As a former N-Gage owner, I will admit, having to hold your phone like that to your ear does make you feel pretty stupid the first few times you use it and it probably looks weird to other people who just so happen to be superficially staring at you while you're talking to someone (weirdos), but overall, I have to say I was pretty pleased with it as a phone that plays games.

It was solidly constructed, so there wasn't much to complain about when it comes to the phone itself. It was a market failure, but besides that it gets a lot of undeserved hate from people who only see a picture like the one above and judge themselves too cool for that having never actually experienced using it for any extended period of time. Besides, they fixed it with their second revision, the QD which made it more gamer friendly and the games were graphically impressive in comparison to what was out at the time, cheap too. Also, it was a machine you could easily pirate games for (guilty), all you'd need to do is copy files to the MMC card, no other special hardware required, everyone knew it too, so in retrospect its no wonder it failed.

I ended up buying all the games when it went on clearance everywhere and everyone else I knew that had one was happy with theirs too. The screen was about the only thing that could've been better because of its weird aspect ratio and fondness of certain companies that ported GBA games to it. The games designed for it were pretty good though.

Anyways, it gets a bad rap. I eventually gave both of mine away, one to a friend that lost his and the QD to my girlfriend at the time along with all my games. They didn't break down like so many of my garbage Motorola phones at least. Anyways, that's my rant.

As for a gaming handheld with mobile support, it can be done definitely and it can be done right, the ideas have been kicked around for years, but it would likely be expensive to the end consumer. There are other things to take into consideration with companies like Sony and Nintendo moving into the handheld gaming cell phone business besides the price of their device such as prices of content and method of delivery (marketplace), size of downloads due to most unlimited data plans going away causing further costs (legacy games are huge in size comparison to newer minigames) and 3rd party re-licensing (one of the huge issues with PSPgo). Continued support also will hinge on adoption rates, will enough people buy the PSPhone to justify further development and releases on that platform. Also, Sony has a new PSP coming out. I don't think now is the right time for it personally.

TL;DR - N-Gage wasn't perfect, but wasn't as bad as most people made it out to be. Read the last paragraph if you're considering getting Sony's new gaming phone, take everything into consideration.

If I applied that philosophy, I would walk around with a laptop and 3G dongle, phone, folder of documents, camera, games console, e-reader and MP3 player.

That would be very inconvenient and heavy. I use all of the devices above for work or play.

But on the road I only need my iPhone to get decent enough functionality of all those to get by until I can get back into the office/ home.

I say no, especially not for Nintendo. The minute they take their focus off of games and start adding on extra frills to their systems is the minute they'll start falling behind the handheld market.

i would say yes but not anymore you have a good point

Thanks. Yeah this happens pretty much every new handheld generation. Company A's handheld can do this! Company B's handheld can do that! And then Nintendo comes along and says, "yeah but we've got Mario, Zelda and Metroid." And they sell a crap-ton of units.

Yes, Apple is a definite competitor, and I think Nintendo could learn a lot from them (mostly from the streamlined app-store interface and the fast internet) but the difference is, the iPhone's focus isn't gaming. And as long as Nintendo's focus is I'll pick them every time.

Normally I would have said no, I prefer my handheld game system and phone to be seperate devices, much as I do my phone and pmp. Why do i say that? I want the best each has to offer, not a 'jack of all trades, master of none' idea. But after seeing new phones such as the motorola backflip I wonder if taking the basic shape of a DS lite, slapping a 1ghz arm in it and putting a phone and extra screen on the front wouldn't work? What do you guys think? the 'Nintendo 3DS Talk'?
Nah. But I DO like the direction the PSP took, being basically a ps2 capable handheld but you can connect it via component cables to play. How much longer will set top game systems need to be gargantuan units with noisy fans in them? When will the game system and controller merge a la PSP I wonder?

'jack of all trades, master of none'

I agree with this. No one wants a half-rate of a million things.

But then the reason Apple is so dangerous is that it's actually very good at everything. the iPhone (and even moreso, the iPad) is an excellent gaming device.

I'm surprised that no one has mentioned that if a console is a phone, it can be a lot more expensive.

The iPhone 4 costs $599, but you sign a contract. When you sign the contract, you agree to use the phone and AT&T's service for 2 years in exchange for a $400 discount. Theoretically, Nintendo could create a $600 console, and all we'd pay for it would be $200 (unless you're me and you buy all your phones unlocked).

That will never happen as long as we want better graphics and don't want to burn our hands in the process. Oh, and of course, some people can't play games on small screens; happens to a lot of people as they get older. Strains the eyes too much and it would be much worse with really fine details. Heck, I know a few of people who can't watch some video games since the gamecube era without getting a headache. Also, if it were possible without burning our hands, the consoles would probably need to be liquid nitrogen cooled.

The DSi can be used as a Web cam...
Why do we need phones?

Short answer: No.

Long answer: Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo.

"Casual gamers" want phones that have games on them. Gamers want dedicated game systems. 'Nuff said.

No, and I hope never will be. Lets keep phones as phones and portable consoles as gaming devices.

And if you really want to go there and add a phone, why not take an extra mile and add a knife, saw, corkscrew, GPS, self-destruct system and other useful features normally not seen on portable gaming device?

Because a phone, unlike a saw and self destruct feature, is actually useful.

I don't have a problem with companies adding useful features to devices if it means I have to carry fewer devices around, personally.

Well we'll see about that once you drop it on soft carpet and break the screen!!

"Casual gamers" want phones that have games on them. Gamers want dedicated game systems. 'Nuff said.

And yet more "casual gamers" are buying phones and playing games on them than gamers are buying dedicated game systems.

The smart money goes into keeping up with the changing trends.

If the idea behind the Wii was for a handheld instead, it too would have a phone in it as a gimmick to pull in casual gamers. The XBOX 360 and PS3 are the dedicated game systems that gamers go for.

this for srs... i've seen so many broken iPhone screens hahaha. or try having a defect show up inside of it where the metal expands with use/age and the contacts start separating from the motherboard inside. that happened to my mentor's iPhone, it really sucks because it shuts off half the time we try to use it just for Pandora, lol -- forget being able to talk on it :3

I'd rather not have cell phone support in my handheld gaming devices. It'd jack the price up and give possibilities to cell phone subscriptions. Not to mention, I don't like cell phones

I agree. I don't want to see Nintendo go and attempt to make their handhelds a "Swiss-knife" kind of device. I appreciate Nintendo attempting to emulate the iTunes and Apple app store with their new virtual Nintendo store for the 3DS in order to provide a better experience for users. Yet, I don't want to see the combination of a phone and a gaming device in one. I like the 3DS and iPhone the way they are. Suppose someone wants a gaming device without a monthly phone fee?

I have dropped it, and it didn't break. Which is the first time I've dropped one of my devices in years.

If you look after your stuff, then you're not usually going to have a problem. I know a lot of people who have iPhones, and of those, only one has had any problems with it.