Nokia E73 Mode (T-Mobile)

Pros: it's got a good camera, I suppose, and the maps are pretty good.

Cons: -CONSTANTLY CRASHING
-Phone seizes up and won't turn on for hours
-Factory reset USELESS to solve the problem
-Black screen randomly
-dropped calls, inability to make calls
-Inefficient and confusing interface
-unusable track 'pad'
-Useless app store

Summary: I have been a loyal Nokia customer for the better part of 15 years, I have always had a Nokia phone by my side and have always appreciated the efficiency and ease of use associated with the companies products. This is NOT a Nokia phone. There is nothing familiar about this interface and that fact alone serves as a major detriment to their product. If you are trying to win over customers of other smart phones - better make them smarter (this is a very very poor 'smart phone' the idea of browsing the internet over this thing is totally out of the question), and if you are trying to win past users of Nokia's product, you might want to provide them with the comfort and reliability of an older Nokia interface, of which this phone provides none. So it's absolutely lose lose, the worst phone on the market right now. I don't know if I was cursed with a particularly bad model - mine sometimes takes 15-30 mins just to turn on, and another 20 to recognize a signal to call with - a sign something is seriously wrong here. I will be in the middle of writing out a message (on the terrible Blackberry wanna-be keypad) and the phone will suddenly freeze up, skip screens and I will be in camera mode for no reason whatsoever and my message will be lost forever - terribly annoying if you write messages with the frequency that I do. I mean these aren't small gripes - small gripes I could deal with - but these AWFUL fundamental problems that make me want to just throw the thing away. A trip back to T-Mobile store, they assured me all I had to do was factory reset the phone and I would be good to go - total failure there as well. Nothing was rectified by doing that , in fact I have encountered more problems since then. Currently I am staring at a screen of jumbled up patterns and numbers.

Seriously guys, has it come to this????

I'lll continue very quickly -- assuming that these problems I just listed happened to be a total fluke and specific only to my handset - there are plenty other problems with this telephone.

One being the 'smart' aspect of it - there is very little to be proud of in this department when compared with smart handsets such as the iPhone, Droid or LG's new smart.. And the fact that it is designed to look like a Blackberry is further evidence of an identity crisis somewhere. The phone simply cannot compete with any of these - the Blackberry rugged reliability, or the ease of use and intuitive interfaces of the iphone or Android. So it seems stuck somewhere in the muddy middle. More like an experiment on the part of Nokia than a full on competitor.

The OVI store, (which I have been to only once because the actions needed to GET there on this phone are far too complicated and annoying for the average user) is tiny compared to competitors store, so not as fun to browse, and knowing how difficult it would be to actually use the apps with this type of phone did not compel me to buy or download anything for it so far. I'm still having trouble getting the phone to TURN ON let alone start plying it with applications. So I'm sorry to say I haven't once been able to really explore the more complex functions of this machine, nor would i ever want to.

I'm on my way to replace this piece of garbage right now. Good riddance, Nokia, you guys really screwed me with this one. I might go back to you if I ever need a simple handset where i can bang out a message in 3.6 seconds or get very clear calls and signal, but this atrocity is a sorry excuse for any type of phone, and I am ashamed to even have it in my possession.