Nokia Lumia 710 Review

Nokia Lumia 710 is a budget-friendly version of the Lumia 800 flagship that comes with almost the same internals, however skimping only on storage and camera quality relative to its older sibling. The phone is made up of plastic that may feel cheap but it is well constructed like you would expect from Nokia. The Nokia Lumia 710 is targeted at the customers who would like to try a premium device that feels premium without crossing their budget line.

With Nokia 710, you will get what you have paid for - that mainly is the excellent Windows Phone operating system. Although, it is not flashy and definitely is not an iPhone killer but overall it is a nice device that comes at a bargain price.

The Lumia 710 embodies Nokia's foremost Windows Phone 7.5 smartphone in the United States, even though the higher-end Lumia 800 model is already available. Lumia 710 shares several features with its higher-priced brother but its lowest price tag can be quite apparent in crucial areas like the phone's display as well as build quality.

The Lumia 710 is no slouch when you use it because of a high-speed processor and Windows Phone's eye-catching and snappy interface. While the phone benefits from its good call quality, satisfactory battery life and a usable camera. Nokia Lumia 710 has a smaller amount built-in memory, an LCD screen rather than AMOLED, and a 5MP camera so as to maintain the budget status and keep the price down.

The retail package of the Nokia Lumia 710 is symbolic for the price range. Below are the accessories that you will get when you unbox the handset:

• The Phone - Nokia Lumia 710
• A Charger
• MicroUSB Cable
• A Set of Nice Ear buds
• Several Booklets
• Additional Accessories for example changeable colored back panels and a case

The Nokia Lumia measures at 119 x 62.4 x 12.5 mm while weighs around 125 grams. The Nokia Lumia 710 is lighter than its expensive sibling however it does not feel unconvincing when compared with the polycarbonate unibody of the Lumia 800. The build quality is extraordinary. The plastic utilized in its build is of high quality, and you will not feel any additional depression or rough edges in any way.

Advantages

• The Nokia Lumia 710 looks different although it does copy some pages from the Symbian design book but successfully manages to look unquestionably Nokia in a world where general designs are becoming increasingly common.
• Regardless of the all-plastic construction, the Nokia Lumia 710 feels tremendously well put together.
• Two different color schemes - black and white are available for the device. Fascinatingly sufficient, the central color refers only to the front of the device suggesting that you can choose between a white or black body.
• With an advantage of that, there's a variety of exchangeable rear covers in different colors.
• The Nokia Lumia 710 features a ClearBlack LCD screen of WVGA resolution. With a pixel density of 252ppi, the display is as good as it gets on a Windows Phone handset.
• The contrast of the screen and viewing angles of Nokia Lumia 710 are better than the majority of usual LCD units.
• The matte plastic cover on the back is rather grippy and assists you avoid unintentional drops.
• The phone can be operated easily with one hand thanks to its pocket friendly measures.

Disadvantages

• The display quality of the LCD is questionable and fall seriously short of AMOLED standards.
• The screen of the Lumia possesses a more or less frustrating yellowish tint when viewed from an angle.
• There is no front-facing camera on the Lumia 710.

Nokia left the Windows Phone interface intact in the Lumia 800 moreover the same applies for the Lumia 710 and even the upcoming 900. This wins them points for consistency. The innards of the Nokia Lumia 710 are also just like the Lumia 800, that is, a 1.4GHz Qualcomm MSM8255 chipset with 512MB RAM and Adreno 205 graphics. These specifications appear to be the standard on the majority of Windows mobiles. In addition, the handset does not hang or slow down with heavy usage. However, you can occasionally find the malfunctioning of the proximity sensor which is very bothersome.

Advantages

• A push on the unlock button brings out the lock screen, which displays the current time and date and shows calendar events, emails and missed calls.
• The Qualcomm Snapdragon MSM8255 Snapdragon processor clocking at 1.4GHz powers it, along with that it is also paired with 512MB RAM.
• The performance of Windows Phone 7.5 (Mango) on this hardware is excellent.
• The interface is clean and simple. The Live tile of each app demonstrates information related to the app's function. For example current date, pending calendar events, missed calls, unread emails and more.
• Having all such information always available at a glance is very nice and you can view them as home screen widgets of sorts, but that's a bit oversimplifying.
• The Lumia 710 is tied in with 7.5 Mango and its bragging feature is multitasking. However, it is not true multitasking and things are done in the iOS way. To put in simple words apps in the foreground are not suspended but the Operating System holds ways to take over and perform the task for them.
• The Nokia Lumia 710 possesses no reception issues, even in areas with uneven coverage. The in-call sound is good and loud enough.
• In Windows Phone Mango the Live tiles are quicker and offer more information. For instance, the Pictures tile shows an animated slideshow of your images and the Group tile lists friend updates.

