We've had the Nokia Lumia 710 for a couple of days now, and the early impressions are very good indeed. Considering this is supposed to be Nokia's affordable entry point to the Lumia range, it really is a very well featured and supremely well built phone. Here are the 10 things we love about it so far.

Nokia Lumia 710 - we've got one!

Zippy performance

We were impressed to find that the Nokia Lumia 710 is as responsive and slick to use as the Nokia Lumia 800. The reason? Inside the two phones are much the same! The Lumia 710's 1.4GHz Qualcomm processor and Adreno 205 GPU is identical to that found in its illustrious brother, which means you'll get the same fluid Windows Phone experience.

Sharp picture

While the Nokia Lumia 710's screen is the same size as the Nokia Lumia 800's (3.7-inch) it's an LCD rather than an AMOLED, which actually brings its own advantages. While the picture isn't quite as vibrant, it is notably sharper. Both are lovely and responsive to the touch, of course.

Choice of rear covers

It might sound like a small thing, but when you open up a mobile phone box and find a colourful and unexpected extra like the Lumia 710's alternative battery cover... well, it brightened up our day anyway. Here it gives the phone that extra bit of individuality and customisability. Plus, the whole two-tone look rocks.

Physical button strip

We love the Nokia Lumia 800's flush, touch-sensitive controls, and they complement that flowing design beautifully. But given the Nokia Lumia 710's more traditional looks, its physical button-strip is wholly fitting. Not only that, it's a cinch to operate without looking, and provides a tactile resting point for your thumb.

Nokia build quality

We really shouldn't have been surprised, but the Nokia Lumia 710 feels every inch the premium phone. There isn't a creak or a flex to be found, the phone has just the right amount of heft, and the battery cover(s) have a lovely matte look and feel. Another winner from the Nokia engineers.

Nokia Music

It might have possibly got a little lost in all the Nokia Lumia 800 hype, but Nokia Music really is a splendid service - and the Nokia Lumia 710's understated shell only seems to emphasise its qualities. It doesn't shout at you, but the way Nokia Music seamlessly integrates Zune's default MP3-playing abilities with the ability to listen to custom 'radio stations' - and even download them for offline play - without signing up to a service is quite brilliant. The gig guide, which tells of nearby shows with minimal fuss, is another worthy feature.

Nokia Drive

It was a major feature of the Nokia Lumia 800, and guess what? Nokia's superb turn-by-turn navigation tool Nokia Drive is a Nokia Lumia 710 highlight too. This is a tool to ditch your expensive sat nav system for, yet it comes pre-loaded at no extra cost. You can even download maps for free for quick, seamless performance. Thanks to the aforementioned strong processor, the Nokia Lumia 710 handles the 3D interface with aplomb, too.

SkyDrive

SkyDrive is Microsoft's cloud-storage tool, which awards Windows Phone users 25GB of free online storage space. This becomes especially precious on the Nokia Lumia 710, as it has half the internal storage of the Nokia Lumia 800 (though it's still pretty decent at 8GB). Not only can you store your pictures, videos and documents there, you can also access them from other devices. For example, we switched from a Nokia Lumia 800 to the Nokia Lumia 710, and once we'd gone through the set-up all our old photos were sat there waiting on the new device. Brilliant.

Microsoft Office

Speaking of documents, does any other smartphone platform have as good a Microsoft Office app as Windows Phone? Nope. It comes preinstalled on the Nokia Lumia 710, and it lets you view, edit and create Word and Excel documents, and to view and edit PowerPoint presentations. There's no clunky pinch zooming and dragging around to see the full document, like some kind of scaled-down desktop version. Everything's scaled to look natural on your phone.

Nokia Maps

Nokia Maps is another awesome standard app on the Nokia Lumia 710. If you've used any other (non-Nokia) Windows Phone devices before, you'll know that Microsoft has it's own Bing Maps app for the OS, but the truth is Nokia Maps blows it out of the water in pretty much every way. It's slicker, nicer to look at and - most importantly - easier to use. Thanks to the Places option, you don't even lose the ability to find facilities in your vicinity - it's all there and perfectly adapted to the Metro UI style.