This stainless-steel luxury slider boasts the looks of a Porsche and some high-end features under the hood. But is it really worth $800?
Review summary of the Nokia 8801:
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 There’s no doubt that the Nokia 8801 is one of the most elegant handsets we’ve ever tested, and we love its impressive syncing options, robust music player and bright display. But this stainless-steel gem is starting to show its age, especially when it comes to its sub-par camera and missing memory expansion, and it’s saddled with a staggering price tag and poor battery life. Release: July 2005. Price: $400.
Pros: Gorgeous stainless-steel shell; eye-popping display; excellent connectivity and synchronization; strong music player with FM radio
Cons: Heavy for its size; no external volume rocker; middling messaging options; short standby time; so-so camera quality; no memory expansion; pricey
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Full review of the Nokia 8801:
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Released last year, the Nokia 8801 is clearly designed for the conspicuous consumer. With its stainless-steel shell, clean design, upscale features and sky-high price, the 8801 (available through Nokia’s Web site, but not yet through a U.S. carrier) would be right at home in James Bond’s hand as he saunters up to the bar for another martini. But while the 8801’s high-flying style hasn’t aged, its features are starting to wear a bit (especially in the camera department) and it’s plagued by weak battery life.
Style to spare
Calling the 8801 the Porsche of cell phones is a great marketing line, but it also rings true. With its sleek lines and stainless-steel curves, the 8801 cuts a fine figure, and its tapered profile provoked unmistakable pangs of envy from our friends and neighbors. The minimalist design is almost too effective; bereft of obvious buttons or controls, we fumbled with the phone for about 30 seconds before figuring out how to slide it open (just push up on the ridge below the LCD, and the entire display assembly – plus the keypad – slides out).
While the 8801 makes for the perfect accessory while playing a high-stakes game of baccarat in your tuxedo, it will feel heavy as a brick in your pocket. Measuring 4.2 by 1.8 by 0.7 and tipping the scales at 4.7 ounces, the 8801 is thin enough to slip in a suit-jacket pocket, but if you’re planning on any running or jumping (as international men of mystery are wont to do), prepare for some bruises.
Dazzling display
We have no complaints about the 8801’s brilliant, 265,000-color TFT LCD. Armed with a razor-sharp 208 by 208-pixel resolution, the 1.75-inch display looks gorgeous; our snapshots appeared rich and detailed on the LCD, with no pixel lines in sight. Nokia’s animated menus look presentable, but they’re starting to show their age compared to the latest high-end handsets.
The 8801’s jet-black, backlit keypad shares the phone’s overall good looks, but the keys themselves are a little small for our taste, and the bottom row of keys is especially cramped. And in a slick yet confusing design move, Nokia hid the soft keys on the thin horizontal ridge that opens the phone; consequently, we kept mistaking the talk and end keys (which sit right below the thumb ridge) for the soft keys, making for many UI wrong turns. We also wish Nokia hadn’t sacrificed the standard volume rocker on the side of the phone (instead, you must tap the navigational mouse to tweak the volume during calls).
Under the hood, the tri-band 8801 comes loaded with 64MB of shared internal memory, EDGE support for 2.5G data transfers, and Bluetooth (complete with headset, file transfer and dial-up networking profiles). Not bad, but for a phone this hefty we would have expected a memory-expansion slot, especially considering the 8801’s music capabilities.
So-so messaging options
The 8801’s messaging options are relatively weak – for now, that is. While the phone is geared up to handle instant messaging and POP/IMAP e-mail, the unlocked version we tested didn’t have those functions enabled (although WAP IM and e-mail services are bookmarked in the browser). As it stands, you’re restricted to SMS and MMS messaging, which is pretty disappointing. We can only hope T-Mobile bolsters the 8801’s messaging abilities when (and if) it adds the phone to its handset lineup.
On the other hand, the phone’s synchronization abilities are excellent. The 8801 comes bundled with a suite of utilities that let you establish a Bluetooth link between the phone and your PC; sync your contact, calendar, and other PIM info; transfer MP3s and AACs (or even rip music from a CD) to the phone’s memory; back up all phone info to your PC; automatically save images and videos to your PC on each connection; create wallpapers and ringtones; and more. Installing the suite on our PC was a breeze, and we were soon syncing contacts, transferring music and downloading images with ease. Nicely done.
Speaking of music, the phone comes with a relatively strong music player, complete with shuffle and repeat options, as well as something we wish we’d see more of in other phones: a five-band equalizer, including five presets (pop, rock, jazz, classical, and flat) and two user-defined modes. Still listen to FM radio? The 8801’s FM tuner boasts 20 presets, although there’s no auto preset programming or FM recording. The media player is considerably more stripped down, and does little more than play ringtones and videos shot with the built-in camcorder.
Murky snapshots
The 8801’s SVGA camera is a bit of a disappointment, delivering colorful but murky snapshots, even considering its so-so resolution. The camera comes with a mixed bag of features, including a night mode, a 10-second self timer, 4X digital zoom and resolutions ranging from 800 x 600 to 120 x 144; missing from the list, however, is an LED flash. The camera also doubles as a video recorder, shooting QCIF-format clips up to an hour in length (depending on how much phone memory is available). Our video clips looked juttery and muddy – which is to say, standard for a phone video recorder.
Calling options on the 8801 are good: you get a speakerphone, five-way conference calling, voice dialing and memos. The address book holds 250 contacts on the SIM card and as many in phone memory as space allows.
The 8801’s browser is a cut above those we’ve seen in other handsets. With its xHTML browsing abilities, the browser can pull down non-mobile Web pages that most WAP-only browsers can’t touch. We had no trouble scrolling down long Web pages, and the phone’s EDGE capabilities made for relatively speedy (if not turbo-charged) surfing.
We tested the tri-mode (GSM 850/1800/1900) 8801 in New York City; our calls sounded loud and clear, and our buddies said they couldn’t tell we were talking on a cell phone. The Nokia stumbled in our battery testing, however; while it scored more than three hours of talk time, it only rated about three days of standby time, far fewer than the eight days promised by Nokia.
Comparison
Compare the Nokia 8801 with similar products
Price and availability
Available in the U.S. (T-Mobile) in July 2005, the Nokia 8801 is priced at $400 to $600.
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