Style Attired in Steel

To open the phone one needs to set a thumb against a special relief spot with a pattern consisting of shallow apertures for the thumb not to slide off.

The phone is equipped with semi-automatic mechanism. Unlike Nokia 8910/8910i where user has to press two side buttons to make the telephone “shoot out” on its own in Nokia 8800 user is to drive the sliding part half way and the rest of the trip it'll do on its own due to a special spring. On the other hand the reverse process is also semi-automatic while Nokia 8910/8910i is to be closed manually which sometimes takes pains – at least it is difficult (if possible at all) to fulfil such operation with the help of only one hand for the spring is to be led up for the next “shot”.

A bit disappointing was the fact that there is no sound accompaniment on slider opening/closing. The majority of modern sliders are able to emit various kinds of warbles while being either opened or closed. However this action in Nokia 8800 is accompanied with such an expressive natural sound that artificial effects could seem redundant in the situation at hand. As usual phone opening/closing corresponds to receiving/ending the call.

As it was mentioned above Nokia 8800 is almost completely made of solid steel (with the exception of the scratchproof screen and the upper rear part concealing the build in antenna. If that part were made of steel the phone would fail to maintain a stable connection with the base station). The screen is really scratchproof – we tried our best to leave at least the smallest trace using a sharp penknife and all imagination we had but in vain. The effect is really amazing.

Now a few words more about the screen. It supports 262.000 colours. This is the first “non- smartphone ” from Nokia with such ability. The resolution of TFT-matrix is 208x208 pixels, the same as in Nokia 6230i. The display became even more staunch to direct sunrays: you do not need to seek the right angle to see something.

That is how the display looks in the sun:

One of the problems of all image phones with smooth mirror-like surfaces is fingerprints left on it. Nokia 8800 is not an exception.

If one takes phone in hand naturally than a clearly seen fingerprint left by forefinger remains on the rear of the deck.

The main menu of Nokia 8800 is very much alike with that of Nokia 6230i both in appearance and in contents so we'll dwell on the peculiarities.

In Messages maximum size of MMS is increased to 300kb like in Nokia 6230i that means that user can send full-size photos, videotracks a.o . information if the carrier supports MMS of such size.

• sound profiles;
• menu themes (initially there are 5 of them);
• tones settings;
• display settings: wallpaper, screensaver, colour schemes (initially there are 8 of them), energy saving mode;
• time and date (automatic correction is possible);
• my shortcuts: allows to assign a function to the right soft key, navigation key, set voice commands;
• connectivity: Bluetooth, GPRS and their settings. Nokia 8800 supports Bluetooth sound transfer so that using wireless stereo headset (for instance Nokia HS-12W) one can listen MP3 and radio without being attached to the phone.

• call settings: redirection, receiving call with any key, redial, speech quality improvement (not very noticeable), quick dial, waiting mode a.o . settings;
• phone settings: menu language, automatic keypad block, security keypad block (you need a code to activate the keypad), memory state (there is no replaceable memory card, the phone uses built-in flash module 64Mb NAND. It should be mentioned that 64 MB is total memory capacity. Though, 52 Mb are available to a user, and part of it is already occupied with pictures, ringtones and applications. So initially the phone offers a bit more than 43Mb).
• other settings (enchancement, security, passwords etc.)

• Camera is described above;
• Media player opens and reproduces files. Has only one option – pause. That is why for listening MP3 you’d better use
• Music player: MP3 file can be listened through either headset or in-built speakerphone, also there’s an option for listening through Bluetooth. The player has options of showing track list indicating artist and title, shuffling, repeating (either one track or all of them), equaliser (that is not too effective). The speed of MP3 downloading through Bluetooth we had was about 58 kb/s which exeeds more than twice the download speed of Nokia 6230i. By the way MP3 file can be set as a ringtone.
• Radio: in all up to 20 radio stations can be tuned though you cannot record the music from broadcasting.
• Recorder: The maximum length of the fragment is unfortunately only one minute while in Nokia 6230i it is an hour. Also a phone call may be recorded.

• Alarm clock: can be set at any day of the week or singular date. As a tone standard sounds, radio, any downloaded melodies can be used.
• Calendar is rather usual. Synchronisation with to-do list is available. The week can start on Saturday, Sunday or Monday. There is weekly and monthly view.
• To-do list is thought over thoroughly. Here one can set term, priority (high, medium, low), done mark a.o .
• Notes
• Wallet a function that has already given a good account of itself in business class models. For it there is a specially allotted part of memorywith password
• Calculator besides usual operations can square and extract square root;
• Stopwatch: supports up to 20 intermediate values.

Initially there are three games installed: Golf, Races and Chess. The former two were used in Nokia 6230, whereas Chess has appeared for the first time. The game is designed rather nicely. Even on the easiest levels it makes deserving moves. Besides you can play with a partner through Bluetooth. There are also three applications: Translator, Converter II, Word Clock II.

Everything as usual. It should be noted that Nokia 8800 supports not only GPRS but also EDGE (class 8)

There is also a curious feature: the antenna attracts small metallic items:

Finally let's dwell on the phones ability to reproduce ring tones. The phone sounds really loud even louder than we expected. It supports MIDI (64 tone polyphony), MP3, AMR.

• Nokia 8800 phone
• Nokia Headset HS-15
• Nokia Desk Stand DT-8
• Nokia Suede Carrying Pouch CP-35
• Nokia Battery BL-5X (2)
• Nokia Travel Charger ACP-12
• User guide
• CD-ROM
• Nokia 8800 story booklet