Black phones are sexy. Motorola found that out with the Black RAZR. So now that Nokia's stainless-steel 8801 luxury phone is gaining some traction in the US, they've decided to roll out a black version. The black 8801 (made of black oxidized stainless steel) weirdly feels lighter than the silver model, which is clearly some sort of weird psychological trick, because they're the same phone in different colors. The new non-color will be available on Nokia's Web site and in their flagship store in Chicago for the same price as the silvery model, which is right now $650 unlocked or $550 with T-Mobile service. The phone works on T-Mobile, Cingular and all other GSM carriers.

I was unimpressed with the 8801 when I first reviewed it, because I thought it was overpriced and underpowered. Nokia's rebuttal is that this is supposed to be a luxury fashion item for style-centric voice callers, not feature hounds. The high price is part of the cachet, and the limited feature set doesn't matter to folks who just want to talk, text and have their phone match their expensive Italian suit.

Oh, and yes, a black version of the European 8800 model has been available for a while, but that phone lacks the 850 Mhz band needed to get the best signal in the USA.