Nokia 8800 Arte: Say hello in style

If you are a cellphone addict like me chances are you spend lots of time handling, fiddling, holding, and taking just about every opportunity you get to hold that cellphone of the moment. There always seems to be so little time, and so many cellphones to salivate over.

All I know is that as I grow older, so does my taste in cellphones. Over the years, my taste in cellphones has run the whole gamut of styles, colors and designs. I have had my share of the cute, the sophisticated and the ordinary. I know that for every cellphone fantasy I have had, a cellphone comes along.

OK, OK, I’m an addict.

Take, for instance, Nokia’s latest luxury cellphone, the 8800 Arte. It is understated elegance at its finest.  It is a follow-up to the Sirocco, made even better.

For starters the 8800 Arte is 3G with a 3.2-megapixel camera. But what makes the Arte truly a standout in the current world of cellphones is that it maintains its predecessor’s immaculate build quality and minimalist design. It is quite obvious with this classy-looker that Nokia meticulously carved this beauty from stainless steel. The 8800 Arte also carries a reassuring strength, although it might be considered a bit heavy because of the stainless steel, for those who have gotten used to the lighter-weight cellphones. It’s also almost identical to the Sirocco, although its design is slightly sleeker.

And for those of us who hate smudges on our phones, Nokia has coated the front cover with an anti-fingerprint paint. Although, we all know that it is quite impossible to keep the rounded edges away from the oily smudges. Another plus is the scratch-resistant glass.

I love the spring-assisted slider action, which lends more class and style to the Arte. It helps that the greased-up ball bearings make it incredibly fluid and I just love the way the phone shuts, I love to hear the phone go “clunk.”

The keypad of the Arte is similar to all other Nokia cellphone keypads, but somehow I found it a joy to use when I was texting away. It must be the way the edges of the buttons cling to the fingers.

In the Arte the control keypad is now accessible when the phone is closed. That’s a good thing because one no longer needs to slide open the handset to read an incoming text message, or pick up a call. Volume can also be adjusted using the navigation pad while the phone is closed.

It’s not all roses though.

There are two models in the Arte series — the 8800 Arte and the 8800 Sapphire Arte — and they both share the same design mould with a combination of metal and glass. The only differences, besides the color, are that the Sapphire edition uses a sapphire gemstone as the central button on the directional pad and parts of the handset are wrapped in coffee-brown soft leather.

Personalize, personalize. That is what makes a cellphone just great. The Arte let me make my home-screen design with a fiesta of shortcuts, including a top scrolling bar to access popular features such as music player, calendar, Web search and general indicators detailing new messages, appointments and more.

Nokia has fitted the Arte with a couple of quirky but interesting tricks. You can mute the incoming call ringtone without actually killing the call, simply by turning the phone face down. If you need to discreetly check the time, just tap the phone below the display and an analogue clock will appear. 

The 3.2-megapixel camera with autofocus is pretty decent for a first in the 8800 series. Video capture, on the other hand, is slick and easy on the eye, shooting in a 640 x 480 pixel resolution.

Elsewhere, the built-in music player spins the standard MP3, AAC, eAAC+ and WMA formats. It’s great to use and sounds lively, with a seven-band equalizer to adapt the audio and support for stereo Bluetooth. But with only 1GB of internal memory and no memory card slot handy, the music player’s talents become limited.

The unique soundtrack of the Nokia 8800 Arte and Nokia 8800 Sapphire Arte is composed by the internationally acclaimed DJ duo Kruder and Dorfmeister that reunited for this occasion. The Austrian master producers — known for their stellar remixes and DJ sets — joined forces with Fritz Fitzke for visuals and created a musical kaleidoscope of graphic grooves. The outcome is a bespoke soundtrack and collection of video ringtones, exclusively available in the Nokia 8800 Arte and Nokia 8800 Sapphire Arte.

Materials are of the finest quality. They include exquisite leather and precious stones. Arte translates as art. In creating the 8800 Arte and the 8800 Sapphire Arte, Nokia celebrates the art of individuality by way of natural light and the intricate ways in which it reflects, flickers and glows. This can be seen in the unique tap-for-time feature. Just two gentle taps are all it takes to illuminate the clock screen, while living wallpapers move organically throughout the day to give unique on-screen decoration.

There is no better time for cellphones than now.  Simple, elegant and classy — that is what the Nokia 8800 Arte is all about. It’s not about the million buttons to press or thousands of functions a cellphone has, but rather it’s about carrying a cellphone that lets you text, call and listen to music with a gadget that is one classy baby.