Nokia Lumia 710 Review

Nokia Lumia 710 is the second offering in the Windows Phone segment by Nokia following the release of Nokia Lumia 800. When Nokia and Microsoft announced about their collaboration to bring out phones running on the Windows platform it generated a lot of heat. Lumia 710 is the second phone from Nokia running on Windows platform and it looks forward to target consumers looking for a first time smartphone experience.

The road however is not easy for Lumia 710 considering the competition it faces from Windows phone manufactured by HTC and Samsung. But Nokia has ensured that Lumia 710 is strong enough for a fight and hence it has tried to pack the phone with robust features. But does the budgetary price tag along with other features makes Lumia 710 exciting enough for purchase. Well, we guess after going through our exclusive Nokia Lumia 710 review, you can get an idea.

Nokia Lumia 710 Build and Looks

Lumia 710 is quite a pocket friendly device. At dimensions standing at 119×62.4×12.5mm the phone is slightly bigger than its competitor HTC Radar. It weighs an acceptable 125 grams. Radar is a bit heavier than Lumia weighing 137 grams. Lumia 710 has copied some looks from the Symbian design book and it is very easy to find a resemblance with Nokia C7. The phone is made entirely out of plastic but it is put quite well. However, as compared to the metal clad looks of HTC and Samsung, the phone does feel a bit cheap. The screen of the phone is recessed a bit which makes the phone less coherent than Lumia 800. However, since the phone is a budgetary device, hence we were not expecting the looks and design of the phone to be out of the box. Overall we were reasonably happy with the build quality of Lumia 710.

Nokia Lumia 710 Display/Screen

The phone is equipped with a 3.7 inches TFT capacitive touch screen which displays pictures of resolution measuring 480×800 pixels. With a pixel density of 252ppi, it is at par with Windows phone handset. The contrast and viewing angles of the screen is at least better than the LCDs that we have covered so far. But when compared to AMOLED screens, then the display is quite disappointing. The screen showed impressive contrast ratio and the black levels were also good for a mid range LCD phone.

Underneath the screen you will find a plastic unibar which serves as the Back, Home and Search button. The buttons are quite large but we found them to be slightly stiff. On the right side of the screen you will find a narrow volume rocker button along with a dedicated camera button. The microUSB port and the hadphone jack is at the top of the screen. One thing which we liked about the screen is its wide viewing angles. The color integrity was maintained at almost at every angle.

Nokia Lumia 710 Phone Features

Keyboard

Lumia 710 is equipped with a standard Windows Phone keyboard. The keys are quite large and are quite comfortable to use in portrait mode. We were quickly able to type our messages and mails using the keyboard. But we were quite disappointed to find that the keyboard lacks haptic feedback and trace functionality.

Apps

Lumia 710 is equipped with some pre-installed Microsoft apps such as

• Mobile Office
• Zune Music and Videos
• Internet Explorer Mobile

Some of the other apps which you will find in the phone are

• ESPNScoreCenter app
• Nokia Drive
• Weather Channel App
• TeleNav GPS Nav
• Slacker Radio
• Netflix

Memory

The phone offers an internal memory storage of 8GB which is quite huge for storing a large number of contacts, videos and music. However, we were quite disappointed to find that there is no way to expand the memory as the phone lacks a card slot.

Software and UI

Just like most of the Windows Phone, Lumia 710 runs on Windows 7.5 (Mango) platform. We liked the Live Tile interface and a push on the unlock button reveals the lock screen from where you can get to know about the current time and date. It also shows calendar events, missed calls and emails. When you swipe the lock screen you get access to the live-tile Metro UI. When one opens the settings menu, a couple of options are revealed – system and applications. One of the great features of Windows Phone 7.5 is that you can control it through voice itself. You can dictate a text and in result the phone reads out the reply.

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 which helps to shoot images in dim light. The interface of the camera is quite simple and the camera application offers a wide range of settings which helps one to add nice effects to their photos. There is no front facing camera in Lumia 710.

The camera takes about 2-3 seconds to launch after pressed and it took shots fairly quickly. There were certain instances when it was difficult to focus the camera. However, our still photographs came very sharp and offered nice amount of details.  The shutter key however is a bit uncomfortable. The camera may not be premium but for a 5MP shooter the camera performs quite well. The noises are kept under check and the colors came out fairly accurate.

Nokia Lumia 710 Video Quality

The interface of the camcoder is identical to that of the still camera and offers plenty of features. It allows you to set contrast, saturation, sharpness and you can also apply image effects. The camcoder shoots 720p videos and continuous autofocus is available during recording. The video quality is quite good and is quite crisp and offers plenty of details.

Nokia Lumia 710 Connectivity

Lumia 710 boasts of quad-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE support and 3G with HSPA.

Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and Wi-Fi Hotspot

For local connectivity, you get Wi-Fi b/g/n and stereo Bluetooth 2.1. The phone acts as a Wi-Fi hotspot and can share data connection with other devices.

Connectivity of the device is also enhanced by the presence of 3.5mm jack and micro USB 2.0 cable. There is also support for GPRS and EDGE.

Nokia Lumia 710 Multimedia

Multimedia capabilities are quite good with Lumia 710. The media players are together in the music and videos hub which sports a Zune logo. The music section is made up of artists, songs, playlists and the video features television, music videos, films and personal. The interface of the music player is quite simple and straight forward and you will not face any difficulties in using it. However, the audio output is quite disappointing and we expected a better performance of Lumia 710. For music lovers, there is a stereo FM with RDS.

Nokia Lumia 710 Call Quality

We experienced mixed bag results with Lumia 710. When we called a landline number then the caller said that they did not hear us properly. However, calling on cell phones gave us better results as we witnessed clear and loud audio on both ends.

Nokia Lumia 710 Battery Life

In our battery test, the battery of Lumia 710 lasted for about 8 hours but when we used demanding apps such as Slacker Radio and Xbox Live game, then it quickly drained the battery.

Nokia Lumia 710 Launch Date

Lumia 710 was announced in October 2011 and was released in December 2011.

Nokia Lumia 710 Retail Package

While unboxing Lumia 710, we found the phone to be equipped with the following accessories

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

Nokia Lumia 710 Price

On contract price of Lumia in the US is approximately $ 50 while off contract the price of the phone is approximately $ 300. In India, price of the phone is approximately Rs 16,000.

Lumia 710 is a great phone for those who are looking to switch from feature phones to smartphones. Nokia has equipped the phone with a decent set of specifications and features and you will not regret purchasing the phone.