Features

The ideal gaming mobile phone has controls that are comfortable to use, a decent screen, a fast processor, lots of memory and good battery life. You might think manufacturers would be rushing to release products with these features. Nokia made a stab at doing this in 2004, when it produced the N-Gage QD, a revolutionary gaming mobile phone that ticked all the right boxes. In fact, this product was arguably more handheld console than mobile phone. It was designed to be held horizontally in two hands with the controls either side of the central screen, for the ultimate in gameplay. Games were supplied on memory cards and, as such, were more advanced and longer-lasting than standard mobile games. Sadly, while die-hard gamers appreciated the QD, it achieved limited commercial success.

A combination of Nokia altering its strategy and technological developments in smartphone devices has led to a change of focus for the N-Gage brand. It is now a gaming platform - an alternative to Java - rather than a handheld device. The new service will be installed as an application on certain new Nokia smartphones and will be available as a free download to others. As a result, N-Gage games can be played on many of the latest Nokia smartphones, and they have better graphics and more immersive gameplay than standard Java games.

The best of the new devices with the N-Gage application preinstalled is Nokia's N81 8GB, which is £300 sim-free from www.lectronics.co.uk and free on contract with O2. This

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is a 3G multimedia smartphone with WiFi and 8GB of internal memory. It also has stereo Bluetooth, which allows music to be streamed from the mobile phone to compatible wireless headphones, so you can listen in stereo, rather than just one ear, as is the case with a standard mono Bluetooth headset.

The N81 8GB is tailor-made for mobile gaming thanks to its excellent, high-resolution colour screen, dedicated gaming buttons and ability to play games in landscape mode, utilising the whole of the screen. These features make it easily the best handset for gaming. There's also a standard version available, the N81, which has a microSD card slot instead of the 8GB of memory.

Following closely behind is Sony Ericsson's W550i, another model fashioned for the discerning mobile gamer. This swivelling Walkman phone supports landscape screen orientation, as well as portrait mode. While the screen isn't crisp, the handset blasts out excellent sound and has good all-round performance. The W550i has been around for a while, but you can still buy it online for around £130 on prepay.

Other excellent gaming handsets are Nokia's N95 (which also has an 8GB version available) and Sony Ericsson's K810i. Both are widely available for free on a contract.

Finding your Downloads

When downloading your games, think about the model of phone you have, and which games will be suitable. For example, if you own a basic mobile then puzzle and strategy games are the most suitable. These types of games don't pack in the action and therefore don't require a lot of processing and graphics power.

If you've got a super-charged smartphone, you can safely go for something more fast-paced, such as a racing or shoot-'em-up title. Action games will run on almost all mobiles, but the experience will be more enjoyable on high-end models.

The quickest and easiest way to get hold of games is to access your operator's portal. Each of the five main UK networks has a wide selection of games, which are regularly updated and can be accessed directly from your phone. The different services on offer are presented below.