Nokia Lumia 710 Review - T-Mobile's Nokia WP7
by Brian Klug on January 5, 2012 12:01 AM EST- Posted in
- Smartphones
- Nokia
- Mobile
- WP7
- Lumia 710
Conclusions
The way the Lumia series is launching in the US is a bit puzzling to me. For all intents and purposes, the 710 is the first Nokia WP7 arriving on US soil, not its higher end brethren, the Lumia 800. Just like I noted with the HP Veer, it’s a daring move to put the midrange product out first, a step ahead of the super high end counterpart. No doubt that high end counterpart is coming at CES in some shape or form (possibly with LTE), but still, a daring move nonetheless. On the other hand, I noted earlier that the midrange is where I wager the volume of the smartphone platform war will be fought and won, and it’s here that WP7 is in a unique position to finally make feature phones obsolete. For $50 after subsidy, you get a device that comes with the same SoC as the other higher-end WP7 devices, a 5 MP camera that produces great photos, and whose only caveat is 8 GB of NAND.
For its first entries into the market as a Microsoft partner, Nokia has done reasonably well. Both the Lumia 800 and 710 are good phones, although neither admittedly has the sort of earth shattering appeal that Microsoft needs to truly win this race. To Nokia's credit however, its partnership with Microsoft was only just announced less than a year ago. Most smartphones are developed on a 12 - 18 month cadence depending on the complexity of the design and the amount of re-use. We won't see what Nokia is truly capable of with Windows Phone until the end of this year at the earliest.
Perhaps that's a good thing as Microsoft still has some work to do on its own. The Mango update to Windows Phone brought about some much needed features, however Microsoft still needs to show that it can deliver substantial updates quicker than the competition as well as embrace new hardware platforms and leverage synergies with other Microsoft platforms. For Microsoft to catch up to Apple/Google's market share it needs to iterate quicker, migrate to faster hardware sooner and truly begin to flex its ecosystem muscle. Break down the barriers between Windows (PC), Windows Phone and the Xbox 360 and Microsoft will have a formidable mobile platform on its hands. I suspect Windows 8 is the start of this, but we need more. If Microsoft can commit to building a world where there's significant overlap between what you can run on your PC, Windows Phone and Xbox 360, I have faith that this platform is destined for great things. I want to be able to play Microsoft published Xbox 360 games on a console connected to a TV, on a Windows 8 PC/tablet or take them with me on a phone.
If, on the other hand, Microsoft doesn't do this - if in two years we don't live in a world where there is mindblowing integration between my Windows PC, my Xbox 360 and my Windows Phone - then the platform deserves to fail. Microsoft will have squandered its biggest advantage.
In conversations with Microsoft the response to all of this is usually a clever smile and a nod. We're usually told that we'll be pleased with what they've got planned. Microsoft has a great hardware partner in Nokia (arguably one of the best in the business) and it has a vast library of content, games and applications that are begging to be ported. Microsoft needs more powerful hardware to pull off some of what we're asking for (ahem, Krait is supposed to be Xbox 360 class at some point, no?) and it needs to execute quickly.
I'm not ready to say that I believe Microsoft will pull this off, but I'm willing to give Microsoft the benefit of the doubt. Microsoft has the ability to choose whether or not this race is already over.
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french toast - Friday, January 6, 2012 - link
We really need some exciting hardware and up to date specs..i love the look of wp7 but i REFUSE to be palmed off with 18month out of date hardware, when i can get something 5x as powerfull for the same price.Yes i have read all the countless arguements about wp7 being 'processor friendly' and being optimised for the user experience..good for them.
But it seems that they have used that rather good selling point to skimp away from the expense of decent screens, features, and processing power.
Yes it does run better than buggy android and caparitivly crap hardware..fantastic but it would run a bit more smoother, have better battery life, and would enable some apps and games that are worthy to hold that xbox moniker..at the moment all i see is crappy indie ports...i was expecting something MUCH better than this.
Still, im a massive fan of nokia, and i love my xbox 360..so my hope is that microkia get there act togther and release something worth buying..
a5cent - Saturday, January 7, 2012 - link
I understand not wanting to pay the same price for inferior hardware... who would?However, it's currently a fact that you can only have ONE of the following:
a) A restrictive hardware policy, enabling MS to push all their updates to all WP7 owners in a timely fashion
b) A flexible hardware policy, that allows manufacturers to arbitrarily improve their devices, enabling the WP7 platform compete with android in terms of hardware specs.
Microsoft has chosen (a). I think 90% of a smartphone's value is delivered by the software. Considering that the overwhelming majority of people don't want to bother with rooting their devices and flashing ROMs, I agree with MS that (a) is the right position to take.
As a result, the WP community will always go through long stretches were their hardware is inferior to the best Android deice. With WP8 we will get our short moment in the hardware lime-lite, only to fall behind again shortly thereafter. Going with WP means we accept this and get over it.
At some point the advances in smartphone technology will slow, and even before that many will realize the hardware is only a means-to-an-end. They will realize timely software updates are much more important... and wonder how we could ever like a system like android, that evolves so slowly and only gets one update every year or so.
PubFiction - Sunday, January 8, 2012 - link
Yep it is this and lack of choice. Sprint only has a single WP7 device and it lost my dollar because the screen was lower resolution and it was a slower device than the Evo 3D which I picked.Also when all your phones never come out on top in benchmarks no one is going to be interested.
Wolfpup - Thursday, January 5, 2012 - link
I wish they'd devote 2-4x the bandwidth at least so calls actually sounded decent.binqq - Friday, January 6, 2012 - link
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burntham77 - Saturday, January 7, 2012 - link
These are neat phones, but I still have not found a WP7 phone that could replace my Android phone and Zune. Someday, perhaps. Someday.jnemesh - Monday, January 16, 2012 - link
" if in two years we don't live in a world where there is mindblowing integration between my Windows PC, my Xbox 360 and my Windows Phone - then the platform deserves to fail. Microsoft will have squandered its biggest advantage. "Two years? Wow...that is overly generous! That would mean 3 1/2 years from introduction to mainstream success, swimming upstream against Apple and Google! I think its worse than that. If we dont see SOME measure of success from THIS generation of Nokia WP7 handsets, including the 710, the 800 and the "flagship" 900, they are sunk! They have been trolling around 1 to 2 percent market share, and FALLING. So if they dont get it together quickly, they will NEVER gain the momentum necessary to even remain a player! Hell, even Palm managed 5% at their height, and the only way Microsoft can report those numbers is when they lump in legacy Windows Mobile phones with them!
Personally, I feel that the phone UI is hideous, and the functionality of the phone is SERIOUSLY lacking in comparison to their Android counterparts. If I want "tiles", I can put them on my Android handset...but if I want to do anything outside of what Microsoft wants their users to do with WP7, I am out of luck! Too limited, too outdated, and too ugly to live! Better luck next time, guys...the Kin2 aint happening!
Timz - Thursday, June 21, 2012 - link
You can benchmark the camera's color reproduction simply by checking them with deltae; http://delt.ae/ , its a 100% free tool for color checker (amongst other stuff) evaluation.