First Look: Nokia Lumia 710 for T-Mobile

Nokia's first Windows Phone, the Lumia 710

for T-Mobile , is here! Well, at least it is here

in the PCWorld office. The Lumia 710 is

actually hitting T-Mobile stores and online

on January 11 and will cost an affordable

$50 with a new two-year contract. I got a

sneak peek at the European Lumia 710 back

in October and--no surprise--the T-Mobile

version is virtually identical to it. The Lumia

710 isn’t to be confused with the Nokia’s

flagship phone, the Lumia 800, which hasn’t made it to the U.S . yet.

The Lumia 710’s specs won’t blow you away: Nokia is targeting new

smartphone owners with this inexpensive phone. The Lumia 710 comes in black or white and has a 3.7 -inch display as

well as a 1.4 GHz Snapdragon processor.

The Lumia 710 certainly doesn’t feel like a premium phone, but it doesn’t feel cheap

either. The phone’s shiny plastic is a fingerprint magnet, but the soft rubberdized

back lets you get a good grip on it. The Lumia 710 isn’t going to win any beauty

pageants, but then again, Nokia does refer to it as a “no nonsense” phone. If you’re

all about looks for your Windows Phone, you might find the slick HTC Radar more

enticing (though it is double the price).

The power button is a bit difficult to press as it is

flush with the bezel. I’m not a big fan of the

navigation keys either, which sit below the display

on a single plastic strip (see photo). It just doesn’t

look very refined and feels awkward and

uncomfortable.

The 3.7 -inch WVGA display uses Nokia’s ClearBlack

technology, which supposedly increases the

display’s visibility in bright sunlight. The sun was

hiding in the San Francisco fog today so I was unable to put this to the test.

Hopefully I’ll get some sunshine tomorrow when I post the full review. Viewing

angles are good, however, while colors look bright without being oversaturated.

The Lumia 710 hooks into T-Mobile ’s 14.4Mbps HSPA+ network rather than the faster

HSPA+ 21 network. In a quick speedtest using the WP7 Speedtest app, I achieved

upload speeds of 1.37 megabits per second (Mbps) and download speeds of

0.5 Mbps.

I’ll be posting a full rated review of the Lumia 710 tomorrow morning so stay tuned for a more in-depth look at its

performance and features.

Rudz