While the Nokia Lumia 710 is a fine and attractive smartphone, it couldn’t possibly hope to match the Nokia Lumia 800 for sheer style. Really, we don’t know a smartphone that could. But that’s not the case when it comes to the Nokia Lumia 710′s Windows Phone OS and bundled software – there is absolutely no compromise here whatsoever.

Nokia Lumia 710 review (hardware)

Windows Phone 7.5 has fast established itself as the slickest and most forward-thinking mobile operating systems around. It’s based around the gorgeous Metro UI, which uses boldly coloured window tiles, high res background images and large, heavily stylised (though always clear) fonts to really stand out from the crowd.

It’s built around a hub page filled with large square icons called live tiles. These represent the main functions of your phone – so there’s one for making phone calls, one for your contacts, one for text messaging and so on. The key feature is hinted at in the live tile name – they relay real-time information to you without the need to actually enter the app. If you’ve come from the static icons of Symbian, this will be a bit of a revelation.

For example, your contacts app (called People) will pull any images associated with your contacts to the fore, creating a mosaic of your friends, family and colleagues right on your Nokia Lumia 710 start page. Instant personalisation with no messing around. A rather more useful example would be the text and email live tiles that tell you how many unread messages you have. The calendar tile, meanwhile, tells you what your next appointment is at a glance. App developers can add their own live tiles, which you can choose to pin to the start menu.

No other mobile OS boasts such a unified approach, and that’s most evident when you stray into the apps themselves. Each of the default applications – and most of the third party ones found on the Windows Phone Marketplace for that matter – adopt the Metro UI aesthetic. This involves a simple system of scrolling left and right to flick between important elements, each represented by a large header that gradually scrolls into view. The email app, for example, lets you flick between all, unread, flagged and urgent messages with a left or right swipe.

Speaking of email – setting up an account is extremely easy here. Select the set-up option from the start page, or the Add an account option from the settings menu, and you’ll be able to add an account from all the usual sources – Gmail, Facebook, Twitter and more. In the case of something like Gmail, you can even choose to sync your contacts and calendar info with Windows Phone’s equivalent systems. It’s seamless.

Scrolling right from the start page brings up a list of all the apps you have on your Nokia Lumia 710, which in turn brings us to one of the few perceived weaknesses of the Windows Phone OS. While the Windows Phone Marketplace is very nicely presented (again in the Metro UI style), it doesn’t have as many apps as its major rivals. When you consider that the Windows Phone OS has been around for well under two years, though, the fact that it has more than 40,000 apps to choose from already is truly impressive. The important points to note are: the Marketplace is growing fast, most of the major players (Spotify, Flickr, eBay etc) are represented, and many of these are the best of their kind on any platform.

Gamers, too, will find an ecosystem that preaches quality over quantity – and which is quickly catching up in numbers too. Your Nokia Lumia 710 has access to a number of games that hook up to your Xbox Live account, awarding you achievements that will go towards your Xbox 360 Gamerscore. This facility alone makes the Windows Phone versions of cross-platform giants such as Angry Birds and Plants vs Zombies the best on any smartphone platform. There’s also a growing catalogue of smaller and cheaper indie games.

What sets the Nokia Lumia 710 (along with the Lumia 800) apart from other Windows Phone devices, even, is the exclusive Nokia software. Nokia Drive is the undoubted star of the show, offering a full turn-by-turn navigation system for free. With the ability to preload maps, the Nokia Lumia 710′s powerful GPS capabilities and Nokia Drive’s clear 3D view, you can genuinely consider putting your expensive sat nav system on ebay. It’s that good.

Nokia Maps, too, is a far superior alternative to the default Bing Maps, while Nokia Music adds free themed radio playlists that can be streamed or downloaded. All excellent additions, and you can bet that Nokia will have more up its sleeves.

