On paper, the Nokia N-Gage gaming phone is a great idea. It is the first mobile phone capable of multiplayer game play using Bluetooth and GPRS. It also serves as a tri-band GSM phone, MP3 player, FM radio, e-mail and messaging terminal with many personal information management functions. All that for just HK$2,688. So what's not to like about it?
After a week of testing the device, I found it had a number of design flaws.
For starters, most games are in the landscape mode, but Nokia has a vertical screen (just like the one on the Nokia 7650), meaning you see less of what's going on.
Moreover, the unit's eight-way directional control on the left of the screen is a clumsy way to navigate through a game. My suggestion is to use a thumb point control like the one on the Sony Ericsson T68 and locate it on the right side of the screen with the 'shoot' and 'jump' controls on the top side of the device. Right now, the 'shoot' and 'jump' keys double up as the phone keypad. Nokia has cleverly designed the two keys to bulge slightly, so they are easy to locate.
The next obvious flaw is the way the phone has to be held if you do not use a headset. The speaker is located on the top right, which means you have to hold the N-Gage to your ear on that side. That had one of my colleagues remarking: 'It's like holding a burrito to your ear!'
Then there's the Multimedia Card (MMC) issue. Instead of going with SD or Compact Flash, Nokia picked the expensive MMC as its storage choice. And just like the hassle one goes through to swap SIM cards, you have to go through exactly the same hassle to swap games. You will have to switch off the unit, slide off the back panel, remove the battery and then replace the MMC card, and then put everything back again. That is just too much hassle.
The MP3 playing was also poor. I found the volume insufficient even at maximum level. And there are no basic audio player features such as fast forward/rewind and replay. Music files are stored on MMC which means you cannot listen to music while playing a game because there is only one slot. You transfer music files from your PC via USB or Bluetooth.