Nokia 8800 Arte and Sapphire Arte handsets

The menu system is standard Series 40 too, which will be familiar to millions of Nokia users – an icon-based grid set-up for main headings, with a variety of sub menus beneath. There are no extra side buttons for starting up the phone’s music player or camera.

The only socket is a microUSB connector at the base of the phone, used for charging, USB cable connection and earphones hook-up. At this price, it’s a bit rich – and puzzling - not getting a set of earphones in-box, particularly as there’s no standard-sized 3.5mm headphone socket to plug in your own headphones. Instead you’ll have to source a microUSB pair or microUSB to 3.5mm adapter to enjoy music properly.

Turning the handset over actually mutes incoming calls

The 8800 Arte and Sapphire Arte have 1GB of internal memory onboard, which you can load up with music, videos, images or other content. Unfortunately, though, that’s your memory limit – there’s no MicroSD card expansion slot. This is another unwelcome surprise for a high-priced mobile, particularly when even many budget phones now allow you to swap memory cards, and the price of MicroSDs 1GB and above is so affordable. There’s no radio on this model either – another head-scratcher when it’s available on lower-spec Nokias.

Putting aside the lack of memory card expansion and earphones (we used a spare Nokia set), the music player’s audio performance can be pretty good, with very acceptable tune-playing ability. Tracks are organised into regular categories (playlists, artists, albums, genres, videos) and there are the standard Nokia Series 40 music player settings options, including equalizer adjustment.

Copying tracks is simple too, using the (supplied) USB cable and a PC with Nokia PC Suite software or dragging and dropping with the phone in data storage mode. You can also download and stream music or videos over the air rapidly via a mobile network portal, thanks to the 3G connectivity. Bluetooth is another file transfer option.

You’d expect a high-class camera performance with a top-end phone. The 8800 Artes has a 3.2-megapixel camera with autofocus, so you can achieve some sharp and detailed shots.