We said in our hardware review that the Nokia Lumia 710 offers the full functionality of the Nokia Lumia 800 for less money, but in truth that’s largely defined by its software. This is the full Windows Phone OS experience, and it makes the Nokia Lumia 710 one of the most appealing and capable smartphones on the market.

You bet it can. For a start, these aren’t your average underpowered Ford Focuses that your local bobby tootles around in. Rather, the cars you step into in Need For Speed Hot Pursuit are lean, mean growling thoroughbreds from some of the most prestigious real-life sports car manufacturers in the world. With flashing lights and cup holders (probably).

Nokia Lumia 800 game: EVAC review

And really, what could be more thrilling than hunting down a perp in one of these exotic cars? The game offers up a bunch of tasks based around such a premise. There’s your standard pursuit mode (and variations thereof), whereby you must catch up with criminals and bash them until they crash, deploying road blocks and other such gadgets at select points. There are also straight-ahead races in which you must take on your fellow coppers in a spot of extra-curricular oneupmanship. There are also against the clock dashes where precision and focus is the key.

All of these race modes are joined together in a nifty career mode, where wins mean cash and cash means levelling up and levelling up means a shiny new car with marginally better stats. This isn’t the most technical racer, so the differences between cars aren’t particularly nuanced, but the game as a whole undoubtedly gets better relative to the hardware at your disposal.

Of course, if you still find yourself hankering for something a little more illicit then there’s always the option of playing through the career of an undercover street racer – which basically means doing the same things as above from the opposite perspective. So you have to avoid aggressive cops as they try to bring you down, and race against your fellow crooks. It’s essentially the main cop career with a few minor changes in graphics and goals, but it certainly extends the life of the game somewhat.

As hinted at, the racing at the core of Need For Speed Hot Pursuit isn’t particularly advanced. By default, your car auto-accelerates, and you tilt your handset to steer. We found the steering to be a little lacking in responsiveness by default, but this was largely sorted by upping the sensitivity in the options menu. Similarly you can change the auto-accelerate to manual, but the driving model is so forgiving and the tracks so lacking in tight turns that such refined control is unnecessary.

In fact, Need For Speed Hot Pursuit isn’t really about racing – it’s about recharging nitro boosts, near misses with civilian traffic, and deploying an EMP attack at 200mph. As an arcade action game with a fair amount of content (though at £3.99 on the Windows Phone Marketplace, not a generous amount), then, it’s tough to beat on your Nokia Lumia 800. Those looking for an outright racer that accurately replicates the feel of driving will have to look elsewhere.

What do you think of Need For Speed Hot Pursuit? Let us know in the comments section below.

Nokia 700 app: Care App review

We love the default Nokia Belle interface on our Nokia 700. It’s icons and layout stand out well, making the Nokia 700 easy to navigate. Naturally, the colour scheme won’t be to all tastes. So if you like the colour red, this Black Heart theme might be your thing.

It transforms all icons into solid-looking red and black boxes, in a very modern, almost futuristic-like design. On the homescreen you’ll notice this immediately. Dive into the menu and you’ll see that the theme has completely taken over, painting almost every icon the same tone.

Unfortunately that means the icons lose their uniqueness, but the theme does lend a nice uniformity throughout. For example, dive into ‘settings’ and you’ll see that the theme has given the background a subtle red and white sheen that sits well against the backdrop of red icons and contrasts well with the white lettering of the icon descriptions.

The unlock button is also transformed into a black bar with a faint red outline. Besides that we haven’t noticed other changes here. Some themes change the look of the time screensaver, but Black Heart appears to leave it alone.

So in all, Black Heart doesn’t actually change a lot. The wallpapers on each of your homescreen remain as they were, so it’s mostly just a case of new icons and a new unlock button. The changes are subtle and do fit in well, so if you’re after a minor tweak instead of an overhaul for your Nokia 700, Black Heart is worth a peep.

