Nokia 8600 Luna Review

[Amnesia]

I remember hearing about the Luna a while before it was released. I was in a friend's office when he whips it out. My jaws fall to the ground.

"What's that?" I shout. He smiles "It's the Luna". I stop and think for a moment. Is it another one of those high brand mobiles? I spot the Nokia logo. "Can I touch it?". The door bursts open and my friend quickly puts it away.

That was the last I saw of the Luna. I was sworn to keep my mouth shut because I shouldn't have seen it yet anyway, anyway a few leaked pictures here and there would come out soon anyway.

When it was first released, I played with one in the store for a few moments. I decided then and there that I didn't want to even think about it. I'm a clean freak you see, and I had already put my thumb prints all over it. So I decided to push it out of my mind for a while.

I was then offered this bulk order deal for some Lunas to sell in store so I couldn't pass up the chance to play with one. It's only a matter of minutes before I decide that I want.. NO.. I NEED one.

I usually buy phones that aren't just aesthetically pleasing, but also functional. This phone doesn't have the best of specs, and I already use my trusty N95 on a daily basis for pictures, videos, and a bunch of other apps, and I needed a second phone. My justification was that it might as well be one that turns heads for it's looks.

I owned both the 8800 and Sirocco but gave them up very quickly. I loved the original 8800 for it's sporty and elegant look, I loved the sirocco for it's sexy allure, however I'm either a Chrome or iPod white guy. The Chrome simply became too dirty and there was the risk of scratching it. I also didn't like the tiny screen, the layout of the buttons, or the poor battery.

Would the Luna be any different? Would I simply be selling it on?

I love stylish phones and I especially like those that are made of raw quality. All I had to hear was OLED screen, solid steel and smoked glass and I was confident that it would be great to touch.

Ok so who is this phone for? It's for someone who wants to show off, someone who wants to touch something that feels excellently smooth, or it's for someone who wants to be confident that the phone is made of high quality materials. Be warned though! People will want to play around with it, so if you get your baby scratched, don't say I didn't warn you.

Nokia decided that they were going to go with the use of names just as Motorola, LG, and Sony Ericsson (in code names), were doing. They've still kept the model number 8600 but now we can simply refer to it as the Luna.

Speaking of the model number, it's called the 8600. You automatically assume it's a lower model of the 8800. You'd be very wrong. Stronger battery life, larger screen, better camera (if only slightly better than the sirocco), and S40 3rd Edition. Do you think it's lower now?

No more speaking! It's time to unpack the box. There are different variants of the phone. Made in Germany, Made in Finland, and Made by Nokia. Made by Nokia is usually released in Asia and comes with different things in the box. I can't confirm this. Made in Germany comes with a leather case and chain, however the Maded in Finland doesn't come with either.

The packaging of the phone is better than their normal phones, but I felt that it wasn't as good as the 8800 packaging. Now I get mixed emotions with this phone. It's much better feature wise, it feels nicer and it is still a sexy phone, however the packaging makes me feel like they rushed it. It was something they just slammed together at the last moment.

It was nicely packaged though. The box was a bit empty though in my opinion. I was expecting... more... but I'll get back to that when I discuss what's in the box.

The phone comes in this very soft plastic. It feels very smooth. So it should be! The phone is made of glass, I don't want any scratches! It didn't come with any plastic on the screen (which I kind of wish it did have). It would have been nice to have plastic on the glass too. I like to leave the plastic on for a few days until I get the confidence to remove it :p.

The top layer of the packaging is comprised of the headset, battery, and phone. Hiding the battery is a manual which basically tries to 'sell' the phone to you. "It's sexy" "It's cool" "It's mysterious" yeah yeah, It's mine now shut up.

I removed the phone from the box with anticipation. I put everything together and switched it on. I switched it on and then

Before I do switch it on, lets take a look at it for a moment. Oooh.

Switch it on I hear you say! No! Let's talk about the rest of what's in the box! I want to savour the moment. In the bottom layer, I find a USB cable, charger, tiny adapter thing (to plug in your headset into), CD, Manuals, Leather cloth (which is such high quality!), a leather case for the phone and a nice little handstrap chain.

What? No dock you ask? No, sorry about that. I was puzzled too. I wished it did come with a dock. How sexy would a glass dock be? (It was rumoured to come out as an accessory but I've been able to get NO information on that). A well, maybe I can put it in my 8800 dock.

Ah you thought of that too? Well, I don't mean to disappoint you but the charger is on the right side of the phone, not at the bottom.

What? On the side? Yes. But that's not the kicker! It's a USB-B charger! Yes Nokia have gone and used another charger port. At least you can charge the phone with your pc or laptop. You would think that that is all right? No! Nokia didn't even use a standard USB-B port, it's flattened, so you have to use THEIR cable.

