Maximum warp! N-GAGE! (Nokia N-Gage)

Member Name: RubbMyster

Product:	Nokia N-Gage
Date:	17/02/04 (549 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Unique gaming decks, Mp3 player, Bluetooth capable

Disadvantages: Pretty expensive games considering the size of the memory cards, Doesn?t have an integrated camera, Rather bulky in size

The N-Gage is one of the most recent new generation phones produced by Nokia. Although hefty in size it makes up for it in the numerous features it possesses. It is the only mobile phone to contain a games deck and therefore the ability to adopt console and PC games in the form of a memory card. These memory cards can be purchased from The Carphone Warehouse as well as game?s shops such as Electronic Boutique, Game and also Virgin Megastores.

One of the main features of the N-Gage is its Mp3 player. When you first purchase the N-Gage, you get with it a USB data cable in which you can connect the N-Gage to your computer and move Mp3s to your phone and hence listen to your favourite tracks while on the move.

One disadvantage of this is the inability to listen to music while playing on the game decks. However, if this was capable then the disability will fall onto the power of the battery.
Another disadvantage of the Mp3 player is that depending on the memory card space it limits the amount of Mp3s you can have on the N-Gage at any one time.

Consequently, you can purchase a blank memory card and fit more Mp3s on your phone. An advantage of the Mp3 player is the aptitude to listen to music on loud speaker, not just via the headset this can be a benefit if you lost the headset or just wanted to share your music with your mates.

Another feature the N-Gage has is a radio. I haven?t had much contact with phones with radios in them, but one great feature the N-Gage radio has is the ability to record songs from the radio and store them on the phone as AAC files. So any latest songs you don?t have yet can be recorded and listened to at any time.

A disadvantage of the radio is that the reception can be an annoyance, especially when you are out and about and interference continually occurs. Another disadvantage is when recording songs from the radio, the interference will also be recorded and can audibly ruin your favourite track
! Also, unlike the Mp3 player, you cannot listen to the radio on loud speaker. To be honest, it?s not so bad, just as long as you have your favourite Mp3s! An additional disadvantage is the fact that the song you record can be limited as it may take up the same amount of memory as a normal Mp3.

As already mentioned, one of the N-Gage?s main and distinguishable features from any other phone is its gaming deck. This feature can allow the user to play well known games such as Fifa 2004, Tomb Raider and Sonic N, all within the palms of your hands.

The advantages of this feature is that it allows the user to basically play when around and about. It?s also very useful if a friend of yours has an N-Gage too, especially if you each have the same game. This can allow you to play 2-player via Bluetooth at a range of 10 metres.

The downfalls of this feature is the fact that some of the game?s graphics are pretty poor, however as it is a small device you can expect the N-Gage not to have that power capability. One other drawback is the fact that the games come in a small chip in which you slot it in at the back of the N-Gage next to the battery. The size of the card is similar to that of a postage stamp and can therefore be lost easily particularly if you have many games and therefore keep having to change the card. But all that is just down to how careful you are!
Not only can you play these specialised games but you can also play the traditional java games as well. Just make sure you have enough memory available!

The radio, Mp3 player and the game decks are the phone?s main features. But it also has loads of miniature features as well. For instance the N-Gage contains a mobile version of Real Player, from the PC, called RealOne Player. It allows you to view small video clips and music videos, with or without sound, that you can download from wap.

Another small feature is the Image viewer. You can use the data cable and trans
fer pictures and images to and from your PC and can send them via Multimedia Messaging (MMS). The image viewer can also allow you to attach pictures to your contact?s numbers, so when they phone, a picture of them will be on your screen so you obviously know who is calling.

The only main disadvantages of these features is the fact that it can tend to take up a lot of memory space.

As mentioned before, the N-Gage has Bluetooth and by this you can play 2-player games within 10 metres. Bluetooth can also transfer data, such as images, ringtones and movie clips, from one Bluetooth enabled phone to another.

The N-Gage also contains a composer for making ringtones as well as a sound recorder in which music can be recorded. Polyphonic ringtones, when downloaded, will be saved onto the sound recorder and can be set as your ringtone.

These features are what the N-Gage possesses, however there are a couple of features that would have made this phone more spectacular. The main feature that is missed is the addition of an integrated camera. This would have allowed the ability to take pictures at any time without the hassle of carrying around an extra item as well as sending pictures to other phones via MMS or Bluetooth.

As Bluetooth is becoming more and more introduced to new phones, a lot of older phones, as well as newer phones, contain infrared as an ability to transfer data from phone to phone. Unlike phones such as the Sony Ericsson T68i, it doesn?t contain both data transfer methods and therefore is unable to transfer data to and from infrared capable phones.

One last disadvantage of this phone is that it comes in only the one traditional colour of black, grey and silver. Basically a variation of colours could spice up the N-Gage?s image.

As a general overview, I love this phone, from its unique look to its awesome features and I 100% recommend this phone to music and games lovers in particular!

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