Nokia 8800 Carbon Arte Premium Mobile Phone: Timeless Design

Nokia 8800 Carbon Arte, a new premium mobile phone that marries the timeless design of the Nokia 8800 Arte range with materials that reflect a new exclusivity based on refinement and authenticity. Engineered from carbon fibre, titanium, polished glass and stainless steel, the Nokia 8800 Carbon Arte is for individuals who appreciate uncompromised high performance.

Carbon fibre is an ultra light and strong material that expresses a woven pattern that is both high-tech and sensuous. Custom built to ensure the precision engineering that these materials require, the Nokia 8800 Carbon Arte features 3D patterns that express the inherent performance and lustre of carbon fibre.

Combining timeless style with superb functionality, the Nokia 8800 Carbon Arte offers the unique tap-for-time feature - consumers can tap the steel surface below the display twice and a clock appears on the screen. Background images organically change during the day, giving a unique appearance to the display. The turn-to-mute silencing mechanism allows individuals to silence incoming calls in a discrete manner by turning the phone over, screen-side down.

In addition to the 3G capabilities and 3.2 megapixel auto focus camera and high quality audio, the Nokia 8800 Carbon Arte boasts a stunning OLED display and built-in memory that has been expanded from previous offerings in the range to 4 GB. Meanwhile, Nokia's anti-fingerprint coating reduces smudges on metal and glass and unsightly outer seams are hidden by a unique all-in-one microUSB connector.

Enhancing the experience, the Nokia 8800 Carbon Arte is delivered with an exclusive range of accessories. These include a Bluetooth touch-sensitive volume control headset, a stylish desk stand and a beautiful leather carrying case.

The Nokia 8800 Carbon Arte will be available in the 3rd quarter of 2008 with an estimated retail price of EUR 1,100 exclusive of subsidies and taxes.

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Review: Nokia 8800 Arte

Nokia's 8800 Arte is not a low cost mobile. SIM-free you are looking at anything from around £600 to more than £700 from the well-known outlets. For instance, while writing this review I found it for between £199.99 and £499.99 on O2 depending on your contract choice and for £209.99 to £399.99 on various Orange contracts.

Its near twin, the 8800 Arte Sapphire, is an even pricier option coming in at over £800 SIM-free. I can only surmise that the latter's leather trimmings and the real sapphire that sits at the centre of the navigation button are to blame for the hike, because inwardly the phones seem identical. As always, though, prices do vary wildly so it's worth shopping around if you simply must have that gemstone.

Both phones are powered by the S40 operating system. This means they are less sophisticated than some other Nokia handsets, and it is the design that you are paying all that dosh for. Oh, and a rather stylish Bluetooth headset, a desktop stand and a leather slipcase.

Whether the design and extras justify the price is up to you, of course. I'm not convinced, but then again both the 8800 Arte and the 8800 Arte Sapphire do have a rather nice minimalist look. I don't usually go for bronze but in this case the bronzing of the 8800 Sapphire Arte is eye catching, and the black of the 8800 Arte is, well, black which tends to make for a good, sleek look.

There is nothing on the front of the slider design apart from the screen and navigation key until a call comes in, or you open the slide. At this point two pairs of vertically stacked buttons light up. On the left the pair offers a softmenu and Call function and on the right they house a softmenu and End function.

There are no shortcut buttons around the edges of these handsets. Instead the black of the Arte and the bronze of the Arte Sapphire are complemented by a band of silver all around the edge. This picks up horizontal silver banding on the front and back of the casing. With no side buttons you access the camera from the main menu and adjust the volume using the navigation button.

In an interesting first, you can mute the phone when a call is coming in simply by turning it face down on the table. That is great psychology: ‘No, I don't want to talk to you, and actually I don't even want to see that you are calling'.

A microUSB connector is used to link the handset to your computer and to charge the battery. Anyone used to carrying a miniUSB charge cable for several devices will need to also carry the microUSB one required here.

The 8800 Arte and Arte Sapphire have a metal and glass shell and this means they are quite heavy phones at 150g. With many similarly sized mobiles a third lighter, you are likely to notice the weight in your pocket.

I'm going to stop differentiating between the Arte and Arte Sapphire and refer to both phones as the 8800 because the remainder of the specifications are identical.

Holding either phone in the hand is a satisfying experience. The 8800 has a thin candybar design measuring 109mm tall, 46mm wide and 15mm thick. Flick up the slide and the phone grows to about 133mm tall.

However, the number pad is quite squeezed. Its keys are reasonably wide but very short. They are shaped with a raised bottom edge, which makes hitting them a little less troublesome than it would be if they were flat, but texting at speed was still not easy. If you have stubby fingers you might also find things too cramped for comfort.

