N80 vs N73? (for the nth time)

M

mgenese10201

New member
Sorry if this has been said many time, I did search the hofo forums, but I still can't make up my mind. I am looking for a quadband phone, and I was looking for it to be s60 phone N series that has 3G (N75 was my choice), but since N75 is taking its time (and it's toll on us), I have been looking elsewhere, also it seems the Cingular Video or MobiTV are not as great as I thought and Edge browsing seems ok for me. I mainly want a Symbian phone because I'd be doing some developing on it as well and the Symbian and Java SDK are available.

I wanted the phone to be around $500 (so the N95 is out), I pay attention to all the bells and whistles, but since I use each feature sporadically, it's not imperative for the phone to have a 7mp camera and top of the line speaker phone, Though I have to say I have been spoiled having owned an w810i which does offer tons of features for a small candy bar phone, so I'd like the N series phone to have similar or better features.

I have mainly been looking at the N73 Silver and the N73 Music Edition, and recently these two N80's, though I don't know why the black one is more expensive...

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/search.asp?keywords=Nokia+N80+Unlocked&image1.x=0&image1.y=0

Also any idea on when Nokia USA will have the N73 US version out ? Also how useful is the wifi on N80 (are people using Skye or Gizmo type product on their N80) ?

Thanks

-H
 
I think at one point, we have all been in the same situation: N80 or N73.

I ended up choosing the N80 because of the wifi and the form factor. I find the wifi very useful for emails, web browsing, uploads to flickr, msn messenger, downloading podcasts, etc....and the best part is - - it's free. If you have an unlimited data plan, this really doesn't matter though. I personally have a finite number of MB I can use a month, so, when I'm out and about (work, school, coffee shops) it's nice to be able to jump on a hotspot. Also very easy to use and setup. Great feature IMO.

(I don't use the voip so I can't comment on that function)

I have always used candy bar style phones, so, I wanted a change. The slider on the N80 is a little wobbly, but, it isn't anything that drives me crazy.

The camera on the N80 is okay, though, as you may very well know, the N73 is probably one of the best camera phones on the market right now.

I think it is easy: if you want wifi, go for the N80. If you want a great camera, get an N73.

I purchased my N80 direct from nokia and I would suggest you do the same. If you don't like it or can't stand some of the small quirks (short battery life, weak slider, etc) you can always return it quite easily. Nokiausa has it for 499.99...not bad.

Hope some of this helps -
 
As has been settled in many many many threads, here you go (I had the N80 for a few months and traded it for the N73).

N80 - if you DON"T have unlimited data or want wifi for VOIP
N73 - if you value battery life and the camera, and have unlimited data.

Personally I found the battery life on the N80 to be equal to what my 6682 had, but now that I've had the N73 for a while, and the E62 as a backup, there's no going back for me. I can leave this phone off the charger for a few days even with my usage and it's no big deal

Personally the camera was one of the reasons I got rid of the N80. Someone else said it best that the 3.2MP on the N80 feels like they just wanted to have something on the market that said 3.2MP, so they rushed. Most of my shots came out blurry, whereas my N73 takes much clearer shots. Ihave unlimited data so WiFi has no hold on me.
 
There are some SDIO wireless cards out there, do they work on the N73 ?

The unlimited data plan on Cingular is $20 a month, so it's not too bad, the VoIP is nice because you don't have to use too many minutes (or rollover minutes) to call people or overseas, and rates to overseas are less. If I got the N80, the wireless portion would be mainly be used to VoIP and not data browsing (which I could do @ work or @ home).

Camera is important as well, but to tell the truth, I carry most of the time my Canon S3 IS (12x optical, 6mp), so that's not an issue. The most important stuff in a phone for me are the RF, clarity of calls, decent speaker phone, then the features like mp3/camera/pictures but I wanted to be an S60 series, N phone for development as well.

I went an played again with the N80 and N73 at the local Nokia stores, both are pretty nice phones....
 
You mean Roncito's sig? The one with the black N80 and the white N73 that says "Help me choose one" down the center?

It wasn't a link to a thread with information, it was just a jpeg to advertise his need for people to help him decide. He hasn't been around here lately.
 
I have an N80 sitting down with no sim card in it..it's black, it's made in finland, and it's in brand new condition. I am not using it...its been sitting here for 3 weeks.

Wait! YOU HAVE AN N80 AND YOUR NOT USING IT? WHY THE HECK NOT!?

Well, I bought an N73 (again) and this time, i will not let go of it.

The N73 has a few advantages:

1) Bigger screen. To some of you its no biggie, but to me, the N73 screen is about 1.5 times bigger and I will not go back to the tiny n80 screen, no matter how many pixels are in it

2) Battery : N80 battery didn't last..no use

3) Camera: N80 camera is a joke..a real pain in the as$..it will take a long time to get used to taking pictures, standing still, and getting clear shots that are not blurry. lets throw the video out...no comparison to the n73 video

4) N73 : bluetooth speakerphone..to some its no biggie but it can't be done on the n80


The only thing i like about the N80 is the larger keypad, the middle joy pad, and that extra pixels in the screen but the slider needs some spring mechanism..this is ridiculous

Thats about it..hopefully tne n95 can fix all that
 
I have an n73 and i love it, the camera is very good its the same if not better than the k800 and the videos are amazing compared to the k800. On top of that the battery is very impressive. If you really want wifi then the n80s your choice but if not then the n73 is your choice
 
I ended up getting the N80ie, so far I like it... wifi was a big plus for me, and as I said, mp3/camera not so much (I did not use those too much on my w810i), I really wanted to see how Gizmo, Truphone or Fring work out... so far so good, though is it me or the UI seems it is a bit slow... especially going to App Mgr took like 1 minute to bring everything up.

I got it from Tiger Direct, they have a 30 day return policy, no questions asked on cell phones, and this phone has a one year warranty thru Nokia US, so it was a good deal.

Thank you for all the headsup...
 
I went from N73 to N80ie...

Things I like in:

N73: Camera, Size, Battery
N80ie: VoIP, wifi, high resolution screen, "D" pad, large key pad, build quality


Things I don't like in:

N73: Joy stick(Slippery & not easy to play with it), cramped keypad, build quality
N80ie: Average battery, Camera
 
The main reason I chose N80ie over N73 (or waiting for N75 or getting the V3xx) was the wifi and Gizmo, because I wanted to test it out for calls, and so far so good.

The Slider is a bit weird, need to get used to it, the top numbers are a bit hard to type, but they're not bad, I have big hands, so I am not bothered by it being bulky, it fits my hand quite nicely. I only tested the speaker phone, mp3s, radio... the camera is so-so, so lack of auto-focus (from my w810i) is shown, also is it me or the flash is pretty much useless ? (the w810i flash was pretty nice). But I am not going to use this phone for a digital photography adventure have a nice digicam for that... I'd say if N73 had wifi, then it woulda been a no brainer like angel_wing0 said...

Right now I am testing unlimited data + wifi, just wanted to see the browsing in places where there is no wifi, and I am impressed, I'll probably drop the data to a 5mb or 1mb plan after this month.

The Gizmo setup was pretty easy, it's pretty nice of them to include a SIP program in this phone, theoretically since SIP is over IP, they should include this on N75 if that ever comes out, because it could be beneficial for people who want to play calls over Internet to overseas... (though I doubt Cingular would let them)

I tried hard to find a solution where I could have wifi over N73, I don't care much about mp3/camera usage, but I might miss the battery life of N73.

By the way, are there extended batteries that are sold for N80 ? or am I better off carrying a desktop charger and a second battery just in case ?

Thanks for all the help btw.

-H
 
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