Nokia Lumia 710: hands-on and first impressions

The Lumia 710 was the second Windows Phone handset announced by Nokia today, and was a genuine surprise.

Touted as ‘affordable’ by Nokia’s Kevin Shields, it’s designed to offer many of the features and software of the Lumia 800, but in a more wallet-friendly package.

We’ve been playing with the Lumia 710 quite a lot this morning and we’re impressed.

Measuring 12.5mm deep, there’s no denying this is a chunky handset. Whereas the svelte 800 is a gorgeously designed piece of kit fashioned from polycarbonate, the Lumia 710 has the plasticky feel expected at this price point. However, it still feels reassuringly solid.

By creating the 710 at an affordable price point, Nokia is clearly targeting a younger audience, so as well as being available in black or white, the back of the phone is interchangeable with a selection of colours. black, cyan, fuchsia and yellow alternative

Despite the lower price point, Nokia has equipped the phone with a meaty 1.4GHz processor - higher than we’d expect at this point, although 1Ghz is a stipulation of Windows Phone. In use it feels very quick, scrolling up and down the homesceen and launching applications, although we weren’t able to try it out to its full capacity.

The Lumia 710 includes a 3.7-inch 800x480 ClearBlack screen, which is bright and sharp, but not a patch on that on the Lumia 800, which has better off-angle viewing and superior contrast.

We’re really impressed with the Nokia Lumia 710, yes it’s plastiky, but considering it’s price tag of 270 euros (approximately £235), its features stack up nicely against the competition such as HTC Wildfire S and Samsung Galaxy Ace. It’s also great to have an affordable Windows Phone 7.5 handset at last - certainly if you don’t mind compromising on the hardware it’s an affordable alternative to the Lumea 800.

However, we’re not sure yet if it will be coming to the UK. There was no mention of the UK in the press conference this morning and the press release just says: ‘becoming available in further markets in 2012.’ We’ll try and get confirmation as soon as possible.