Nokia 8800 Arte Review

The Finnish manufacturer Nokia is the onlyone from the big boys, to offer a luxury line aside from the regulardevices for the mass market. The phones from the 8800 series are verystylish quality products, aiming to distinguish their owner from thecrowd, demonstrating a higher-class.

The latest two entriesare the Arte and Sapphire Arte. They are identical with the onlydifference being the price and the materials used. These two are “aunique combination between glass and steel,” which is like a magnet forthe eye of the beholder. Besides, the phones show you the time just bytapping the lower part of the front panel. Another comfortable functionis the ability to silence the ringing on an incoming call, by justputting the phone facedown on a table. Despite the elegant and classylook, these modern masterpieces are equipped with 3.2-megapixel camerasand support 3G, to accommodate web surfing.

The package includes:

The Bluetooth handsfreeincluded (BH-803), is made to fit the style of the phones. What makesit interesting is that you can control the volume, by only sliding yourfinger back and forth along the device.

The manufacturer has accented on the leather pouchas well. So you don’t have to push/pull the phone every time you wantto take it out, there is a simple mechanism to help you. Once you putthe Nokia in the pouch, a little piece of leather remains outside,which if pulled, brings the phone out in the open.

The chargingstand also fits the overall design of the Arte. It is almost entirelyin the same color as the phone and the bottom is encircled by a lightedge. Once the phone is being charged, the light starts pulsating. Thebottom of the charger is covered with an anti-sliding material, so itstays firmly in place.

The first time we took the Arte out of the box, we were impressed by the charming elegance of its clear design. The edges are rounded, and the black, the stainless steel encircling the front and the chrome on the sides emphasize even more the classy appearance. With a weight of 150 grams (5.3 oz), it is far from the lightest phones, but we were not surprised. This is due to the high-quality materials used, including glass and stainless steel. Despite of that, wearing the device in the pocket of your jeans or jacket is comfortable, but the Arte reminds of itself at all times. And when in your hand, the weight contributes to the feeling that you are holding a high-quality object.


You can compare the Nokia 8800 Arte to many other phones, using PhoneArena's Visual Size Compare tool.

On the front, is located the 2” OLED display with a resolution of 240 x 320 pixels and 16 million colors. The same can be seen in Nokia 7900 Prism, but likewise, we are not impressed with it. When you look at the display in broad daylight it is unusable, but indoors (artificial light), the picture is quite realistic and colorful. Despite the manufacturer’s claims that fingers do not leave any prints on it, they do. So, you’ll have to carry a cloth to always keep the screen clean and good looking. Over the display, can be found the ambient light sensor, and right next to it, the speaker.

There are two thin chrome lines, which hint where the phone opens. Tapping twice on the lower part of the device, will bring the analog or digital clock up. It can also be activated by lifting the phone from your desk, for example and drop it lightly twice. This happens, because of the vibration, which arises from the action.

Another interesting option is the way you can silence the phone’s ringing on incoming call. When somebody calls you during an important meeting, for example, you can mute the sound, by simply placing the phone facedown on the table. The bad thing is that if the caller insists on reaching you and calls one more time, you will still have to silence the ringing, even if the Arte is already facedown. The solution is, switching on the silent mode if you are at an important business meeting or you just don’t want to be disturbed.

Arte’s sliding mechanism is very good. The phone opens fast and easy and is very stable as well. After sliding it up, a beautiful numeric keypad is revealed.

On both sides, are located the two buttons unlocking the battery lid. This mechanism is used, so the lid can stay firmly in place at all times. The loudspeaker is positioned on the right, in the upper part. Besides those elements, nothing else troubles the clear design. The power button is combined with the chrome edge on the top, and on the bottom, in a similar mode are positioned, the microphone and the microUSB slot.


On the back, we have the 3-megapixel camera, whose module has almost the same design as the D-pad. Most of that side, is covered by the metal lid, under which is hidden the battery.

Sapphire Arte:

Overall, the other version, called Sapphire Arte, has the same design as the main variant. However, it has a more extravagant and classy vision, bearing the “I’m rich” statement. This is due to the leather, covering a big part of the phone, giving it a warmer feeling when held and making it harder to slide, compared to the regular Arte.



The keyboard, accompanied with the navigational buttons and the D-pad are the same, but the last has a real sapphire in the middle. It is very nicely illuminated in the promo video that comes preloaded on the phone, but in reality, is not that striking.

Interface:

As the other Nokia models of this class, both phones use the Series 40 interface. Here we have the latest, 5th Edition, used in the 7900 Prism, 6500, 5610 XpressMusic and others.

You have the option to enable the „Active Standby” to appear on the homescreen, which has shortcuts and organizer information. However, if you want to keep things simple, you will have nothing more than three choices, respectively for the two functional buttons and the middle of the D-pad.

The main menu is visualized as a 3x3 grid by default, but you can choose between list, grid, grid with labels (default) and tabs. Since Arte reacts quite fast to all commands, navigating through the menus is quick and easy.

Despite that you can change the main menu view, you are able to personalize the entire interface via themes. 8800 Arte comes with 6 of them preloaded, and 5 of them are interactive (the theme changes according to the time of the day for example). In the Sapphire, they are of the same type, but they visualize better and overall, fit the design.

The phone has seven sound profiles to choose from, depending on the environment you are in.