The case that comes with it didn't look nice as the sirocco case because it was thinner. However after touching it, I couldn't help but think that it was a good choice. I wish the leather was a bit softer, like Italian leather, but the use of a Magnetic latch was a nice touch.

I tried to take a photo of the metal wrist strap, but it didn't focus.

I compared it to three mobiles. The Samsung X820 for thickness comparison, the N95 because it's one of the hot phones at the moment, and the Prada because thats a luxury phone too.

yes I take care of my gadgets.

Shiny.

Thickness comparison. You'll notice the Luna is much thinner than expected, and much thinner than the N95. However the Prada is much thinner than the Luna.

1 N95 = 1 n95

1.5 Luna = 1 n95

2 Prada = 1 N95

4 X820 = 1 n95

Now the phone as mentioned is heavy. I like the fact it's heavy. Makes me feel I'm holding something well made. Since the front is made of glass, it is great to touch. It feels smooth and cold in all environments, but sadly is a finger print magnet. HOWEVER, since it's glass, it's easy to shine!

The Luna is also supposed to be scratch proof. The same scratch resistance of the Sirocco, however all over.

The back of the phone looks rubbery and I expected it to be as smooth to touch as the N95, but it's solid steel. Yes it's steel. I kind of wish the whole phone was made of glass, but I guess it's good the back is of that material since it is impossible to pick up fingerprints on it.

The build quality is high as expected. I compared it to the Prada. The Prada has some jagged edges on the 'chrome' area, but the Luna is smooth, tight, and VERY nicely built. Not a single flaw. When you slide it up, it's also solid. Not a single jiggle.

Lets talk about the rest now shall we?

The screen is very very VERY nice. The images are clear and very smooth. The brightness is also amazing and reading messages in direct sunlight is great. I compared all phones and it is truley a nice screen.

The UI is great. It uses S60 3rd edition (like the 6300) but it comes with a few tweaks and enhancements. (Note some networks remove some features). It's a fast phone and it's quite easy to customize it.

It supports Flash themes (you can have a dynamic background)

You can customize the slide up and down sound

You can choose to have a stand by menu bar on the top with short cuts.

You can show different parts of the phone's information (such as notes, music, etc...) but best of all you can add and remove whatever you want to hide or show.

You can have some nice icons on the screen to show you what up, down, left and right do.

Backgrounds are customizable

You can set message ringtones to any mp3

Icons can be changed with themes and much more.

They've even included 'slide animations' for when you slide it up or down, however they didn't include a theme which utilizes this, which is odd.

Buttons feel great to push. And it's MUCH easier to push the button you want to push compared to the tiny sirocco buttons.

When I saw this phone, I was amazing that the keys glowed underneath the smokey glass slider area. To be honest, I thought that I would be able to 'touch' the buttons if I wanted to. Sadly you can't. It could possibly be something for nokia to consider with the 8620?

I predict seeing a frosty white glass version of this phone. Who wants one?? I do!

Going back to the issue of S40 though. It has some nice features which I'm excited about using.

When you go to texts, it has 'Flash texts'. This allows you to send flash texts to people's mobiles.

What are flash texts?

These are texts that open up automatically on someone's mobile and are not stored. So if I send a flash text to a friend, he'll read it, but when he goes back to his inbox, it'll be gone. (unless someone thinks about going to 'options and save' every time).

What does it cost?

Just your standard text price.

I'm very disappointed that it doesn't come with alot of memory. T3 magazine (A magazine I like however it's full of errors), said that it would come out with 1gb. They're WRONG. It only has 128mb of memory. Which I guess is enough for a general user, but I simply wish it had a bit more feature wise.

The phone has 2 megapixels, it's a normal camera. Nothing special. Pictures are grainy in low light and there is no autofocus. The camera, as with all 8 series, is just a bonus to be honest. It's for picture messages and basic snaps, nothing more.

The speaker is loud. It's clear and sounds do not have that 'tinny' effect that the 8800 has.

Yes there is loud speaker.

Yes you can choose vibrate and ring and the same time.

Yes you can select custom ringtones.

Now I've covered the basics, onto the specs

Specs:

128 MB internal memory

Quadband

Features: mp3 player, bluetooth, PC Sync, Sound recording.

2 Camera

Screen: 16bit internal screen OLED (240X320)

System: Symbian S40 3rd Ed

Sound: Two speakers (two on the side one on the face).

Main feature: Design

Battery Life Talk: 3.40hours

Standby: 240 hours

Radio

MP3:

The MP3 function on the phone was simple and basic. Nothing special. But at least it has a simple interface.

