Nokia 8600 Luna review: Cast in glass

A load of accessories

Premium Nokia handsets bundle up a nice stack of accessories. The boxset includes a charger, PC Suite CD, manual and data USB cable. Although Luna is all about standing out from the crowd, very few are likely to wear it on a neck strap. There is a wrist chain in the package instead. After all, the Luna is a pet worth keeping on a short leash. A cleaning cloth and leather case are also there, in line with the high-maintenance status of the Luna. We're not quite sure about the usability of the leather case; the handset doesn't get any lighter with it, to say the least.

The package and its contents • a stylish wrist chain instead of a neck strap

No memory card in the package, since the Luna has no slot for one, 128 MB of built-in memory is all the user gets. There's an integrated radio though, hence the headphones in the package. The headphones are plugged in by way of 10-centimeter-long adapter. No big deal, a little piece of extra cable, that we would've even welcomed, had it been possible to use with standard headphones. It seems the intelligent choice, but yours will be a fool's hope, the headphones in the package use a 2.5 mm jack. A little consolation is that the phone is OK to handle and use with the headphones plugged in. The headphones are mediocre, you'll need all the equalizer power you can get.

 
A leather case is included • headphones use a MicroUSB to 2.5 mm jack converter

Same old same old

Interface is typical Series 40. The Luna is pleasingly responsive. Browsing the fully-customizable menu is quick and intuitive. The standard status icons (network, battery, operator, time) and the functions assigned to the soft keys appear on the display, an active standby mode is also available. The main menu displays as a grid (with or without labels), or a list. There are four color themes available.

   
Stand-by display under different settings • customizing the display

The Nokia 8600 offers seven ringing profiles. They're not single-click accessible, so you'll have to assign a shortcut to one of the selection keys, or add those to the Go To application, which is originally assigned to the left soft key. It contains a list of most frequently used features, which you can rearrange or change at any time.

    
Main menu • color themes • call log • ringing profile settings

The phonebook can be set to display entries from the phone memory or SIM or both, showing contacts as a plain list, name-and-number view, or name-and-photo view. Contacts are ordered by first or last name, font size is user-definable. The phonebook is searched by gradual typing. 14 different details can be saved for each contact. Keys 2 to 9 can be assigned speed dials.

    
Phonebook: browsing • type to search • contact view • options menu • adding new contact

Messages of all types are stored in the shared memory. A T9 editor is there. An SMS can be up to 1000 symbols, copying and pasting chunks of text is enabled. There are three font sizes to choose from (only two in contacts). SMS typing is enhanced by preinstalled templates and embedded smilies.

  

Messages menu • SMS typing • MMS creation

MMS size is limited to 300 KB, text, images, sound and video clips can be inserted. You can insert as you create your multimedia message, no need to prepare the objects in advance. The email client is a Java application, and handles multiple accounts. POP3 and IMAP4 are the receiving protocols, sending is SMTP. Setting up an email account is quite straightforward, using the preinstalled settings for some of the most popular free email services.

    
Email client and setting up an account

Getting organized

The calendar offers the standard trio of views: monthly, weekly, daily. Either of the first two can be set as default. Entries (call, meeting, anniversary, memo or to-do) can be set to auto-delete after a day, week or month. The Tasks feature is an enhancement to the Luna's planning capabilities. The alarm clock allows you to select the days you want the alarm to be active, as well as the repeat intervals. A Notes application lets you enter personal notes of up to 3000 symbols. A voice recorder is also available; recording length is limited to 5 minutes. The Luna also features a stopwatch and a countdown timer, as well as a Java calculator, capable of a number of scientific functions, but with no operator precedence.

 
Organizing features menu • alarm clock setting • calendar

There is no 3G support, if anybody should ever need the Luna to transfer data, they will have to make do with Class 10 GPRS and EDGE. For short range transfers there's Bluetooth 2.0 (supporting A2DP). PC synchronization is offered via microUSB. Mass Storage mode isn't available. Java compatible third-party applications can be installed.

   
Calculator • Java applications menu • web browser menu • games