N-Gage Anyone?

So what's everyone thoughts on Nokias upcoming N-Gage? Anyone planning on getting one? Does anyone think they have a chance of putting a dent in the Gameboy's market? I haven't really payed a whole lot of attention to the N-Gage so I'm not really sure if they've got any cool games lined up or not.

To honest I'm looking forward to the competion from both Nokia and Sony. I'm curious to see where they'll go and what Nintendo will counter with if they do well.

Yeah, sure, because these 300 dollars are really burning my hands! Oh, wait, it''s my lighter.

Seriously, I''m not going near the thing until I see some reviews.

I will not buy a N-Gage. I saw it at E3 and it sucked. I am not going to get a PSP unless the software is there and it is a good unit. I like the GBA SP SNES ports so I''ll continue with that.

"Ulairi" wrote:

I will not buy a N-Gage. I saw it at E3 and it sucked. I am not going to get a PSP unless the software is there and it is a good unit. I like the GBA SP SNES ports so I''ll continue with that.

I''m not buying until they show that it will run my Horizons beta...oh, yeah, I don''t have one of those...

I sure as hell won''t buy one. It''s not well designed. It has some notable design flaws when it comes to being a gaming handheld (such as button design and the need to remove the battery if you want to insert an MMC), and it''s not a beauty as well when it comes to cell-phones. I''d rather have a GBA SP and a seperate cell-phone. I also think that this pretty much dead-on-arrival when it comes to software support. You''ll probably get to see plenty of games similar to the current cell-phone and PDA-titles, but it''s nowhere near being a GBA competitor. The only chance of the N-Gage was the wish of software developers to see a serious competitor for the GBA, however, now with Sony''s PSP oncoming it''s pretty clear that they''re not going to waste too much time on Nokia''s device, because the outlook for Sony''s handheld looks ''somewhat'' more promising. That''s one of the reasons I think we''ll never get to see the software support for the N-Gage lots of companies promised early this year.

Well I have to get a new mobile contract in October and if that thing is out by then I will have a closer look. Hasn''t convinced me so far though. I like the features, but the whole thing is too clunky.

I''ll have to get it

It''s part of my job function to test everything...

Life is hard.

Well maybe you could share some exciting insights on it with us then, when will you get the thingee?

"Ulairi" wrote:

I will not buy a N-Gage. I saw it at E3 and it sucked. I am not going to get a PSP unless the software is there and it is a good unit. I like the GBA SP SNES ports so I''ll continue with that.

What didn''t you like about it? I''ve never seen one in person and until a couple of days ago when I noticed EBWorld taking preorders I hadn''t even payed any attention to them. Was it a lack of games or the design?

I''m not interested in getting one myself but I am curious if they will end up offereing any real competition for Nintendo.

"Drunkagain" wrote:
"Ulairi" wrote:

I will not buy a N-Gage. I saw it at E3 and it sucked. I am not going to get a PSP unless the software is there and it is a good unit. I like the GBA SP SNES ports so I''ll continue with that.

What didn''t you like about it? I''ve never seen one in person and until a couple of days ago when I noticed EBWorld taking preorders I hadn''t even payed any attention to them. Was it a lack of games or the design?

I''m not interested in getting one myself but I am curious if they will end up offereing any real competition for Nintendo.

Both. I don''t like how the thing feels when I hold it. No developers have announced that they would really support it and it is too expensive.

"Koesj" wrote:

Well maybe you could share some exciting insights on it with us then, when will you get the thingee?

Dunno..if its being carried by t-mobile.. which I suspect it will be.. I usually get phones from them a few days before generally availability..

If its Cingular or AT&T Wireless (shudder) then who knows...they basically suck.

Or is it being sold strictly unlocked for your choice of GSM provider? If thats the case I''ll get it when its available through ebworld or someone.

I havent been following much about it.. personally I think its going to be a big flop.

Nokia Bluetooth is buggy.. I could never get GPRS working through bluetooth and my laptop no matter how hard I tried..

Now Sony/Ericcson? now your talking I surf through my T610 the entire trip between Philly and NYC all the time with my T610 and my laptop.

It''s a nice idea... its just more along the lines of a Sony concept than a Nokia.. If Sony announced such a phone then I''d perk up.

Was it a lack of games or the design?

Both. I''ve had the chance to check out the thing months ago and also had a post on it over at that other place which recently switched servers. The hardware design isn''t that great. It was actually bigger than I thought and I''d definitely prefer having my current cell-phone around since that one happens to be less bulky. And I really doubt you''ll get to see lot''s of software for the thing (talking about GBA-style projects here.) You have a few Eidos announcements here, a port of Red Faction there. Other publishers have announced N-Gage support, but then again ''other publishers'' also announced heavy support for the Atari Jaguar and you know what happened. Most companies cannot ignore the lucrative GBA market, and as soon as the PSP launch comes closer it''s pretty safe to say that almost all of them are going to support that one as well. The N-Gage should be seen as system competing with other cell/smart-phones - not the GBA.

