Nokia Lumia 710 – Affordable Sabre Windows Phone
Even though the Nokia Lumia 800 seems to have grabbed most of the headlines, Nokia’s first ‘affordable’ Windows Phone was also outed. Meet the Nokia Lumia 710.
So, just as the Lumia 800 was named (by Nokia) as the ‘first real Windows phone’ the Lumia 710 (previously known as Sabre) is being touted as the first ‘affordable’ Windows phone – but is it a budget Mango?
No Jacket Required
It seems that Nokia is in to recycling at the moment as, just like the Lumia 800 is wearing the N9’s clothes, the Lumia 710 shares its outers with the Nokia 603. Not as sleek as the N9/Lumia 800 but it does follow its flagship team mate with the addition of the three physical WinPho7 buttons. The good news is that the Lumia 710 will also sport an interchangeable back cover for customising/matching your outfit. Ah, back to the 90s X-press On covers 😉
Heart of Gold
The Lumia 710 runs Windows Phone 7.5 (Mango to its friends) which means you get the ‘live tiles’ on the main screens and all the goodies that the 800 gets. Not only that, the 710 will be just as slick in the performance arena as its sibling because the 710 also packs the same 1.4GHz Qualcomm MSM8255 processor and 512MB of RAM found in the 800.
There doesn’t seem to be much cost-cutting thus far which is good news.
Welcome to the Cheap Seats
The Lumia 710 gets a bigger and better screen than its not-so-identical twin the 603 but it doesn’t match the one on the Lumia 800. The 710 still has a 3.7-inch display but it is a more standard LCD number compared with the 800’s fancy-schmancy AMOLED job. You still get a decent 252 ppi pixel density though.
That’s one area that Nok saved the pennies and the other area, from what I can tell, is memory. They’ve slipped the 710 with 8GB of storage space which is still decent enough if you ask me – if it isn’t then just think what you could shove up in the 25GB worth of SkyDrive cloud storage offered with Mango!
The Lumia 710 packs a 5MP camera which, although it might not be as swish as the 8MP snapper on the 800, I am certain it will handle those point-and-shoot moments admirably.
The Gift
Just like the Lumia 800 the 710 also packs Nokia’s additions of Nokia Drive – the turn-by-turn voice sat-nav in your pocket, Nokia Music – stream or download playlists without charge or sign-up, and ESPN – for sports news and video highlights.
When will I be Famous?
The Nokia Lumia 710 is set to cost around £235, before VAT – I’m guessing that’s also before network deals. Unfortunately the Nokia Lumia 710 won’t be arriving in the UK in November with the Nokia Lumia 800. Instead, Nokia’s debuting the device in some of its eastern markets – Hong Kong, India, Russia, Singapore and Taiwan. Nokia has said that it will be bringing it to “further markets in early 2012? so who knows?