Download: Heart by Hank
Size: 3.70 MB
Price: Free

Check out the Black Heart by Hank theme for Nokia 700 photo gallery below:

Nokia Lumia 800 game: EVAC review

So, with that intro in mind, is Fragger the next Angry Birds? Not quite, but the premise isn’t entirely dissimilar. The goal is to take out a bunch of targets (army dummies rather than pigs) by judging the trajectory and power of a static projectile launcher.

Unlike Rovio’s blockbuster, though, you’re not operating a slingshot. Rather, your little army chap must lob his small armoury of grenades at the targets. By dragging on the screen, you can adjust your aim via a handy arrow – rather like the aforementioned Worms. Dragging away from your fragger, meanwhile, will increase the power of your throw. Once you’re happy with the firing calculations, simply release the screen and a grenade will be lobbed. It’ll only detonate once it’s come to a complete stop.

Fragger employs some rudimentary physics, so the skill comes in judging the trajectory of the grenade, bouncing it off walls where necessary. There are plenty of interactive elements to spice things up, too. Targets may be hidden behind flimsy cover, which can be removed with an additional grenade. Alternatively, you might be able to sent a target flying off screen (which is as good as blowing them up) by sending a box into them with a handily placed explosive. You can even use the unexploded grenades themselves to topple targets from their lofty perches.

It’s this variety of approaches that keeps Fragger fresh throughout its generous supply of levels. So, too, does the game’s by-now-standard three star award system. Ace a level with as few grenades wasted as possible and you’ll get a full three-medal score. Any less and you’ll pass, but with a lesser award, which naturally won’t sit well with any completionists among you. Getting top marks is easy early on, but extremely tricky in the latter stages of each of the 12 worlds.

Adding interest, too, is the customary Xbox Live integration. Once again you can unlock achievements that contribute to your Xbox Gamerscore – a solid incentive to do well if you’re a dedicated console gamer. Whether this element is worth the full £2.29 charge on the Windows Phone Marketplace we’re not sure – not when the game was initially designed as a free Flash game for your computer.

Still, the level count is generous and the presentation is clean and tidy, if a little bland. It’s not the app with which to show off what your Nokia Lumia 710 can do from a graphical perspective, but then there are plenty of other apps for such a task. 

For a game all about blowing stuff up, Fragger is surprisingly stealthy in its assault on your free time. You’ll find it sneaking into your life whenever you have a spare moment or two as you chase that extra medal, muse over how to hit that bonus box or seek to unlock the next world. Not dynamite, then, but more of a controlled explosion. 

The Nokia Care app acts as a sort of digital index of all things helpful and Nokia-related. It’s like having your own personal Nokia assistant at your fingertips – the kind of app you may not always need, but when you do, you’ll be glad you did.

Upon booting up the app, as we did on our Nokia 700, you’ll be met with a contents page with the following topics: User guide, software update, social media and contact Nokia – each linking to helpful sections – not all of them are new – but the sections are helpfully grouped into one place – and you’ll be glad they are.

For example, User Guide takes you to tutorials telling you how to do everything with your phone: from changing the theme to adding widgets. Tapping Software Update does an automatic update check for new software with, just one tap – adding another easy way to update your Nokia.

Social Media gives you the access to Nokia Facebook, Twitter and YouTube accounts. From here you can get in touch directly with Nokia, ask for support or check out the latest tips and tricks from around the web in video and written form, or call upon helpful Q&As on any Nokia phone-related topic you can think of.

Here you can type in the name of your phone, or the problem with it to find a solution within seconds, whether on Wi-Fi or a 3G connection, Nokia Care appears to work without a hitch, although when videos you will have to wait a little longer for videos to buffer over a 3G connection. Otherwise the rest of the app poses next to no problems in use. We also like the layout, which couldn’t be any clearer. Each section is helpfully displayed using large text, making the app easy to browse on the train, or on the move.

To sum up, we’re really fond of the Nokia Care app. It won’t keep you entertained on a cold night, but it’s still the most helpful, essential app you will ever download to your phone.

