Nokia announced today the upcoming availability of a new luxury handset from its Arte series, namely the Nokia 8800 Carbon Arte.

Succeeding to the 8800 Arte and the 8800 Sapphire Arte models, the new Nokia comes with a similar slide-up form factor. Built from carbon fiber, titanium, stainless steel and polished glass, the Carbon Arte should be among the most resistant Nokia handsets ever made. Featuring 3D patterns, the luxury phone, is (as Nokia says) reflecting "a modern feel through the unique tones, textures and sculpted shapes that carbon fiber and titanium deliver".

The 8800 Carbon Arte brings a unique tap-for-time feature. This allows users to simply tap twice under the phone's display, on the steel surface, when they want a clock to be seen on screen.

A range of wallpapers and soundtracks are pre-loaded on the new Arte. Furthermore, its background images can "organically change", offering different ones during the day.

Nokia has not unveiled yet the full list of specs that the 8800 Carbon Arte comes with. However, the Finnish manufacturer did mention that the handset includes the following: GSM and 3G connectivity, 4GB of internal memory, a "stunning OLED display", advanced audio quality, a turn-to-mute feature, a 3.2 Megapixel auto focus camera and an all-in-one microUSB connector. Also, the new Arte is dressed in "Nokia's anti-fingerprint coating", which should keep fingerprints away from its fancy case.

Nokia 8800 Carbon Arte comes with a set of exclusive accessories, including: a leather pouch, an elegant desk stand and a "Bluetooth touch-sensitive volume control headset".

As expected, the new 8800 Carbon Arte will have a high retail price: 1,100 Euros (about 1,615 USD or 870 GBP) without taxes and subsidies. Nokia says that the fashionable and expensive handset is scheduled to hit the market by the end of September.