Have you ever thought why Nokia firstly launched the more powerful smartphone (the Lumia 800) being in such a faltering situation when it could release the more affordable Lumia 710 without a risk? That’s Stephen Elop’s strategy, which led to the fact the US starts loving Nokia. Now that the entire globe is talking about Nokia’s first Windows Phone-powered smartphone, the company is preparing for the next strike, the Lumia 710.
The Nokia Lumia 710 was announced by Nokia in October 2011 and released in November 2011 alongside with its elder brother the Nokia Lumia 800. It is the second Windows based phone from Nokia. Company’s CEO has branded these two phones as “the first real Windows Phones.” But he also specifically mentioned the Lumia 710 is more “affordable.” So this means the Lumia 710 is a mid-range phone, and though it came out simultaneously with its twin brother, it is not the same as the Nokia Lumia 800. We will try to see what it means in the Nokia 710 preview below.
Design
The Nokia Lumia 710 was codenamed as Sabre, and Nokia is not naming its devices out of nothing. This phone was meant to look like a curved sabre and it does look one. It is beautifully designed in front and back colors and is available in black and white for the front cover and black, white, cyan, fuchsia and yellow for the back cover. So there is a plenty of color combination possibility as to user’s taste. While being only a smaller (and accordingly a weaker) brother to the Lumia 800, this handset’s design is fantastic in the strict sense of the word, it resembles a highly sophisticated but simple device snatched from aliens, or some say even it resembles a medical tool, used for instance in the dentist’s cabinet.
The front panel features stylish physical buttons below the screen, and that’s all for the front, apart only for the proximity sensor, which can be taken as a front camera, but there isn’t one. The power button, the headset jack and the USB port are all on the port and there is a volume control and camera buttons on the side. The back has a 5MB camera with a single LED flash and there is a speaker grille below.
The device is made from smooth plastic and feels nice in the hand. Its dimensions are 119×62.4×12.48 mm and it weighs only 126 gr.
Display
The Nokia Lumia 710 is equipped with a 3.7-inch TFT capacitive, multi-touch display with the resolution of 480×800 pixels (252 ppi in density). The screen uses ClearBlack technology for better auto contrasting and readability under direct sunlight conditions. It displays nice colorful images with 16M colors and has also light and proximity sensors. You can also be sure your screen is durable as it uses GorillaGlass.
Camera
The handset comes with a 5MP back camera shooting with a 1280x720p resolution, and that’s ok, for this phone is not meant to take professional photos of presidents and then display those images in a photo competition. We can say it is a simple camera for home users; the quality of it is enough to satisfy every good taste. The camera is packed with autofocus, touch to focus, video stabilizers, face detection and digital zoom function. Video shooting is nice, with 720p HD and 30 fps. However, the Nokia Lumia 710 has no frontal camera: but this is not Nokia’s fault, it’s just Windows Phones do not have it on them.
Hardware
The Nokia Lumia 710 is equipped with a single core 1.4GHz Snapdragon processor to enable you to multi-task smoothly. The device has modest 512 MB RAM and 8Gb of internal memory with no memory card slot. The phone comes packed with a standard 1300 mAh Li-Ion battery, which will provide you 400 hours in standby mode (2G), up to 7 hours of talk time (2G) and up to 38 hours of music play back mode (3G).
Software
The Lumia 710 and the Lumia 800 are the first Nokia smartphones running Windows Phone operation system. The current version installed is 7.5 called Mango. So expect to find all standard applications, which come along with Mango. The soft includes smart IE9 for quick navigation and support of HTML5, full integration with the social networking trio: Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. Gamers are going to get their favorites through Xbox Live Hub. A separate attention should be paid to ESPN’s Sports Hub, which will provide sport fans with access to sports news, scores and statistics. You can watch ESPN sport analysis or selected video clips, plus you can use GPS for finding information on local sports. The app can be customized to the preferred sport type and team. You can send your letter in a more professional way through Microsoft Mobile.
Nokia has packed the phone with its own exclusive applications, like Nokia Drive and Nokia Music. Nokia Drive is also available on the Lumia 800 and it’s basically a sat-navigation application. You can use preloaded maps or download whatever maps you like. It can show 3D maps and is quick to fix your location and guide you step-by–step to your desired navigation, displaying how much distance was covered and how much is still left to get to the destination.
Another exclusive application from Nokia is Nokia Radio with its Radio Mix feature. It boasts of 15 million tracks available, which are divided by genre and artist, and which can be downloaded for offline listening. Create then your offline playlists and turn your mobile into an independent radio station.
Conclusion
To sum up the view for the Nokia Lumia 710 it should be stressed that this phone is produced for mid-range sales, so it is correspondingly priced. The Lumia 710 will launch Hong Kong, Singapore, Taiwan and Russia before the end of the year and will cost €270 ($376).
It is customary to write in reviews the phone in question is the latest technological achievement of humankind, but we will not say it for the Lumia 710, which knows the modest place it belongs. But this phone is different from others, because it has its own unique personality, its own soul. It is true that in its white version, it can resemble a small refrigerator, but then who said fridges are bad things (especially in summer time).
The Lumia 710 will look amazingly beautiful if you are traveling by air. Take to any airport and just compare it if you can to the body of any passenger airplane, and you will see what I mean. The Lumia 710 would be equally great for dentists and flight attendants in its white/blue combination, and for teenagers in its various other colors. It is true its elder brother Lumia 800 is much stronger, but to me the Lumia 710 can win the heart by its design, professional character and smooth behavior.
