Nokia Lumia 710 Preorders on Optus | WhistleOut Blog

The Nokia Lumia 710 and Lumia 800 have hit Aussie shores after a somewhat extended wait. Of course the Lumia 800, being the flagship device, is receiving the lion’s share of attention right now. However, it’s still important to note that the Lumia 710 is still a solid smartphone, especially when you consider the cost.

As of today Optus customers can pre-order a Nokia Lumia 710 for an impressive $0 on a $29 on a 24-month contract. Although we haven’t had too much hands-on time with the Lumia 710 just yet, we did get to play around with one at Nokia’s Australian launch event last Tuesday. From the impression we got then, it’s entirely possible that the Lumia 710 will be Australia’s most solid smartphone for under $30.

The Lumia 710 might not be the most hardcore device on the market right now, but it has a lot to offer considering its price rage. Physically speaking it’s quite a unique device, offering owners the ability to switch up colour schemes easily.

Coming in a foundation of either Black or White, the Lumia 710 sports a removable back panel that is available in a variety of colours. This rear plate can be removed and switched up for a new colour with minimal hassle, providing an adjustable aesthetic experience not found on other handsets. Nokia has assured us that the Lumia 710 will ship with at least 1 extra rear plate out of the box, meaning that without paying extra you’ll already have some customising options directly post-purchase.

Hardware-wise the Lumia 710 doesn’t shy away either. A powerful single-core 1.4GHz processor is more than we would expect in this range of the market and the 480×800 resolution of the 3.7 inch display equals that of the Samsung Galaxy S II.

A 5MP camera, 512MB of RAM and 8GB of storage are all also nice to see in a device under $30, although less impressive than the qualities mentioned earlier.

Of course the whole shebang comes running on the beautiful Windows Phone Mango operating system, which adds to appeal of both the simplicity and style of the Lumia 710 in the eyes of many.

If you haven’t guessed by yet we’re definitely recommending that anyone looking for a phone plan under $30 give the Lumia 710 some serious consideration. We’re yet to hear the pricing of other providers just yet but we don’t expect them to differ too much for the most part. So keep your eyes and ears open and we’ll do the same.