Nokia Cuts the U.S. Price of the N-Gage QD in Half

Nokia has just announced new pricing for the N-Gage QD in the United States. Previously, when purchased from a retail store, this gaming-oriented smartphone was $199. In the next couple of days, that will drop to just $99. It will be even less when bought through a wireless carrier with a service contract.

The prices for N-Gage games are also dropping. Hereafter, games will range from $14.99 to $24.99.

Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory, which will be released at the end of this month, will be the first new N-Gage game to launch with the adjusted pricing levels.

Nokia expects the new prices to start going into effect on March 17 and later in some retail and carrier store locations.

The N-Gage QD is available through both T-Mobile and Cingular, as well as online retailers like Gamestop.com.

A Brief History of the N-Gage Series

The original version of the N-Gage, Nokia's gaming-oriented smartphone, received very negative reviews and sold so poorly that Nokia rushed out a replacement without its predecessor's flaws.

Even that version, the N-Gage QD, hasn't sold as well as Nokia hoped, and the company recently told Reuters that it is putting together another redesign of this device.

Both the original N-Gage and the N-Gage QD were designed to be both a mobile phone and a portable gaming console.

They include a D-pad to make game play easier, but their screen resolution is only 176 by 208 pixels, lower than its competitors.

Like its predecessor, the N-Gage QD allows users to do multi-player gaming via Bluetooth short-range wireless networking.

The N-Gage QD is able to do more than just play games. It is a full smartphone running the Symbian OS with Nokia's Series 60 providing the user interface.

It includes personal information management (PIM) applications, an xHTML browser, and email software. In addition, users are able to download and install other Series 60 applications.

Related Links

• Nokia Taking the N-Gage Back to the Drawing Board Again