Nokia tries again with new N-Gage
14-04-2004
by Matthew Clark

 

The new phone follows on the heels of the original N-Gage, Nokia's first attempt to marry a handheld video games console and a mobile phone. When launched in October 2003, the ill-fated N-Gage met with harsh reviews that slammed seemingly obvious design flaws. Such criticism helped lead to lacklustre sales, despite substantial marketing spend.

But in N-Gage QD, Nokia has addressed many of the complaints levelled against the N-Gage. Among the improvements is a change in position of the phone's microphone and speaker from the side edge of the phone to the front, which means the phone can be held to the ear in a more traditional manner, rather than the so-called "side talking" manner that the old layout required.

Another important upgrade is a "hot-swap" facility that will allow users to switch between MMC game cartridges without powering down the phone and removing the device's back cover and battery. The arduous procedures involved in switching games on the original N-Gage was one of the most criticised aspects of the phone.

Another plus for the new N-Gage QD is its expected low price point when it launches in May in Europe, Africa and Asia (and June in the Americas). Nokia says that it expects the phone to retail for EUR99 with a contract and EUR199 (excluding VAT and other taxes) without a contract and excluding any additional subsidy that operators may offer.

"After six months on the market with the N-Gage platform, we wanted to expand our device portfolio based on the feedback we've received," said Nokia's senior vice president of games, Ilkka Raiskinen. "With improved gaming ergonomics, gamers can now start to play games at the push of a button and enjoy the increased responsiveness of the game keys. We also added support for hot-swap MMC and extended the battery life. For phone calls, we reoriented the speaker and microphone to support 'classic talking'."

Other upgrades to the N-Gage QD involve a new layout and more games-related buttons. Like its predecessor, the phone comes with Bluetooth, Java (J2ME) games and it runs on Nokia's Symbian-based Series 60 operating system. A handful of other design changes and improvements include rubberised buttons, a slightly smaller size and enhanced screen brightness.

But some of the changes have come at a cost. For N-Gage QD, the company has dropped the FM radio that was included in the original N-Gage and it has also canned the phone's MP3 playback software. The decision to take away much of the phone's music functionality is likely to have prompted the decision to cut out the USB connectivity that was part of the original N-Gage.