With Nokia bringing Lumia 710 on T-Mobile it has set the platform to bring this Windows Phone to the masses. Nokia Lumia 710 is the second brainchild of the collaboration between Microsoft and Nokia to bring a budget friendly phone. The phone is aimed towards first time smartphone buyers and it looks impressive with its solid design. But does Nokia Lumia 710 stand a chance in the competition, particularly from HTC Radar and Samsung Omnia W/Focus Flash? Check out our Nokia Lumia 710 review to know the answer.

Nokia Lumia 710 Looks and Feel

For its price, Lumia 710 is a well-built and attractive handset. The tapered corners at steep angles lends a good look to the phone and a soft touch polycarbonate back helped provided a good grip on the phone. The phone is made entirely out of plastic, but it has been put together extremely well. Lumia 710 bears some resemblance to Nokia C7 and at dimensions standing at 119 x 62.4 x 12.5 mm, it is very much pocket friendly.

Lumia 710 (125 grams) is heavier than Samsung Galaxy SII (116 grams), but is lighter than HTC Radar (137 grams). Smartphones from Nokia have always been good to handle and Lumia 710 is no omission. The matte plastic cover on the back of the phone prevents it from accidental drops and one can easily operate the phone with one hand. The design of the phone is quite simple, but will appeal to customers. On the right, you will find the narrow volume rocker and dedicated camera button while on the top lies the microUSB port and the headphone jack along with the power button.

Nokia Lumia 710 Screen

Lumia 710 sports a clearblack LCD screen of WVGA resolution. In order to keep the price down, Nokia has packed Lumia 710 with an LCD screen instead of an AMOLED one as found in Samsung Galaxy SII. The display of the phone is as good as found on a Windows phone. The contrast and the viewing angles are better than typical LCDs, but it falls short of the standard set by AMOLED screens.

There was a bit of yellowing tint when the screen was viewed at an angle. The screen showed impressive contrast ratios and we enjoyed watching Youtube videos and movie trailers on the screen. Beneath the screen lies the three typical Windows Phone buttons while above the screen you get the ambient light and proximity sensors. You will not find any front facing camera in Lumia 710.

Nokia Lumia 710 Keyboard

Lumia 710 smartphone is equipped with a standard Windows Phone keyboard which was quite comfortable to use in portrait mode. Just like in other windows phones, we were able to type quickly and accurately. But it was a bit disappointing to note that the keyboard did not take full advantage of the width of the display in portrait mode. The keypad also lacked haptic feedback which might be missed by some users.

Nokia Lumia 710 Features

Because of stringent hardware requirements for Windows Phone, the smartphone is equipped with a 1.4GHz Scorpion processor and 512 MB of RAM. It offers a massive 8GB of internal memory. But there is no option to expand the memory. The interface of Lumia 710 is similar to that of Lumia 800 and just like most Windows Phone, Lumia 710 runs on Windows 7.5 (Mango). The intuitive Live Tile Interface continued to impress us and thanks to the OS, multi-tasking is made quite easy. The 1.4 GHz Scorpion processor performs quite well and it is quite capable of handling tasks thrown at it.

Apps

There are some pre-installed Microsoft apps in Lumia 710 such as Mobile Office, Explorer Mobile, Zune Music. Some of the other applications found in Lumia 710 are

• ESPNScoreCenter app
• Nokia Drive
• Nokia App Highlights
• Weather Channel App
• Netflix
• TeleNav GPS
• Slacker Radio
• T-Mobile My Account

Nokia Lumia 710 Camera Quality

Lumia 710 is equipped with a 5MP camera which clicks photos of maximum resolution measuring 2592×1944 pixels. The camera is equipped with an LED flash and its interface is very simple. The camera does pretty well for a 5MP snapper and noises are quite low. The colors are quite accurate and the camera app offers a wide range of settings ranging from white balance, contrast, sharpness etc.

Nokia Lumia 710 Video

Lumia 710 is capable of recording 720p HD video but the quality is not that great. The video playback was however quite smooth but it lacked the details required. Lumia 710 does not feature a front facing camera and hence there is no question of carrying out video chats.

Nokia Lumia 710 Connectivity

Connectivity is a breeze with Lumia 710. Users get quad-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE support along with 3G with HSPA. For local connectivity you have Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 2.1 and computer sync is possible with desktop Zune application. Connectivity is also enhanced by the presence of a 3.5mm audio jack and a microUSB 2.0 cable.

Wi-Fi Hotspot and NFC

Lumia 710 acts as a Wi-Fi hotspot and you can share data connection with other devices. There is no NFC support for Lumia 710.

Web Browsing

Our web browsing experience with Lumia 710 was quite good and when connected to T-Mobile HSPA+ network we received nice browsing speeds. But it was a bit slow as compared to Verizon and AT&T’s 4G LTE network. The phone downloaded website in a little over 4 seconds and most of the users will find web browsing quite enriching.

Nokia Lumia 710 Call Quality

We obtained mixed results regarding call quality of Lumia 710. While we called on a landline number than users said that they could not hear us properly but calling on cell phones gave us better results with clear and loud audio delivered on both sides.

Nokia Lumia 710 Box Contents

During unboxing Lumia 710, we found the phone to be stuffed with the following stuffs:

• Nokia Lumia 710
• Charger
• MicroUSB cable
• Ear phone
• User Manual

Download Lumia 710 user manual

Nokia Lumia 710 Battery Life

Lumia 710 is equipped with a 1300mAH battery which lasted for about 8 hours. This was achieved after we carried out social networking and emails. But if you carry more demanding apps such as Slacker Radio or Xbox Live game then the battery will last for approximately 6 hours.

Nokia Lumia 710 Price

On contract price of Lumia 710 in the USA is approximately $ 49.99 while price of the phone in India is approximately Rs 18000.

Lumia 710 is one of the best priced smartphones you will find in the market. The UI is quite good and the overall functioning of the phone is snappy. However, the biggest challenge of Lumia 710 is that there are better Windows Phone available in the market such as HTC Radar 4G which offers better sound and camera. If you are looking forward to change from a smartphone to feature phone, then Lumia 710 is a great option for you.