Wednesday, April 14, 2004
The second generation N-Gage is now officially known as the "QD" and has several marked improvements over the initial design.
From gi, "You only get one chance to make a first impression, and the N-Gage QD makes the most of that chance. Unlike its older stablemate, which is designed very similarly to a number of Nokia's other phones and is even built from the same materials, the QD is quite a unique beast - completely unlike any other phone we've ever used, with a chunky, substantial feel to it which is much more becoming of a serious games device than the design of the original N-Gage. The material of the casing feels tougher, the butons are made of thick, slightly rubberised plastic and stick out prominently from the fascia, and there's even a soft rubber ring around the edges of the QD which should help to protect it from falls. The addition of tight rubber flaps around all external ports and a well-sealed battery compartment should probably mean that the phone is also splashproof to some degree, although Nokia doesn't seem keen to push that as a feature."
"The QD is sufficiently rugged that it feels almost like a piece of military hardware rather than a games console, and we expect that this look will appeal to a lot of consumers - particularly young men in the console's prime age bracket of late teens through to mid twenties. Crucially, it's a design which is very unique without being unattractive or impractical - and the ability to replace the front fascia and keys with new ones will also appeal to the fashion conscious, as well as offering the possibility of game companies releasing new fascias as merchandising for their latest titles on the system."
"As you would hope, the two key problems with the original N-Gage system have been fixed in its successor - namely the need to remove the battery in order to change MMC game cards, and the ludicrous "sidetalking" positioning of the microphone and speaker which made users of the phone look like they were talking into a taco (or a pasty, depending on which part of the world you hail from). The former issue has been fixed comprehensively by putting an MMC card slot on the outside of the console, covered by a rubber flap, while the latter has simply been fixed by moving the earpiece and microphone onto the front fascia of the phone."
"In allowing users to hot swap MMC cards, Nokia has also added software functionality which lets you launch games from the main screen without having to navigate through menus, or even have the game start up as soon as the card is inserted, much like more traditional games consoles. In order to remove the card, however, you must first click on a menu option for safe removal, and we noted that the MMC slot on our prototype unit wasn't spring loaded, so careful prising of the card end with a thumb nail was required to retrieve it. However, compared to the previous mechanism for game changing, this is near perfect."
Posted by
Al on 04/14 at 09:15 AM
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From gi, "For Nokia, then - keenly aware that its hardware offering will be overshadowed shortly by Sony and Nintendo's new handhelds - the true task as it sees it is to establish a unique identity for N-Gage, what Raiskinen calls 'the unique N-Gage flavour', and the way to do so is through exclusive software and services offerings which utilise the mobile communications abilities of the platform. To that end, the company continues to evolve the N-Gage Arena service and add new layers of functionality, and is focusing strongly on the development of multiplayer, and even massively multiplayer, mobile gaming titles. And although it's not the first time that Nokia has talked up the possibilities presented by online mobile gaming, this time a cursory glance at the N-Gage product pipeline shows that the firm's claims have rather more substance than previously."
"Key in that pipeline are two games - Sega's Pocket Kingdoms, a massively multiplayer title in which players compete with each other all around the world over mobile data networks, and Nokia's own Pathway to Glory, a partially turn based strategy title which allows a number of players to duke it out online in large, persistent campaigns. The company has promised a number of other important unveilings at E3, but for now, these two games best represent the type of title which Nokia is hoping will mark out the N-Gage as being unique even in the face of its forthcoming competitors. They're certainly both impressive titles, with far higher production values than you'd expect from a mobile game and core gameplay mechanics which take advantage of the communication possibilities of N-Gage. Interestingly, they're both also entirely 2D games, utterly eschewing the 3D capabilities of the platform."
Posted by
Al on 04/14 at 09:08 AM
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Tuesday, April 13, 2004
Nokia reveals product changes and improvements offered by the new handheld.
From CVG
, "As has been widely expected, the key design faults of the original model have been drastically overhauled: the 'deck no longer requires the user to remove the battery to insert games; instead, you insert and remove game cards via a slot at the bottom of the phone, protected with a rubber guard.
The new gamedeck will be sold alongside the existing model; while the new design looks rather more chic than its predeccessor, this revamped version of the N-Gage has sacrificed some of the functionality of the original deck. The MP3 player and radio have been removed from this latest version."
Posted by
on 04/13 at 02:10 PM
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Friday, April 09, 2004
Pics of next generation N-Gage show improvements over first version.
Photos of the next N-Gage design have appeared, courtesy of a mobile phone forum. The new design gets rid of the clumsy "talk into the side edge" requirement of the original N-Gage and adds an external MMC slot for easier game changing. The screenshots include views from the back, front, powered down, and powered up.
Posted by
Al on 04/09 at 10:56 AM
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