Nokia 8600 Luna

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When it comes to phones made from unique materials, Nokia comes first to mind. The Nokia 8910, announced a couple of years back, uses titanium, and a number of stainless steel mobiles such as the 6300 and the 8800 Siroccos have made their way into the hearts and wallets of consumers. Latest in the premium lineup is the 8600 Luna that's crafted with opaque smoked glass and soft-touch stainless steel. Available only at Nokia shops and concept stores, the S$1,188 (US$852.71) sticker shock is not for the light wallet or those looking for a feature-packed device.

Design
One look at the 8600 Luna and it evokes comments like "hey, isn't that the Nokia 88-- something"? My colleague down the aisle would have described the situation as: Premium, premium, premium. For a phone that's priced over a grand, you're not getting much in terms of features. Then again, it's not made to compete with the company's Series 60 devices in the first place.

The 8600 Luna is romanticized as "mysteriously, it glows, magnetically, it calls", "inspired by moonlight, it pulsates with allure". The design is matched with "sleek chrome trimmings, together with a distinctive glass and steel dual texture" that brings "pure pleasure with every touch".

We liked what we saw and held, though we're not completely sure about the smoked glass cover over the keypad.

Superlatives aside, the Luna is pretty much like the premium series handsets. Its understated elegance is perhaps the only reason anyone would want to buy it. For those who have, the Luna delivers--at least its heft (140g) compensated nicely for the wallet that was made lighter with the purchase.

We liked what we saw and held, though we're not completely sure about the smoked glass cover over the keypad. We're tempted to drop the phone and see if it holds up, but we didn't because in the event that it doesn't, we wouldn't have to vomit out the cash to pay for it.

The pulsating lights on the Luna deserve a paragraph of their own. When the phone goes into idle mode, the white backlit keypad "breathes". It comes on every 6 seconds and takes another 2.5 to fade out. Another way to describe it is that the light pulsates with every two breaths we take. It's so totally gimmicky, yet there's a certain allure even though some of our friends are unfazed by it saying: "You mean that's all?".

Like the 8800 or the Siroccos, the 8600's flat-screen display slides up with a nudge. Just below the 2-inch LCD is a protruding bar to help you along so you're not pushing on a flat surface. The sliding mechanism is a smooth and solid one. However, when closing, our fingers resting on the back got caught quite a few times between the halves, which wasn't exactly a pleasant experience. The metallic lid also clacks back loudly when it retracts.

Typing on the numeric keypad is somewhat flawed because the edges of the bottom half obscures the "7" and "9" keys as well as the bottom row of the keypad. So we ended up using the tips of our fingers instead of thumbing away. Also, those with big digits may find the keypad a handicap.

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