Nokia Fanboy

Nokia 5800 XpressMusic is the first touchscreen phone based on the S60 platform (5th edition). It costs about half the iPhone’s price, and is consequently aimed at a more mainstream mass audience. Nokia 5800 also have large touch screen with accelerometer. Even though it focused for music, can we use Nokia 5800 as a powerful N-Gage device?

Well, first of all, PocketGamer.co.uk confirms that N-Gage is indeed coming to the 5800. There’s enough screen resolution to do it and the controls could be replicated with on-screen ones and/or perhaps the accelerometer (it’s needed for changing screen orientation just like on the iPhone) so that can work as a gaming control. 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.

Furthermore, there’s a really good reason to think games would take to the 5800 like a duck to water: the Nintendo DS. 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.

For a while, Nokia 5800 owner can try free games from Nokia Hongkong

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