Nokia 8800 Arte & Sapphire Arte
Discontinued Expected Q4 2007 (Arte), Q1
2008 (Arte Sapphire)
When is a Nokia 8800 not a Nokia 8800?
When it's a Nokia 8800 Arte. This is much more
than a slightly warmed over version of the Nokia
8800 Sirocco - it's a completely new handset, effectively
the Mark III version of the original Nokia
8800, with quite a lot of features taken from the
8600 Luna.
And it's certainly not as hideous as the Nokia
8800 Sirocco Gold Edition.
There are two variants of the Nokia
8800 Arte, the standard one and the Sapphire
Arte which features a gemstone navigation key and
a soft leather finish. We kid you not.
Ignoring the rather bonkers Sapphire
edition, the Nokia 8800 Arte is a much improved device
over its predecessor. This is a 3G phone with a 2 inch
240 x 320 (QVGA) pixel OLED display, a 3.2 megapixel
camera and 1GB of internal memory. Add in Bluetooth
and a multimedia player, and the 8800 Arte is pretty
much on-the-button for a contemporary 3G phone.
Here's the catch - the Nokia 8800 Arte
costs a whopping €1000 (£700) and if you want the
Sapphire edition then that will set you back €1150 (£815)
before tax and subsidy. For those basic specs, you can
get a 3G phone an awful lot cheaper - so what is it
that sets the 8800 Arte apart from a run-of-the-mill
handset?
The
answer is, the 8800 Arte follows in the tradition of
other 8000 series Nokias by paying very close attention
to detail and the quality of construction. The 8800
Arte is constructed from steel and glass, at a time
when most phones are made primarily of plastic. The
non-stick surface on this new 8800 is a feature that
many owners of "glossy" phones will see the
need for, and there's a smooth sliding mechanism designed
to give the 8800 Arte an air of quality.
It's more than just the build quality,
Nokia have gone to some effort to create a whole "8800
Arte" experience. The musical themes for this handset
have been created by Kruder & Dorfmeister
(check out the soundtrack on the 8800 Arte's launch
page), it comes with something called "living
wallpapers" and a nice touch is that if you flip
over the phone when ringing, it goes mute. There's a
desk-stand included in the sales package too, along
with a Bluetooth headset as standard.
Although the inclusion of 3G, QVGA and
an improved camera are certainly improvements, there
are still a few shortcomings with the Nokia 8800 Arte.
For starters, this is not a smartphone - the 8800 Arte
runs the standard S40 operating system found in Nokia's
"dumb" phones. There's no WiFi, the camera
lacks a flash and there's no expandable memory either.
Video capture is a lowly 177 x 144 pixels, and the 8800
Arte also lacks GPS.. and even though SatNav is a bit
of a luxury, the 8800 Arte is a luxury phone.
It's only a tri-band GSM phone, so the the 8800 Arte
isn't really suitable for the US market,
So, it's quite a lot of money and not
as feature packed as the N95
8GB or E90,
but the Nokia 8800 Arte is certainly a very desirable
phone. Nokia say that the Arte should be available during
Q4 2007, and the Arte Sapphire is anticipated for Q1
2008.
|
Nokia
8800 Arte/ Arte Sapphire
at a glance
|
Available:
|
Q4
2007 - Q1 2008
|
Network:
|
GSM 900
/ 1800 / 1900 UMTS 2100
|
Data:
|
GPRS
+ EDGE + UMTS (3G)
|
Screen:
|
240x320
pixels, 16m colours
|
Camera:
|
3.2
megapixels
|
Size:
|
Large
slider 109 x 46 x 15mm
/ 150 grams
|
Bluetooth:
|
Yes
|
Memory
card:
|
No
|
Infra-red:
|
No
|
Polyphonic:
|
No
|
Java:
|
Yes
|
Battery
life:
|
3 hours talk / 12 days standby
|
|
|