Phonebook:

The phonebook is visualized as a list with names in alphabetical order. When entering a new contact, at first, you have the option to enter two names and a phone number, but later on, there is an option, to add more information (ringtones, video, picture, e-mail etc.). This is done by choosing the “add detail” from the menu.

As in Nokia 7900 Prism and 8600 Luna, Arte also “suffers” from the disadvantage of not having the capability to search through the contacts by second name.

Organizer:

The organizer offers the following functions: Alarm Clock, Calendar, To-Do list, Notes, Synchronization, Calculator, Countdown timer and Stopwatch.


For setting the alarm you a have the standard options, such as time, repetition, tone, snooze time-out and repetition days . However, there is only one alarm and you cannot setup various ones for different days and hours.

The calendar can be viewed by months and weeks with the second, visualized as an hourly schedule for the separate days. From the options menu you can go straight to the To-Do list, to add a birthday or an important meeting or a reminder to buy a bottle of wine.

You also have a standard, a loan and a scientific calculator at your disposal. It has an icon in the main menu as well, giving business users an easy access to it.


Since the rest of the organizer’s options are the standard S40 ones, they are not going to be discussed and let’s not forget that Arte is not intended to be “smart”.

For some of the functions, the phone offers a system of voice commands, as well as voice dialing. Since the phone is equipped with voice recognition and is user independent you don’t have to record any commands with your voice (so it can be used by your spouse and lover, for example). To activate this option, hold the right functional key or use a handsfree.

There is 1GB of built-in memory, which can be used to store favorite tunes, pictures, videos, etc. Since a memory card slot is not present, the storage is not upgradable. So, if you are looking for an iPod, that’s not it.

Messaging:

The messaging menu is also typical for Nokia. From here, you can write or send an SMS, e-mail, flash or audio message. The T9 predictive text input system helps you for those and you can use the templates too.





Connectivity:

Nokia 8800 Arte is a tri-band GSM, supporting 2100 MHz 3G, which makes it suitable for use in Europe and Asia.

Once more, we are disappointed by the web browser, because it fails to visualize complex pages correctly. It can be useful if you want to read something, but you’ll definitely avoid using it. Due to the weak browser, the 3G support is pointless.

Camera:

Despite that Arte has not been created as a multimedia phone, it offers such functions. The phone is equipped with a 3-megapixel camera with autofocus, but no flash. Its interface is in a portrait mode (landscape also available) and it has a 2-second startup time. It is very simple: on the view-finder is visualized information on the remaining pictures, the resolution, the compression, a digital zoom indicator and the mode (picture/video).

From the camera options, you are able to choose a resolution from 160x120 to 2048x1536 pixels, to add a color effect, to set the white balance, a countdown timer and to activate the night-mode.

The quality of the pictures justifies the camera – they are good enough to record a moment. The images are better than average, but cannot be compared with the top cameraphones from the last generation, which had the same resolution. It is pointless to try snapping pictures in a dark environment since there is no flash.


Those of you, who like shooting videos, will be very pleased, because Arte can record such with resolution up to 480 x 640 pixels and 15 fps. The quality is average and very noisy at times, but overall quite acceptable.

Nokia 8800 Arte sample video at 640x480 pixels resolution

Multimedia:

The last entry to in the Nokia’s 8800 series is equipped with a media player, supporting the following formats: MP3, AAC, eAAC+, WMA, 3GPP, H.263 and H.264. We are very happy with the sound level of the loudspeaker. As in the most phones, only the highs were audible. The videos, converted in the corresponding formats with a resolution 320 x 240, also run quite good.


Software:

As most Series 40 phones, Nokia Arte comes with preloaded applications: Download!, Converter, Size Converter, Translator, My Nokia, Search, Opera Mini, WidSets and World Clock. There also are a few games to waste your time with, but if you don’t like them more are available for download.

The phone supports Java MIDP 2.1 and this allows you to download additional applications you like.

Performance:

Besides it being very well constructed, Arte performs very well in technical aspects also. The phone runs smoothly without blocking and the operations and the commands are executed pretty quick.

We were positive even after the sound tests were finished. When you speak, your voice is heard loud and clear. In the reverse situation, when you are a listener, the sound is worse, but still above average.. The volume is not that high, and the voices are somewhat monotonous with a constant background noise.

The loudspeaker was average with the voices in both directions being sharp and monotonous, but it was loud enough for a normal conversation.

According the official data, the battery provides up to 3 hours of talking time and has a 300 hour life in standby mode. After three days, including 90 minutes of calls and 6 hours of playing games, the battery gave up.

Conclusion:

Nokia 8800 Arte and Sapphire Arte are two really, modern “masterpieces”, like the manufacturer says. With their extremely classy design, and solid construction, both are attracting the eyes of the crowd. When you have Arte/Sapphire Arte in your hand, it makes you look not only classy, but confident. Despite the good sound quality during a call, the last entries to the 8800 series offer interesting options, such as the clock activation or the muting.

If you are the kind of person who wants to demonstrate class and prosperity, and are looking for a good phone, do not hesitate to get the Nokia 8800 Arte. Well, if you think it looks too modest for you and you are looking for something more flamboyant, aim your vision at the rest of the “big shot” phones of the manufacturer like Sapphire Arte, Luna or 8800 Sirocco.