Nokia 8800 – Martin's Quick Review

The Nokia 8800 was billed as the best and most luxurious of phones before its release. On first glance, it certainly looks that way. The stainless steel cover gives it an aura of magnificence that not many other phones have. This effect is not lost on the black version either. The casing makes it appear upmarket and expensive, even if the slider is plastic to prevent accessibility problems further down the line, but this only lasts as long as it takes you to scratch the phone. With the black one, this isn’t so much of a problem, but the silver version actually scratches so easily that it is unlikely to be in perfect condition a day after you purchase it.

Aesthetically, the Nokia 8800 is sound. The screen itself is bright and displays 262,000 colours in all their glory. The resolution is probably not as high as it could have been at 208x208 pixels but does the job as well as any other Nokia model. The buttons are directly underneath the screen and are protected by the slider. They are easy enough to use and ensure that menu navigation is one of the phone’s strong points.

The features of the Nokia 8800 appear comprehensive on paper. All the usual suspects are present in bluetooth, XHTML browser, GPRS, MP3 capability, FM radio and a camera, although it is only 0.5Megapixels, which is infinitely less capable than similar models. The pictures are of a fairly good quality but if this is a particular feature that you require then there are better phones out there

The Nokia 8800 may look good and feel good to use, but the appearance does not detract from its substantial faults. The fact that it comes with a spare battery should be a plus, but then it should also alert you to the fact that it is there for a reason. The battery life is a let down, lasting roughly 1 1/2 hours of call time. The storage space is also poor purely because you cannot supplement it. The 64MB of storage is good enough for photos but not for music thus there is nowhere to put the tunes you want to listen to. Not that you would want to listen to songs the poor sound quality that this phone has.

There are very few redeeming features of the Nokia 8800. The connectivity is good, as is the loading speed of the menus. The games on the phone are also quite pleasant to play because of an enhanced imaging feature. Unfortunately, apart from looking the part, that is about it.

In summary, the Nokia 8800 is the red herring of the phone world. It promised so much but delivers little because so much emphasis was placed on the appearance rather than the features. It does look the part, but what is the good in that if you can’t use it?

There are much better phones with good packages available at numerous online mobile phone shops. Several are even available with 12 months of free line rental. It's always worth looking around on the web before purchasing a new handset.