The Nokia 5800 and what it means for N-Gage
Published by Tzer2 at 19:53 UTC, October 2nd 2008
Nokia today announced the 5800 XpressMusic, the first touchscreen phone based on the S60 platform (which is the platform used by N-Gage-compatible phones). Although it's obviously being compared to Apple's phones, the 5800 costs about half the iPhone's price, and is consequently aimed at a more mainstream mass audience. The 5800 is also the first phone to use the latest S60 5th Edition platform. But what does all this mean for the N-Gage platform?
Some facts about the 5800
- It's going to launch some time between October and December of this year.
- The price of the SIM-free model will be about 280 Euros plus taxes, which is approximately half the price of the SIM-free iPhone.
- This is not Nokia's direct response to the iPhone, that should come later under the Nseries brand. The 5800 is aimed at the mid-range market rather than the high end.
- The 5800's operating system is Symbian 9.5, the interface/platform is S60 5th Edition. Current N-Gage-compatible phones use S60 3rd Edition. (There is no S60 4th Edition by the way, Nokia tries to avoid anything with "4" in it due to Asian superstitions surrounding the number).
- This isn't Nokia's first touchscreen phone, that was the 7710 way back in 2004. However, the 5800 is the first touchscreen phone to run the popular S60 platform.
- The touchscreen has a resolution of 360x640 pixels, with a physical size of 3.2 inches.
- The touch-based interface can be used with fingers or a stylus, and the screen vibrates slightly when you touch it (haptic feedback).
- The 5800 uses the S60 web browser, which is based on the open source WebKit rendering engine. This is the same engine used by the Safari browser in Apple's iPhone, but unlike the iPhone the S60 browser is also capable of displaying Flash-based websites.
- There's a built-in accelerometer for automatic screen rotation and also a "proximity sensor", which is apparently there to stop accidental screen presses.
- It has a 3.2 megapixel Carl Zeiss autofocus camera which can also shoot video at 640x480 with 30 frames per second.
- There's built-in sat nav which can use GPS satellites or A-GPS phone network fixes.
- It will be compatible with Nokia's "Comes With Music", which lets you download as much music as you want from most major labels for a year, and then keep the music forever even when the year is up. Comes With Music will probably cost around 100 euros, which initially will be added to the cost of a new phone (so if you buy a 250 euro phone with CWM it will cost 350 euros). CWM may later be available as a separate service that people can add to their existing phones.
- For those who want comparisons, the 5800 is physically narrower and thicker than the iPhone, making it much closer to the physical dimensions of a normal phone (which fits in with the 5800's much lower price level). You can see a photo comparison by clicking on the link below.
- You can see the official tech specs on the Nokia 5800 XpressMusic page on the Forum Nokia website.
What about the games?
- So far we don't know if S60 5th Edition is backwards compatible with S60 3rd Edition. This is very important to know, because if it is backwards compatible it should be able to run existing N-Gage games with minor modifications, as next gen N-Gage games are technically S60 3rd Edition applications.
- We have no idea if the 5800 will be N-Gage compatible either. However, it seems extremely likely that N-Gage will move onto S60 5th Edition in 2009 as the platform takes over from S60 3rd Edition. Sooner or later we will see an N-Gage-compatible device that uses S60 5th Edition, we just don't know when that will be. The 5800 therefore gives us a taste of where N-Gage is headed even if it isn't itself compatible (which we don't know of course).
- The 5800 comes with Bounce (no idea if this is the same as the N-Gage game) and the driving game Global Racer.
- Global Racer can be steered by simply tilting the phone, as the 5800 contains an accelerometer. This is something that many AAN readers have wanted to see on N-Gage.
Enough chat, what does it look like?
Here are some official press pictures:
Categories: Hardware, Miscellaneous, Editorial Thoughts
Platforms: N-Gage
News Discussion
Secondly, the 5800 is the much-rumoured "tube" phone, but it's not really meant to be an "iPhone killer". They're going to be compared, but if one device costs half the price of the other they're clearly not intended for the same audience.
Nokia will be bringing out an "iPhone killer", but it will probably be much closer to the same price as the iPhone and probably use the Nseries brand.
http://www.pocketgamer.co.uk/reader_...=55663&et=news
It does make perfect sense, there's enough screen resolution to do it and the controls could be replicated with on-screen ones and/or perhaps the accelerometer. The proximity sensor might even come into play?
The platform is also very similar to S60 3rd Edition which is what N-Gage games are written for at the moment, so existing N-Gage developers wouldn't have too much trouble writing for the 5800.
Going back to controls, most N-Gage games just use the d-pad and one or two gaming buttons, some just use the d-pad, so there aren't that many controls which need to be replicated or replaced.
One thing's for sure though, N-Gage will definitely be coming to S60 5th Edition whether it's on the 5800 or another model. It's just a question of how long Nokia take to do it (and they do take their time sometimes... ;-) ).
