Nokia Luna: The Expensive Date You May Want to Do Without
June 19th, 2007 | by Patricia Handschiegel
I might have a high tech background, but I’m a fashion girl at heart, which is why the new trend in stylish technology has me more than excited. After years (and years) of being limited to relatively bland, boring design in cell phones, PCs and laptops, we’re suddenly bombarded with sleek, colorful products that look slick on a desktop or in your pocket. Should we all thank Apple for this? Probably. After all, it was only until the iPod gained in insane popularity that other electronics manufacturers started to realize that even the geekiest of us liked a little element of style to our high tech stuff.
Nokia’s new Luna cell phone plays on the trend with the same chic, sexy vibe found in most high tech products today, yet takes things up a notch with a bit of creativity not seen before. It’s encased in a durable smoked glass, which allows the keypad to remain visible once its slider is closed. Tucked beneath this is an illuminated keyboard that glows and pulsates like an old school plasma globe, which adds a cool, unexpected feature for the hipster you are. Nokia bundles with soft-touch stainless steel – if you’re not mesmerized by the reverberating light, you’ll at the very least enjoy looking at your fashionable self.
It’s no wonder that Luna’s arrival was as anticipated as a celebrity showing up at a club. Its defining feature is its smoked glass sliding mechanism, but I think it’s the pulsating light that really takes “bling” to the next level.
Yet, good looks aren’t the only thing Luna is about. Packed beneath its jazzy exterior are all the bells and whistles you love in a handset, including 2-megapixel camera, Bluetooth, music player and video recording, plus quad-band GSM support, an OLED screen and microUSB port (so you’ll look cool and smart as you jet around town). It’s a thin 4.2 x 1.8 x 0.6 and weighs just 5.0 ounces, with 3.7 hours of talk time and 240 hours stand by, with the usual feature set such as email and speakerphone.
And, like any true fashion piece, Luna was inspired by none other than the goddess of moonlight herself, who captivated the Romans with her mysterious, illuminating glow.
Feeling enamored? That’s where beautiful Luna pulls the rug. A quick Google hunt for pricing on this hot little number and at minimum, she’ll set you back nearly $800 – a price that will more than likely cause even the most swank trend-setter to balk. After all, when you start talking a thousand dollars for a fashion item, all kinds of competition comes to mind. Though I love Luna’a sleek, sophisticated look and feel, clocking in at the same price as a good designer handbag (or shoes) quickly puts my mind on something else.
Nokia properly positions it as a “luxury item”, but for the price, I can have the LG handset designed by Prada – and get the extra credit for having a true designer phone.
Post Your Comment...Comments
Toby on Jun 19th, 2007 at 2:27 PM:
I have always laughed at the ammount Nokia wants for some of their phones. The Nokia N95 is worth it because of the technology, but the Luna is just basically a good looking phone, not even worth half that price.
Jason Howard on Jun 19th, 2007 at 5:26 PM:
You pay a premium for the glass. :)
I never understood why Nokia charges so much for their upper end phones. It seems you are only paying for styling and not the features.
Matt on Jun 20th, 2007 at 9:20 AM:
I hope that glass is scratch, crack, fade, smear,and bullet proof for that price. The air must be much thinner in Finland to ask 8 bills for that phone.
Patricia on Jun 21st, 2007 at 5:10 PM:
Ian, I agree. I also think that if companies want to target the fashion market, they need to understand how we view products and how this opens up the competition to things beyond phones.
Jeremiah on Oct 7th, 2007 at 7:00 AM:
I own a Luna and I must say it is the best phone ever. I love "feature phones" as much as the next guy (owned Nokia 6600, Palm Treo 680, Htc Touch, and BB 8700) but sometimes you just want to be a little decadent. Frankly, I think I would have been a bit upset if the luna was feature packed - just another swiss army knife handset. Then you would have every techie on the block owning one. It simply speaks to the exclusivity. The phone itself has a bit of weight to it due to the scratch resistant glass front and soft stainless steel back. You actually feel like you are holding something in your hand unlike my HTC Touch smartphone that weighs almost nothing. Even the slide mechanism ball bearings in the Luna feel solid and provides some resistance to slide open. You cannot open the slider with slight pressure like other phones. When closing the slider, you hear a satisfying "clasp" sound as metal hits metal. I caught myself opening and closing the slider just for the fun of it. Keypad glows through the pitch dark smokey lower half of the slider. Plus you have 2mp Camera, mp3 player, Stereo FM radio, Stereo bluetooth, superfast UI, Stereo Widening feature, calendars, flash programs, excellent screen ( a whopping 16M colours compared to 256K on most phones today including high-end smartphones). And finally, unlike the Prada (which I think is very feminine), guys can feel confident in owning a stylish handset without throwing their masculinity into question. :-)
Comment on this article
Please keep your comments relevant to this article. Email addresses are not displayed, they are only required to verify you are human.
When you submit your comment, an email will be sent to your email address with a confirmation link. Once you have clicked on that confirmation link your comment will be posted.
HTML is not allowed.
RSS Feed
Ian Bell on Jun 19th, 2007 at 2:26 PM:
A couple issues I see with a phone like this:
1) Nokia needs to create a new upper-end brand if they want to sell this phone. I don't think anyone would want to spend $800 on a phone from the same company that makes a $50 or freebie phone. It's like paying $100K for a Hyundai, it might have the nice high-end leather, but it still has the Hyundai logo on it.
2) Nokia would be smart to partner up with a company like Gucci, Louis Vuitton to create a fashion phone that could compete with the LG Prada or Apple iPhone.