[url]http://theregister.co.uk/content/68/30956.html[/url]

[img]http://flymeaway.net/images/n_gage01_lores2.jpg[/img]

Nokia N-Gage games phone now available in UK

By Tony Smith
Posted: 30/05/2003 at 12:43 GMT

Nokia's N-Gage cellphone-cum-handheld games console isn't due to ship until early next October, but if you've £600 to spare and happen to be in London's Tottenham Court Road, you can pick up one up.

Strolling past second-hand kit emporium Computer eXchange (CeX) yesterday, what did we spot in the shop window but one Nokia N-Gage, slightly scuffed but no doubt serviceable.

Nokia announced the machine, which is based on the Symbian 7 operating system, some months ago, and said it will ship "to consumers in volumes across five continents in early October 2003".

A couple of weeks ago, at the E3 show in Los Angeles, Nokia unveiled a stack of N-Gage games that will ship around the time of the console's launch. The games will ship on Multimedia Card (MMC), and around 20 titles will be available when the N-Gage ships. Titles include Tomb Raider, Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell and Ghost Recon, Rayman 3, Tony Hawks Pro Skater, Pathway to Glory, and Mercel Desailly Pro Soccer.

Of course, anyone taking CeX up on its offer will have to wait until the autumn for all these goodies, but they may at least make use of the N-Gage's MP3/AAC digital music playback and its built-in stereo FM radio. It also operates as a tri-band GSM phone.

So where did CeX's N-Gage come from? When we tried to contact the store today to find out, the staff weren't picking up the phone. But it's not hard to imagine it has been off-loaded by an employee of Nokia or one of its third-party developers for a bit of cash. Naughty.

Whatever, now's you're chance to get way ahead of the gaming crowd - for a price... ®

[img]http://images.handy.de/int/shop/dbimg/nokia_n-gage_3.jpg[/img]

Also has Bluetooth, GPRS and a 4,096 colors display at a 208x176 resolution. Weighs 137 grams, operates in GSM900 / GSM1800 / GSM1900, with a max. stand-by time of 240 hours and a max talk time of 2 hours.

Ah, I see you've found the picture, too.