Download: Nokia Care App
Size: 0.32MB
Cost: Free

Check out our Nokia 700 app: Nokia Care App review photo gallery:

Calling the Nokia Lumia 710 a mid-range smartphone is doing it a disservice. It can do everything the premium Nokia Lumia 800 can do, and it’s been built with Nokia’s usual sky-high standards firmly in mind. Rather, Nokia has made some wise choices with its components in order to offer a more affordable package.

Nokia Lumia 710 unboxing review

Take the Nokia Lumia 710′s design, for instance. It’s completely different from its sibling, which shows how Nokia has made this an alternative that depends on your personal tastes as much as your budget. Gone is that daring all-in-one polycarbonate shell. Instead you get a traditional design with a removable battery cover (and, of course, battery). Nokia has used this to give you more customisation options, packing in a different-coloured battery cover with the phone.

Don’t think this makes the Lumia 710 feel any less solid in the hand, though. The battery cover snaps in to place with reassuring certainty, and there’s no hint of any creaking or flexing in the fully constructed handset. There’s a pleasant matte look and feel to the rear of the device that aids with grip and makes the phone feel more premium. At 12.5mm thick and with a weight of 125.5 grams it’s slightly thicker than the Lumia 800 but substantially lighter.

Consider, too, the Nokia Lumia 710′s hardware controls. Nokia has gone with a set of physical buttons for the Back, Menu and Search commands rather than capacitive touch equivalents. Rather than feel cheap, these buttons fit perfectly with the Nokia Lumia 710′s overall design, and many will actually prefer the sureness and dependability they provide.

The volume and camera shutter buttons are still on the right have side of the device, but the power button has been relocated to the top. This makes it a little tougher to wake the phone from sleep with one hand, but easier to feel out without looking. The Micro USB and 3.5mm headphone ports are both on top of the device, but there’s no physical flap covering the former. The Micro SIM port has been relocated from the top of the device to inside the phone – you’ll have to remove the battery to insert it.

It’s true that the 3.7-inch LCD display found here lacks the eye-popping colour contrast and deep blacks of the Lumia 800′s AMOLED equivalent, but it is the same size and resolution (800 x 480). In fact, the bold text and sharp edges found throughout the Windows Phone Mango OS seemed even crisper and more defined on the Lumia 710. Our one criticism is that the screen is extremely susceptible to greasy finger print marks.

Nokia has made almost no concessions inside the phone, which means the Nokia Lumia 710 runs on the same swift 1.4GHz processor backed by 512MB of RAM as the Lumia 800. We’ll discuss the Lumia 710′s performance in more detail in our software review, suffice to say the OS and apps fly along as well here as on any other Windows Phone device.

With 8GB of internal storage, the Nokia Lumia 710 isn’t the most capacious phone on the market, but then not many other phones give you 25GB of free online storage with SkyDrive. Simply send all your photos, videos and documents here and reserve that 8GB for apps and music and you’ll be surprised how much you can cram on.

The Nokia Lumia 710′s 5-megapixel camera won’t be displacing the Nokia N8 from its mobile imaging throne, but it is capable of reasonable snaps with sufficient light. Accessing the camera is quick and easy – just hold the camera button – and shutter response is nice and quick. Images are a little grainy in less-than-optimal lighting conditions, but video is decent at 720p and 30 fps.

All in all, then, the Nokia Lumia 710 is a very accomplished smartphone. It might not be quite as desirable as the Nokia Lumia 800, but the way Nokia has managed to cram all of that phone’s functionality into a solid and affordable handset deserves considerable praise.

The RAC Traffic App is a free service that you can download for free from the Nokia Store, designed to help you beat the traffic jams by showing you which roads and motorways the journey-ruining incidents are taking place.

We wanted to discover whether you get the same experience across different platforms. With that in mind we grabbed hold of a Nokia Lumia 800 Windows Phone and a Nokia Belle-equipped Nokia 700 to find out.

