Nokia's New Handheld: N-gaging or N-oying?

By William Barker
Special Deal: $100 off Nokia N-Gage

Nokia's N-Gage is a gaming device, first and foremost

Nokia's handheld N-Gage device promises to be everything to everyone - a games machine, MP3 player, Internet Browser, e-mail client, personal digital assistant, maybe even a mobile phone.

And, if first impressions are anything to go by, it's off to a very solid start.

Alex Lambeek, Nokia Australia's big chief, said, "Never before have games gone mobile as they will with the Nokia N-Gage.

"We are offering Australian consumers a unique mobile entertainment experience. This will be Nokia's largest ever launch in Australia and we are very excited to break new ground by getting into some games action," Mr Lambeek stated.

"The N-Gage will feature top games from top publishers. We expect to have around 20 game titles available by Christmas and to have roughly 100 games during 2004," Mr Lambeek explained.

Based on a similar platform as the Nokia 3650/7650 phones, the N-Gage makes for an intriguing proposition, looking like a nouveau chic interpretation of the Nintendo GameBoy Advance, small enough to put in your pocket, yet intelligently configured so that operation never becomes bothersome or fiddly.

And, speaking of the GameBoy Advance (GBA), it's not hard to see the similarities here, where - at least in terms of unit design - the N-Gage could easily be mistaken for a GBA at twenty paces.

Though the N-Gage will be competing against the Nintendo's heavy-hitting handheld, Nokia's latest weapon is one clever little device, with a level of functionality that makes the GBA look decidedly low-tech.

The N-Gage pack has a recommended retail price of $599 without a mobile phone plan, though some retailers are reportedly selling it for $500, and it comes with the game unit, lithium ion battery, USB and audio recording cables, battery recharger and hand-free/headphone kit.

Take the N-Gage out of its box, peel off the rear casing and insert your SIM card - it should be mentioned though that one Voda Fone pre-paid SIM card we tried wouldn't register. Next, insert the game of your choice if you have one - in this instance Tomb Raider - fit the battery and power on.

LCD Screen:208 pixels in height, by 176 pixels in width

Boot up takes a little longer than your average mobile phone, but in retrospect I guess it's somewhat justified, as this isn't an average mobile phone. Anyway, the first thing that really jumps out at you - apart from the profusion of buttons and sockets - is the colour LCD screen.

The backlit, liquid-crystal display screen with a 4096-colour palette has a resolution of 208x176 pixels and offers a visual acuity that makes all but the latest 3G phones look old hat.

The screen isn't particularly huge, but the detail it offers and the blend of colours is quite remarkable, perhaps best showcased by the simple hi-res screensavers. But more than just being able to display static imagery, the N-Gage has a relatively powerful little CPU tucked away inside, and one that lets it reproduce much more than just scaling and rotating sprites or even mode7-inspired visuals.

Yup, this little puppy has no problems churning out fully-fledged polygons, and if the first-generation Tomb Raider game is anything to go by, second and third generation games will be pushing the handheld gaming envelope to seriously lofty heights.

From a hardware-based game playing perspective, the N-Gage is a complete success. The frame rate offered in Tomb Raider is very good, the number of polygons flying around on screen impressive, and while the gameplay leaves a lot to be desired (it's not unexpected - a Lara Croft trademark if you like), the N-Gage has enormous gaming potential.

The in-game controls are more than adequate, operated by an eight-way directional pad and the phone-based numerical pad, and loading times for games is almost non-existent. Furthermore, if you plug in a game with multiplayer capabilities you can compete wirelessly against opponents in the same room (up to 10 metres away) via Bluetooth, and downloadable content via GPRS sweetens the deal even further.

Games such as Sega Rally, PuyoPop, Rayman 3, Tony Hawk's Pro Skater and Ghost Recon are just a few of the current games supporting wireless multiplayer connectivity, and it's not surprising that this is one of the key N-Gage features that Nokia is intensively marketing.

The 3D graphics capabilities put the GameBoy Advance to shame

But, in spite of such an impressive and versatile initial showing, there are a few things that could work against the N-Gage as a viable gaming platform in the eyes of consumers.

