Rumor Mill

This may or may not be irrelevant at this point but I used to both phones. I got through phones like I change my socks. Both phones are excellent, but I absolutely love my 8600. It's an excellent phone and definitely worth the money. Its reliable, and although its thin it does not feel cheap. Battery life is good, I try not to drop it, but I have once or twice and its survived just fine. I love being able to check text messages from the front of the phone like you could back with the 8000 and 8100. The touch buttons are not bad at all either, you can set the sensitivity levels, and by default they auto lock when you close the phone, so in order to access them you have to hit a side button first. Its a gorgeous phone and has definitely been a conversation piece more than once. The only "flaw" is that it fingerprints like theres no tomorrow. Thats just because of the material its made from, and I can't even say thats bad. I've got serious OCD when it comes to shiny things getting smeared or dirty so when this gets smudged I'm constantly cleaning it but I still have no complaints at all about this phone.

Either way, you can't go wrong, but I'd recommend the 8600.