BB FANS

Friday April 8, 06:00 PM .ZDNet

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A stainless-steel bodied phone manufactured with advanced watchmaking techniques will go on the market in Europe later this quarter, with a 750 price tag

Nokia has unveiled a high-end camera phone inspired, the company says, by modern watchmaking techniques.

Among the phone's features: It will come with exclusive ring tones composed by Japanese musician Ryuichi Sakamoto.

The handset, announced Thursday, will be marketed as the Nokia 8800 worldwide, except for in the United States where it will be known as the Nokia 8801. It will hit stores in Europe and Australia in the second quarter.

Nokia said its designers drew on modern watchmaking and jewellery-making techniques. For example, the phone's front display features a specially reinforced glass that Nokia said is common in luxury watches. Additionally, the Nokia mark is chemically etched on the back plate using a process typically employed by watchmakers, the company said.

The phone has a stainless steel body that slides up to reveal the keypad. The pop-up mechanism of the handset is supported by a bistable spring mechanism and stainless steel ball bearings, like those used in high-end cars, Nokia said.

UK pricing was not released.

Somehow - I'm from the Nokia country and have dated Nokia engineer and have some other friends working in Nokia - but I can't still stand my Nokia - eventhought I use it every day!

My Nokia 6230 is the best device I have at the mo

My Nokia 9110 was always refered to as a 'HouseBrick' but it is still pretty good

For 750 euro's I'd expect it to be made out of Gold, rather than stainless steal.
Too many phones.....all ending up thrown into the waste bin after 1-2 yrs.

Calrissian: Never throws away anything..just in case.

I got a mobile phone in 1999 - it cost about 50 of your British pounds, and it came with 30 pounds of credit.

The second day I had it, I inadvertently dropped it from a railway bridge. It ended up in pieces - but luckily none of them were on the railway track, and I was able to re-assemble it. Even when I bought it, it was shamefully old-fashioned. It's still working - it doesn't take photos - or even tell me the time, but it's much faster and user friendly than the second phone I got in 2003. The second phone was supposedly more advanced - indeed I used it from a remote area in the west of Ireland to access the internet, to discover who was up for eviction one week during BB4! - but it isn't half as well-made as the old phone. The old phone even spent a night with Daniel Beddingfield - I was at a gig one night, and left the phone in the ladies loo - no-one stole it (nobody would want it!), and it was handed in to the bar staff. Two nights later I went to collect it - it was displayed behind the bar - as a novelty item. Mr Beddingfield had been performing in the venue the previous night - he probably had a good laugh at my poor old phone.