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Nokia Lumia 710

The Finn blue line

One day at a time

Mango, in its current state, is the worst power-guzzler of the three competitive smartphone platforms and this affects not only how you use it through the day, but your overall confidence in the system. That said, I did find radio reception to be better than the iPhone 4, and was pleased to find it regain a signal rapidly. Call quality was also better. These are traditional Nokia strengths, and with the rest of the market distracted by speeds and specs, surely a place to differentiate once again.

Nokia Lumia 710 Windows Phone 7 smartphone

The UI is attractive but needs an overhaul to make better use of space

WinPho 7’s multitasking implementation occasionally caused an annoyance, particularly the lengthy ‘restore’ from background. The latency made some apps, such as the Twitter app Birdsong, borderline unusable. This is something Microsoft must fix, and it doesn’t need full multitasking – just give the user a faster and more aesthetically pleasing restoration from the app’s saved background state.

Sample Shots

Nokia Lumia 710 Windows Phone 7 smartphone

Click for a full-resolution image

Nokia Lumia 710 Windows Phone 7 smartphone

Click for a full-resolution image

Nokia Lumia 710 Windows Phone 7 smartphone

Click for a full-resolution image

iPhone and Android users have access to a much more mature Apps marketplace and everyone will have picked up their favourites, most of which aren’t on WinPho 7 yet – the most painful absentee being the Microsoft-owned Skype. I was glad to find Flixster and Sky Sports but missed the WFMU app for example. In many categories there’s more choice.

Incidentally, Contacts Transfer is extremely handy. It works with BlackBerry and iPhone handsets, transferring data over Bluetooth, alas minus contact photos. Given that the phone doesn't sync with PC or Mac address books, this is quite an important feature.

Nokia Lumia 710 Windows Phone 7 smartphone
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