Nokia unveils the Nokia 8800 Arte duo

In a new artistic approach, Nokia has created the brand new Nokia 8800 Arte and Nokia 8800 Sapphire Arte. Made of exquisite materials they continue the tradition of the luxurious 8xxx-series but add something of their own too.

With "Arte" standing for "art", the new Nokia premium handsets both include some new design solutions plus some software and hardware innovations. The tap-for-time feature allows users to see the clock on the display of the new mobiles with a couple of gentle taps on the steel surface below the display. The living wallpaper, seen for the first time in Nokia 7900 Prism, which by the way is now available, is present here too. A unique silencing feature allows you to silence an incoming call just by turning the handset face down on the table thanks to the integrated accelerometer.

Nokia 8800 Arte

Traditionally, the 8800-series of Nokia are not known for their high-end characteristics, however the new Arte handsets are about to change that. Beside 3G functionality, the handsets also flaunt 3 megapixel cameras with auto focus. No memory card slot yet, but the 1GB of internal memory might just do the trick this time. All wired connectivity uses the integrated microUSB port.

The handsets are pretty much twins - the single substantial difference is the whole piece sapphire crystal used of the confirming center of the D-pad of the Nokia 8800 Sapphire Arte. The Nokia 8800 Arte, codenamed Gina, comes dressed in black, while the Nokia 8800 Sapphire Arte, codenamed Virginia, will be stylishly brown. Their panels are covered by goat hide from Eastern India, which is manually embossed and has several protective coats to prevent the daily wear-and-tear. The body of the Arte mobiles is again made by metal and glass much like the Nokia 8600 Luna. Supposedly, that glass and metal body should be covered with some top-secret anti-fingerprint coating, but we will believe that only after we see it with our own eyes.

Nokia 8800 Sapphire Arte

Both handset will ship with several interesting accessories such as the Nokia BH-803 Bluetooth headset, which features noise cancellation and touch sensitive volume control. Additionally each handset comes with a leather pouch with a linen-lining and a desk stand.

The Nokia 8800 Arte will start shipping by the end of 2007 with an estimated retail price of 1000 EUR before taxes and subsidies. The Nokia 8800 Sapphire Arte will follow in the first quarter of 2008 and will retail for approximately 1150 EUR before taxes and subsidies.