In common with other Nokia 'N-series' and 'E-Series' phones of its time (late 2006), the N73 comes loaded with many software applications, including contacts, messaging, picture and video galleries, a music player, a Visual FM Radio, RealPlayer, an IM client, a WAP browser, a full web browser based on KHTML/Webkit, a Microsoft Office document viewer, a PDF viewer and some games. The majority of these applications support background execution; for example, one may listen to music whilst browsing the Internet, and then may switch to write a text message or e-mail, without having to close any applications. Non 'smartphones' typically cannot do this or can do it in only a very limited way; for example, only the music player can run in the background. The feature which most distinguishes the N73 from other 'N'- or 'E'-series Nokia mobile phones is the 3.2 megapixel autofocus camera which was the best available at the time of release. The N73 does not support Wi-Fi.
CNet Reviewed the Nokia N73 and said "Nokia's N73 is one of the best camera phones we've seen this year, with a wide range of multimedia and business features tucked under its belt. Responsiveness, however, is not a strong point."