September 22, 2011
By Richard McCormack

The new Nokia N9 was launched earlier this evening in the design capital of Cape Town at one of the Mother City’s most stylish and jaw-dropping venues. The DIS Daylight  fashion studio in the city centre has panoramic views of Table Mountain and Robben Island and was chosen as the best backdrop to introduce the Nokia N9 – itself a work of art – to the local market and media.

This stylish, all screen smartphone with unique swipe technology marries cutting edge phone technology with elegant yet functional design excellence.

Nokia is definitely setting the bar high as a design leader and introduced the new N9 in an engaging live performance focusing on the ‘Nine key elements of design’. The climactic ninth point of design culminated in the Nokia N9 itself, a modern technological ‘work of art.’

The live performance at the event was followed by a presentation by Nokia’s global head of design, Marko Ahtisaari, focusing on both the design and features of the new Nokia N9.

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.

“When designing the Nokia N9, our goal was simple: to blend hardware and software together in order to produce a new and better way to use a phone. The result is an experience that sets the bar for how natural technology can feel,” said Marko Ahtisaari.

The Nokia N9 introduces a simple swipe gesture to replace the traditional home key. Swiping from the edge of the device display takes you back to the home screen from any application.

The Nokia N9 also offers three home views designed to give fast access to the most important things people do with a phone: Download and use apps, stay up-to-date with notifications and social networks, and switch between activities. With no need for a home key, the Nokia N9 makes more room for apps to shine.

The Nokia N9 boasts a 3.9-inch AMOLED screen made from scratch-resistant curved glass. The polycarbonate body of the device enables superior antenna performance resulting in 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 lowlighting conditions. Videos are easily viewed in true 16:9 widescreen format and as the world’s first smartphone with Dolby Digital Plus decoding and Dolby Headphone post-processing technology, the device offers a surround sound experience with any set of headphones.

Fitted with the latest in wireless technology, Near Field Communication (NFC), the Nokia N9 allows easy sharing of images and videos between devices by touching them together.

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

“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,” concluded Ahtisaari.

The Nokia N9 will be available in South Africa in November at an estimated retail price of R5999.