Nokia 8800 Mobile Phone Review

After almost choking at the £600 SIM-free price tag.

Design

In Nokia’s defence, the 8800 is up there strutting its stuff on the mobile phone catwalk. With its high-shine stainless steel case hiding the keypad away, the overall appearance is one of high-class sophistication. The downside to the attractively shiny design is the weight. You can forget using the ‘a magpie stole it’ excuse when claiming on the insurance, because a magpie wouldn’t have a hope in hell’s chance of lifting this heap of metal. Another one to watch is the linen trouser or jacket pocket – the 134g would cause destruction for sure. On the plus side, the weight makes the Nokia 8800 good to hold with a sturdy feel. The sliding mechanism is an obvious area of expertise for Nokia, and this time they’ve got it spot on. You only have to stick your thumb in the grove and flick it upwards slightly before the spring mounted mechanism kicks in. Once open, the keys are rather boring and 2D, but they’re agreeably responsive. The length of the phone goes from an average 107mm when closed to an extended length of 140mm when open. When the phone is closed the two keys modestly situated below the screen allow you to answer and hold calls. The only other button on the casing of the Nokia 8800 is the discrete power button located at the top.

Once the phone is open you will see the camera lens on the underside of the upper casing. The camera offers a maximum image resolution of 800 x 600 pixels and lacks a flash or a self-portrait mirror – this left us wondering what we do get for our £600? The scratch-resistant screen is surrounded by a grey panel which reaches down to house the soft keys below. It also provides a clear and bright display with its 262k colours. A favourite feature of ours which is worthy of a few quid is the included desk stand which is also stainless steel and has a slot for charging the spare battery as well as the one in the phone.

When we saw the desk stand in the box with the PC synch software we assumed there would be a lead to connect to the PC, however there isn’t and Bluetooth has to take precedence on this occasion. The Nokia 8800 can be used as a music player and can also provide FM radio channels too. There is no automatic tuner so you’ll have to tune in your favourite channels manually. The included earphones disappointingly feature just a solo earbud, so you can forget listening to radio near busy traffic or when noise levels are high. You can use other earphones but you’ll need to make sure the wire is capable of acting an antenna. Saving your favourite MP3 files is an easy task to perform, but the 64MB memory will have to suffice as the Nokia 8800 lacks support for a memory card slot to expand your memory. Everything else comes as standard really, you’ll find all the usual suspects including a gaming trio, contacts, an organiser, etc.

• Nokia 8800 Mobile Phone
• 2 batteries (one spare)
• Suede cover
• Desk stand with slot to charge the spare battery

Nokia’s 8800 has been designed for the mobile phone strokers amongst us. Apart from the gorgeously contemporaneous design, there is absolutely no reason for charging £600 for it. It has all the mod cons in terms of phone applications and it provides good FM radio reception, a music player and internet browsing. Nokia has no excuse for charging £600 for a phone that provides bad call volumes, and solo earbud- type earphones, however all applications react quickly and as with everything Nokia – they are all easy-to-use. The average battery life is a major let down, but the spare battery overcomes this problem. If you’ve got a spare £600 knocking about at home and you want a good looking mobile phone, the Nokia 8800 is a great contender for the shortlist.