Nokia 8800 Sirocco review: Luxury redefined

Sirocco is currently the most expensive Nokia model on the market. It has a sapphire protecting glass and glossy steel panels; among its standard accessories are a leather case, two batteries, a earphone, a Bluetooth handsfree, and a cleaning cloth. Apparently, future owners of Nokia 8800 Sirocco will be happening to rarely run one into another if ever: the reason? Nokia 8800 Sirocco costs a good deal of money.

 
Two color versions of Nokia 8800 Sirocco

Key features

• luxurious design
• body made of glossy steel
• display protected by a sapphire glass
• fine TFT display with 262K colors
• special ringtones and themes
• 2-megapixel camera
• EDGE
• Bluetooth
• extensive, high-quality accessories in the retail package

Main disadvantages

• high price
• no memory card slot
• EDGE and GPRS of Class 8
• no system connector
• few innovations as to the forerunner Nokia 8800

 
Nokia 8800 Sirocco

Rich managers in gleaming limousines, celebrities, businessmen, directors and all kinds of important social figures need toys, and, out of principal, these are usually supposed to be expensive. Nokia is one of the mobile manufacturers that has been constantly meeting such requirements for plenty of years now, launching one model after another within the so called 8-line. You surely remember the 8910 model as well as the following improved one 8910i; two years later Nokia 8800 hit the market. Today we’ve got a new jewel - Nokia 8800 Sirocco Edition.

Like a bottle of exquisite wine

The new Nokia 8800 Sirocco is wrapped up just like a highly expensive bottle of wine: in a black box made of solid cardboard, whose top is held by a silver clip with the polished number 8800 and the words Sirocco Edition. In the first level of the box I found a flint-paper brochure assuring the new owner how bright their idea of buying Nokia 8800 Sirocco has been. Along with the handset the package includes a great amount of high-class accessories.

 
An exclusive phone needs an exclusive packaging

Size modifications in Nokia 8800 Sirocco as to the classical 8800 model are insignificant. Sirocco is just by a millimeter thicker. The resulting measures are: 107 x 45 x 17.5 mm. Due to the mass of the used materials, however, the phone weighs 138 grams.

 
The phone in palm

 
Size comparison with a credit card

When closed, the phone has a rather minimalist design, much like its forerunner. The keypad is invisible; surfaces are even and glossy. Holding the steel-covered Nokia 8800 Sirocco in palm is a pleasant experience, but constant cleaning is simply inevitable. If you ignore this duty, you would get ashamed rather than be admired as fingerprints appear immediately and could hardly remain unnoticed. That is why, the manufacturer has enclosed a dark-brown clothe, which you should always keep with you.

 
Glossy steel-made panels remind mirrors

 
Fingerprints stick firmly to the panels • cleaning clothe

The click

Nokia 8800 Sirocco looks very compact and solid. Closing mechanism works superbly. Much like its forerunner, Nokia 8800 Sirocco features a specific sliding construction and any new user will need some time to get used to managing its mechanism. Most of my colleagues would try to take to the hollow in the panel covering the keypad and push downwards. Instead, you have to simply place your thumb a bit higher, on the shaped silver jag and press upwards. The display slides up and out together with the entire keypad. End-locks are accompanied by a pleasant metal-like click reminding the sound given out by the Zippo lighters. The movements in both ways are smoothened and eased by strong springs.

Jag for the thumb

 
Sliding mechanism works seamlessly

The phone has no side keys. Here you will only find parts of the rear panel locks. When being removed, the rear panel moves on pretty long and tiny rails, contributing to the overall solidness of the phone body. The panel is made of steel too, of course. Beneath it you will find a small Lithium-Ion battery of the BP-6X type specially made for this phone. According to the official statements it provides power for up to 240 hours of stand-by or up to 165 minutes of call time. After having removed the back panel, I started to look for a memory card slot, but I could not find any even though Nokia had originally promised to implement one – a drawback that we once criticized in Nokia 8800 and that - to our great disappointment – appears in the new model too.

  
All-side view

  
Removing the back panel • the panel is made of steel

Battery and SIM bed

On its back Nokia 8800 Sirocco has another hollow, shallower than the one on the front. The phone is equipped with a 2 megapixel camera, whose lens is located untraditionally behind the display and remains hidden and protected when the handset is closed. The lens pops out when the upper part of the body slides up.

 
Back panel lock • handle plate on the back

 
The camera lens is hidden

On the very top of the body you will see the main on/off button, which also allows for instant selection and activation of profiles when the phone is on. The bottom of the device is occupied by the charger and the earphone slot. Nokia has abandoned the idea about a standard Pop-Port, supposedly due to the curves of this part of the phone. Hence, take into account that any synchronization or file transfers will only be possible via wireless connection, that is, slowly.

 
Main on/off button and the loud speaker • there is no standard Pop-Port