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I’m not a car person by nature, more of an any-cab’ll-do city-dweller, but I was stopped in my tracks recently by a $200,000 Bentley. It gleamed, black and silver, as its classic British proportions stretched over most of Baltimore Avenue in Philadelphia, and I stood there aghast, thinking that I’d happily trade in my public-transportation ideals for even a 10-minute joyride in this grand touring coupe. Quintessential designs, whether they be cars or much smaller prestige-mobiles, seem to me almost always worth the investment.
That said, I’ve got a cell phone in my bag right now (on loan, mind you) that is selling at the Nokia flagship store in New York City right now for $778 plus tax. That’s no misprint. The Nokia 8600 Luna, a candybar slider smaller than a Hershey’s bar, is going for over $800. What would it take for you to lay down close to a grand for a cell phone (a phone, I might add, that is made partially of glass, a breakable substance)? You’d expect feature-rich convergence and perhaps even a tiny diamond or two, right?
Nope. Nokia is not showing off its considerable smartphone heritage with the Luna. It’s not pulling in a big designer name or studding the handset with rhinestone bling to make the Luna a trend piece. Instead, Nokia, it seems to me, is trying a marketing strategy similar to that of Bentley Motor Company: make an understated, heavy, polished, black beauty and target a very selected (i.e. loaded) clientele who appreciates form over function, old money types who like to show off, but in the most sublime fashion.
It has already been called a “fashion phone,” of course, but don’t take that as a synonym for insubstantial. The Luna is a dense little number, weighing a full third of a pound (143 g). It sits heavy but comfortably in the palm of your hand, feeling more like some precision remote control than a phone. Your thumb easily finds a tiny ledge that opens the slider, revealing an unusually small keypad. When you flick the set closed again, the numbers glow under a smoked glass cover. They also pulse on and off, like some slow-breathing amphibian lurking just beneath the water’s surface. It’s a little creepy, but mezmerizing nonetheless. The Luna’s own vanity Web site describes the effect this way: “Inspired by moonlight, it pulsates with allure.”
Granted. But the allure isn’t particularly enhanced by actual phone use. The slider-mechanism is a bit fierce. It’s snapped down on my hand more than once, causing a surprisingly nasty little pinch. It’s difficult to dial as well, mostly because the number buttons are so small. The volume, even set high, is low for my taste as well.
The Luna 8600 has some multimedia functions. A 2 megapixel camera is on board as well as a low-resolution video recorder. The phone does have a music player, with impressive external speakers to boot, but there is no memory card slot, so you’ll have to keep your music selections limited to a few favorites. There’s a microUSB connector for your downloads. A 240 x 320 pixel display shows off a few pre-loaded games, including golf and sodoku (ah, the sporting life of the rich), nicely. Jetsetters will enjoy the converter and world clock functions. Bluetooth too.
What do you think, worth the $778 yet? Did I mention there’s a polishing cloth and a custom leather carrying pouch? Yes, you can polish up the Luna to a keen shine. It might be what the feature buyers use the most, actually, because this phone is clearly meant to be a showpiece above all else. yy
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