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The
Nokia 8850 was the
pinnacle of sleek design
in 1999.
Original Nokia
specifications are HERE
This
gorgeous top of the
range phone was the
brainchild of Frank
Nuovo. Nuovo
studied industrial
design at the Art Center
College of Design in
Pasadena and joined
Nokia after working with
the renowned studio
Designworks. In 1995
Nuovo established a
Nokia design unit to
influence and steer the company
through design quality.
According
to Frank:
"This never made it
to market in the U.S.
When this first came out
in Asia, it was going for
twenty-eight hundred
dollars. It was
unbelievable what was
happening. Take this
stylistically--I call
this the pressure
wave." Nuovo
caressed two little
ridges on the lower half
of the phone. You
wouldn't even notice
them if you were not
looking for them.
"Think about cars,
aerodynamics, wind
tunnels. Look at our
styling here--it is so
copied around the
planet. The language we
have put forward is
about the emotion of
speed and increasing
velocity. The influence
of the auto is there, of
course. But it's not
about cars. It's about
movement, and it's
about"--he paused
before delivering his
mantra--"the
attempt to do one
thing well."
Yeah,
anyway, irrespective of
its emotional velocity,
it looks nice and works
well. The battery life
on this phone is truly
remarkable as it was one
of the last top of the
range phones prior to
the the introduction of
battery-sapping colour
screens. The talk-time
was up to 3 hours and 45
minutes and the standby
time was up to a
magnificent 170 hours -
Yes, over 7 days!!!
Frank
Nuovo now heads the
Vertu project which is
Nokia's ultimate luxury
phone division with
phones priced up to
€24,000 for the
standard platinum model.
Some of the custom
creations reach up to
£80,000. Unless you
need a really
extravagant tax-loss
(and I don't) I cannot
see how anyone could
justify this sort of
obscene expenditure. So
you can leave that
trinket off my Christmas
list thanks very much.
See the
outrageous baubles here: www.vertu.com
The true aesthetic classics in the Nokia history are the 8810,
8850 (above) and the 8910/8910i. This classic line is continued
today with the new 8800.
We
have limited stocks of
these classic phones
We
also have the Nokia 8890
available, which was the
same as the 8850 but
works on the GSM 900 and
1900 bands which
means it will work on
Vodafone and O2 in the
UK and it will
also work on the GSM
1900 bands in the USA
and Asia. Contact us for
more details.
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