The new phone, which previously leaked under the product name Nokia 800, is a slab-like affair, which will arrive in three colours variants according to images acquired by PocketNow. One of the colours is pink, so we can ignore that one. It’ll come in black and blue.
The Nokia 800 looks a little odd compared to what we expect from a smartphone in 2011, with Nokia taking quite a few design cues from its old N9. Curved at the sides with your usual range of smartphone control buttons down the side, the bottom of the phone is flat, while the matte, coloured finish of the case is a weird throwback to how phones used to look, before polished metal and rubberised casings took off.
It’s certainly an interesting looking thing in today’s world of dull black slabs, but in the same week we’ve seen super-evolved, skinny, amazing new smartphones from Motorola and Samsung/Google, does the world really need a relatively childlike bit of plastic from Nokia? [PocketNow via Engadget via Gizmodo UK]
moggyx
Friday, October 21, 2011 at 9:11 AMThis article is seemingly written by someone with little to no clue. Is there a place for “a relatively childlike bit of plastic from Nokia”. If you really need to ask that question, you have little to zero clue about how diverse a market is out there.
This sort of phone will appeal to women, teenagers and, very importantly, is an accessible unit for slightly disabled people with it’s large icons and text due to the Metro interface.
I realise this is a UK article, but articles like this from narrow minded people (include Jesus Diaz in the category) undermine the much higher quality articles coming from the Australian team.
Salmonpie
Friday, October 21, 2011 at 9:24 AMAgreed. The industrial design of this handset is at least trying to do something more adventurous than many of the manufactures and, in this world of ever similar black slabs, I would be happy to carry something that set me apart.
Simon
Friday, October 21, 2011 at 9:40 AMIs it just me or does it look a lot like an over sized ipod nano.
Morkai
Friday, October 21, 2011 at 12:48 PMdefinitely does, and I’m not sure I’m a fan of the black overlay on the front either…
Makk
Saturday, October 22, 2011 at 6:15 AMMy first thought exactly!
James Mac
Friday, October 21, 2011 at 9:44 AMI actually like it.
As something colourful it stands out from the shades of black used in every phone out there.
Que
Friday, October 21, 2011 at 10:27 AMRemember when Steve Jobs returned to Apple, the first decision they did was to put some color into their product. we then had a range of iMac with all the glassy see-through look with 5 colour options. Once upon a time iMac marks personality.
and look at apple’s product now. black. and if you are lucky, white.
apple has gone complete to the image that they were fighting against about 10 years ago.
personal opinion.
TSH
Friday, October 21, 2011 at 11:26 AMHaters gonna hate. Nokia’s harware and design has always been good; they’re finally giving up on establishing their own big software ecosystem and sticking to what they do best.
Microsoft’s product is barely a year old and already a viable competitor to the existing duopoly. Where have I seen MS do this before…? ;–p
Sicarius123
Friday, October 21, 2011 at 11:51 AMSo Gizmodo UK thinks they should just join the rest of the market with bland hard to distinguish handsets?
I like it, if I can get a 32GB or 64GB one I’ll buy a black for myself and a blue for my missus.
Ftruck
Friday, October 21, 2011 at 10:40 PMI have to say I was disappointed with Nokia’s decision to use plastics in the N9 and seemingly in their WP7 phones. Especially after using metal in the N8 and E7 it just seems like a step back. I agree the colours are childlike. Black and white are easy they go with everything, a phone is an accessory too after all. When you start introducing colours do you own a few phones for different outfits, women have to worry about it matching their handbags and clutches etc. So at the end of the day – yes to minimalism as far as colour goes and up with alloys, steel and glass and down with plastic.
MotorMouth
Tuesday, October 25, 2011 at 2:34 PMI made a conscious choice to buy a plastic phone. They are lighter and the particular model I chose, a Samsung Focus, is more stylish than any metal phone I have seen. You can just do more with plastic than metal and the end result is often much stronger and doesn’t show wear as badly. The vast majority of people put their phone in a protective case anyway, so what it is made of is largely irrelevant in the end.
I think the N9 is one of the smartest looking phones out there, so a phone that uses that chassis and WP7 would really appeal to me. It would have to be black, though.