Nokia 8800

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http://reviews.cnet.co.uk/mobiles/0,39030107,39191529,00.htm

Reviewed 15 August 2005

Reviewed by Sandra Vogel

If being understatedly stylish is at the top of your handset wishlist, then Nokia's 8800 might call out to you. Its stainless steel casing and lack of an immediately visible keypad are the first signs that style is integral. The sliding mechanism that extends the handset's length and reveals the keypad brings it home.

But this is not a pocket-money handset. We found it SIM-free for a jaw-dropping £600 and the best contract price (as of August 2005) was £340 on a £20 per month contract.

Design
The trade-off of the Nokia 8800's sleek steel finish is its weight. At 134g this handset weighs about 33 per cent more than is typical for a regular handset. The weight adds a certain gravitas to the Nokia 8800, but you'll certainly feel it in your pocket.

The sliding mechanism is a thing of beauty. There's a ridge beneath the screen which you flick with your thumb. You only need to push this about halfway towards full extension before the handset takes over and completes the job. This extending facility means the handset puts on a sudden, teen-like growth spurt, going from 107mm to 140mm in height when you need to use the keypad. This makes it very tall for a mobile, but it does feel sturdy in the hand during calls.

It's only when you've extended the phone that you can see the camera lens, which sits on the upper back of the casing. Its specifications are the first sign that, for all its expensive price and flashy looks, the Nokia 8800 isn't state of the art. There's no flash and no self-portrait mirror, and the maximum image resolution is 800x600 pixels.

There isn't a dedicated button to launch the camera, though the up section of the navigation button does the trick when the keyboard is visible. In fact, largely because of the need to accommodate the sliding system (and to deliver the sleek looks), the only button on the edges of the casing is a very discreet power switch on the top edge. In addition there are two buttons on the front that are visible and usable with the Nokia 8800 in its closed position. These are the two softkeys, heavily disguised as style features, and they sit under the screen. You can use these to answer calls without bothering to open the handset, and to put a call on hold. Sliding the keypad away closes whatever application you are using at the time.

The screen is very small, but its 262K colours are vibrant and clear, and the material used is scratch-resistant, so you should be able to keep it looking like new for some time.

The sliding mechanism means the battery cover is fiddly to remove, and there isn't quite as much room as usual for the battery itself, which is necessarily rather small. You get a spare battery in the box, along with a suede pouch to keep the 8800 scratch-free. Nokia also provides a desk stand, complete with a slot to charge the spare battery.

The 8800 comes with a matching desktop stand

Features
While the Nokia 8800 has a definite less-is-more visual appeal, the camera isn't the only feature to which less-is-more also applies.

For example, you get a mono earbud. This despite the fact that the Nokia 8800 has a music player and FM radio built in, and an equaliser, all of which lend themselves to stereo listening. You can use a replacement headset, but it needs to be able to function as an antenna. Nokia suggests its own wireless HS-12W, but you'll be adding another FM radio if you choose this option. This might not be a bad thing, because the HS-12W's radio has RDS and automatic channel search, neither of which are on the radio built into the Nokia 8800.

Another disappointment is the memory. There is 64MB built in, which sounds fairly good, but after performing a hard reset we had just 43.7MB free. That's not too bad for a current handset, but you can't expand on it because there's no memory-card support.

A final gripe is that while you get software for PC synchronisation and file transfer, you'll need to use the handset's built-in Bluetooth to connect to your PC, as there's no cable provided. This may involve the additional expense of adding Bluetooth to your PC.

It's not all doom and gloom. Web browsing was easy -- the handset has configuration settings built in for UK operators, and our T-Mobile SIM was set up with a couple of button presses. Web pages look clear and sharp, though we had to do lot of horizontal scrolling.

Extra applications include a nifty data converter and three games -- Golf, Chess and Street Racer, all of which are fun, and the standard fare of Contacts, Organiser, messaging and call management all worked smoothly enough.

Performance
Call audio was, if anything, on the quiet side, but general quality was good. Radio reception quality was fine, and the Nokia 8800's loudspeaker delivered well, though both through the speaker and earbud there was distortion at the highest volume setting. A bundled stereo headset would have made a huge difference.

Battery life seemed average, though we were able to get by without needing to carry the spare cell with us. If you do a lot of talking, the spare may come in handy, because Nokia reckons you'll get between just 1.5 to 3 hours of talk on a charge.

Edited by Mary Lojkine
Additional editing by Nick Hide

Thanks to Expansys for providing a review sample of this phone