Nokia 8800 review: Exclusivity costs

MP3 - yes, but you won't enjoy it very much

There is a universal media player in the phone menu. You'll find also a music player. In practice it doesn't differ much from the usual classic player and works with MP3 and AAC formats. You may create your own play lists; there is a simple equalizer with different choices - rock, pop...

Multimedia menu • sound settings

The playback can be random or repeated. There is a way to play all music records available in the phone. In this case the phone looks in the music files folder, so you have to put all MP3 files here.

The playback quality is quite high, but however can't reach the quality of classic MP3 players or Sony Ericsson W800 for example. Delightful is the option of functioning player while scrolling around trough phone's menu and working with it normally. The songs will follow according to the positioning of the playlist; in stand-by mode the names are alternating together with the date.

I have already indicated that it's a great pity that the connector is only minijack type, so you cannot connect classic headphones. The enclosed handsfree is good for calling, but is not enough for listening to quality music. Nokia obviously expects that the client, who can afford such a phone wouldn't care about quality listening of MP3 from the phone. He would buy himself a classic player instead. Especially about the mentioned Sony Ericsson W800 we can see that such a decision is not the right one at all. On the other side is the fact that 8800 doesn't have a memory card slot, so the usage of the music player would not be frequent.

Universal headphones are not delivered with the phone, only one of the ears would be pleased

Notice: In order to avoid the frequently aksed questions about the operating of Nokia 8800 as a MP3 player, I will explain it right away.The Nokia 8800 has 64 MB of total integrated memory; the real amount of memory which can be used for music files is under 50 MB, not really enough for a MP3 player.

The radio is the same as in the ex-models of Series 40, no changes are made. You may store up to 20 stations; the automatic search is working reliable.

What am I going to do this weekend?

You may store five types of events in the calendar - meetings, calls, birthdays, memos and reminders. A memo can be up to 160 signs. You may set an automatic delete operation according to the time; you may set repeating events. The records are displayed according to the choice in a monthly, weekly or daily view. You may choose the day which the calendar week begins with.

Calendar with reminders

The organizer offers a To-do application also. You may set the desired items in a low, normal or high priority and check off the tasks after execution. Next are the notes. They can be 3000 symbols long; hardly anybody will use this capacity.

To-do list

The alarm clock won't disappoint you even when the phone is turned off. It offers snooze function with custom setting of the delay. You may be waken up by a classic ring, radio or by your favourite MP3.

The classic stopwatch, countdown timer and calculator are parts of the menu. You'll find three games in the applications - Street Race competition, the grassy Golf Tour and the intellective Chess. Here is also a currency converter, an option of displaying the time zones in the world cities and a plain dictionary.

Example with the prepared games

At the end I will mention the dictaphone, which you can use also for recording a running conversation. It is limited to the completely satisfactory 60 minutes.

Class 8 only

The internet browser allows browsing simple web sites. The phone can be used as a modem and you can connect to the internet trough it. I am sorry to say - only trough Bluetooth. Data speeds are not the best ones, which the Finns could offer. Nokia 8800 supports EDGE, but together with GPRS the two technologies are Class 8. I can't figure out a rational reason why Class 10 has not been implemented.

A pack PC Suite is prepared for synchronization with a PC, which besides with the organization units and the address book can also work with logos, melodies and pictures.

Created for a special target group

Nokia 8800 is a phone very similar to the 6230i model. The Nokia models leader is based above all on design, exceptionality and exclusiveness. I must add that 8800 met the expectations to the last word.

The new owner may be sure that he will rarely meet another one with the same phone in his hands. Shortly after, he might regret only for the reason that Nokia didn't finalize some details for a full satisfaction. Such as - the lack of memory card, the need of non-stop cleaning of the metal body and the slides, the lack of good handsfree and the lack of system connector.

The current price of 8800 is 800 euro. You can be sure that there won't be massive price cuts like Motorola did with their Razr V3. Nokia 8800 will keep its price, this is the wish of the manufacturer, the exclusiveness will back up on and there will be no change. The previous Nokia models of this class didn't wait the sellouts in the supermarkets. So everyone who wants exclusiveness, take 800 euro with you and go to the shop. For all the rest 6230i will be enough.

Standard package

• Phone
• Handsfree
• Spare battery
• A table charger with a place for the phone and the second battery
• A classic charger
• A pouch
• CD with the relevant software
• User's manual