We heard rumours about it for some time. All About N-Gage has now heard from several sources at Nokia that a new phone which will belong to the recently unveiled Nseries will be putting in an appearance on the N-Gage stand at the E3 Games Expo in Los Angeles next week.

We don't have any details, but it's been implied that this will be a totally new addition to the N Series rather than one of the existing models. The new model is possibly already close to the production stage as one source referred to using it as their personal phone. Assuming they keep to the same schedule as the other Nseries models, it could be in the shops by this Autumn.

What remains to be seen is whether this will be a repackaged current generation N-Gage, a next generation N-Gage 2, or something in-between such as a current gen N-Gage with the ability to buy games online (and store them on a hard disk drive?) instead of using gamecards.

If it uses a conventional vertical phone layout, it could also be a particular boon to N-Gage as a whole by offering a choice for people who want a phone that can be operated with one hand. After all, think how often you've seen people texting while carrying a bag in their other hand, or even just answering it with one hand. It would remove the last barrier to getting an N-Gage for many people, as it really would have all the functionality of a normal Symbian smartphone with the added bonus of advanced N-Gage games on top.

Of course if this is a vertical-layout N-Gage, Nokia would be reluctant to price it lower than other Symbian phones, otherwise most people would buy it purely for the smartphone features and never buy a game. It would effectively be a luxury model with the QD remaining the standard model, which might be no bad thing as there's been a constant tension between creating a feature-packed phone and a low-priced games system. This way technophiles can get a luxury N-Gage, while those who just want a gaming phone can get a QD, and everyone is happy.

A vertical layout sounds difficult to use in games, but it's interesting to note that the N Series N90 phone has a small joystick built into its side. If the N-Gage N Series phone has a similar stick it would allow someone to comfortably operate the keypad while simultaneously selecting a direction, which is exactly what the horizontal orientation of the N-Gage was designed to do.