Nokia N-Gage Review

gi has a review of the Nokia N-Gage. It's interesting, and contains information about what seems to be a killer flaw:

In order to put a game into the system, you have to turn the phone off, take the back cover off, remove the battery, slide out the existing game, put the new one in, put the battery back in, replace the back cover, hold down the power button for several seconds, wait for the system to boot up, open the main menu, select the game, open it... And then your game starts loading.

This is incredible. Imagine that someone rings you and either offers to play a game or wants to ask how to complete level 7. It just so happens that you don't have that game loaded. Now you have to say “Sure, I'll get back to you.”, save whatever you are doing, turn the phone off, replace the game, turn the phone on, start the game, call back.

When watching kids play with games at home, it's noticeable that with a Playstation 1, Playstation 2, Dreamcast and Nintendo 64 available, it's often the Nintendo 64 that gets used. It's true that the games are good, but I think that the reason relates more to the fact that you can turn the machine on and be playing in seconds. With all of the others you wait 5 minutes for the CD to load. Gameboy and Gameboy Advance are the same - instant gratification. Nokia blew it.