Nokia Unveil 8800 Arte and 8800 Sapphire Arte 3G Slider Cell Phones

In a press release made available today, Nokia have announced their new 8800 Arte and 8800 Sapphire Arte 3G slider cell phones which, according to Heikki Norta, Vice President of Nokia Mobile Phones, serve to ‘set the benchmark for quality and craftsmanship’ thanks to their seamless surfaces and minimalist design, and which are due to become available before the end of the year – the Nokia 8800 Sapphire Arte – and in the first quarter of 2008 – in the case of the 8800 Arte.

Boasting a seamless metal and glass body, both the Nokia 8800 Arte and the 8800 Sapphire Arte offer distinctive a neo-classical appeal fused with innovative features like the ability to silence the handsets by merely turning them over to lay face down – a nice touch.

We also like the fact that the 8800 handsets will also come preloaded with an exclusive video soundtrack compilation from none other than Kruder & Dorfmeister (of whom we consider ourselves fans) which, along with the fact that these units will ship with Nokia’s BH-803 Bluetooth headset, is bound to add to the hype that will inevitably accompany the staggered release of these two units.

As far as specifications are concerned, the 8800’s offer a 2.0” QVGA 240 x 320 resolution 16K colour OLED display, a 3.2 megapixel camera with auto-focus and 8x digital zoom (not that digital zoom is anything to get excited about), Micro SD expandibility to suppliment a whopping 1GB of internal memory and an anti-fingerprint coating on both the units metal and glass surfaces.

So, all in all, let’s be honest here, Nokia’s 8800’s hardly push the boundaries as far as cutting edge technologies are concerned, but, having read Nokia’s press release, it comes across loud and clear that these handsets have patently been designed to appeal from a stylistic perspective rather more so than from a breaking technologies standpoint.

Looking for a slightly more precious N8800 Arte? See Heyerdahl Nokia N8800 Diamond Limited Edition Cell Phone [Diamond Encrusted Nokia N8800 Arte Gets Bling Appeal].