The DS has loads of really good titles that don't need the buttons at all, including stuff like Animal Crossing that were originally written for button-based controls.
Nokia could just follow Nintendo's lead in how to successfully convert button-based games into touchscreen-based ones, then N-Gage should do really well on devices like the 5800.
ill be sad if n-gage goes s60 5th edition... i buyed an N95 8gb yesterday, and its so awesome! im still waiting for titles with opengl support... and i dont think s60 5th edition n-gage titles will be compatible with s60 3rd edition phones... i know this is an evolution, but i worked so hard to get this mobile, then it will get obsolete so soon... thats sad! i know that i could have waited more for his truly sucessor (not n96, its a crappy phone)
im getting really sad... =´[
please nokia, dont throw away n95 8gb support so soon!!!
First of all, nothing is obsolete, no one is going to abandon S60 3rd Edition support any time soon, especially as there are so many S60 3rd Edition devices still to be released (the N85 and N79 for example).
S60 3rd Edition has been the top-selling smartphone platform for almost three years now, that size of userbase is not going to be ignored.
Going by previous experiences, it will probably be several years before support for S60 3rd Edition would cease.
Secondly, if they do release N-Gage games for S60 5th Edition they will probably also release them for S60 3rd Edition. The two platforms are technically similar so it should be fairly easy to write for both (though of course the control methods would need tweaking to suit the phone's buttons or touchscreen).
Regarding application compatibility, generally, backward compatibility doesn't changes in a minor upgrade of the OS (like from OS9.3 to OS9.4/5). And I don't think change in the UI does have any effect on application compatibility.
earlier i watched video with games being played and it looked very very good
also i read that n-gage compatibility is being worked on but wont be ready for launch
i will get one for sure.
btw n-gage app updates have been released for all phones heres change log http://forums.arena.n-gage.com/nokia...&thread.id=198
if you have an n81/n81 8GB you have to get the update version corresponding with the firmware you a running b/c there is two different updates ,you'll find more info on the various phone pages at http://www.n-gage.com/ngi/ngage/web/.../download.html
since updating my app the cant update profile error no longer pops up ,also showroom loading time is faster .
EDIT: Ikona as now posted about updates on blog ,you should beable to use check for updates feature in app soon to update app that way,if it says no update get it from the site via PC etc
So the only way I see it is making a special exclusive S60v5 library of N-Gage games for the phone that will deal with this disadvantage.
Also about the OS - is it Symbian 9.4 or 9.5 after all? Nokia's website says it's 9.4.
Still, I suppose 3D acceleration and accelerometer usage could do just the same thing. I don't actually see 3D acceleration catching on with n-gage, unless they release more devices with an accelerator included (although it looks like The One and Crash Nitro Kart are waiting for the SDK with this...)
Any idea if this device has one?
Edit:
Oh, and I think the n-gage SDK should add analogue support, similar to PC games. Each device can supply a number of "axes", which the player can assign to analogue controls if they want (with digital button fallback controls).
e.g. an accelerometer has 3 axes (well, at least 2 potentially useful ones for gaming), a player using the Zeemote has 2 axes for the analogue joystick, the naviwheel is 1 axis. A touchscreen could also be used as a 2 axis analogue controller in this case.
In fact the 5800's accelerometer DOES work as a gaming control, the built-in version of Global Racer uses it for steering.
| ...I wonder how are they going to make it n-gage compatible when there's no keypad or naviwheel and the touchscreen is obviously single-touch |
There are also these "proximity sensors" which may or may not be useful in games, hopefully we'll find out more about them as 5800s become available.
| I don't think there's any reasonable way that you will end up with the same selection of games on both the touch and button-based phones, which will fragment the platform - they're just not suited to the same game types. |
That has LOTS of ports of games from button-based systems (especially the Nintendo 64) which have been adapted to work entirely from a non-multi touchscreen. Animal Crossing is perhaps the best example because it includes both touch-only and button-only modes, and they're both just as easy to use.
As a matter of fact the original N-Gage's first Asphalt game was also released on the DS.
This really shouldn't be a problem at all, especially when you consider how simple the controls are on most N-Gage games.
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Originally Posted by Tzer2
Argh, the 5800 does have an accelerometer (it's needed for changing screen orientation just like on the iPhone) so that can work as a gaming control.
In fact the 5800's accelerometer DOES work as a gaming control, the built-in version of Global Racer uses it for steering. |
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Originally Posted by Tzer2
Have you tried playing the Nintendo DS?
That has LOTS of ports of games from button-based systems (especially the Nintendo 64) which have been adapted to work entirely from a non-multi touchscreen. Animal Crossing is perhaps the best example because it includes both touch-only and button-only modes, and they're both just as easy to use. As a matter of fact the original N-Gage's first Asphalt game was also released on the DS. This really shouldn't be a problem at all, especially when you consider how simple the controls are on most N-Gage games. |