They tried to make the phone look nice and simple, so they have ONE port. (Used for the headset, syncing and charging). However if you want to use the headphones, you'll need to plug in the adapter to accept the 2.5mm jack.

Video:

Video recording is not good at all. It's pixelated and very small. I imagine it's to save space. It's like recording with a VGA camera in my opinion.

Calling:

Calling was great. Crystal clear. No clarity issues. My signal was always full as well, compared to my N95 which was half full.

3G:

Nope. It's one of those things that I wish it had, but it doesn't.

Syncing:

Syncing is a breeze and you can easily import contacts from your pc. It uses PC suite.

You are also able to update your phones firmware through Nokia's update service.

Organizer.

Calendar, tasks, notes, alarms, timer, stopwatch, record sound, calculator and world times, and a few games.

Phonebook

The phone book is nice and simple. A few taps and you're away.

Settings

Also known as the Control Panel. Anything is accessible. system settings to display options.

You are able to change skins, wallpapers, ring tones, change the sound when you switch the phone on or off, and message tones.

Pros

Amazing Design

Materials used (Glass and steel)

Large OLED screen

Cons

No dock (more of a want though)

No 3G

Weak camera

ANOTHER charger port.

My verdict? It's sexy, it's smooth. If you want a high class phone. Buy it!

the best place to get a great deal is Fluid Mobile <IMG SRC="/board/images/smiles/icon_smile.gif">

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or Compare a Deal

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Feel free to add any information you like people!

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[Quillz]

It's a very beautiful phone, but I still feel it's a bit like the RAZR, in that it seems to be a fashionable phone before being a high functioning phone. There are cheaper phones on the market that have more useful features, but are nowhere near as beautifully styled. But the nice thing about Nokia, at least the high end models, are the build quality. They always have high-quality batteries, and the overall build quality is very nice, they don't creak or flex or anything.

And it is odd that Nokia branded this phone the 8600, considering it's more advanced than the 8800 or any of the 9000 series phones.

[Amnesia]

The 8 series of mobiles have always been fashion phones.

However at least with this phone you have some serious quality and workmanship.

The odd thing is that the Luna uses glass where as all other 8 series have always used Chrome, steel, titanium, or aluminium.

[Quillz]

The 8 series of mobiles have always been fashion phones.

However at least with this phone you have some serious quality and workmanship.

The odd thing is that the Luna uses glass where as all other 8 series have always used Chrome, steel, titanium, or aluminium.

Well, glass is usually seen on high-end, fashionable products, not to mention it sets the Luna apart from the other 8 series phones.

[Amnesia]

exactly, so it's going against the 8-series grain. Unless from now on all 86 models are now glass.

[Rappy Veteran]

Cool review (Y)

I have been considering a new mobile so I am looking around.

[Wannes]

Great review Amnesia, really good.

As addon I can say that anyone, really anyone, should get their handphone from Amnesia's shop as he delivers great service and always answers in a blink. I'm now waiting to receive my ordered N95 from him but when it arrives I'm sure I'll be more than pleased. Please do contact him, especially when you live in a country where cellphones are expensive.

I'm looking forward to reviews in the future from you.

[DeKay]

It's a very beautiful phone, but I still feel it's a bit like the RAZR, in that it seems to be a fashionable phone before being a high functioning phone. There are cheaper phones on the market that have more useful features, but are nowhere near as beautifully styled. But the nice thing about Nokia, at least the high end models, are the build quality. They always have high-quality batteries, and the overall build quality is very nice, they don't creak or flex or anything.

And it is odd that Nokia branded this phone the 8600, considering it's more advanced than the 8800 or any of the 9000 series phones.

hmm i'd like to correct you on the batteries part, the 8800 had aweful battery life!

could you give us an estimate on the battery of the 8600 ? that'd be great thanks

[strekship]

That is a nice looking phone. The UI looks the same as the one on my 6133.

[Amnesia]

yes it's Series 40 3rd edition.

@James R, thanks for the kind words.

[mickeytwist]

wow - very informative - hard to think of anything you didnt cover there except oh wait - whats a good price? been thinking about a number of models but this is the only one o them i can find unlocked http://www.timtechs.com/unlocked-nokia-8600-luna-prd68.html

[.tony]

Nice acquisition.

I wish Nokia would at least consider an 8-Series based on the Symbian/S60 Platform.

Still, for a head-turner, that does a good job.

[.tony]

Sorry for double posting, but can you post the Default themes? I'm a bit of a collector.

[imis]

nice phone and very good information. i think i have developed a interest in it.

[WooSH]

hey you have an LG PRADA! you think you can review that? thx.

[Amnesia]

I reviewed it here.

http://www.esato.com/board/viewtopic.php?topic=145443