To start with, ease of use. When compared to the GBA, the N-Gage has many more buttons, which may confuse younger gamers, and where Nintendo's handheld allows you to quickly slot in a cartridge, to plug in an N-Gage game you need to turn off the unit, take off the back cover and remove the battery to get to the MMC slot.

The screen is also aligned vertically, or in portrait style, where most games machines - handheld or otherwise - display in the landscape format.

For mine, these issues are minor however, and at the end of the day the N-Gage represents the first major shift towards mobile phone-based gaming platforms, and quite an impressive one at that.

In regards to the N-Gage's non-gaming features, navigating the somewhat busy menu systems isn't what you would term intuitive. The interface is a little clumsy at first, but like most new technologies, once comfortable with the system and its input commands, it becomes a doddle.

If you do get stuck (and have no inclination to read the users manual) the extensive help files stored on the N-Gage's memory come in handy. They'll tell you how to setup a playlist (or "tracklist" in Nokia speak) for the MP3 player, setup a wireless Bluetooth multiplayer game or simply make a call.

While the unit, at its core, is a mobile phone with a high-res screen, it also makes for a rather dandy digital radio tuner, offering remarkably crisp tuning capabilities. In place of the games, you can even insert normal MMC storage cards containing MP3s for playback, and the N-Gage can even record audio too.

The device supports GPRS, HSCSD (fast internet), WAP, e-mail and XHTML, which makes it quite a jack-of-all-trades, able to browse the net, download content and playback multimedia files, such as videos clips and digital camera photos.

It's also a very useful tool for people whose work (or play) involves lots of travel, or away-from-office activity, but who need to be connected, as it comes with full Email support for POP3, MIME2, SMTP and IMAP4 protocols. As a phone, the N-Gage fails to impress, as it's virtually impossible to talk without the hands-free headphone/microphone connected - it's almost as though this aspect was tacked on as an afterthought.

With the included Nokia software CDROM, you can also synchronise your PC and N-Gage device for contact or calendar purposes, but this is only possible via Bluetooth.

Wireless gaming is fast and free, and if you're losing the current game, just walk about 11 metres away from your foe to sever the connection - it works like a charm!

It comes with all the standard mobile phone features, such as phone book, text-messaging (MMS, SMS, enhanced SMS) and voice dialling, and the lithium ion battery allows for a good 2-4 hours talk time, 3-6 hours game play, 20 hours radio play and 150 hours standby time, according to Nokia literature.

This sounds about right, though playing games with the volume cranked up sucks the juice at a higher rate - perhaps 2 hours game time all up.

Recharging, however, takes stuff-all time, which I really liked, as this is my first Nokia device - I'm an Ericsson owner from way back.

So, what is the verdict?

From a gamer's point of view, this is the real deal. The GameBoy Advance is good, but this is better, with more processing power for more detailed graphics and more sophisticated worlds, immeasurably better audio and the ergonomics are pretty good too, even for big and boofy-handed folk like myself.

The wireless gaming options open up an entirely new and very exciting chapter in handheld gaming, and though the price of admission is high, all the extras (and a new mobile phone plan) help level the playing field with the cheaper alternatives.

A number of videogame publishers/developers have already jumped on the N-Gage bandwagon, including Sega, Electronic Arts (FIFA here we come!), THQ, Eidos, Taito and Activision, which will ensure a solid crop of some of the most sought-after game franchises.

Not since Atari's Lynx have I been so excited by a handheld device, and even if you're a professional looking for a useful wireless device that supports all the latest online protocols, at the very least the N-Gage would make partial sense.

While Nokia's new toy is a very cool piece of kit, it's not completely without flaw, and there's a very good chance that it won't be accepted in the marketplace - gamers may see it as too techy and tech-heads might see it as too gamey... Still, Nokia has struck the first blow in the wireless handheld gaming stakes, and for a first effort it's not half bad.

Product: Nokia N-Gage
Players: 1-multi
Online: Yes
Wireless: Yes
Price: $599
Developer: N-Gage
Distributor: Nokia

Rating: 80%

(Ratings Key/Explanation)

Special Deal: Click here for $100 off Nokia N-Gage