Nokia 8800 Arte

release date: December 2007
colours:
 
black
Nokia 8800 Arte

RATING

4 stars

Pros

  • Stainless steel and glass
  • Quality build
  • 3G
  • 3.2 megapixel camera
  • OLED screen
  • Kruder and Dorfmeister ringtones

Cons

  • Expensive
  • Heavy
  • No memory card slot

SUMMARY

A luxury fashion phone. Excellent build quality, average features and a luxury price tag. Feels good, looks good and does all the basics well.

Review

The Nokia 8800 Arte is a luxury fashion phone. Stainless steel and glass (with "anti-fingerprint coating") and a super smooth slide ("state of the art ball bearings and unique spring mechanism").

The 8800 Arte is the latest of the luxury 8800 Nokia series. Nokia say "the art of seduction begins with knowing your essence". Good advice.

Nokia 8800 Arte vs 8800 Sapphire Arte: The Nokia 8800 Arte is black. The 8800 Sapphire Arte version is brown and has soft brown leather on the front and back of the phone.

The Sapphire Arte's navigation key is a sapphire gemstone. Yes, a real Sapphire Gemstone - "caress the beautiful sapphire gemstone navigation key" says a Nokia video.

May 2008 approximate prices: 8800 Arte - £699 SIM free, 8800 Sapphire Arte is £854.95.

Nokia 8800 Sapphire Arte

Not satisfied with the luxurious 8800 Sapphire. Get luxury metal-plated phones - Nokia 8800 Diamond Edition, Platinum Edition or Gold Edition. These are customised versions by GoldStriker.

Buy 24ct gold, 18ct rose gold, or a platinum plated Nokia 8800 Arte. You can buy the whole phone from them, or simply order the gold/platinum plated housing from them. You can also put in custom requests. Add several hundred pounds on to the SIM free price - EG £1079 for the 8800 Platinum Edition. Here's a photo of the Gold Edition.

Nokia 8800 - Gold Edition

GoldStriker do other handsets. How about a tasty Nokia N95 8GB White Gold Diamond Edition - yours for a cool £12,000. Motorola KZR Leopard Diamond Edition - a steal at £14,995. The Leopard Edition has 18 carat white gold and 325 diamonds.

Design

Luxury handset, quality build. The 8800 is heavy - 150g, average width and it's quite thin - 14.6 mm. The slider is smooth.

Bottom: microUSB Connector, microphone.

Top: On / off button.

Right: Speaker, battery cover release.

Left: Battery cover release.

Back: Camera lens.

Front: Earpiece, navigation keys. Slide open to reveal keypad.

Keypad: Decent size keys, easy to press.

No memory card slot: 1 GB phone memory, but no memory card slot.

Features

3.2 MP Camera

3.2 MP camera with auto-focus. There's no flash, so no low-light photos. Usual settings - white balance, quality settings, effects, timer, sequence mode, 8x digital zoom. There's 640 x 480 (VGA) video capture at 15 fps.

3G

3G and EDGE. Download music files, videos and other files from the Web using 3G - quite quick. There's 1 GB phone memory, but no memory card slot. You could fit approx. 180 songs into memory.

Music Player

Playlists, equalizer, stereo widening, shuffle, repeat. A bluetooth headset is included in the box.

Kruder and Dorfmeister Video Ringtones

Peter Kruder and Richard Dorfmeister exclusive ringtones with visuals by Fritz Fitske. They are Austrian DJs who like to remix songs. They have their own record label - G-Stone Records.

OLED Display

OLED displays are the future. Thinner, lighter, brighter and better viewing angle (170 degrees) than LCDs. OLEDs are also flexible and they consume less power.

Other Features

All the usual PIM applications - calendar, calculator, to-do, notes. Voice commands, media player, Bluetooth, Web browser, SMS, MMS, Email.

Summary

The Nokia 8800 Arte sure is a luxury fashion phone. Excellent build quality, average features and a luxury price tag. If you want something that feels good, looks good and all you need are basic phone features, the Nokia 8800 Arte is well worth the look.

Features / Specifications

* confirm features at manufacturer's Web site.

Release Date
December 2007
Size
109.0 x 45.6 x 14.6 mm
4.3 x 1.8 x 0.6 inches
Weight
150 g
5.3 oz
Colours
 
black
Screen
  • 2.0-inch OLED
  • 240x320 pixels
  • 16000000 colours
Memory
  • 1 GB phone memory
Networks
  • Tri-band (GSM 900, 1800 and 1900 Mhz)
  • EDGE
  • 3G (UMTS 2100 Mhz)
Battery Life
  • Talk time: 3.3 hours
  • Standby time: 300 hours
  • 3G talk time: 2 hours
OS
Series 40 5th Edition interface

In The Box

Nokia 8800 Arte, Bluetooth headset, leather pouch, desk stand, charger, user manual, software CD, USB cable, story booklet.

Connectivity

  • Bluetooth 2.0
  • USB 2.0
  • Video calling

Camera

  • 3.2 MP Camera

  • features: 3.2 MP camera with auto-focus, white balance, quality settings, effects, timer, sequence mode, 8x digital zoom. No flash. Video and image editors.

  • VGA video resolution
  • 15 FPS video capture

Messaging

  • SMS, MMS, Email

Entertainment

  • Games: Golf Tour

  • Music Player
  • Video Player

Internet

  • xHTML browser

Installed Applications

  • Video ringtones composed by Kruder and Dorfmeister - visuals by Fritz Fitzke
  • PIM: Clock, calculator, to-do list, notes, calendar, timer, stopwatch, business cards
  • Voice commands, voice dialling, voice recorder

Prices

Prices coming soon.