Nokia
8800e Sapphire Arte

This phone was the second device in Nokia’s Arte series of high-end luxury phones. The first was the 8800 Arte, which was only available in black. The Sapphire Arte followed and future variants were the Carbon Arte, which introduced carbon fibre and titanium, and finally the Gold Arte which was plated with 18-carat gold. The 8800 Sapphire Arte, which went on sale in February 2008, had faux leather on the rear cover and the lower part of the sliding front cover. The sider was carefully engineered using a ball-bearing mechanism to deliver a super-smooth motion when it was opened and closed. The standard navigation button on the 8800 was replaced with a sapphire stone, which gave the device its name. At 150 grams it was considered weighty for what was essentially a small sliding phone, but this merely served to reinforce its quality feel. The phone had a 1GB internal memory, which was a very large capacity compared to other phones at the time. One shortcoming was the lack of a 3.5mm headset jack, but in some markets such as the UK, it was shipped with a mono Bluetooth headset. A desktop charger was also included in the box, adding to its premium characteristics. Notably, this device was also one of the first forays by Nokia into OLED screens, though after years of use the screen brightness would unfortunately deteriorate.