Whoa I''ll see if T-mobile will carry it here too, where you at Gameguru? US? I didn''t know T-mobile had market share there too :O

Yeah.. Deutsche Telecom purchased Qualcom''s GSM business in the late 90''s and started VoiceStream here in the US. Eventually changing the name to T-Mobile worldwide.

Currently they have the best GSM/GPRS network in the US and its the only viable option to those of us who travel overseas and want to continue to use our cell phones (what a concept!)

Good Luck convincing anyone at Verizon or Sprint that concept.. as they continue to plod along with their CDMA based nextgen networks while the rest of the world looks to Edge and other next gen GSM based networks..

The only bright spot in the US is at least AT&T and Cingular have also started to migrate to GSM.. but right now their GSM networks pretty much suck still.

I read several reviews on the model, I believe the most recent and notable was from a UK website, I think it was the Daily Telegraph. Anyway, they mentioned the clunky feel, the need to take the battery out to inssert a new game (what were they THINKING?!), and one other interesting tidbit. Whereas Nintendo has a chokehold and licensing requirements for most all Gameboy games, Nokia has taken the unusual step of releasing the developers'' kit for N Gage for anyone to tinker with. This gives the possibility that we may see a glut of grade-b and below games, much of what happened to the Atari 2600 line when they opened the floodgates. This could be good as far as the quantity of titles that are released for the system, but bad as far as quality of said titles. It also means that there is limited licensing on said games from the company, so they don''t make as much money on the games as they do on the N Gage system itself.

Whereas most of the current gaming industry systems are sold at cost or below, and the companies are then reliant upon the games bought by the consumers for the licensing fees, Nokia apparently believes that consumers will purchase a high priced unit and then sink more into games. It''s clear Nokia is not familiar with the model of the video game industry as it exists today.

The thing looks cool, but it tries to do too much. I''d rather have a phone and a Gameboy SP. Actually, I would rahter have a phone, and a Game Gear with lots of cartridges. May it rest in peace.

I would rahter have a phone, and a Game Gear with lots of cartridges.

Guess you meant to say ""lots of batteries"".

LOL that''s right, that thing did eat batteries like they were going out of style. The day I discovered the ac adapter and DC adapter I think the light shined down on me

Thread hijacking here a bit. I need a new phone in september with my new contract, but what to pick up? The only phone on the market that I really like feature and design wise is the T610. Honestly if I can plug a camera into the N-Gage (would you have guessed I like gimmicks :)) I would consider that an alternative, since it also is an mp3 player and I really want one as well. Any other hints or tips? I need an Email client and mp3 would be a big plus.

It will flop. When you can buy a new phone + a GB SP for the same cost, I don''t think anyone will buy these except for those people that can''t stand to carry two things around or must have the ""it"" thing that month.

EDIT: ChrisG, dude, are you looking for a phone or a PDA? MP3s, cameras, what happened to just talking?

booring I''d buy a P800 but they are too clunky. That thing with the size of a t610 and I''d be one happy customer.

T610 is an awesome phone.. its the one Im using right now...it has a servicable email client built in that you can even schedule for automatic send/recieves which is a huge bonus instead of always having to manually d/l new mail.

It has no memory card/stick support so forget mp3''s. It comes with about 2mb of memory so you can add some pretty decent Java applications.. games, ereaders some extra PIM stuff etc..

From a design standpoint its awesome.. plus it actually works as a bluetooth gprs modem with my bluetooth laptop something I could never get working with my Nokia 3650

Now..the Nokia 3650 has a memory card slot and can run Symbian and Java apps which opens up a huge amount of downloadable applications including several mp3 players.. The best mp3 player I tried sounded decent but be warned currently there is no software support to disable the onboard speaker while plugged into the headphones.. so it basically renders the mp3 player useless unless you enjoy everyone around you listening to your music coming out of your phones tiny speaker. From a PIM standpoint the 3650 cannot be beat..there are a slew of excellent Symbian based PIM apps that are awesome.. plus having 128mb of memory on a card reallly helps.

T610 really is the king right now... best phone on the market..You can tell it is since my Brother who lives in Greece uses it.. and they have the pick of the litter when it comes to new phones so that says something.

If there are no surprises until october I think I will end up buying a T610 and get that Bluetooth mp3 player for it. the 3650 and 7650 are too huge as well to feel comfortable using them.
What I would love to have is IM on my phone, because it saves you a lot of money over sms, but sadly the T610 does not support raw TCP/UDP connections, only using the http protocol. So I can''t just add a Java program that does this for me...

Is it so hard to create the perfect phone?

tmobile has a wap based AIM client.. its clunky but it does work.

Sony/Ericcson Bluetooth mp3 looks pretty sweet.. but its no Ipod..

I can''t go back to flash based mp3 players..they are just to limited to the amount of music they can hold.

Well I''d need my player for jogging only and 128 MB = 2 hours is enough for the next years when it comes to that :).