Nokia N73 or E70 comparisons, costs and availability on Vodacom

[Trix]

I would like to use the 1500 vodacom talking points system I've accumulated and buy a decent phone by topping up with an extra R2500-3000.

I'm torn between the Nokia N73 and the Nokia E70. Both of these are well equiped phones and there are advantages and disadvantages to both phones.

The N73 costs R4399 (cacell.co.za) and will be R3419 on top of my 1500 talking points and the E70 I'm told has not been yet been released on the vodacom network (still being tested-I don't know for how much longer, any comments here?) but I see virginmobile selling the E70 at R4200 and R3750 on cacell.co.za.

There are a number of critical balance points between the two phones for me:
1) the N73 has a small keypad whilst the E70 keys look bigger - I have big hands but use predictive text msging, I'm sure I could manage with the N73 but it will prob be more comfy on the E70
2) the N73 has a bigger screen area - better to view webpages and docs but probably uses more of the battery life
3) the N73 has a carl zeiss 3.2Mp camera and the E70 a standard 2MP - I'm not a photographer but sometimes need to take a few pictures on a site/occasion, I'm sure the E70 will be good enough
4) the E70 has a more stable operating system and a qwerty keyboard with the facility to view and edit office docs whilst the N73 can only view. - Will probably edit docs occasionally
5) the E70 has wifi and voip whilst the n73 doesn't - I will use this if its there and convenient and cheap to use
6) I won't really use the video call function of the n73 but definitely use the 3G connection to surf the web.

I've not used or even seen working models of these phones. Any comments?

 

[Johnit]

If you have access to Wifi you should consider the E70 - good IP telephone platform with several options for software. It supports the SIP standard, and I expect this to have a huge impact over the next two years. My collegue with an E70 has connected it to his home and work network - works well.

 

[adsl3g]

I have also been looking at these 2 phones - the display on the E70 is slightly smaller than the N73 but the resolution is higher on the E70 so the writing will be smaller. The E70 is slightly bigger in all aspects. The E70 has shorter battery life. The WiFi is a major plus point though and it is cheaper than the N73. I still can't make up my mind - i would however NOT get a branded phone and the N73 is branded on VC. You get a good comparison at www.gsmarena.com

 

[diabolus]

I got the E70 [unbranded] , got it on MTN Mycall 100 , R499 pay-in [i was told the phone costs about ~R4500 cash ].

The qwerty keyboard was my main requirement, i'm actually loving the fold-over mechanism more and more. Since the E70 got the "normal" keypad with numbers below the screen AND then the entire qwerty keyboard when you need it, you get best of both worlds [pure phone usage + pda usage] .

NEAT TRICK : Because the E70 have the fold-over "wing" , you can actually make it stand upright for some stationary camera shots [good for self-timer ones]

Quick Comparison
http://www.gsmarena.com/compare.php3?idPhone2=1323&idPhone1=1550

Main diffs i picked up

1. BAND : N73 = Quad Band , E70 = Tri Band
[only useful if you plan to go to the USA alot]

2. DISPLAY : N73 = 256K colors , E70 = 16M colors
2. DISPLAY SIZE : N73 240 x 320 pixels, 36 x 48 mm , E70 = 352 x 416 pixels, 35 x 41 mm
[Quite obviously E70 got a better display in all aspects??]

4. MEMORY : N73 = 42 MB shared memory , E70 = 75 MB shared memory
[Not sure how much this counts, but generally i've found phone memory to be quite important]

5. BLUETOOTH : N73 = V2.0 , E70 = V1.2
5 USB : N73 = V2.0 , E70 = V1.0 ? [probably only useful if you plan to do huge transfers]
5. WIFI : N73 = NO , E70 = YES

6. OS : Identical [Symbian S60 V.3.0 ] ?? So techinically they should be equally stable???

7. CAMERA : N73 = 3.2MP , E70 = 2.0MP

8. FM RADIO [something i would've liked] : N73 = YES , E70 = NO

9 BATTERY : N73 = Li-Ion 1100 mAh (BP-6M ) , E70 = Li-Ion 1150 mAh (BL-6C)
[Talk time on E70 is MORE than N73, but standby is less...read carefully?...E70 better battery?]

 

[adsl3g]

@ diabolus - nice comparison. I was too lazy to do all the typing. I previously had a 6822 also with the flip open keyboard - I loved it but the screen was sooo small. I have problem with the high resolution of the screen though, I wear glasses and cant read anything on the screen without them. On the lower res screen I can at least read it with difficulty.
Talk time is not a major issue with me but the WiFi is a major plus point. I also looked at the N71 - same screen as the N73 but with 2MP camera and also has the Symbian v3 firmware. Only thing that puts me off is the battery life - and no WiFi.

(Oh yes and it is also not branded on VC - same as the E70)