Nokia announces Lumia 710 with Windows Phone Mango

Nokia may have just announced its first serious competitor to the Apple iPhone and many current high-end Android devices available in the market today in the form of the Nokia Lumia 800, but it's not about to leave the rest of us gadget-hungry consumers behind. In true Nokia fashion, the recently concluded Nokia World Expo in London also saw the launch of the Nokia Lumia 710, sort of a Nokia Lumia 800 for the rest of us. It features the same Qualcomm Snapdragon SoC (1.4GHz processor, Adreno 205 GPU, etc.) and even the same 3.7-inch 800x480 curved ClearBlack touchscreen display. It also has a very minimalist design, much like most of what's been coming out of Finland recently.

What's interesting about the Nokia Lumia 710 is that it's going to be available for only €270 or $375 USD (about 16,000 Pesos). It's scheduled to become available around the same places and at the same time as the Nokia Lumia 800, which means it probably won't be in the Philippines until early 2012. But don't fret, 2012 is only a couple of months away now, and once these new Lumia smartphones from Nokia become available in Taiwan and Singapore before the year ends, it shouldn't be hard to get a unit or two imported over the usual channels. That is of course if you feel that these handsets are actually worth waiting for.

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Nokia Lumia 800, the 'first real Windows Phone' now official

Nokia has just finished officially unveiling one of its most leaked handsets in recent memory at the recently concluded Nokia World Expo in London, England. Pictured above, the Nokia Lumia 800 is referred to by Nokia as the world's first real Windows Phone. Now I know what you're thinking, it looks like a bar of soap. Well, perhaps it does, but this bar of soap just might be the kind of thing that Nokia needs to rub down its long streak of bad luck in the smartphone arena of today.

The Nokia Lumia 800 features a 1.4GHz Qualcomm MSM8255 SoC, the same chip that powers mobile heavyweights such as the HTC Desire HD, Sony Ericsson Xperia Arc, and Acer Iconia Smart. It also comes with an Adreno 205 GPU as standard for its configuration as part of the Snapdragon family. The body of the Nokia Lumia 800 is made out of a thick piece of durable polycarbonate plastic, and its design is reminiscent of the Nokia N9. It's a bit on the chunky side at 12.1mm thick, but I wouldn't hesitate to pick this baby up even if it were truly a bar of soap (if you know what I mean).

Up front, there appears to be nothing but the curved 3.7-inch 800x480 ClearBlack AMOLED touchsreen display (standard with most Windows Phones nowadays), and around the back, the only thing you'll find is an 8-megapixel snapper with Carl Zeiss optics. There will be only one version of the Nokia Lumia 800 for sale and it will offer 16GB of internal storage (plus 25GB of free SkyDrive storage from Microsoft).

If you head on over to Nokia's web site right now, you'll find a list of select countries where it's already available for pre-order. Come November, it will be officially available in France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain and the UK under leading telecom operators and select retailers. Meanwhile, Hong Kong, India, Russia, Singapore, and Taiwan will see each see a local release of the Nokia Lumia 800 before the year ends. Availability in other countries (read: rest of world) is scheduled to follow in early 2012.

Impressive hardware as always. But will Windows Phone be enough to salvage what remains of the former champion of Symbian? If you're thinking of bagging one of these for Christmas, expect to pay €420 or about $585 USD (~25,000 Pesos) Read on for a few more photos and the official press release of the Nokia Lumia 800 smartphone.