As with each ‘Music/Internet Edition’ that Nokia produces, the end result is mainly an exercise in marketing, at least in that those who bought the original device certainly don’t need to upgrade, since their hardware can almost certainly be used for the same purposes. But full credit to Nokia for making the extra effort to get across to consumers that you can (shock horror) listen to stereo music on their S60 smartphones.
[Maybe if consumers could find a standard 3.5 mm headphone jack on their phones then they would use the music playing functionality more often?]
The main changes for the N73 Music Edition are the welcome addition of a 2GB miniSD card (enough for around 30 CDs worth of music) and the superior AD-41 adapter/stereo headset. This has a standard 3.5mm stereo connector embedded in its control unit, meaning that you can plug in your own in-ear headset rather than having to stick with the slightly cheaper Nokia earbuds.
[Dongles = no thank you]
Will the new music player be accessible via a firmware upgrade to regular N73 users?
More importantly why is the music player tied to the OS? If it was a separate application then Nokia could just push SIS files to all their users. Same argument can be said about the internet browser.
If you need a more detailed review then read Steve’s thoughts on the regular N73.