The first thing to notice is that
the N-Gage QD has a smoother, less radical
design than the original N-Gage - although
it's still a highly unusual handset.
It's not just cosmetic though. Nokia
have addressed some real issues with
the N-Gage QD. Firstly, games can now
be hot swapped, rather than having to
power off the old unit, the screen is
brighter (but not bigger), battery life
has been improved, and the control layout
has been enhanced to be easier to use.
It's much easier to use as a phone
- one of the flaws with the old design
was that you had to talk into the phone's
side. On the N-Gage QD, the phone is
much more like a conventional handset
and you talk into the front.
The phone is substantially smaller,
but a little heavier than the original
N-Gage at 118x68x22 mm and 143 grams
(compared with 133x70x20 mm and 137
grams). Talktime is up to 3.5 hours
with 10 days standby. It can be used
as a games console for between 5-10
hours. This is roughly 50% better than
the original. The screen is still a
176 x 208 pixel unit in 4096 colours.
The N-Gage QD is a dual-band GSM
device which will be shipped in both
European and US configurations. It supports
GPRS, and has an XHTML web browser,
email client, MMS and instant messaging.
Bluetooth support is included in
the N-Gage QD. This can be used for
peer-to-peer gaming or for a range of
Nokia accessories or PC connectivity.
It's a Symbian Series 60 device,
so it has a quite powerful range of
personal information management functions,
and also supports voice dialling, polyphonic
ringtones, Java 2.0 and the usual things
you'd expect to find in a high-end handset.
However, the N-Gage actually loses
MP3 playback support from the original
N-Gage, and we believe that MP3 support
is important in a device like this.
There's no FM radio either, also removed
from the original N-Gage. In addition,
there's still no digital camera which
would be a useful enhancement to this
kind of "fun" handset.
Games support is good, with a growing
range of N-Gage titles, plus hardware
acceleration for 3D graphics. The screen
is still a little small, but it can
be forgiven as the size of the handset
has shrunk substantially.
So.. the N-Gage QD is an improvement
in some respects, but it's not a straight
replacement for the N-Gage. The lack
of musical capabilities, camera and
relatively small screen size mean that
it's not the improvement many people
were hoping for. So, as far as we're
concerned, we're still waiting for the
N-Gage 2!
Expected availability is May/June
2004, retailing at around €200/£125/$220
without a contract or €100/£60/$110
when subsidised with a new contract.
Nokia N-Gage
QD At A Glance
|
Available:
|
Q3
2004
|
Network:
|
Dual-band
GSM
|
Data:
|
GPRS
|
Screen:
|
176x208
pixels, 4096 colours
|
Camera:
|
No
|
Size:
|
Compact
games deck 118x68x22 mm
/ 143 grams
|
Bluetooth:
|
Yes
|
Infra-red:
|
No
|
Polyphonic:
|
Yes
|
Java:
|
Yes
|
Battery
life:
|
3.5 hours talk / 10 days standby
|
OS:
|
Symbian
Series 60
|
|