Nokia 8800 Arte mobile phone review
I love gadgets, especially mobile phones. However in the last 6 months I just haven’t been able to find a mobile to suit my needs. All I wanted is a phone that is slim, has decent talk time and a half decent camera, but even that’s not essential.
I don’t want to pick up emails on it, browse the web or play music, I just want a mobile that’s good quality and stylish. Initially I tried he Nokia 6500 Classic but despite it looking good it was just too fragile and the buttons were too small for texting. So I binned that and got the Motorola RAZR2 V9. Now, I used to own the KRZR K1 which was actually a decent compact phone so imagine my surprise to find that the newer V9 was about twice the size. So much so that after living with it for a couple of months I just couldn’t get to grips with it and it’s now gone the journey to be replaced with…
The Nokia 8800 Arte
What attracted me to this phone is that it’s made from metal and glass - my friend has a Samsung something-or-other and it’s like a kids toy from a pound-shop Christmas cracker, except not as good quality. I wanted something that really felt solid with good build quality and having read reviews of the 8800 Arte I saw that loads of people were raving about it’s attention to detail and smooth sliding mechanism.
Then there’s the exclusivity factor, like the older 8800 models before it, the 8800 Arte isn’t a “mass market” product. Plus at £575 for a sim-free version it’s probably unlikely to be anytime soon. Good, as I like to be a little bit individual.
There’s also the fact that it has specially commissioned audio visual themes by top producers Kruder & Dorfmeister and visuals by Fritze Fitzke. Check out the official Nokia 8800 Arte page for examples of their work.
I’ve had the phone a couple of days now and apart from 1 minor complaint (more of that later) I really, really like the phone. It feels like such a solid piece of kit when you’re using it and the clarity of the voice calls really is excellent. Likewise the interface is easy to navigate round and texting is easy thanks to the solid keys, none of this touch-sensitive keypad nonsense here.
The camera quality is good too (3.2 MPS) and pictures come through crisp and clear. There’s no flash for the camera but that doesn’t bother me one bit as I rarely use the camera and when I do it’s almost always where there is enough natural light.
The phone also comes with a designer bluetooth headset, handy desk charger and leather case. So all in all a really good package.
So what about the complaint then?
Remember the specially commissioned themes that I talked about above? Well they don’t work. There are 10 of these “video ringtones” that come pre-installed on the phone and they look really good. I can view and play them but when I try to set them as active ringtones I get the following message:
Unable to select. File type unusable.
I haven’t messed about with any settings or downloaded anything onto the phone at all. It’s exactly how it is when I got it out of the box so I’m a bit confused as to why they don’t work. I’ve posted on the Nokia support forums but so far haven’t had a reply that helps me. Does anyone know what could be causing this?
I’m sure that it’s just a software bug or something minor so I’m not letting it spoil my enjoyment of the phone. If anybody is looking for a high end quality mobile then you could do a lot worse than getting your hands on the Nokia 8800 Arte. Quality.
What I’m listening to right now: Madonna ft Kanye West – “Beat Goes On”
Wednesday, April 30th, 2008 at 10:48 am and is filed under Reviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
Welcome to my blog. My name is Kieron Donoghue and I run UK Offer Media Ltd. I thought it would be fun to post a daily (well hopefully daily) blog, writing about my experiences in Internet Marketing and more specifically Affiliate Marketing. I'll include some personal stuff too, probably about my other passions, music and cars. Please feel free to post your comments and thoughts too.
May 1st, 2008 at 11:51 pm
I hope you don’t fall upon the same fate my fiancee did with his regular 8800, which was the 30 second battery life. There’s no warning, either, the phone just beeps and shuts off. This is a common thing for the 8800 apparently, so I hope they’ve fixed it by now.
May 2nd, 2008 at 4:35 am
Interesting review here… Although I have to say as mobiles get more and more sophisticated I think it’s a matter of time before everyone has smartphones.
Have to say £575 for a phone is bordering on the expensive side to say the least and you can buy a hell of a lot more for that kind of money… The HTC Touch Cruise is not as expensive and offers far more but then again, as you say, you want something more basic. But why? I remember when mobile phones were first out in the consumer market and now we’ve got 10 year olds walking round with them… At the time a fair few people probably thought what would I want with a mobile? Only to then go and get one. Can’t say I know anyone without one.
I know I’m stating the obvious here but as more and more people grab smartphones, especially with the iPhone, your ordinary basic phone will become obsolete… Eventually.
I’m curious to know though; what happened to your iPhone?
May 2nd, 2008 at 11:41 am
Lovely phone but a bit too expensive. But I guess that is your point about it being exclusive.
Andrew - I take your point about smartphones but not everyone wants to have everything. Personally I just use it to text and an occasional call. Thus, I want something small and beautiful - just like my wife!
May 2nd, 2008 at 12:25 pm
I’m not really in to the modern looking phones, most just look horrible to me but this one seems ok.
May 2nd, 2008 at 9:15 pm
Andrew - I still have my iPhone but mainly use it as a business phone for browsing the web and picking up emails when I’m away from the office. The Nokia 8800 Arte is for everyday use.
May 6th, 2008 at 11:42 pm
Its definately a premium phone and so its exclusive okay. With a phone like this though, you pay a hefty price tag and then find you have to cover just incase you scratch it. Be honest Kieron are you using the leather case?
May 14th, 2008 at 5:19 pm
I love this phone! sleek and chic!
May 18th, 2008 at 2:23 pm
The first 8800 arte I had squeaked horribly when pushing the navigation buttons when the slide was shut, this was promptly replaced and no problems so far with the replacement, In respect of the video ring tones, i too had this problem, but wwhat you have to do, in the tones options is change ringing tone to incom. call video and then seect your video ring tone. :-).. You can also get the time by gently shaking the phone if you dont fancy tapping it all the time.