BARCELONA, Spain - Only for the privileged ones amongst us, the Nokia 8800 Gold Arte is a pricey mid-end handset decorated with 18 carat gold plating and white leather padding.

The frontal area containing the leather portio is sensitive to taps, as it was in the Nokia 8800 Arte, also reviewed by PhoneReport. The phone comes with uniquely-composed video ringtones, living wallpapers, and motion sensitive and tapping command features.

The 8800 Gold Arte weighs 150g, which can be felt as a symbol of the materials used; it contains a 2" OLED display with QVGA resolution (240x320 pixels), a 3.2 megapixel camera with autofocus and flash, and 4GB of internal memory. In terms of connectivity, the phone has 3G and Bluetooth. It runs on S40 software platform, which excludes it from a "smartphone" denomination.

It is impossible to miss the 8800 Gold Arte: it's vivid and bright at the same time, and it has white leather - features not common at all in devices. It is indeed an exquisite-looking piece of technology.

The front of the phone, when closed, does not show the two soft keys and call keys, only the d-pad. In the dark, it may cause an impressive effect, but during the day, the fingerprints attached to the 8800 steal its beaty.

The numeric keypad is well spaced, but the keys feel monotonous: there are no large bumps nor divisions.

On the right side of the phone there is a speaker, and a button used to release the battery cover.

On the left side, we can only find the other button used to release the battery cover.

The microUSB connector, used for data transfers and charging, can be found on the bottom of the phone. This is one of the few devices from Nokia which support USB charging.

The back part of the 8800 Gold Arte contains yet another portion of white leather, and the camera compartment is not gold plated, but rather painted in a gold colour.

The Nokia 8800 Gold Arte does not remotely justify its price for its features, but it is rather simply a stunning phone for those who can afford it.

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