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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