Nokia 8800 passes 1M mark, wins top award

Nokia’s 8800 mobile phone is the handset of the year, according to a well-known industry association. The phone is also in the hands of more than a million customers.

The GSM Association awarded the Finnish phone maker its Best Handset Award at the association’s awards ceremony earlier this week in Barcelona. Coincidentally the Motorola RAZR V3x also won the same award. Among other things, the GSMA praised the phone’s sound suite of ringtones, alarms, and alerts—all composed by famed musician Ryuichi Sakamoto. It probably doesn’t hurt, either, that the phone is made of stainless steel and mineral glass. This is definitely not for average consumer; still, the company has sold more than 1 million of them since last summer, at the high-tier price of 1000 EUR.

Why all the fuss? It’s a combination of elegance and functionality, according to Nokia.

“The Nokia 8800 is as much an object of art and desire, as it is an advanced piece of technology,” said Alastair Curtis, the company’s Mobile Phones unit design team leader.

The functionality includes sliding access, tri-band operation GSM coverage on up to five continents, an integrated SVGA camera and video player, predictive text, 64MB internal NAND flash memory, Bluetooth connections for stereo and SIM access, exclusive 3D graphics and UI themes, streaming and recording video, and a digital music player.