[nextpage title=”Introduction”]
The Lumia 710 is a smartphone from Nokia. It has a 3.7-inch screen with 800 x 480 resolution, a 5 Mpixel camera, and runs Windows Phone 7.5. Check it out!
The Lumia is a family of smartphones from the traditional manufacturer from Finland. There are four models: Lumia 610, Lumia 710, Lumia 800, and Lumia 900; all of them use the same basic hardware. The screen resolution is 800 x 480 on all models. The main differences between the models are shown in the table below.
| Model | Lumia610 | Lumia 710 | Lumia 800 | Lumia 900 |
| Processor Clock | 800 MHz | 1.4 GHz | 1.4 GHz | 1.4 GHz |
| Screen | 3.7” LCD | 3.7” LCD | 3.7” AMOLED | 4.3” AMOLED |
| RAM | 256 MB | 512 MB | 512 MB | 512 MB |
| Storage | 8 GB | 8 GB | 16 GB | 16 GB |
| Main camera | 5 Mpixel | 5 Mpixel | 8 Mpixel | 8 Mpixel |
| Front camera | No | No | No | Yes |
| Price | USD 230 | USD 240 | USD 380 | USD 500 |
Figure 1 shows the small box of the Nokia Lumia 710.
Figure 1: Box
Inside the box, we found the smartphone itself, plus one battery, wall charger, USB cable, earphones, replacement rubber inserts for the earphones, and user manual.
Figure 2: Contents of the box
Figure 3 reveals the Nokia Lumia 710. There are only three “real” buttons at the front of the device, all of them required by Windows Phone: return, home, and search.
The phone has a good grip, as the plastic back cover, which has a rubber-like texture, also covers the sides of the device.
Figure 3: The Nokia Lumia 710
[nextpage title=”The Hardware”]
The Nokia Lumia 710 uses a single-core, 1.4 GHz Snapdragon S2 MSM8255 processor from Qualcomm, a.k.a. “Scorpion,” which is the same chip found in the Lumia 800 and Lumia 900 models. Windows Phone 7.5 operating system, and all the applications we tried, ran smoothly, with no lags or sluggishness. A single-core processor is used simply because Windows Phone 7.5 doesn’t supports multi-core processors. The HTC Inspire 4G uses the same processor, while the HTC Thunderbolt uses a processor from the same family, the MSM8655.
The Adreno 205 GPU, integrated with the main chip, proved to be effective and fast even on the 3D games we installed.
As we previously mentioned, the 3.7-inch screen has a resolution of 800 x 480 pixels. This resolution is actually mandatory for any device running Windows Phone 7.5.
Figure 4 shows the back side of the phone without the cover. Here you can see the slot for the micro-SIM chip and the place for the battery. There is no micro-SD slot for a memory card, which is actually a Windows Phone limitation.
Figure 4: Back side, opened
The back side of the Nokia 710 is shown in Figure 5. Here, you can see the 5 Mpixel camera lenses and the LED flash.
Figure 5: Back side, closed
Figure 6 unveils the top of the phone, where the power button (also used for locking and unlocking the screen), earphone connector, and mini-USB connector are located.
Figure 6: Top side
At the right side of the phone, there are three buttons: the camera shutter and the volume settings.
Figure 7: Right side
Figures 8 and 9 show the left side and bottom of the phone, where there are neither buttons nor connectors.
Figure 8: Left side
Figure 9: Bottom
[nextpage title=”Using the Nokia Lumia 710″]
Using the Lumia 710 is a very pleasant experience. The touchscreen responds quickly and precisely. All actions on the phone respond exactly the way you would expect. Booting takes less than 20 seconds.
After some hours of experimentation, we found that the Windows Phone 7.5 is extremely friendly, easy to use, and powerful. It uses the tiles that are also found on Windows 8’s Metro interface. Those tiles (squares and rectangles) are customizable (you can move or delete any of them
from the main screen, as well as include any application on it) and dynamic, being capable of showing information from the applications. For example, the “People” square shows a slideshow with your contacts’ photos.
Speaking of contacts, the first step after powering up the phone for the first time is to log in (or create) a Microsoft Live account. If you log in an existing account, your contacts are imported to the phone. There is no phonebook apart from your Internet contacts. This may sound strange at first, but after some use, you’ll realize that this device is actually a communications hub, not only a mobile phone where all you need to do is store the name and phone number of the people you know.
Just touch a tile to run the application, or scroll vertically to see more icons. You can also scroll the screen to the left to see all of the installed applications in alphabetical order. The color of the icons can be changed as well as having a black or white background.
