Introduction

The Nokia N-Gage is either a brand new class of device, a hopeless kludge, or a reasonably good gen 1 machine from a manufacturer not normally associated with games consoles. In fact, all three are correct.

Nokia make mobile phones. Have done for a long time. And the last two or three years have seen huge leaps in technology of the mobile phone. For games players, the biggest breakthrough came when Nokia shipped the "Snake" game built into the handsets Operating System. It wasn't much (eat the dots and grow bigger) but it started a trend which has resulted in them making their first handset that looks and acts like a portable console.

Powering it is something called Series 60, which in turn is powered by Symbian OS. What do you need to know about them? Well Series 60 runs on a lot of phones, and is a bit like Windows on your PC. If something is Series 60 compatible, then it will run on your N-Gage. Symbian OS is the Operating System (naturally), and it's a joint production of Nokia, Sony Ericsson, Motorola, Panasonic, some other mobile phone manufacturers, and Psion (who have made portable computers since the early eighties). There's a lot of strength there.

The games are bought on industry standard MMC cards, which also means you can use blank MMC cards like miniature hard drives. While the N-Gage is a gaming device, it's also a very powerful pocket computer. And if you add in the mobile phone with GSM and GPRS circuitry, it's a handy device to browse the internet and read your emails on.

The device does have it's faults. With all that's going on inside it, the battery life is only a true 6-8 hours of gameplay. And the oft mentioned having to remove the battery to be able to change the MMC game cards can be a bit frustarting, but then Nokia have never failed to get a phone design right in the end. N-Gage is here to stay, and where else can you get a console for free (well, free plus a contract with a mobile phone company)? ES

Specifications

• CPU: 104 MHz ARM processor
• Operating Frequency: Tri-Band GSM 900/1800/1900
• Size: Weight 4.83 ounces (with standard battery)
• Dimensions: 5.26 x 2.74 x .80 inches
• Display: 176 x 208 (backlit)
• Colors: 4096 colors, 12-bit

Functions

• Bluetooth-enabled (for multiplayer gaming, etc.)
• Digital music player/recorder (uses Slave USB 1.1 for data transfer)
• Stereo FM radio
• Multimedia messaging (MMS)
• Full email support (IMAP4, POP3, SMTP, MIME2)
• Supports Java 2 Micro Edition (J2ME) for additional content
• Internet content with XHTML browser
• Tri-band EGSM 900/GSM1800/GSM 1900
• Series 60 UI enabling application multitasking
• Slave USB 1.1. for digital music download from PC
• MP3, AAC, Midi, WAV ringing tones
• WAP over GPRS