Three weeks ago T-Mobile and Nokia announced that the Lumia 710 would become the first Windows Phone from the Finnish handset maker to be sold in the United States. It hits the market next Wednesday (January 11th) and it’s going to set you back just $50 with a new 2 year contract. To be perfectly frank, we think that’s too much money considering that you can get an iPhone 3GS on AT&T for free or an iPhone 4 for just $100. In a perfect world the Lumia 710 should be a free device when you buy it on a new 2 year contract, and we’re happy to say that the folks at Wirefly are helping to make that perfect world a little bit more real. If you preorder the Lumia 710 through them, either in black or white, you don’t have to pay anything; it’s free!
The bigger question here is should you even buy the Lumia 710? That all depends on what you want from a smartphone. Nokia will announce the Lumia 900 (codenamed Ace) at CES next week. It’s expected to pack 4G LTE connectivity, which may be impressively fast, but it’s also notorious for killing batteries. The Lumia 710 is more of a phone you buy if you’ve never had a smartphone before and want something that’s easy to use. When we reviewed it we fell in love with it, but we understand it’s not the perfect device for everyone. If you’re waiting for a high end Nokia Lumia Windows Phone, then we suggest you wait until the latter half of this year anyway for Windows Phone Apollo. That’s going to be the version that finally supports dual core processors, high resolution screens, and who knows what else.
If you do pick up the Lumia 710, do let us know how you get along with it. We’re curious to hear what you think of Windows Phone since it’s such an ignored mobile operating system.
[Via: Unwired View]