The Nokia N9: A unique all-screen smartphone

Nokia yesterday in Singapore announced the Nokia N9, built for people who appreciate a stunning blend of design and the latest smart phone technology.

Aimed at high end smart phone market, the Nokia N9 introduces an innovative new design where the home key is replaced by a simple gesture: a swipe. Whenever a user swipes from the edge of the display, it takes him or her to the phone’s home.

The three home views of the user interface are designed to give fast access to the most important things people do with a phone: using apps, staying up to date with notifications and social networks, and switching between activities.

The industrial design of the Nokia N9 is an example of extreme product making and craft. The body is precision-machined from a single piece of polycarbonate and flows seamlessly into beautiful curved glass. The laminated deep black display means that the user interface just floats on the surface of the product.

The Nokia N9 also packs the latest in camera, navigation and audio technology for a great all-round experience.

“With the Nokia N9, we wanted to design a better way to use a phone. To do this we innovated in the design of the hardware and software together. We reinvented the home key with a simple gesture: a swipe from the edge of the screen. The experience sets a new bar for how natural technology can feel,” Marko Ahtisaari, Nokia’s head of Design said at Nokia Connections 2011 held on the sidelines of CommunicAsia 2011 at the Marina Bay Sands Convention Centre.

“And this is just the beginning. The details that make the Nokia N9 unique – the industrial design, the all-screen user experience, and the expressive Qt framework for developers – will evolve in future Nokia products.”

With no need for a home key, the all-screen Nokia N9 makes more room for apps to shine. The 3.9-inch AMOLED screen is made from scratch–resistant curved glass. The polycarbonate body enables superior antenna performance. This . better reception, better voice quality and fewer dropped calls.

The 8-megapixel Carl Zeiss autofocus sensor, wide-angle lens, HD-quality video capture and large lens aperture enable great camera performance even in low lighting conditions. This makes the Nokia N9 one of the best camera-phones ever produced.

The Nokia N9 features free turn-by-turn drive and walk navigation with voice guidance in Maps. With the new dedicated Drive app, a user can get in to car and start navigating to the destination right away.

A user can watch videos in true 16:9 widescreen format. And because the Nokia N9 is also the world’s first smart phone with Dolby Digital Plus decoding and Dolby Headphone post-processing technology, it gives surround sound experience with any set of headphones.

Fitted with the latest in wireless technology, Near Field Communication (NFC), the Nokia N9 allows a user to easily share images and videos between devices by touching them together. Pair it with Bluetooth accessories like the new NFC-enabled Nokia Play 360° wireless music speaker only once, and thereafter get a great surround sound music experience with just a tap.

The Nokia N9 will be available in three colours – black, cyan, and magenta with storage options to accommodate plenty of content: 16GB and 64GB.  The Nokia N9 is scheduled to be in stores later this year in the West with a pricing of US$ 660 for a 16MB memory phone and $ 740 for a 64MB phone according to Nokia Executive Vice President Sales Colin Giles.

Availability and pricing in other markets to be announced closer to the sales start.  Softlogic is the authorised distributor and marketer of Nokia phones in Sri Lanka.