Veerle's blog

A while ago Donna of Nokia WOM world sent me a Nokia 8800 Carbon Arte to try out. From what I understand, it is a premium phone that uses high end materials. My current phone was a Sony Ericsson K750i that I have been using a few years. It’s not a bad phone, but I only use it to make or take a call and on occasion taking a picture.

Expectations

Donna also mailed me a link (flash site so I can't directly link to the movie) to watch a video about the device so I would know what to expect. After watching the Nokia 8800 Arte inspiration video I must admit that I had very high expectations of how this phone would feel and look like.

The specs

• High end materials
• 3G/Tri-Band
• 420x320 OLED Display
• 4GB Internal Memory
• Bluetooth
• 3.2 Megapixel Camera
• Battery: 3h talk/300 standby
• Extras: Leather case, Bluetooth handsfree and table stand/dock.

The package

It all starts with the package, because in my humble opinion that's a part of the experience. I always love receiving new things from Apple just because of that. The Nokia phone arrived in a branded handbag with a black box inside. The outside box of this Nokia is black and looks stylish but once you are past the flap with the phone in wireframe shape the experience falls short, it breaks with the high end image of the phone. You immediately notice the lack of attention to detail when it comes to unwrapping. Once the box is open there aren't any details I'm afraid and it feels like that they just had to get everything in there.

The design

I'm a sucker for products that show that design was important because that creates an emotion along the way. However I must admit that I didn't know anything about this device. I didn't know of what material it was made of or what technology it used etc. The tricky part with setting high expectations is that it is hard to live up to them. The look of the phone is very modern and slick and it feels good in your hand. A little bit on the heavy side but nothing that could be viewed as negative. The weight just reinforces the superior build quality. The phone has sleek curves and a minimalist surface that is engineered from carbon fibre, stainless steel, polished glass and titanium. Carbon fibre is a strong and light material and it is that part that creates the weave pattern found on the device.

The design of the primary buttons have a minimalist style which makes its function less clear at first sight. The left and right buttons look like they are one button, but they are two functions. Sometimes I accidentally pushed them wrong. The back button is so close to the other button. Then I end up somewhere else, like back at the main menu. It often meant starting over what I was doing, which is a bit frustrating. The design lives up to the expectations of the video. The only thing that was different was that I had the idea that the woven pattern could be felt when touching it, but that's not the case.

Bluetooth headset

In the package you'll also find a Bluetooth headset that works by touching the silver band to answer the call. Pairing the headset was not to complicated but less user friendly than setting up the Apple Bluetooth headset with the iPhone, where everything happens without interference from the user. Audio quality was super and the headset worked flawlessly.

Desk stand & leather case

I have to admit that it is stylish desk stand that feels very robust and impressively weighty. It has a light stripe at the bottom that illuminates when the phone is charging, those are the kind of details that I like to see. Another good inclusion is the leather case with a handy strip mechanism that assists you when you take the phone out of the case.

Usability

A good design only works when accompanied by a good user experience. Because of this phone being a high end model I had equal expectations in using it. The slide mechanism works good and feels solid but I had the urge to use the main button in the center when sliding the phone open. Not a good idea because you activate things that way. To me it felt like the design told me to use that instead of just putting your fingers on the glass. Audio quality is really good and when you play songs on it through the speakers there is even a bass. Pretty remarkable. The included ring tones and sounds sounded very professional. The display was bright and text, video and photos look sharp on it. The biggest let down was using the display in direct sunlight. This made it completely unusable.

The battery icon confused me too, I mean the empty part versus charged part of the icon. It worked the opposite way of my Sony Ericsson K750i and because of that I was reading it wrong at first. The text of the primary buttons on screen sometimes differ in size which I find weird and inconsistent. When you send a text message, it took me a bit of time to figure out how I could add my contact in the contact field. You need to use the central navigation button for this, choose 'Contacts' and then enter the 1st letter of the contact.

The camera

Recording a movie or taking pictures works relatively easy, though I lost about 10 minutes figuring out how the zoom worked. The reason of that was a mistake in the manual, it said you have to use left and right instead of up and down.

Quality of the pictures is very good even under though conditions. The biggest frustration is finding the right spot to change the preferences. It is all over the place and inconsistant. You would guess to find it under camera but you had to change them under the global prefs of the phone. Movie quality isn't that great but good for a phone.

Surfing the web

This phone doesn't have WiFi so you have to resort to 3G. You have two ways to get on the web with this phone; one is via the web icon in the menu and the other is via Opera Mini. The web way is using a built-in browser and looks more like WAP than the real Internet. This way worked as aspected and on first try. It is just good to browse around and look at text, nothing more. To be honest, I would never used it because it doesn't make a good browsing experience. After this I thought why not try out Opera Mini because I've heard good things about it. As soon as I load Opera Mini on this device the application says the setup has failed and that a test needs to be run to figure out what connection to use. Strange thing, because the 3G works just fine with the other browser that I just tried. The setup is correct too, because I got an SMS from my provider Proximus with all the right settings in place. No matter how many times I tried and let the test run, Opera Mini wouldn't work on this phone and I'm sure the 3G was working like it should because I could browse with the other application.

Conclusion

A cool design, but a spotty operating system. This phone didn't make my K750i feel dated or difficult to use. I would even say that the K750i was easier and more logical. They both suffer from the typical phone interface that makes me hate using a phone from time to time. For me personally the user experience of this operating system doesn't match the high end expectations of the phone. When you pay 1.100 Euro I expect a lot more. It makes the 615 Euro of the iPhone 3G feel like a bargain. Another annoyance was that it didn't work with Mac. So if you want to sync your contacts, music, and photos you are out of luck. Luckily Mac OS X mounted the device on the desktop so that I could copy the pictures and movies. Nokia has ignored Mac users for ages and I believe that will cost them. Even if they would come out now with software it would feel like a little too late and a forced move because of the iPhone.

Oh and before I forget in the movie they mentioned touch sensitive but that turned out to be just a double tap to see a clock. It didn't work very well and it feels like a joke compared to the iPhone. I only started using the iPhone 3G after I mailed the Nokia back, did that deliberately to not influence my judgment. To conclude, I won't miss it and now that I used the iPhone I wouldn't want to go back at any price. Now I know what I have been missing, so much easier to use and works flawlessly together with my Mac. I guess I am not the target person for the Nokia 8800 after all.

PS: My Sony Ericsson K750i is for sale, 70 Euro and it is yours :) Belgian people only sorry.