, the N82 is far from a one trick pony, and the comparisons to the N95 don't stop at the Carl Zeiss shooter. We know that Nokia is ramping up its mobile content services this year and to take advantage of this, the N82 also features HSDPA data (3.6 Mbps) for over-the-air downloads, and Wi-Fi (802.11 b/g) connectivity for dodging mobile data charges at Wi-Fi hotspots. The built-in Nokia Web browser is Web 2.0 compatible and works well, even if page navigation with the five-way nav key is a bit tedious.
The N82 also features a GPS receiver, plus Nokia Maps v1.3 (although be aware that turn by turn voice guidance costs extra). Running on Nokia's S60 Symbian operating system means if you don't like Nokia Maps you can easily replace it with other mapping software of your choosing.
A not-so-common feature that enhances both Web browsing and Nokia Maps, plus just about every other application on the phone, is the built-in accelerometer — technology that switches the display from portrait mode to landscape when you tip the phone on its side. The 2.4-inch QVGA display is fantastic, especially when you maximise your screen real estate in landscape view.
Performance
Before we continue, a quick announcement: this is the best camera in a phone currently available. This fact may change by mid-year with everyone, including Nokia, releasing a slew of 5-megapixel camera phones, but for the moment the N82 takes the cake. The image processing is lightning fast, and the pictures we took were uniformly sharp and colourful.
Nokia is constantly improving the performance of their handsets running S60, and the N82 is no exception. Menu performance is fluid and lag-free; a marked improvement on S60 handsets from this time last year. Call quality and messaging is second to none. USB data transfers, particularly music, can be a little slow and tedious using Nokia's PC Suite, but overall the job is done well and the music sounds good, with the 3.5mm headphone jack offering the opportunity to use your favourite headphones with this handset.
Battery life is a bit concerning, being only marginally better than the power hungry N95. With light to moderate use during tests we saw between a day and a half and two days between charges. Add some GPS mapping and Wi-Fi use and you could expect to charge the phone at the end of each day, which is less than ideal.
Overall
The N82 is caught somewhere between being best-in-show and standard Nokia fare. Its excellent features and performance are offset by some thoughtless design and its lowly battery life. For people who want the very best camera in their phone then the decision should be simple, however, others who'd prefer more usable buttons and for the pockets not to bulge, may choose to wait for the next batch of Nokias when they arrive mid-year. There's no doubt that those who look passed the design flaws will enjoy a full featured handset.

N73

Design
Part of Nokia's multimedia N series, the N73 is a candy bar-shaped phone with a vibrant, six-centimetre, 262K-colour display. Nokia ships the N73 in three colour variations: silver grey/deep plum, frost white/metallic red and frost white/mocha brown. It's quite a large phone, measuring 110mm by 49mm by 19mm, but Nokia keeps the weight of the handset down to a reasonable 116 grams. The keypad is relatively small and cramped, with eight shortcut keys squeezed above and around the numerical buttons. Navigating menus can be tricky as the joystick beneath the screen is small and sensitive.

In keeping with the N73's emphasis on photography, the rear of the N73 has a sliding lens cover that activates the camera. It switches the display into a landscape-oriented viewfinder, so that the shutter button is conveniently located under your right index finger when the phone is rotated. We found the lens cover on the back isn't prone to opening accidentally when put in your pocket, like the Sony Ericsson K750i, so you shouldn't end up with an album of close-up shots of your thigh. There is also an image gallery shortcut on the side of the phone, allowing you to quickly show snaps to friends.

Despite its bulk, the N73 is a reasonably attractive phone, with its king-sized display being the centre of attention. It does, however, tend to bulge in your pocket.

Features
Nokia chose respected optical brand Carl Zeiss for the N73's f2.8/f5.6 Tessar lens. With a resolution of 3.2-megapixels, you can take shots suitable for prints up to 5.1 x 6.8 inches (13 x 17cm), however standard 4 x 6 inch photos (10 x 15cm) will turn out less grainy. The N73 supports four image quality settings, from MMS-suitable shots up to the aforementioned print quality photos. Scene modes include auto, macro, portrait, landscape, sports, night and night portrait; the N73 displays a helpful description of each when you're choosing the mode. Red-eye reduction flash mode is onboard, but we were disappointed with the N73's LED-based flash -- the xenon flash on the Sony Ericsson K800i does a much better job. Colour tone, exposure, ISO speed and white balance can all be adjusted to pre-defined values for stills.

Videos can also be recorded up to a maximum resolution of 352 x 288 pixels. The N73 saves videos in MP4 or 3GPP video files. RealPlayer and Flash files can also be viewed.

Nokia's XpressShare feature lets you MMS, e-mail, print or send photos using Bluetooth after taking them. Best of all, though, you can upload photos directly to a Flickr account after entering a username and password in the Online Sharing settings. Blogger users will of course prefer the K800i's photo blogging tool. Another nice touch is that photo slideshows can be played back with a Ken Burns-like effect that smoothly zooms in and pans around on images while music plays in the background.

You can play MP3, WMA and AAC tracks through the N73's music player and Nokia supplies a stereo headset that also acts as an antenna when you're listening to FM radio.

Productivity applications include e-mail (IMAP4 and POP3), note taker, voice recorder, unit converter and PDF viewer. Quickoffice is onboard for editing Excel, PowerPoint and Word documents. For the security-conscious, a link to download F-Secure Mobile Antivirus can be found in the applications menu.

Connectivity options include 3G capability, Bluetooth 2.0 and infrared. For a high-end phone, we were disappointed the N73 didn't come with WLAN support -- although Nokia has announced the Wi-Fi-enabled N95. Internal memory is around 42MB and Nokia supplies a 128MB miniSD card in the box, which slots in at the bottom next to the Pop-Port connector.

The N73 supports USB 2.0 for fast, wired connections, but the supplied PC Suite Synchronization software only works on Windows. Adventurous Mac users can try the Urban Puddle blog for information on a German-developed plugin that aims to sync the N73 using iSync.

Sudoku addicts can get their daily logic-puzzle fix on the N73 with games up to 9 x 9 numbers in size. The faddish game features a range of difficulty levels, error checking and "pencilled" marks for the apprehensive. A 3D version of Nokia's classic Snakes games also helps pass time during commutes.

The Web browser found on the N73 is one of the best we've seen on a mobile device. Most of the sites we tested displayed perfectly on the screen, with the browser supporting Javascript, frames, text search, dynamic HTML and a function called "MiniMap" that shows you an overview of the entire Web page as a thumbnail while you use a "mouse pointer" to navigate.

Performance
Battery life was excellent during our test period -- we almost reached a week between charges with minimal use of the phone. However, when using a combination of Bluetooth and multimedia features, you'll need to recharge the N73 every three to four days.

As for the best camera phone of 2006 -- Nokia N73 vs. Sony Ericsson K800i -- on image quality alone we'd say the N73 just noses in front of the K800i. In our test photos, subjects were slightly sharper and colours a touch more vivid on the N73 -- although we did notice some JPEG compression when we zoomed to actual size on a monitor). Overall, though, we still crown the Sony Ericsson K800i winner. Its Xenon flash, although not on par with a digital camera, puts it leagues ahead of the competition. However, if you're a daytime shooter, the N73 performs admirabl