Hands-On: Nokia Lumia 800 and 710
Oct 26, 2011, 8:00 AM by Eric M. Zeman
Phone Scoop goes hands on with the first Windows Phone 7.5 Mango smartphones from Nokia: the Lumia 800 and Lumia 710
source: Nokia
Lumia 800
The Lumia 800 is perhaps the most beautiful Windows Phone smartphone ever designed. That's probably because it looks a lot like the impressive Nokia N9, a stunner in its own right.
The Lumia 800 is a solid phone that is milled from a single block of polycarbonate. The materials feel excellent. The front has a (slightly) curved glass display and the overall fit and finish is top-of-the-line. Everything about the 800 exudes style, class, and sexiness.
When I first held it, I was surprised at the size. Though it has only a 3.7-inch AMOLED display, it is heavy, and a bit thicker than I wanted it to be. It isn't anywhere near fat, but it's not RAZR thin, either. It will slip into pockets, no doubt, but you'll know it is there.
The buttons and external controls feel great. The volume toggle and dedicated camera buttons on the right edge feel excellent, with perfect travel and feedback. The 3.5mm headset jack is on the top edge, and the SIM card port and microUSB ports are hidden under separate hatches on top, as well. These are a bit of a hassle to deal with, and I'd prefer if they either didn't have the hatches, or were located somewhere else. Alas, that is not the case.
The display measures a respectable 3.7 inches across the diagonal and offers the typical WVGA 800 x 480 resolution. The display is made of AMOLED technology, and boasts the Nokia ClearBlack technology. Fancy names asaide, it looks fantastic. The colors popped off the screen, everything looked razor sharp, and the blacks are the blackest I've seen on a smartphone.
As for the user interface, it is pretty much stock Windows Phone. The Live Tiles looked great on the AMOLED ClearBlack display, and they were updating constantly. Despite the single-core 1.4GHz S2 SnapDragon processor, the phone felt speedy and never slow.
Nokia is shipping the Lumia 800 to some of its key European markets in November, and will slowly ship it elsewhere during December and into 2012. As for U.S. support, the version announced today is a tri-band 900/1900/2100MHz device. Nokia said it will make its North American market plans known in early 2012.
Lumia 710
The Lumia 710 is an average smartphone that is meant to bring Windows Phone Mango to the masses. It sports a significantly lower price point when compared to Lumia 800 — and has an appropriately less-expensive feel to it.
Rather than polycarbonate, the 710 feels like any other normal plastic smartphone. It is much thicker than I'd like a modern smartphone to be, and the materials are definitely cheaper than those found in the 800. The combination of the size, weight, and shape made the 710 feel bulky. The rounded sides of the phone make it easy to hold, though, and it fits well in the palm of your hand.
Rather than offer three capacitive controls as most Windows Phones do, the 710 has three physical buttons to access the Windows Phone control elements. These buttons had an OK feel to them. The controls on the right edge — volume toggle, screen lock, camera — all felt a but cheap and stiff to me. It is obvious that Nokia had to trim somewhere in order to get the price point 150 Euro less than that of the 800.
The Lumia 710's display is the same size and resolution of the 800s (3.7-inches, 800 x 480 pixels), but it is a standard LCD panel rather than an AMOLED panel. Though it also claims to offer ClearBlack technology, the difference between the two displays is significant. The 800's display clearly outmatches the 710's LCD. That's not the say that the 710's display is bad at all, but it is obviously of lower quality than its larger brother. Blacks looked good, and the colorful Windows Phone tiles looked great.
As for the user interface, it is pretty much stock Windows Phone. Despite the single-core 1.4GHz S2 SnapDragon processor, the phone felt speedy and never slow.
Nokia is shipping the Lumia 710 to some of its key European markets in late December and will slowly ship it elsewhere during the first half of 2012. As for U.S. support, the version announced today is a tri-band 900/1900/2100MHz device. Nokia said it will make its North American market plans known in early 2012.
About the author, Eric M. Zeman:Eric has been covering the mobile telecommunications industry for 17 years at various print and online publications. He studied at Rutgers Newark and University of Kentucky, and has a degree in writing. He likes playing guitar, attending concerts, listening to music, and driving sports cars.
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Comments
A 37-inch screen on the 710?! What are you thinking Nokia?!
The Lumia 710's display is the same size and resolution of the 800s (37-inches, 800 x 480 pixels)...
And I thought the evo was too large...
If this is the best Nokia can do, then they should quit
The answer is that they wouldn't have lost anything and instead, NOkia would most likely own the Android market with their superior hardware. Most Nokia emp...
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sell what sells, and trash the rest.
Because Nokia Windows Phone 7 handsets aren't selling that well?
iPhone or Win?
It kind of sucks that all the software is so fragmented which makes the consumer "commit" to a specific OS.
I would feel more comfortable having all my content with iTunes because its dependable. I would love to one day get a Mac book air, and a tablet (iPad perhaps), and an iPhone to keep everything on one OS which the advantages would be to keep my content interchangeable.
Downside? Apple is expensive, and I really like this Nokia relationship with Microsoft, but my question is, How committed are they? If I decide to go with windows for all of my content, will I be sorry in the long run?
😕
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impressed.
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If only they ran Android...
These phon...
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removable battery?
