OT REVIEW: Nokia's N-Gage Packs Performance
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By MATT MOORE, AP Business Writer
STOCKHOLM, Sweden - The category-busting Nokia (news - web sites) N-Gage combines a cell phone, pint-sized video game player and an entertainment center in a compact, daring package.
But whether this 4.83-ounce dynamo lives up to its hype remains to be seen. I found it to fall short in several respects.
The visually arresting N-Gage went on sale in 60 countries this week, including the United States. It costs slightly less than euro300 in Europe, and the suggested U.S. retail price is $299, though some wireless (news - web sites) carriers are subsidizing the device and offering it for less.
For that you get multiplayer gaming, a feature-packed mobile phone that supports Bluetooth wireless networking and Internet access, plus an MP3 music player and an FM radio.
The N-Gage's color screen is crisp and bright, but small (176 by 208 pixels, about the size of a playing card) — and that felt restrictive when I was browsing the Internet.
At 5.2 inches long and 2.7 inches tall, the N-Gage's shape is reminiscent of the GameBoy Advance video game player. It fit into my big hands with ease, minimizing strain and maximizing comfort. The five-way directional controller is akin to Nintendo (news - web sites)'s, but set on the left side of the device.
For old-school-style video games like Sega's "Sonic the Hedgehog," the action is consistent and the N-Gage processes the graphics quickly and fluidly. But when I dabbled with 3-D games like "Tomb Raider," the small screen took away some of the luster.
Perhaps the biggest drawback is the way the N-Gage loads games. Multimedia chips were selected as the storage medium, and to swap out those chips to change games, you have to take the back off the N-Gage and slip out the battery. Not something you want to do on the fly.
I would have preferred a slot along the side of the device, as with Sony Ericsson (news - web sites)'s P800, a combination camera, personal digital assistant and phone, which holds a memory stick that can be inserted or ejected.
Gaming aside, the N-Gage is also a full-fledged music device, playing not only FM radio but also MP3s, which can be downloaded from Web sites or transferred from a personal computer using a USB cable.
Transferring MP3s to the device is a quick process, by most standards. However, the N-Gage ships with a 16- or 32-megabyte chip, and many users will probably want to add on more memory if they wish to store music.
The headphones that come with the N-Gage don't offer a very rich sound, but are tolerable considering the overall price of the package. The audio sounded much better when I plugged in a set of high-quality headphones.
The recording feature also lacks some definition. With a decent condenser microphone, my old minidisc player clearly outperforms the N-Gage — a strike against N-Gage's bid to be all things to all people.
But, let's not forget that the N-Gage is also, and perhaps even primarily, a phone. The "tri-band" device can be used just about anywhere in the world and has full e-mail support.
But it's an awfully awkward phone to hold to your ear. The best way to talk is hands-free, not optimal in a crowded bus when the conversation is sensitive.
Even so, Nokia says the N-Gage is geared to gamers, not people seeking a new cell phone. It's expected to compete directly with the GameBoy by Japan's Nintendo, which already has an established user base and hundreds of games.
The current selection of games for N-Gage is narrow — only seven are available now. Nokia says it's lining up software deals to bring more games to users, and recently acquired Sega.com to boost its catalog.
Currently available games available include Gameloft's "Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell" and "Rayman," as well as Activision's "Tony Hawk's Pro Skater." Games scheduled for release next year include "Sega Rally Championship," "Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon" and Nokia's own "Pathway to Glory."
Nokia has never put so much marketing muscle into pushing a phone. The Finnish company, which sells 39 percent of the world's cell phones, has put the N-Gage in nearly 30,000 stores and aligned itself with several wireless carriers, including Vodafone, mm02 and, in the United States, T-Mobile.
Nokia also is offering N-Gage users access to the "N-Gage Arena" — an online community that features live play against other people, game downloads and gaming-related news — for free during a trial period. Nokia hasn't said what the price will eventually be.
The N-Gage is based on an attractive idea. Instead of stuffing pockets with cell phones, game players, mini-disc and MP3 players and recorders — which require separate, incompatible battery chargers at that — one could just carry a single unit that does it all.
The N-Gage provides a hopeful step toward such a practical fusion, but is not quite there yet.
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Associated Press Writer Mans Hulden contributed to this report.
