Work and Play with the E72 and the E73 Mode

a while back, I was invited by the fine folks at WOM World Nokia to attend an E73 Mode event down in Sunset Beach. The event was a lot of fun. I went kayaking and jet skiing in a 3 piece suit. There was lots of new people to meet, food and booze to consume and some great swag in the form of towels and hats. I also got to trial an E73 Mode.


N97 | E72 vs E73

The E73 has some neat tricks that its E72 counterpart doesn't have. It supports T-Mobile's Hotspot at Home and let's you make calls if your place has bad reception. My favorite is a simple option for the right soft key. The Lock Keys option makes it super simple to lock the keypad. This year at Comic Con, I accidentally called 911 on the E72 I was using. Lock Keys would have come in handy then.

Speaking of keys, the E73's button layout is much easier to use than the E72. The buttons are nice and big and less susceptible to an errant press. Unlike the E72, the call and end buttons are colored on the E73. I do prefer the color choices on the E72. The d-pad is much improved on the E73, it is much more thumb friendly.

Both the E72 and E73 feature amazing battery life. When I took the E72 to Comic Con, it lasted all day with Gravity and email running with high frequency updates.

Since I never got around to unlocking the E73, I was stuck with a prepaid card with less than $3 in credit. I mainly used the E73 as a GPS device. I drove around LA with Ovi Maps without needing to keep it plugged into a charger. I could never do this with my N97. The battery efficiency has really advanced forward on the E73. I went hiking a few times and tracked my progress with Endomondo and the E73 had no problems picking up signal even in offline mode.

Of the two, I think the E73 makes the better upgrade from an E71. I really enjoyed using it.