I had high hopes for the N-Gage. In my last hardware class, my group project was a hypothetical telephone/game/mp3 portable machine (which was heavily influenced by the GP32). Our presentation went well, and the majority of the class were very interested. And yet, the N-Gage just hasn't tickled my gaming bone yet.
-Design: As a game/mp3 player, I would probably complain about the button layout and the vertical screen. I haven't had an N-Gage in my hand yet, so I can't comment on the responsiveness of the d-pad or the awkward layout of the volume control. I can tell that I will not like the vertical screen, but a high quality screen will alleviate some of my complaints.
The Smart Media card slot does seem poorly placed. I don't think that taking off the back cover is too much of a problem (and will prevent your cards from being stolen), but removing the battery pack seems like too much of a hassle for me. I don't really swap out games in my portables that often, but I know that I would be swapping games and music cards very, very often.
-Games: As long as they pump out some high quality puzzle, casino, and RPGs I would be happy. Unfortunately, even the reviews of the Bubble Bobble game are very unflattering. I've basically ruled out the idea of any type of action game, and the vertical screen issues with Sonic and Tomb Raider rule out these games (and genres) for me. However, they only need to release one good RPG every four months and I would be a happy camper.
-Telephone: I haven't used it as a telephone yet, so I probably shouldn't say anything bad here... But I 'm afraid that I will not want to use this as my primary cell phone, which turns this into a $300 portable game/mp3 unit that I could probably live without. I'm not exactly sure what I would have done differently here in regards to the overall design. I mean, I don't want to look like this guy when I use the phone:
Of course, I would look even more ridiculous.
-Design: As a game/mp3 player, I would probably complain about the button layout and the vertical screen. I haven't had an N-Gage in my hand yet, so I can't comment on the responsiveness of the d-pad or the awkward layout of the volume control. I can tell that I will not like the vertical screen, but a high quality screen will alleviate some of my complaints.
The Smart Media card slot does seem poorly placed. I don't think that taking off the back cover is too much of a problem (and will prevent your cards from being stolen), but removing the battery pack seems like too much of a hassle for me. I don't really swap out games in my portables that often, but I know that I would be swapping games and music cards very, very often.
-Games: As long as they pump out some high quality puzzle, casino, and RPGs I would be happy. Unfortunately, even the reviews of the Bubble Bobble game are very unflattering. I've basically ruled out the idea of any type of action game, and the vertical screen issues with Sonic and Tomb Raider rule out these games (and genres) for me. However, they only need to release one good RPG every four months and I would be a happy camper.
-Telephone: I haven't used it as a telephone yet, so I probably shouldn't say anything bad here... But I 'm afraid that I will not want to use this as my primary cell phone, which turns this into a $300 portable game/mp3 unit that I could probably live without. I'm not exactly sure what I would have done differently here in regards to the overall design. I mean, I don't want to look like this guy when I use the phone:
Of course, I would look even more ridiculous.
