Review: Nokia 8800 Carbon Arte

Nokia 8800 Carbon Arte Review

Phone rating:

In a nutshell: The Carbon Arte is a refined version of Nokia's most exclusive phone to date, and you won't see many of these on the street. The 8800 Carbon Arte is crafted from carbon fibre, titanium, polished glass and stainless steel, and is unquestionably a stunningly beautiful phone. It also has most of the latest gadgets, including 3G, a 3.2 megapixel camera, a music player, video ringtones, 4GB of built-in memory, and comes with a Bluetooth stereo headset.
Best buy: £469.99 from Mobiles.co.uk.

The Nokia 8800 Carbon Arte is a further refinement of Nokia's premium range of 8800 Series phones. Based on the 8800 Arte, the Carbon Arte pushes materials, exclusivity and price further than ever, leaving you with hardly any change from £1000, if you buy sim free.

Constructed from carbon fibre, titanium, polished glass and stainless steel, the Carbon Arte is without question a beautifully constructed luxury item. Everything about the phone is gorgeous: the smooth sliding action of the slide, the weighty and solid feel of the phone in your palm, the attention to detail in its craftsmanship, it just oozes quality and luxury through every fibre of its being. It looks very similar to the 8800 Arte, with the same size, weight and shape, but the colours and themes have been changed. Nokia have commissioned special visuals for the design of the Carbon Arte, from the multimedia designer Fritz Fitzke. The ringtones were also specially produced for the phone by Kruder & Dorfmeister. There are many subtle design details to be enjoyed, such as the way that a clock appears on the display when you tap the phone, or the way that you can reject am incoming call by turning the phone to lie face down.

The 8800 series has in the past been criticised for being all looks and no features. After all, if this is the Aston Martin of phones, you expect it to have the performance of a sports car, not just the looks. The Carbon Arte definitely excels in certain areas. For instance, Nokia have equipped the Carbon Arte with a best-in-class display: an OLED panel with beautifully crisp graphics rendered in 16 million colours and at a high resolution of 320 x 240 pixels. The memory of the Carbon Arte has been upgraded to 4GB, so although there's no memory card slot, there's really no need for one, as this matches the capacity of all but the top-end smartphones. The music player plays all common formats of digital music, and a stereo Bluetooth headset is included in the box. One feature that doesn't match the competition is the rather average camera. Rated at just 3.2 megapixels and with no flash, this doesn't seem to be the camera you would expect to be included in a £1000 handset. There's also no radio included, and no 3G video calling.

Nevertheless, despite lacking a few features, the Carbon Arte still delivers on its promise to be an absolutely beautiful, premium quality luxury item. Credit crunch? What credit crunch?

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Features of the Nokia 8800 Carbon Arte include:

• 3.2 megapixel camera with autofocus and 8x digital zoom
• Video camera (640 x 480 pixels, 15 frames per second) with Image stabilisation and 8x digital zoom
• Display: OLED, 16 million colours, 240 x 320 pixels (2.0 inches)
• Music player (MP3, WMA, AAC, eAAC, eAAC+ formats)
• 64-voice polyphonic ringtones / MP3 ringtones / Video ring tones (7 built-in tones)
• Speakerphone
• Messaging: SMS, MMS, email, Nokia Xpress audio messaging
• Java games
• WAP, GPRS, EDGE, 3G
• Memory: 4 Gbytes
• Connectivity: Bluetooth 2.0 with Enhanced Data Rate, USB 1.2
• Internet: Web browser
• Tri-band GSM 1800/1900 plus 3G WCDMA 2100
• Size: 109 x 46 x 15 mm
• Weight: 150g
• Talktime: 2.75 hours (3G) - 3.3 hours (2G)
• Battery standby: 300 hours

Nokia 8800 Carbon Arte Consumer Reviews

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Average rating from 6 reviews:

Reviewed by John from england on 10th Nov 2008
THE single mosta amazing phone EVER. The looks, the features, the materials, the feel... Nothing compares!
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Reviewed by Jack Reddington from England on 8th Nov 2008
I bought this phone 2 weeks ago. Its an absolutly fantasic phone. It feels really nice in your hand. All of my friends want it now. It is a pricey phone but every part of it is worth it, you wont be disapointed, also if youve got the money, like me, go and buy it now.
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Reviewed by alex from england on 6th Nov 2008
load of rubish......had mine a day and sold it.....do not buy
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Reviewed by Danny B from UK>Yorkshire on 25th Oct 2008
Very classy sleek phone, ultimate build quality. Not far off a Vertu !!! I ve had this for 3 weeks now.
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Reviewed by shazad from uk on 20th Oct 2008
just 3 words OH MY GOD this is the best nokia ever made everytime it out of my pocket i have people asking me where i got it from propa head turner. if your rich and wana show off go for it.
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Reviewed by boi from london on 9th Oct 2008
its fantasttic buy it its the bomb
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