About 3 weeks ago i took the plunge and bought a Nokia 8600 Luna. I wasn’t keen on spending 900-1200 dollars on a Nokia 8800 Arte or Sapphire, and I got a really good deal on the Luna, so here I am really satisfied with my purchase. Read the Nokia 8600 Luna review after the break!

Nokia Luna, glowing under the glass.

Physical

First and foremost this phone has the best build quality I have ever felt, it simply oozes with quality. The fact that a large portion of the phone is made with stainless steel or smoked glass should already be an indicator of the quality of the luna. The sliding mechanism feels very tight and as a whole the phone is quite heavy. The allure of this phone also mainly comes from pulsating keypad. When on sleep mode the keypad pulses under the translucent smoked glass, giving it much of it’s aesthetic appeal (and the reason it was dubbed the Luna).

I have read some complaints about the keypad being a bit cramped, I can’t say I agree with this, but the Nokia Luna is not particularly wide so if one has larger hands it may pose a problem. The buttons feel good when pressed give just the right amount of feedback, I actually liked it better than my Nokia N95 8GB’s keys to be honest.

Features

The Nokia 8600 Luna is pretty sparse on features, as it was made to look cool, make calls, and turn heads. It has a 2 megapixel camera, a media player and a wap browser. The media player becomes a slightly moot point as there are only 128 megs of internal memory and no memory card slot. The two megapixel camera is nothing to write home about, but it gets the job done if you are looking to take a picture on the fly, its no N95 though, thats for sure. The Wap browser is your usual non smartphone browser fare(It has edge btw, sorry no 3g).

The call quality tested in NYC, Westchester and New Jersey on AT&T was excellent, this phone has one of the louder speakers I’ve heard.

Currently, between the phones I cycle through (Nokia N95-4, Blackberry Curve, SE K850i), I prefer using this for regular daily usage when the specialized features of the previously mentioned phones isn’t necessary. Its kind of refreshing to just have a phone thats a little smaller/thinner, while still having a handset that’s still a cut above the rest (and still technically able to do a lot of the functions my other phones can, just not as well).

Battery

The battery on this guy is sick. With a mix of moderate calling, light internet use, and an most power-saving options off, the luna lasts me 2 about 2-3 days without needing a charge, depending on usage. With the edge connection off I’ve had it last me 4 days with moderate calling. Why would I turn the power save options off? When power saving is on, the keypad stops pulsing after a few minutes. When off, it goes indefinitely, beautiful.

Final Thoughts

Once again, if you want a solid phone (that mainly makes calls) with a small form factor, is rare and looks awesome, this might be a good bet. Prices are going down, although it could still run you $500+. If an authorized dealer has it in stock you might just luck out on this phone, because the Arte and Sapphire being the new craze around the Nokia luxury line. Maybe I’ll pick one of those up next time =)