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Nokia 8800 Arte and Sapphire Arte handsets

Aimed squarely at the money-is-no-object mobile buyer

Although the 8800 Arte and Sapphire have 3G onboard they don’t do face-to-face video calling – their smooth fascias are unbroken by secondary front-facing cameras. The 8800 Arte comes in glossy black with tasteful chrome trim, while the Sapphire version is predominantly bronze and brown leather with chrome edging.

The first thing you notice when you handle the 8800 Arte-class is that they are much heavier than you'd expect – 150g at a normal phone size of 109 x 45.6 x 14.6mm, so they have an exceptionally solid feel. You may expect a reassuringly well-built phone for the price, but it is a real pocket-sagger, particularly for a relatively standard-functioning phone.

Nokia 8800 Sapphire Arte (right) and Arte (left)

Niether the 8800 Arte (left) and Sapphire Arte (right) have front-facing cameras

The slider mechanism is top drawer, smooth as you like with a light spring action, and it makes a satisfying ‘clunk’ opening and closing. Closed, the lower part of the phone introduces a novel Nokia tap-to-see clock feature, a typically low-key way of checking time on an analogue clock face. Similarly unassuming, you can also mute an incoming call alert simply by turning the phone face down – a subtle way of dismissing unwanted calls.

Glide open the phone by thumbing up the display and the numberpad appears. The keys are nicely designed to make the most of a limited area – simply arranged and slightly curved to feel separate from each other.

Above these sit the phone’s main navigation D-pad and control keys; they appear backlit when the phone’s active, but are otherwise invisible. Minimalist it might be, but the button action is all standard issue Nokia Series 40, with the D-pad flanked by softkeys and Call and End buttons. The display is a bright, 2in QVGA (320 x 240 pixels) 16-million colour OLED screen; it uses the latest display technology but doesn’t offer any more screen real estate than other more junior Nokia Series 40 phones.

You could use Nokia’s Active Standby menu option, for easy fast-key access to features, notes and calendar reminders - but the default mode for this is off, presumably to maintain the minimalist look of its custom-made themes. You can still program your own shortcuts for the D-pad and softkeys, though.

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