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Nokia Lumia 710 vs ZTE Tania

Last night we got to have some hands-on time with the ZTE Tania, the first Windows Phone device from the Chinese firm that’s headed to British shelves.

It’s also the first Windows Phone we’ve seen to come with drastically reduced internal storage – 4GB on paper, just over 2GB’s worth of which is available to the user.

The point of all this? Price. ZTE has said that it’ll be selling the Tania for ‘£10 to £20’ on contracts, which is very cheap for Windows Phone.

When you throw in the fact that you get 25GB of cloud storage via Windows SkyDrive as standard, this feels like less of a dealbreaker, but we’d always prefer to have a little bit more elbow room on phones when it comes to memory.

You could just as easily say the same about the Nokia Lumia 710 though.

Nokia’s second Windows Phone effort is a budget affair like the Tania, aimed at the pockets of those who aren’t keen on spending £40 odd a month.

It’s got a bit more beef in the internal storage department (8GB) than the Tania, which could be a decisive factor.

If the Tania ends up undercutting the Lumia 710 then it could pull the rug out from under Nokia’s feet. If the prices are more or less the same, then we can see more people reaching for the Lumia. It all depends on how they’re priced.

Aside from memory there’s a few other key differences about the phones to consider.

Nokia Lumia 710 specifications

Dimensions: 119 x 62.4 x 12.5 mm

Weight: 125.5 grams

Screen size: 3.7-inches

Camera: 5-megapixels, single LED flash

Storage: 8GB on paper, end user amount TBC

CPU and RAM: 1.4GHz, 512MB

Battery: 6.9 hours talk time, 400 hours standby time

Connections: micro USB, 3.5mm audio jack

OS version: Windows Phone 7.5 aka Mango


ZTE Tania specifications

Dimensions: 128.6 x 67.8 x 10.7 mm

Weight: 158.2 grams

Screen size: 4.3-inches

Camera: 5-megapixels, single LED flash

Storage: 4GB on paper, 2.5GB available to user

CPU and RAM: 1GHz, 512MB

Battery: 4 hours talk time, 200 hours standby time

Connections: micro USB, 3.5mm audio jack

OS version: Windows Phone 7.5 aka Mango


Nokia 710 price

Nokia has announced the pay-as-you-go/SIM-free price for the Lumia 710 at €270 (roughly £250). Though none of the networks have released pricing details for the Lumia 710 on contract yet, this gives us an idea of the price margin it’ll occupy – we’re thinking free on £25 a month, although it could go lower.

ZTE Tania price

ZTE has the estimated contract price for the ZTE Tania down as £10-£20 a month, while not releasing an official price for the phone on its own. Handtec has it down unlocked and SIM-free for £245.99, a little more than the official RRP of the Lumia 710, converted from Euros.

Nokia 710 release date

The UK release date for the Nokia Lumia 710 is down as the 1st of February 2012.

ZTE Tania release date

No official dates yet, but Handtec’s blog cites the 20th of Februrary 2012 as the ZTE Tania’s release date.

Nokia Lumia 710 vs ZTE Tania – pros and cons

The ZTE Tania has the bigger screen of the two, at 4.3-inches. Compared to the Nokia Lumia 710’s 3.7-inch screen, this gives you a greater degree of useability and screen real estate.

The fact that both screens have the same resolution 800 x 480 (WVGA) means that the Tania’s natural advantage isn’t exploited – the Windows Phone Live Tile icons look pretty big and oversized compared to how they do on the Lumia.

The Nokia Lumia 710’s screen features Nokia’s ClearBlack Technology, which boasts improved contrasts and high legibility in direct sunlight. Until we get both phones in side-by-side we won’t know for sure how much of a difference this will make.

Processor-wise, the ZTE Tania weighs in with a 1GHz CPU and 512MB of RAM. This ought to handle the everyday tasks just fine. The minimum spec for Windows Phone devices include a 1GHz chip, so the performance of the Tania ought to be consistent with most of the Windows Phones we’ve seen before.

The Lumia 710 comes with a slightly faster 1.4GHz chip and the same amount of RAM, 512MB. Again, as with the ClearBlack screen, we’ll need to see how the two perform next to each other to discern how much of a difference this makes.

In terms of customisation, Windows Phone doesn’t give developers free reign to change the layout in the way that Android does.

That hasn’t stopped Nokia from bolting on its own services – Nokia Drive (turn-by-turn navigation) Nokia Music and Mix Radio – on top of the Metro UI. Depending on what you want out of your phone, these offer good value for money.

To get similar services on the ZTE Tania, you’d potentially be looking and spending money on something like Navigon, a solid turn-by-turn sat nav app for Windows Phone, costs a princely £73 and signing up for a Spotify subscription.

That’s said we’d definitely install Spotify on our Lumia 710 and use that in place of the Mix Radio service.

In terms of design build quality, we feel that the Tania has a nicer look and feel in the hand. A black plastic jacket with curved ends top and bottom, it doesn’t look much different from your average phone. But at 10.7mm deep, roughly 2mm thinner than the Lumia, it’s got a slenderness about it that gives it an air of style.

The Lumia 710 comes in a range of fun colour schemes that’s a breath of fresh air from the usual blacks and greys of phones. Some may find this look a bit too Fisher Price-y, some may appreciate the ability to swap out different coloured covers. Either way, we’re not so keen on the transparent plastic bar that covers the three keys at the bottom – it neither looks nice or feels nice to the touch in our opinion.


Verdict

On a pure hardware basis it’s the Lumia 710 that looks to be the better phone – longer battery, larger internal memory, built in turn-by-turn navigation.

We love the feature-laden Nokia Lumia 710 but wonder how many people would plump for the ZTE Tania if it was going on a £10 contract. Aside from the memory, the Tania’s specs are Windows Phone standards. This basically means that it’s going to offer a good user experience thanks to the very stable and smooth OS.

When you consider that there’s built-in SkyDrive storage, the 2GB-odd doesn’t seem like that big a deal. There’s no microSD card slot, but there is life beyond the built-in memory on the ZTE Tania.

We’ll update the piece once we get concrete price info for both of these phones and once we’ve fully reviewed them.

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