Inted to review N-Gage?

[Viipottaja]

I know its a little outside your normal scope, but do you plan to review Nokia N-Gage, Michael? A novel concept, maybe worth a look even for a serious phone user?

[sean]

Most definitely!!!

[Michael]

We'll review it, for sure. Just probably won't be me doing the review. Need somebody that cares more about the games.

I already know my personal review of it would be harsh because it is a pretty poor phone by very nature of being set up for games.

But so far even the gamer guys have not been real impressed with them. We shall see....

[sean]

Right off the bat, I can complain about the way you have to hold it to call.. you put the thin edge of it to your head.. that makes no sense. It will be handy to be playing a game and take a call on a BT handset though... the game pauses automatically.

[Michael]

Removing the battery to change game cards is not exactly a real superb idea, either.

[Viipottaja]

Yes, those are two desing mistakes that are the most obvious ones. Especially the way you have to hold it to make a call is outright stupid. Maybe you can hear in a silent environment even if you hold it flat on your face but..

I heard someone say that putting the MMC card under the battery was intentional to avoid theft of the cards [from a slot on the side of the phone].. duh! Why wouldn't the thief just take the whole phone instead?

But I do think the games look pretty impressive, if you can really judge based on the video clips on their website.

[marcelol]

Nevermind you that the same games that are available for the 3650 will more than likely SEAMLESSLY run on the N-Gage.

I have to agree that using it as a phone is almost like talking into a taco. However, consider that I think their intention is to market it the younger crowd, who'll probably use it with some sort of handsfree unit ( possibly bluetooth, as it supports that right out of the gate ).

Without delving too deeply into it, I was with my son at a gamestop here locally. I know the manager fairly well, and he and some of the other sales guys mentioned to me, that out of all the GameStop's in the area, so far as they know, only ONE of their stores has had anyone "reserve" an N-Gage, and that store has a total of 2(!) units reserved. This, in a city of 3+ million people. I recently read a "pre" review of a proto unit at some website in the UK that's for gaming industry folks, and the biggest gripe that they could find ( other than the "taco" reference ...which I SWEAR, they stole from me ), was that to insert and remove those little cartridge based games ( they're games shipped on MMC cards ), you have to remove the lid, remove the battery, unseat the previous MMC card, insert the one, and secure that one in. Why on Earth, Nokia didn't implement a latching socket like every other manufacturer that supports MMC/SD card slots, is beyond me. I'm sure that little "human factors" design issue will come up when they're talking about "N-GAGE 2".

Anyways, I'm going to shut up here, or I'll actually end up writing up a review about the dog-gone thing.

[Michael]

Sean just received the N-Gage. So he will start working on the review shortly.

[marcelol]

Like the subject says.....looking forward to it.

Just so you know, Today is the first day of the full blown press release for the new N-Gage. You'll start seeing it everywhere, cinemas, TV etc. I'm sure the reserves will start to build up.

I hate gaming, but I mean Bluetooth 3d gaming? Who can offer that on a mobile device?