There is 1GB of internal storage but no flash memory card slot to add more. I find mobiles without memory expansion harder and harder to fathom unless they are at the entry level. Who wouldn't prefer to pop a microSD card to get photos or music on and off their handset over having to physically connect it to a computer or use Bluetooth?

On the software front there are some goodies to be found. Opera Mini is here, for a start. And while viewing Web pages on the 2-inch OLED screen might be a challenge to some, downloading pages should be fine as the handset is 3G, with tri-band GSM, GPRS and EDGE as fallbacks.

You could always opt for WidSets instead. This is a sort of RSS-like service, pushing new content out to your handset whenever a change is detected in a Web site. Web sites need to be in the scheme and offer a WidSets service; you need to have a data plan and to be able to justify the download costs; and you need to really want to see every change to a web page. If those three things triangulate, then WidSets could be very useful.

As you would expect, the 8800 plays music and takes pictures. Bizarrely for such an expensive phone a wired headset is not supplied. And there is no support for a 3.5mm jack. All you have for wired sound output is that microUSB slot I already mentioned. Playback through the loudspeaker is quite loud. Unfortunately it also distorts at the higher volumes. On the other hand, battery life was good. I got 8 hours 50 minutes of music playback from a full charge.

The camera has auto focus and shoots at resolutions up to 3.2-megapixels. It has no flash or self-portrait mirror. Image quality was generally acceptable, but not as good as I'd expect from a mobile of this price.

The coloured dish, shot indoors under normal household lighting, is grainy, though the colours are reproduced quite faithfully. The white chair is again accurate on the colour front, but the detail is not wonderful with some noticeable lens distortion at the edges. The flowers show how the camera functions for closer shots. Not too hot, in my opinion, with the autofocus missing the main subject of the composition.

Verdict
For all of Nokia's efforts to brand the Arte and Arte Sapphire as high class mobiles there simply isn't enough here to justify the price. Distortion from the loudspeaker, a below par camera, no front camera for two-way video calls, and the S40 OS with its reasonable but not wonderful set of features are not top-notch specifications.

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Review: Nokia 8800 Arte Introduction

Nokia has been playing an important role lately in the enhancement in the field of internet and mobile communication. Meeting the demands of the picky and trend-following consumer, the company put two new mobile phones on the market at the end of last year; the 8800 Arte and the 8800 Sapphire Arte. High quality materials and a classy appearance are the characteristics of these mobile phones. We will review the Nokia 8800 Arte, the black version of the two. Design, user's ease and user's fun are key words for this technological masterpiece. The 3.2 Megapixel digital camera, MP3 player, ambient light sensor and the internal memory of 1GB are just a few aspects of the promising Nokia 8800 Arte mobile phone.

Nokia 8800 Arte retail package

In addition to the Nokia 8800 Arte, the black box contains a sophisticated Bluetooth headset with corresponding manual. The manual of the mobile phone itself is included too, in two languages and besides that a USB cable, battery charger and software CD are available. A leather pouch prevents the Nokia 8800 Arte from getting damaged and whilst charging the mobile phone, it can be placed in the included solid DT-19 desk stand.The Nokia Arte is a sophisticatedly designed slider phone. The black housing is crafted from glass and metal, which explains its weight of no less than 150 grams. When you take the handset out of the package, you will instantly feel the durability. The simplicity of the design ensures a classy, timeless appearance that will appeal to younger as well as older people.

Nokia 8800 cell phone design

The navigation buttons and some quick access buttons are available on the front, and when you slide open the Nokia 8800 Arte, a full keyboard becomes available. The 2 inch OLED QVGA monitor of 320x240 pixels supports a maximum of 16 million colours and is so very clear that it is a joy to scroll through the menus or to view pictures. Moreover, the Nokia 8800 Arte has been equipped with a sensor that detects ambient light, as a result of which the clearness of the monitor is adjusted automatically to the light circumstances. The device measures 4.3 x 1.9 x 0.57 inches and is neatly finished with silver-coloured edges. According to Nokia's press release, the 8800 Arte features anti-fingerprint coating, however; personally I did not experience the use of it. The back of the mobile phone has a matte coating, but I was forced to clean the shiny front on a regular base.


Nokia 8800 Arte menu

Nokia allow the user to adjust the main menu to his or her own preference. For example, the option button in the main menu allows you to choose from four different icon reproductions: 'List', 'Roster reproduction', 'Roster reproduction with labels' and 'Tabs'. You can even change the sequence of the icons which offers faster access to your favourite options. This saves a lot of time scrolling up and down. The time, the power of the signal and battery status remain visible in every menu; even while using most functions. Unfortunately, the menus respond remarkably slower the moment the battery starts to run low.



