Once confined to the domains of aerospace and racing, titanium and carbon fibre is now found in more pedestrian applications - Yo Yo Ma’s carbon fibre cello may be an exception.
In the realm of racing, titanium offers better fatigue life while carbon fibre, its weight-saving qualities. Such materials aren’t strictly necessary when speed isn’t the name of the game, but together they can imbue a product – in this case Nokia’s 8800 Carbon Arte – with a higher level of class and build quality.
Nokia has succeeded in harnessing the visual qualities of both the materials to good effect. The grey of the titanium, which appears to have been anodized, blends perfectly with the carbon fibre panels, the polished glass screen and stainless steel trim.
As with all sliders, how the front panel moves to reveal the keypad is always of interest. In the Carbon Arte, notwithstanding the additional weight of the polished glass screen, it slides with confidence and on ball bearings – precise and taut. It would be interesting to see how this holds up over long term use.
Indeed, it’s the finer details that make this phone standout. Like how the keypad lights up row-by-row as you move the slider up and how it dims and fades out once it’s closed. Everything has been geared to exude class.
Its heft does make it feel snug to grasp, but the Carbon Arte is a tad small – perhaps more suited to elegant manicured hands of women in these ads. Consequently, it did feel cramped sliding the panel up or down with the thumb. Individually, the keys have been angled upwards to perhaps make it easier to hit the keys you actually want.
Beneath the metal and glass things remain unchanged with storage bumped up to 4GB from 1GB. It boasts 3G connectivity, a 3MP camera (video/still) and an OLED display.
Priced at 1100 euros, you can expect to see the Carbon Arte in the viewing suites of Europe’s F1 circuit.
