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Nokia 8801The Nokia 8801 has sky-high style with a price tag to match. Price: $699
by Mark Spoonauer 
It’s not as cool as Motorola’s iconic RAZR clamshell and it costs $500 more. Yet the Nokia 8801 is highly desirable in its own way, with a silky smooth stainless steel body, scratch-resistant LCD, and little elegant touches like the use of metal injection molding on the function keys, it’s easily the sexiest slider phone of the year, if not of all time. It’s so exclusive you can’t even buy it from a carrier; instead, you’ll have to purchase it directly from Nokia and then plug in a SIM card, which only adds to the 8801’s air of haute couture.
It may look compact, but the 8801 weighs a hefty 4.7 ounces due to the materials used. It’s easy to carry, and we love the satisfying click the phone makes when it glides open. Ergonomically, the hard keys on the dial pad have a more satisfying feel than the flat keys on the RAZR, but we’re not a fan of the 8801’s cramped layout. At 1.7 inches, Nokia’s display is smaller than the RAZR’s two-inch LCD, yet the 8801 packs more pixels into less real estate (making everything from pictures to the 3D animated screen savers pop off the screen). Beyond its A-List looks, the 8801 stands out because it boasts some of the most surreally distinct ringtones ever, which were created by award-winning composer Ryuichi Sakamoto. With names like Sketch and Dharma, you won’t find these aural treats for download anywhere else. If you like your music a little more mainstream, this slider can also play AAC and MP3 files. Unfortunately, you’re limited to 64MB of onboard memory and there’s no memory card slot. Like the RAZR, the 8801 has built-in Bluetooth for pairing a wireless headset, but this is the first cell to support the Advanced Audio Distribution Profile (A2DP). Using this profile, you can stream music over the air to a Bluetooth headset, as well as to a new breed of Bluetooth stereo headphones (see this month’s High Five on page 160), making the lack of memory all the more disappointing. You can do a few other things with Bluetooth if your laptop has a Bluetooth adapter. Once you’ve paired the 8801 with your notebook, you can synchronize your calendar, to-do lists, and contacts using Nokia’s PC Suite software, as well as swap images or MP3s. You can even use the 8801 as a wireless modem for your laptop, and the handset supports the EDGE standard for speeds up to 140 Kbps. The current RAZR uses pokey GPRS (40 to 60 Kbps) technology. Nokia beats Motorola once more when it comes to taking photos, but not by much. The 8801 captures images at 800 x 600 pixels, which is only a notch above the VGA resolution of the RAZR. Keep in mind that a megapixel version of the RAZR was rumored to be on its way as of press time. In our tests using a T-Mobile account, the 8801 delivered excellent sound quality during calls. The rated talk time is only three hours, but we got closer to five. Expect about six days of standby time on this tri-band GSM phone. Despite all of our comparisons to the most popular clamshell on the planet, the Nokia 8801 is in a league of its own because of its price tag. The handset’s exquisite design simultaneously brings the buzz back to Nokia while reeking of pretension. We’re assuming potential owners of the 8801 wouldn’t have it any other way. Compare Prices | Nokia 8801 Specifications
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