Nokia 8800 Sapphire Arte gets a diamond makeover

The Nokia 8800 Sapphire Arte is an already luxurious handset designed for style-conscious consumers, but Swiss designer and jeweler Knalihs Athem is taking luxury to a whole new level by making the Sapphire Arte a one-of-a-kind limited edition handset. By adding 1,000 brilliant-cut diamonds all around the handset's face, which already contains a genuine sapphire gem stone as a navigation key, Athem is turning an ordinary handset into an expensive piece of art.

The phone itself isn't too shabby either. It includes a 2.0-inch QVGA OLED display, a 3.2-megapixel camera with 8x digital zoom, 1GB of built-in memory, and anti-fingerprint coating. This sophisticated handset has a few neat features like an ambient light sensor that adjusts the screen brightness according to its surrounding and a "turn-to-mute" feature that quiets the ringer simply by turning the phone face down.

A total of 20 diamond-encrusted Nokia 8800 Sapphire Arte slider handsets will be shipped worldwide, accompanied by a diamond grading report, according to Slashphone. The exclusive beauty is not for everyone though, as it comes with a $20,000 price tag that includes a personalization option.

Athem has also made a limited edition diamond-encrusted creation out of the first generation iPhone, so I'm sure a blinding version of the iPhone 3G will soon be in the works.