Luxury In Interaction: The Nokia 8800 Arte
The Nokia 8800 Arte is not only a beautiful piece of gadgetry, but also marks great progress in the way we interact with our electronic devices. Find out what is it about this phone that has made us fans.
The Nokia 8800 Arte is the latest model of the range-topping 8800 series. Looking very similar to the 8800 Sirocco, the Arte has nevertheless a worthy successor, having integrated numerous interesting features within its metal-clad body. We take a close look at this device.
Design
The 8800 Arte is sleekness personified. All its surfaces are of a lusciously dark metallic sheen, and light reflects off its subtle curves easily.
Very little serves to clutter the minimalist design. All buttons are well-integrated into the side of the case, and at the bottom of the phone, a single Mini-USB port serves both earphones and charger.
The keypad is beautifully designed, with its subtle louvre-shape making it very easy to use despite its small size.
In recent years, sliders have become very a common form factor in mobile phones, but in the 8800 series, Nokia really gets it right. In most slider phones, there is a sliding cover that covers the keypad. In the 8800 however, the keypad forms part of the slider, thus the buttons are much more comfortable to use when the opened phone is held in the hand. This in our opinion is truly great industrial design.
The main design difference between the 8800 Arte and the older 8800 Sirroco is that the main control panel is accessible even when the phone slider is closed. This does give it an unbalanced look when closed (as compared to the Sirroco), but we feel that the resulting functionality is well worth it as you can easily pick up a call or read an SMS without sliding open the phone.
