Nokia has officially announced the long rumored Nokia 8900 luxury phone. Except that it is not Nokia 8900, instead it became Nokia 8800 Arte collection.

Apparently neither new design, nor added 3G support, expanded memory and additional functionality is enough to get a new model number for high end Nokia phones. If it is steel/glass composite luxury slider - it’s Nokia 8800, period.

Oh well, I guess we’ll have to live with with the Nokia 8800, Nokia 8800 Scirocco edition and now Nokia 8800 Arte/Nokia 8800 Sapphire Arte phones and try not to mix them up in the mobile store or buying one online.

Nokia 8800 Arte and Sapphire Arte is a very significant upgrade to the 8800 luxury phone line.

It packs a lot of  cool gimmicks like Kruder & Dorfmeister videotrack and soundtrack, Fritz Fitzke visuals and “turn-to-mute” feature - allowing owners to quiet their phone inconspicuously by simply turning over the phone, screen-side down.

But in addition to that Nokia 8800 has some serious specs too:

• GSM 900/1800/1900 and WCDMA 2100 connectivity
• 2.0″ QVGA 240×320 pixels, OLED display with up to 16 million colors
• 3.2 megapixel auto focus camera with 8x digital zoom
• 1 GB built in memory space
• Built-in Accelerometer
• MicroUSB all-in-one-connector
• Anti-fingerprint coating on metal and glass
• 1000 mAh battery

While I still miss HSDPA connectivity, additional UMTS support, bigger 1000 mAh (vs 700 in 8800 Scirocco) battery and 3.2 mpx camera comes a long way towards making this phone attractive proposition.

Of course, if you have tons of cash to spare.

Unsubsidized Nokia 8800 Arte price is expected to be 1000 Euro when it ships later this year, Nokia 8800 Sapphire Arte will cost 1150 Euro, when it’s released in Q1, 2008.