So, which is better? We agreed that RAC Traffic does its job, and is definitely a worthy app, but one with a lot more potential, and in need of an update. However there were some issues with the way RAC Traffic performed on our handsets.

On a Nokia 700, for example, we found that the RAC Traffic app handily maps your vicinity so that you could home in on potential traffic delays nearby. On a Nokia Lumia 800 it was a different story.  From a location in Devon, we found that the RAC Traffic app seemed to think that we were in the Peak District, miles north of where we actually were.

This meant we had to scroll, and scroll, and scroll, and then scroll some more just to peep the traffic in our surrounding area – our biggest gripe with the Windows Phone version. It never did guess our correct location.

To the Windows Phone version’s credit, it does have a ‘My Routes’ feature letting you add your route, or find a quicker route to your destination, although this does not suggest any alternative routes should your journey face closures along the way. We also found that to use it you have to pin a shortcut yo your route via the Windows Phone menu and access it from the homescreen.

Read our RAC Traffic App review for the Nokia 700

A common bugbear was the Map Options. Here you can choose to look for ‘Incidents and Delays’ or ‘Roadworks and Planned’ roadworks, but unfortunately never both at the same time, which would only seem to add extra time to our journey and/or journey planning. RAC actually got back to us to say the following (thanks for getting in touch!):

“The reason for separating incidents and roadworks display is due to the fact that we’ve found out during testing that the traffic incident data sets would sometimes take too long to download when the handset is in a limited reception area (or on EDGE). Hence for better usability we decided to separate the two – something had to give, but hopefully it’s not too much of a deterrent as our aim is to provide top notch traffic updates and we believe the app delivers that.”

The ability to call the RAC in the event of a breakdown is another handy little feature, but not an essential one – you could just as easily have the number stored in your contacts list anyway, or call direct enquiries and ask to be put through.

Conclusion:

That aside, we do like the RAC Traffic App. It has a well designed interface that looks the same on both Nokia Belle and Windows Phone, so it’s nice to have a little bit of uniformity, there. But in general we found the user experience a little too stop/start for our liking. With an update and a couple of tweaks to speed things up, this could be a great app, for both Windows Phone and Nokia Belle.

Neon Racer is a racing game for Nokia 700 and other compatible Nokia phones. It is available now on the Ovi Store, at the cost of zero of your pounds and pennies. The idea is that players race for as long as possible, avoiding incoming obstacles while trying to set the best score. Unfortunately, any players are unlikely to be racing for long.

Neon Racers is not so much a racing game as it is a test of players endurance to repeatedly play before growing frustrated. You’re supposed to race for as long as possible without bumping into oncoming red neon girders – bump into them and it’s game over. However, Neon Racer is ridiculously difficult – made worse by unreliable controls.

Two touchscreen arrows on the left and right hand side of the screen in portrait view make for steering controls in either direction. They do work, but just aren’t sensitive enough to handle the speed at which the player is expected to react. A slight carry-on after you’ve let go off either button sees you glide for half a second in that direction – not exactly helpful when attempting to navigate the tightest of spaces.

It all adds to the frustration, that, rather than attempt to do better next time, it isn’t long before you’ve had enough. Power-ups, or power-downs depending on your opinion, slow the game down and speed it up again, but such is the difficulty, you won’t get too much a chance to try these.

Neon Racer is a neat little concept that could have been executed a lot better. It’s a shame because the graphics are nice and bright, but Neon Racer just isn’t that fun to play.

Download: Neon Racer
Size: 0.42MB
Price: Free 

Check out our Nokia 700 game: Neon Racer review photo gallery:

Nokia Lumia 800 game: Implode! review

EVAC takes all the best bits of Pac-Man – the retro-minimalistic graphics, the frenzied kleptomaniac premise, the thrill of the hunted becoming the hunter – and takes out all the annoying difficulty spikes and inherent repetitiveness.

