The Nokia 8801 is a beautiful piece of work. People who appreciate fine time pieces and expensive pens (such as myself) would not find the price for this phone outrageous or extravagant.The Nokia 8801 is a sleek and moderately thin phone. The stainless steel case was designed very nicely, with no hard edges. The curves are in all the right places. Upon picking up the phone and holding it, the combination of solid heft and cool feeling gives the impression that it is a piece of art, finely crafted with every curve and every and edge precisely placed.Opening the phone is a pleasure. With the flick of your thumb, the smooth upward sliding action is engaged by springs, the track smoothed with ball bearings as the screen sails gracefully upwards. The keypad smoothly transitions to a gentle white glow. Some people are uncomfortable with the "schhk" noise made when the screen is slid up to reveal the keypad, claiming it sounds like it will break. But those are the kind of people who can't appreciate that this is a phone that will last ages due to its strong robust construction.A smooth and rock solid piece of scratch-resistant glass shields the brilliant screen while it displays vivid wallpapers depicting beautiful waves and leaves.The speaker (used for speakerphone/music) is surprisingly high in quality. Although it is a tad on the tinny side, the sound is reproduced fairly accurately and without distortion, even at high volumes. The other speaker, the one where most conversations will be played through, is a bit low on the volume even when set to its maximum.Now, all of this physical beauty is made a little less attractive by its innards. My only complaint about the physical aspect of the phone is the keypad: I feel that witht he rest of the phone being so exquisite, the plastic keys ruin it. A metallic feeling like that found on the RAZR keypads are in order. Actually, I also found it slightly difficult to remove the battery cover, but that was in the beginning: I have since grown accustomed to the most effective way to remove the cover.The software side has some flaw. Oftentimes I find it difficult to read the words because it is not displayed on a white background. Practically all of the schemes and backgrounds make it hard to read: fine tuning it was the only way I got around it.Another flaw was the screen saver. The screensaver will display the time and date on the LCD when not in use. However, it is displayed over a darkened band across the screen. I discovered after a week of usage, anything displayed in color had a discoloration across that band. This is basically a burn-in problem. On the other hand, whites are not affected. In fact, I should call and ask them about this...I enjoyed using the different phone profiles, customizing each one for my particular needs. Especially useful was the automatic use of a profile when your phone is docked in the charger. You can even set profiles to expire at a certain time. A good example for such usage: turning it to Silent profile for 8 hours while you sleep. It will revert to your current profile at the end of 8 hours.The Bluetooth capability is robust: you can listen to music through Bluetooth. Also, you can record conversations, although every five seconds there is a beep (apparently barely noticeable to the other side). It is easy to use the music player, though as many reviewers have noted, it is a shame that the phone included such a small amount of memory or failed to include the option of expandable memory via a slot.There is a small suite of useful tools, including a stopwatch, countdown timer, alarm clock, and even an FM Radio. However, in order to utilize the radio you must connect a wired headset, the reason being that the wire acts as an antenna.I find the battery life just fine, though I put it in the beautiful desk charger every night. The desk charger, like the phone, is a beautiful stainless steel, with the same gentle curves. The base pulses slowly over 10 seconds or so, fading in and out, emitting a sharp blue. I would've preferred white or a softer glow, but I don't look at it too often anyway. The charger can charge the second battery. For clarification (which I needed before buying), this set on Amazon does come with the second battery. I have yet to use it though.Overall, this phone is worth it if you are not a user who requires lots of technology or business features, and would like to impress people. Every person I've shown it to got jealous: half of them got mock angry and mimed throwing the phone into the ground. Don't keep this phone in a pocket or its pouch: it was meant to be gazed upon and lusted after.