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In the spirit of Bella Online's new newsletter devoted to handhelds, what are your thoughts on Nokia's new NGage gadget???

The technology itself is very interesting and I'm looking forward to see where Nokia goes and how it develops the device. It has an MP3 player, FM radio, cell phone AND portable gaming capabilites.

Tempting, verrrrry tempting!

I'm thinking the Nokia games might carry on styles similar to emulator games... you know, where it's slightly off, slightly depixelated, slightly old school and familiar 2D style? BUT the good thing is that the NGage games are coming straight from Developers FOR the NGage (Sonic, THPS, Rayman, Splinter Cell)...

Anyone tried it yet? Thoughts, reviews and comments wanted! <img src="/images/graemlins/tongue.gif" alt="" />

I read some reviews on it and it seems like total bullcrap. TOTAL bullcrap. First off, using the phone makes you look really dumb bc it's a big bulky weird looking thing and you holding it to the side of your head looks really awkward.

Second, there aren't that many games coming out for it(I think 11), and they all scored extremely low. Even the games coming out in the future look like more [censored]. I think only one got a 5 out of 10. They said the games look horrible and play even worse.

Nothing new at all, for example Tomb Raider is a worse-looking and (if this is even possible)a harder to control remake of the very first Tomb Raider. Maybe if it was an exact remake of tomb raider it might be fun, but they made it WORSE. If you're going to remake a game, at least improve on the controls or visuals or story, or something. Don't make it worse.

I mean yeah, this is just a handheld, not an xbox, but even then you expect to be able to SEE what you're playing. NGage is suppossed to have PS1 3d capabilities. The main complaint was that the graphics were SO bad, you can't even tell what you're playing. Gameboy rocks compared to this. And there are online capabilities which are kinda neat, but they didn't make good use of it and so it becomes a total waste.

Overall I'd say it's just a big clumsy expensive($300) mess. Even putting in the games are frustrating--you have to unscrew the cover somehow, then take apart the battery, then somehow dig in there and find a way to put the game in.

The one almost cool thing about it is that it's an mp3 player which can also play movies, but then again, once you learn more about it, it becomes instantly uncool: To play MP3s you have to first buy a $70 memory card which can only hold one hour worth of music/movie. So if you want to play two hours worth of music or movie, you'd need to buy two memory cards, which costs $140!!! A regular burned CD can hold like 80 minutes of music and can cost about a buck a CD. I don't know why ppl are going gaga over MP3 players when CDs still seem much better and much cheaper. But whenever I walk around with my CD player I feel almost stupid cause I'm the only one with a CD player-everyone else has stupid mp3 players. What, do ppl like to waste money?? Or is it only the NGage that can hold only one hour of music at a time? I don't know how other MP3 players compare to the NGage's mp3 capabilities.

I say save your money till at least next year. That's when Sony will release their handheld which looks to blow away Gameboys or NGages.

The new Sony handheld will probably have the same functions, but will no doubt be done much much better.

Yes, I've read those reviews too.

But, like most new technology concepts, the NGage has to start somewhere. I need to have my own heart-to-heart with it...

By the way, your profile avatar/icon ROCKS! I just saw kill bill too...