Flashback: Nokia's other taco phones and their surprise connection with Jay-Z

14 March 2021
The Nokia N-Gage is remembered with derision, but there was another "gaming phone" that made even the N-Gage look good.

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I owned both the Nokia 5510 and the 3300. However I think it was the other way around with Europe receiving the 3300 and America the 3300b

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    • Anonymous
    • kwk
    • 15 Mar 2021

    You get forgot about the American Idol version. I use to work at Sam Goody that sold both phones at different times. We never sold any of them. The only phones we sold that caught on were the Virgin Mobile phones. We were the first retailers to carry them.

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      • Anonymous
      • JT5
      • 15 Mar 2021

      Kingslayer, 14 Mar 2021Sony Ericsson Xperia Play (2011) was the better gaming phon... moreThere was a prototype.
      Never came to life because they know these phonese do not sell enough.
      I doubt any of these "gaming phones" really sell more than 180.000 units per year.

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        • Anonymous
        • BiP
        • 15 Mar 2021

        Awful phones they were

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          • Anonymous
          • mKG
          • 14 Mar 2021

          Excellent read, but the 3300b wasn't released in Asia and Europe, but Asia and the USA. Europe instead got the boring 3300a with a numeric keypad and the weird bezel around the screen.

            • J
            • Joe
            • gyW
            • 14 Mar 2021

            It's not about Zelda or Mario, it's about strong third-party support which should result in high quality games that sell the system to consumers. PSP was quite successful for Sony while the Xperia Play offered what? PlayStation ports and a few gamepad optimized titles available for any other device?
            There's a group of Wii users who don't have a clue who's Mario or Link, but they know the Wii workout game and they bought it for that. Which N-Gage bestsellers can you remember? Tony Hawk? Sonic? Rayman mobile Port? And how many people were willing to buy the system for these games?

              It's cool how far we've come from phone tech. From 2003 to 2007 was a huge, huge leap. But from say 2017 to now, the gains just aren't there.

              We can use phones for years because advancements have slowed down since 2014-2016. But most do upgrade because they get bored with their phones and want that upgrade to have something new again. People get a rush from it. Like new car smell.

                Sony Ericsson Xperia Play (2011) was the better gaming phone and it deserved a successor.

                I remember seeing the Nokia N-Gage at a GameStop like 15 years and just laughing at it. Nokia made terrific phones especially with their N-series during the mid-Aughts. But their N-Gage was like Nintendo's Virtual Boy. You knew it would be a complete flop the moment you saw the photos.

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                  • Anonymous
                  • JT5
                  • 14 Mar 2021

                  Design is better than current iphones.

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                    • Anonymous
                    • nxa
                    • 14 Mar 2021

                    wow

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