I’m not going to ask the exact details of the birth – I’ve not long had breakfast, and I’ve always been a tad squeamish – but the Neonode N2 is here and my-oh-my it looks tasty. I confess, I was one of the eager crowd (that soon shrank) waiting for the company’s first handset, and disappointed that the eventual result lacked both features and, perhaps unsurprisingly, attention when it finally made it to market. That shouldn’t be the fate of the N2.
Mainstays such as Quad-band GSM, GPRS and Bluetooth (though sadly no stereo headphone A2DP support) are present, as is support for SMS and MMS messaging, video and image recording via a 2-megapixel camera, an audio player with the typical brace of supported file-types (mp3, WMA and WAV) and calendar. A nice bonus is that the address book and schedule can be synchronised using ActiveSync.
Where the N2 stands out is the interface and the size. The latter is easy to describe: 47 x 77 x 14.7mm and just 70 grams; the former takes a bit more time. The original Neonode felt a little bit like company with a UI concept having to slap together a handset to take advantage of it; thankfully this time round it’s all a little less haphazard, but the interface certainly is still the selling point here.
Being touchscreen-based means no keypad and hence a smaller phone; gesture and chunky-icon support means no fiddly stylus and one-handed use. It’s small enough to be held in the palm while using the thumb to jab and sweep at the screen.
Rather than a traditional passive touchscreen, the N2 uses Neonode’s own patented technology which overlays an invisible grid of lasers on top of a normal LCD display. Interrupting this grid tells the N2 where you’re pointing. Because it’s light, not pressure sensitive, you don’t suffer the muddiness of normal touchscreens with their spongy layers, and it’s easier to gesture because you needn’t concentrate on keeping equal pressure on the display.
It’s there that the UI should shine. Called Neno, it relies on a set of gestures that are consistent throughout the interface. For instance, sweeping upwards from the bottom of the screen opens the menu, full of thumb friendly icons. Sweeping left or right ends or answers a call respectively, or dismisses or accepts a dialogue box. Frankly, I think it’s tougher to explain in words than it is to use in practise.
Third-party software is supported from the start, with Neonode encouraging owners to view their N2 as a miniature computer rather than just a phone. They’re also making it relatively easy to develop your own software, and share that via their online Friends Zone. All this is made easier since the N2 can be hooked up to your PC as a standard USB disk: if you plug it in turned on, it’ll synchronise; plug it in turned off and it shows up as a removable drive.
That really comes into its own when used with the company’s Web Radio Recorder (WRR) software. Available soon as a free download, it records an internet radio stream of your choosing as a simple mp3 file, only cutting out all the adverts so you’re left with pure music. WRR can access over 100,000 different channels, all sorted by genre and the like, so finding something to listen to on that boring commute shouldn’t be too difficult any more.
Once again, I’m excited about a phone. Okay, it’s not 3G (though that hasn’t put too much of a dampener on iPhone hype, has it) but by positioning the N2 as first and foremost a phone has given Neonode the time and space to develop an interface that actually makes using the handset feel better.
We’ll have live pictures of the Neonode N2 from 3GSM later on today Live photos of the N2 is here!!!
must have !