Here's an ugly-looking brute of a phone for those of you looking for a phone to replace your ageing Nokia N-Gage - the oddly named GIONEE S20 Game phone.

The GIONEE S20 is a slider phone that looks on first inspection more like a PSP than a phone - well, ok, maybe not that much like a PSP, but it certainly looks more like a handheld games console than a phone. When turned on its side, there's a console-like D-Pad on the left, and A and B buttons on the right, given you no illusions as to the purpose of this ungainly beast. It's only when you slide open the keypad that you think "oooh, maybe it really is a phone!"

More details and pics after the jump.


The GIONEE S20 isn't just for playing games, - it also comes with an MP3 player and a karaoke feature, which puts up lyrics to your songs, letting you warble away to them to your heart's content (just don't do this on the tube - people will look at you funny. Mind you, pull this thing out of your pocket, and they'll look at you funnily anyway!)

Interestingly, the BabelFish translation says that the karaoke feature "...may look the captions sing the bosom..." - but probably best not to the sing the bosom, as you won't just get funny looks, you'll be arrested!

So what of the games, then, which after all, is what you'd buy this thing for?

Well, the GIONEE S20 comes with a quite a few games pre-loaded, but don't expect Playsation or even N-Gage quality games here.

Instead, think more NES level of games, and you're on the right track.

There's Super Soul (above, left), which is a 2D platform game, and a Baseball game, which seems to have the same level of graphics as an old Atari VCS!

Not that that's a bad thing if you're after that retro feel, it's just not quite what you'd expect from a mobile phone in 2007.

1977, perhaps, but not 2007!

As you'd expect from a games machine, the GIONEE S20 also supports movie playback, supporting both 3GP and MPEG4, and comes with a handy 128MB of memory built-in, expandable via a microSD card.

Sogi.com, from which this post was translated, has the full full review, and they conclude that the GIONEE S20 "felt like a black honored racing bicycle"...which I think just about says it all!

[Source: Sogi.com.tw]