Disadvantages

• The recently used apps list contains the last 5-6 apps and you cannot kill any of them. Furthermore, as you open more apps, the old ones start to drop out of the list, and then you need to launch them again the old-fashioned way.

The Nokia Lumia 710 sports a 5 megapixel camera with auto focus and a flash centered in the upper quarter of the phone's back. The camera produces photos that have a maximum resolution of 2592x1944. The camera UI is quite simple. The video quality of the Nokia Lumia 710 is truly good - as good as the Lumia 800.

Advantages

• The Nokia Lumia 710 has a 5MP camera (photos have a maximum resolution of 2592x1944) coupled with an LED flash.
• The Lumia 710 is capable of recording 720p (1280 x 720 pixel) HD video and the video quality of the Nokia Lumia 710 is truly good - as good as the Lumia 800.
• The camcorder interface is identical to the still camera and has plenty of features too.
• The camera roll has a dedicated auto-fix setting, which attempts to improve your photo. It's a nice feature however one that produces impractical results on occasion.

Disadvantages

• Image quality from the 710 camera is not awful however it surely is not as good as found with other smartphones on the market. Photos taken in good light keep a reasonable amount of details, but the camera struggles in low light.
• The shutter key is rather uncomfortable the half-press is especially uncomfortable. Furthermore, there are no video calls and no front-facing camera either.

The other functionality of the Lumia 710 and its connectivity is as good as it was supposed to be. The media players reside together in the Music & Videos hub, which sports the Zune logo. The touch screen is very responsive, supporting scrolling and pinch-to-zoom without much effort. Call quality is also good with volume and clarity coming through even in noisy environments. Some other features and limitations are as under:

Advantages

• Windows Phone 7 accustomed to be fairly restricted when it came to sharing - it's still not ideal (photos get cut down prior to emailing, for one) however you can now share videos as well, both via email and on Facebook. Sharing options consist of messaging, email, Facebook or the cloud-based SkyDrive.
• The video player is incorporated into the Pictures hub. It has an extremely simple interface - you have fast forward and rewind controls, a time scroll as well as a video size button that toggles full-screen viewing.
• The music player has an easy and straightforward interface you won't have any problem using it.
• Radio and marketplace links are also available in the Music & Videos tile but it does not offer the choice to listen to online radio thus you would require inserting the headgear to get reception.
• On the whole, the Nokia Lumia 710 offers an enjoyable experience, despite the fact that the hardware issues with the buttons and some of the limitations of the Windows Phone 7.5 operating system restrain it from being stellar.
• The Nokia Lumia 710 has quad-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE support and 3G with HSPA (14.4Mbps downlink and 5.76Mbps uplink). The 3G bands vary by region.
• The Lumia 710 can act as Wi-Fi hotspot and share its data connection with other devices. All you need is an active microSIM card with a data plan and you're all set.

Disadvantages

• The video player doesn't distinguish .AVI files or you can say, don't expect DivX or XviD support. And videos have to be Zune-transcoded.
• The audio quality of the Nokia Lumia 710 is quite disappointing. Although, there is no smartphone that comes with flawless audio, but the Lumia 710 was too poor.
• For the connectivity purposes, Bluetooth is limited at present therefore, there is no file transfer support, for one.
• No Flash or Silverlight support in browser.
• Additional SD storage isn't available on Windows Phone so the Lumia 710 doesn't offer such an option. There is no USB mass storage (file management and sync pass only through Zune).

The Nokia Lumia 710 is not meant to break any new ground or turn any heads rather it is just a simple and solid smartphone offering simple and easy interface with quick performance, great call quality as well as decent battery life time. All such features at a very bargain price. Lumia 710 is the first Windows Phone that is undoubtedly intended for the entry or value market

For the huge difference in price from the Lumia 800, there is a small amount of things you have to compromise on with the Lumia 710. Performance and interface are somewhat much on average with the only downgrades. The Nokia Lumia 710 is the perfect choice for those users who are looking for their first smartphone or a mid-range Windows phone.

To put it briefly, the Nokia Lumia 710 should be on your shortlist if your are considering a reasonably priced Windows Phone 7 or even a smartphone. Feature-wise, it is neck and neck with the Samsung Omnia W in terms of overall performance. Briefly, the Omnia W is lighter and slimmer as compared to the 710 but the 710 reacts with much better display as compared to the Omnia W. therefore, the ultimate decision will be based on your preference of the design, brand, color etc.