Nokia 8800 active standby

Not only the main menu; also the standby mode can be arranged to your own preferences. The active standby lets you collect all the preference functions in the standby screen of the Nokia 8800 Arte. There is room for four sections and a choice from eight different functions, such as the quick access bar, music player, agenda and notes. The quick access bar holds a minimum of 1 and a maximum of 48 icons, which gives you easy access to every far corner of the menu. You can also change the sequence of the icons in the quick access bar. Even the way of selecting the sections of the 'active standby' is entirely up to the user.


Nokia Arte digital camera

The Nokia 8800 Arte has been equipped with a 3.2 Megapixel digital camera. The 8x digital zoom lets you get the object you want to capture, a lot closer. Still I wouldn't recommend using the zoom function frequently since the quality of the end result drops drastically due to this zoom. The pictures turn out granular and blurred and the format of the pictures decreases. The camera features an auto focus and automatic light compensation, whilst it is also possible to adjust the brightness manually through the menu. In bad light situations, the night mode can be activated which compensates for the lack of the possibility to select an ISO setting. Where the normal mode achieves a bad result in badly lit circumstances; the night mode offers a slightly better result. You will have to do without flash, and that is a vast restriction in practising mobile photography. In this case; you will have to learn to live with colour noise and underexposure as obvious factors.


Quality of the camera
In addition to setting the white balance, you can also add a few effects such as sepia or negative. The colour and contrast reproduction of the mobile phone's monitor are not representative for the true colours. You can't expect that, to be honest, since calibration is not playing a role in this segment for the time being. Mobile photography is an area that is not mature yet on the Nokia 8800 Arte. In particular the colour shifting, the limited dynamic range and the lack of a built-in flash make mobile photography with the 8800 Arte a true deed of courage. The Nokia 8800 Arte feels at home in ideal circumstances and that's when you can expect a reasonable photo quality.


Photo editing options

A picture is taken reasonably fast, for mobile concepts, since the shutter release is just 1 second. Besides that, it is quite handy the camera switches automatically to the standby mode if there is no action for a certain amount of time. This saves energy without having to turn the camera function off completely. The photo editing option lets you crop the captured pictures afterwards and adjust the contrast. Various elements can be added e.g. a text, frame or pictogram. The Nokia Arte supports photo formats in JPEG, GIF, BMP, PNG and video formats: 3GPP, H.263 and H.264.

Nokia 8800 Arte MP3 player

Just like every mobile phone nowadays, the Nokia 8800 Arte, too, features an MP3 player. It is easy to operate this function; the navigation button allows you to scroll through the songs and adjust the volume. You can switch between the themes: 'Standard' (blue tones) and 'Magnetic' (grey tones). The music menu gives access to making play lists and to the songs via genre, album and artist. The equalizer in the setting menu lets you choose the right sound to the right song. To enable you to make a better choice when selecting a genre, the ratio between the bass and high tones is visible. The speaker produces a strong clear sound. Listening to music is also very interesting with the included Bluetooth headset. Of course the stereo effect is gone when you listen with only one ear but listening wireless and having an invisible volume adjuster on the touch-sensitive part of the headset, makes you stand out from all the headset and ear-set users. Finally; the Nokia 8800 Arte features an uncomplicated voice recorder to capture voice notes.


8800 Nokia Arte additional functions

A nice and fun function of the Nokia 8800 Arte is the 'tap for time' system. If you are in a rush wanting to know the time, you don't have to slide open the phone or wait for the monitor light. Just tap on the phone twice with your finger and an analogue clock will appear on the screen telling you the correct time. The Nokia 8800 Arte also features a sensor that enables refusing an incoming call or deactivating the alarm just by turning the phone face down. The Nokia 8800 Arte has a lot more going for it than standard conversion of currency, lengths and temperatures. Taking this Nokia phone with you, will end all insecurities about foreign clothes sizes. For example; use size conversion to insert the size of your shoes and a whole list appears with every size from different countries divided in male and female sizes. The function contains information about sweaters, suits, trousers, shirts, dresses and skirts. A superb addition if you like shopping. The translation function in the application menu also looked promising; however, it turned out to be somewhat poor still. It couldn't seem to find simple words such as: dog, office and sun. And when I filled in the word 'lamp' (Dutch for lamp), the English translation said: raspberry, which made my trust in this application disappear at once. The Opera Mini browser lets you surf the Internet with the Nokia 8800 Arte.

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