While I thoroughly enjoyed my Nokia N95 8GB, I couldn’t resist the urge to upgrade. I got quite a lot of use out of the N-Gage application for the N95 and I anticipated that the N97 would be the ultimate N-Gage handset. And why wouldn’t I? It boasts landscape mode on a massive touch screen, QWERTY keyboard and standalone D-Pad.

Imagine my dismay when I loaded up the N-Gage application only to discover that around two-thirds of the games available on the N-Gage service were not compatible with Nokia’s new flagship device. Not cool Nokia! Everything about the N97 gives off the impression that it’s been rushed out the door, software bugs, distinct lack of S60 v5 applications designed specifically for the handset. (Not for the 5800 XM).

There seems to be some unrest over on the N-Gage Arena Official Forums, about the lack of support and titles available for N97. See here. Yes, Nokia don’t have any dedicated mobile gaming devices anymore and they don’t have to provide the N-Gage service to all their handsets but a certain amount of consistency would be nice. I hate to say it, but it seem’s to me, judging from the numerous television advertisements, that the iPhone has a much larger library of games available on demand.

Are Nokia’s development and game production schedules too stringent? Is this choking N-Gage? To be fair, the quality isn’t evident in quite a number of titles released, so why the long development times, why so much red tape?

As far as I’m aware, there’s no release schedule or even any plans to make games compatible with the N97 and I doubt there ever will be.

Correct me if I’m wrong!

For the first few days I could charge my N97 with the MicroUSB adaptor supplied in the packing, which allows one to charge their phone with any Nokia charger. Up until yesterday that is. Now, when I plug it in, the charger light comes on (little white light next to microusb port) and the battery charging animation plays on the screen.

For 5 hours I left this and when I came back, the battery had almost drained. I was in work at the time, but when I got home, the mains charger supplied with the phone seemed to work fine. What would cause the adaptor to suddenly stop working?

The phone seems to register the fact that there’s a charger inserted.

Is this a software issue? Or hardware?

Whatever it is, it’s a pain in the backside because I need a charger for home and at the office. Here’s hoping the next firmware update will resolve this issue.

As an aside, if I see anything else noteworthy I will post. Please keep an eye on my twitter feed for extra updates.

Regards,

funkyflea/dandiesel