We received a sleek Nokia Lumia 710 last week, and we’ve spent the time since putting this capable Windows Phone Mango handset through its paces. The news for anyone seeking an affordable entry point to this exciting operating system – or simply the next big thing from Nokia – is overwhelmingly positive. Find out more in our Nokia Lumia 710 review.
Calling the Nokia Lumia 710 a mid-range smartphone is doing it a disservice. It can do everything the premium Nokia Lumia 800 can do, and it’s been built with Nokia’s usual sky-high standards firmly in mind. Rather, Nokia has made some wise choices with its components in order to offer a more affordable package.
Nokia Lumia 710 unboxing review
Take the Nokia Lumia 710’s design, for instance. It’s completely different from its sibling, which shows how Nokia has made this an alternative that depends on your personal tastes as much as your budget. Gone is that daring all-in-one polycarbonate shell. Instead you get a traditional design with a removable battery cover (and, of course, battery). Nokia has used this to give you more customisation options, packing in a different-coloured battery cover with the phone.
Don’t think this makes the Lumia 710 feel any less solid in the hand, though. The battery cover snaps in to place with reassuring certainty, and there’s no hint of any creaking or flexing in the fully constructed handset. There’s a pleasant matte look and feel to the rear of the device that aids with grip and makes the phone feel more premium. At 12.5mm thick and with a weight of 125.5 grams it’s slightly thicker than the Lumia 800 but substantially lighter.
Consider, too, the Nokia Lumia 710’s hardware controls. Nokia has gone with a set of physical buttons for the Back, Menu and Search commands rather than capacitive touch equivalents. Rather than feel cheap, these buttons fit perfectly with the Nokia Lumia 710’s overall design, and many will actually prefer the sureness and dependability they provide.
The volume and camera shutter buttons are still on the right have side of the device, but the power button has been relocated to the top. This makes it a little tougher to wake the phone from sleep with one hand, but easier to feel out without looking. The Micro USB and 3.5mm headphone ports are both on top of the device, but there’s no physical flap covering the former. The Micro SIM port has been relocated from the top of the device to inside the phone – you’ll have to remove the battery to insert it.
It’s true that the 3.7-inch LCD display found here lacks the eye-popping colour contrast and deep blacks of the Lumia 800’s AMOLED equivalent, but it is the same size and resolution (800 x 480). In fact, the bold text and sharp edges found throughout the Windows Phone Mango OS seemed even crisper and more defined on the Lumia 710. Our one criticism is that the screen is extremely susceptible to greasy finger print marks.
Nokia has made almost no concessions inside the phone, which means the Nokia Lumia 710 runs on the same swift 1.4GHz processor backed by 512MB of RAM as the Lumia 800. We’ll discuss the Lumia 710’s performance in more detail in our software review, suffice to say the OS and apps fly along as well here as on any other Windows Phone device.
With 8GB of internal storage, the Nokia Lumia 710 isn’t the most capacious phone on the market, but then not many other phones give you 25GB of free online storage with SkyDrive. Simply send all your photos, videos and documents here and reserve that 8GB for apps and music and you’ll be surprised how much you can cram on.
The Nokia Lumia 710’s 5-megapixel camera won’t be displacing the Nokia N8 from its mobile imaging throne, but it is capable of reasonable snaps with sufficient light. Accessing the camera is quick and easy – just hold the camera button – and shutter response is nice and quick. Images are a little grainy in less-than-optimal lighting conditions, but video is decent at 720p and 30 fps.
All in all, then, the Nokia Lumia 710 is a very accomplished smartphone. It might not be quite as desirable as the Nokia Lumia 800, but the way Nokia has managed to cram all of that phone’s functionality into a solid and affordable handset deserves considerable praise.
Source:http://www.noknok.tv/2012/02/02/nokia-lumia-710-hardware-review/
