Nokia 8801 first look:

[Treatz]

Written by Treatz and Howard Chui 05.03.2005
http://www.howardchui.com/modules.ph...icle&artid=192

If there's one thing I've learned it's that some people will always like shiny metal objects. Whether it's a pen, a toaster, a car, shiny and metal are good. With that in mind Nokia's 8800/8801 is destined to follow in the popularity of the 8860 and 8890. 2 metal phones from Nokia that have built up quite a cult status. After all, despite being a 3 year old phone there are still people using the 8890. So let’s take a look and the Nokia 8800/8801 and my initial thoughts on the unit.
Please note the 8801 in this preview is a beta unit.

Physical Impressions:
Like the 8890 the 8801 has a metal casing with a sliding cover. However unlike the 8890 the 8801's feels like it's chassis contains a fair amount of metal and the slide is spring loaded so it opens and closes itself when you nudge it. The 8801's fit and finish is excellent. It doesn’t creak, crack or groan when pressure is applied to it. Take a look at the video on the main page.


The first thing that jumps out when you first pick the 8801 up is how solid it is. It weighs about 30 to 40% more than most phones which gives it a bit of heft.. It’s weight instantly denotes an object of value. All the people that handled the 8801 remarked something along the lines of: “Wow, this phone is nice and heavy” followed by, “The screen is also great”.


The 8801 has a 208x208 pixel screen that can display up to 262,000 colours. The screen is slightly larger than previous 128x128 Series 40 phones. For example the Nokia 6230 screen is 27mm x 27mm compared with the 8801's which is 30mm x 30mm and has a higher resolution than the 6170's display (208x208 vs 128x160).

Left to right Nokia 6230 (128x128), Nokia 8801 (208x208), Nokia 6170 (128x160)
The screen looks amazing and works well in all lighting condition. It almost looks more like a sheet of paper than a phone display.


In keeping with the 'shiny metal is good' theme, the 8801 comes in a stylish black box that's held together with a metal clip and includes some extras like a (mono) headset with a bit of metal on it, an extra battery, suede carrying case and a recharging stand (with a slot for the extra battery) that glows blue and is weighed down by metal.


The buttons are a little cramped but that's to be expected with such a small phone with a sliding cover. For those who are wondering the 'button' in the middle is actually just a textured 'grip' you can use to help slide the screen up. I was a little disappointed that the 8801 doesn't come with any side volume buttons.


The 8801 comes with a new battery BL-5X which has a capacity of 600mAh.

Hands-free usage:
The 8801 is equipped with a 2.5mm hands-free jack, a speaker phone (which works fairly well and is loud) and Bluetooth which allows you to use wireless headsets with the 8801. Unlike other recent Nokia phones, the 8801 does not have a pop port accessory connector.
The 8801 supports Bluetooth audio streaming. Unfortunately I don't have any devices to help test this feature out (it didn't work my with Bluetake iPhono).
As a side note, Nokia has finally used the Bluetooth “B” instead of that solid dot they had prior (check out the picture above).

Menus:

The 8801's menus look similar to the Nokia 6230's, etc but the 8801's display is 208 x 208 pixels compared to 128 x 128. What this means is that the 8801's menu looks very nice compared to the 6230's.


As far as multimedia goes, the 8801 has a built-in SVGA (800x600) camera. That's half a megapixel. The camera takes slightly better pictures than a good VGA camera.


Media
There is about 52MB of space available for music, games, videos, etc. There is no pop port connector at the bottom so you'll have to use Bluetooth to transfer music files. Speaking of music 52MB is enough for around 50 mins of CD quality in MP3 format or around 100 mins of music in AAC format. There is no expandable memory.


Stay tuned for our final review when we get our hands on a production Nokia 8801.
Treatz and Howard Chui 05.03.2005

[didouche]

NICE little review

[smc]

Thanks Treatz. I'm sure this will sell well in some markets. Great mini-review.

[rAfChOw]

Nice review treatz and Howard. Let's just hope Rogers carries this phone!

[B0000rt]

Half decent camera from that image, though I do notice a little blue fringing.

Charger looks elite too heh!

[rip]

Wirelessly posted (Blah BONK_FOO: BlackBerry7250/4.0.0 Profile/MIDP-2.0 Configuration/CLDC-1.1 UP.Browser/5.0.3.3 UP.Link/5.1.2.1 UP.Link/5.0.2.7a)

Hopefully the production units will have the 1MP camera they put in the 6230i...LISTEN UP Nokia !

[AndyVX]

Hopefully the production units will have a lot of things.

Better battery, a not so craptastic keypad, and of course... 8800/1 firmware.

[AndyVX]

Originally posted by rip
LISTEN UP Nokia !

You know they wont...

[kalok]

Nice review treatz,

but the "discuss" button on howardchui.com page is still linked to Motorola Forum.


kalok~

[cell_freak_16]

wow! thats hot!

[JwY]

that's awesome... wow
i've been saying that a lot lately haha

[Jack Black]

Cooool
Treatz is buddies with howard??

[FunkMeista]

Nice mini review treatz and Howard.

I love that charger! Hopefully the production units will have better picture quality as well.

[Treatz]

Originally posted by FunkMeista
Nice mini review treatz and Howard.

I love that charger! Hopefully the production units will have better picture quality as well.

I'll try and find some pics of this, but the Charger actually has a blue ring on the base that glows when charging.. it pulses. pretty trick.

[FunkMeista]

Originally posted by treatz
I'll try and find some pics of this, but the Charger actually has a blue ring on the base that glows when charging.. it pulses. pretty trick.

Whoa nice! Now theres a charger worth staring at for hours!

Pics would be