Figure 10: Main screen
Some features are just like on the iOS, such as the app store, called Marketplace. You can install any of the apps and games available, many of them for free. Popular apps like Facebook, YouTube, Skype, Tuneln, etc., are easily found, as well as numerous useful (well, some of them not so useful) applications. There are also some Nokia exclusive applications.
Figure 11: Marketplace
The gaming on the Nokia Lumia 710 is connected to the Xbox LIVE network, so you have to use your account (or create one). When we configured it, the phone imported the animated avatar we created at an Xbox 360 console.
Most of the games available are Xbox LIVE games, besides classical Windows games (solitaire and minesweeper are there), but there are also lots of third-party games available.
Figure 12: Games menu
The way to access the phone’s storage may not please all users. We, particularly, like to connect a phone to the PC and access its storage space as an external drive. But on the Nokia Lumia 710, it is not possible. The only way to exchange data between the phone and your PC is by using software called Zune, which is somewhat similar to Apple’s iTunes.
You can also transfer data using Skydrive, a virtual drive from Microsoft that resembles Apple’s iCloud.
The battery lasted around two days under moderate use. It can last three days with very light use, with a few calls and no app usage. However, when we used it for hours to surf the web or play games, the battery was drained by the next morning, which means a charge will not last for two days under heavy usage.
[nextpage title=”Other Features”]
The Nokia Lumia 710 has some really cool features, such as the email client. You configure your email account and, for some providers (such as Outlook, Yahoo, or Google mail), the email tile gets the name of your email service. We configured and used a Gmail account, and the mail client proved to be simple and useful. It makes the email synchronization on background, so every time you unlock the phone, you see how many new emails you have, easily reading them if you so desire.
Figure 13: Email client configuration
The phone comes with the Nokia Drive application installed. It is a powerful and simple to use GPS navigator that you can see in Figure 14.
Figure 14: Nokia Drive
The Lumia 710 also comes with a Windows Phone Office, which can open and edit Excel, Word, and PowerPoint documents. You can open from and save to your SkyDrive space.
The camera is easy to use for both photos and movies. The quality of photos and movies is good, although not exceptional.
[nextpage title=”Main Specifications”]
The main specifications for the Nokia Lumia 710 include:
- Dimensions: 2.5 x 4.7 x 0.5 inches (62.4 x 119 x 12.5 mm)
- Weight: 4.4 ounces (126 grams)
- Display: TFT capacitive touchscreen (16 M colors), Corning Gorilla glass
- Screen: 3.7 inch; 480 x 800
- Operating system: Windows Phone 7.5 (Mango)
- Processor: Qualcomm Scorpion (Snapdragon), 1.4 GHz, single core
- GPU: Adreno 205
- RAM: 512 MB
- Storage: 8 GB
- Memory card slot: No
- GPS: Yes
- FM Radio: Yes
- Sensors: Accelerometer, proximity, compass
- SIM slots: One micro-SIM
- Networks: WCDMA 900/1900/2100, GSM 850/900/1800/1900, GPRS/EDGE/EGPRS (class 33), HSUPA (5.76 Mbps), GSM, HSDPA (14.4 Mbps), WCDMA
- Wi-Fi: IEEE 802.11b/g/n
- Bluetooth: Version 2.1 with A2DP, EDR
- Rear camera: 5-megapixel, 4x digital zoom
- Front camera: No
- Flash: Single LED
- Video capture rate: 1280 x 720, 30 fps
- Music formats: AAC, H.263, H.264, MP3, MPEG-4, WAV, eAAC+, WMA
- Continuous talk time: Up to 460 minutes
- Standby time: Up to 400 hours
- Battery: 3.7 V, 1,300 mAh Li Ion
- Carrier in the U.S.: T-Mobile
- More information: https://www.nokia.com
- MSRP in the U.S.: USD 350, free with a two-year contract (minimum of USD 40/month, USD 200 early termination fee)
[nextpage title=”Conclusions”]
The Nokia Lumia 710 is a great entry-level smartphone. It has excellent hardware, is tough and reliable.
Windows Phone 7.5 didn’t disappoint us. Several features are obviously “inspired” by the iOS present on Apple’s iPhone, which is not a problem for the user. Usage is easy and intuitive, and installing (and uninstalling) applications and games is also quite easy.
Strong Points
- Easy to use
- Solid and tough
- Many apps
- Excellent as a social network hub
- Great gaming capabilities
- Good grip
Weak Points
- No memory card slot
- No 4G support
- No frontal camera
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