Introduction

You notice two things pretty quickly when you first open your new Nokia N-Gage. First, it’s a lot smaller than you think it will be Second is that this thing is not so much one gadget as the ultimate Swiss Army Knife of gadgets. The face of the N-Gage has so many buttons and controls that there’s one for just about anything you may want to do.

I've been playing (and productively using) my new N-Gage for the last week. I think the important thing to remember about the N-Gage is that it is going to be different things to different people, and people's opinion will depend on their perspective. So what is the N-Gage like, a gaming machine, a mobile phone? Mixed is the answer. The actual unit is nice. It's smaller than it looks in pictures. The device isn't very deep so it actually feels small and slips into a pocket more easily than some other Series 60 Smartphones like the 3650. The high-res screen is bright and backlit - it's almost as good as some Many Sony Clies I've used. The fact that the screen is taller than it is wide takes a bit of getting use to. However for games it's a great advantage - anything that scrolls down from top to bottom for example, and when you have a 3D environment its much better having the extra height. At the same time the width is never really an issue - probably because the games have been designed with that in mind.

Gaming

There are really only 3 buttons that you'll use regularly in a lot of games - the control pad (four ways and click down), and the two main game playing keys (numbers 5 and 7 on the keypad). These are raised so they are easy to find. I found the tactile feedback very nice. The control pad is poor compared to the joystick controls you get on the modern consoles but is better than a Gameboy or any other of the Series 60 devices (good thing too!). The best thing about it is that it is responsive - you do not have to kill your fingers. In some games other buttons are used (e.g. Tomb Raider), this is where having a full phone keypad really comes into its own. Rather than some complex combination of button presses (or even worse game intelligence deciding that a button should do x at time y) you can press one of the subsidiary buttons and get what you want. Lara pulls her guns when you want to not when the game wants you to!

Switching games. Ahhh. This is what will get most people. You have to take the back of the device, remove the battery and only then can you switch over the MMC card. It's a bit of a pain in the neck. But it doesn't take long and it keeps the MMC secure. It would be better if you didn't have to remove all the bits (you get visions of loosing the battery down the back of the bus seat). But it's no big deal at the end of the day. It's not like it makes playing games worse. I rather like having the MMC nice and secure. The fact you have to reboot to start a new MMC game not that much of a pain either. It takes me about 15 seconds to Turn the unit off take the back cover off pop out the batter and switch the games, it really isn’t all that bad to switch games around. This is pretty good. I took my unit back to the Store I bought it at and asked the clerk how quickly he could change the games it took him about one minute and six seconds. But believe me once you get the hang of switching games you will beat it in no time!

Also you can connect Via Bluetooth for Multiplayer. Or connect To the N-Gage Arena (Select games only) to play people head to head via GPRS.

Other Media Features

Much has been made of the fact the device is also an MP3 player and has a built in Radio. Yes they work. MP3 player is fine (especially if you have a large memory card), but with MMC only readily available at 128MB you are not going to be using this regularly as your main MP3 player I'd have thought. Still it's nice it's built in from the beginning. The radio on the other hand is really rather nice. It is not something you need, but as an extra it is nice.

Series 60 Device

It is easy to overlook the fact that you've got a full Series 60 device with the N-Gage. After all the glamour is in the games and the media function. What it means though is you've got a full set of PIM applications. You've also got an XHTML browser which is good for accessing information on the move. If you want full web browsing you can get Opera which works without problems on the N-Gage (some people have had memory issues on other Series 60 handsets but this is less apparent on the N-Gage).

Of course you can add 3rd party programs too. Given this is a gaming device emulators of other gaming machines are bound the popular. Commodore 64, Spectrum and Gameboy are among those available. This opens up 100's of other games even if the legal position is not entirely clear. Other things that might be added are Instant Messaging, IRC client, PDF Viewer. There's already a plentiful supply of Series 60 applications that will work fine with the N-Gage

In general usage the control pad means that moving around is better than any other Series 60 device. The problems are given its shape you need to use it two handed. That said given its pocketable nature and the ease of moving around, the standard keypad, and the media extras I would say that this is a serious contender as a smartphone, as a pure Series 60 device, even completely ignoring the gaming side of things.

As a Phone

In order to use the device as a phone you have to hold the phone to your head on its side. You look slightly silly doing this (though not really that much more than those big boom things). You can always use the supplied headset. Tapping out SMS is easy and with the traditional grid pattern on the phone keypad people aren't going to have the same problems as the 3650 with its circular layout. As a phone it works well.

Conclusion

The N-Gage is an impressive device. As a gaming device I was impressed. Its takes games on a mobile phone to a different level. Compared to the Gameboy I think the hardware is about equal, on the games front the N-Gage need to gain more titles to match the huge back catalog of the Gameboy. Whether that happens remains to be seen. The launch games are good although there is nothing outstanding.

Although this is meant to be primarily a gaming device the fact you've got Series 60 as well means this device is so much more. With 3rd party software it has even more potential.

The N-Gage is a converged device. Combining game deck with smartphone, and media functions this device is exceedingly good value. Whether you want to combine them is up to you, but for me it couldn't be any better.

Summary (out of 5 stars)
Graphics
Controls
Sound
Options