You play a pink block seeking to escape from a Tron-like digital dictatorship. To do so you must negotiate a bunch of maze-like levels, gobbling up all the dots… sorry, “colours”, in order to unlock the level exit. As with its main inspiration, you’ll be opposed by a number of constantly spawning opponents, which can only be engaged head-on once you’ve picked up one of the power-ups sparsely scattered throughout the game.

So far so familiar, but EVAC escapes the limitations of its source material by demanding a little more thought from you while asking only human reaction times. For example, while the angry red blocks that roam the mazey levels are generally to be avoided, it’s possible to deal with them creatively. You can hide from them in safe zones, pen them in by pushing blocks into their path and avoid spawning them by circumnavigating the trigger pads.

Still, it’s in your interest not too hang around too much contemplating your next move. Not only will the aforementioned red meanies home in on your position, but the score multiplier that builds up as you collect colours will gradually tick down if not constantly replenished. High scores are all about constant collecting.

The levels themselves are also far more involved than the usual Pac-Man fare. There are switches to be flipped and little block-pushing puzzles to be negotiated en route to the exit. Each level brings a unique mixture of these elements, often throwing in a new level feature to keep you on your toes.

This compelling gameplay is backed by some lovely presentation. Developer Hexage is a master at creating minimalistic but distinctive universes, and the neon-soaked EVAC is no exception. In fact, the subtly glowing cubes against a black background look makes us thing of the Windows Phone OS itself. Naturally, this high-contrast style looks best on the Nokia Lumia 800′s AMOLED display. Lovely.

Equally pretty is EVAC’s sound. In particular, the game’s music is a fitting ambient electronica piece that suits the trippy universe and laid-back pace perfectly. This is one game you’ll want to play with earphones on rather than simply turning the volume down.

In fact, just about the only quibble we have with EVAC (other than a slight stinginess with the number of levels) is its slightly wooly controls. The virtual d-pad with which you control your pink block isn’t quite responsive or reliable enough, often leaving you standing still when under pressure, or causing you to push a yellow block into an irretrievable position.

EVAC’s sedate pace and forgiving collision detection go some way to making up for this issue, though. Its atmospheric universe and gently absorbing gameplay also help take your mind off such matters. Now available for £1.49 on the Windows Phone Marketplace, you’d be crazy not to gobble it up.

From the moment you open the Nokia 700, one of the first things you’ll notice is how gorgeous, (more expensive, even) the Nokia 700 actually looks in real life. It’s really thin, too, so thin that carrying it around took some getting used to. The grip could feel a little more secure, but we soon got used to it, even after dropping the Nokia 700 indoors (twice) -  the butterfingers that we are.  

Switching the Nokia 700 on and having a look around the Nokia Belle interface, we discovered a more up-to-date look and feel about it. The capacitive touchscreen AMOLED screen looks great. If you’ve previously been using a capacitive touchscreen, you’ll find the vibration feedback a little off-putting to begin with, but we learned to live with, and barely notice it, in time, although it won’t be for everyone.

Getting used to using the multiple homescreens also takes some time. Swiping away at the four homescreens in search of what you want can feel hit and miss if you don’t remember where you put that app shortcut or widget you like. We should use the search bar more often.  

We soon learned that laying out each homescreen for different uses would be handy. So, one screen could be reserved for the FM radio and music apps, another solely for contacts, another for shortcuts to games, and so forth.

We’ve spent most of our early days with the Nokia 700 keeping an eye on email, Twitter, and Facebook. Email was a matter of providing an email address and password, and then tapping a button. Easy. An email widget home screen lets you preview the last three emails, which is great. And  emails appear to update often, so we are pleased with that.

We’re still getting to grips with the built-in Twitter and Facebook apps. They are both a little different to the desktop versions, and a little unwieldy at first, taking too many taps to use the functions we wanted to use most. The Facebook app is a little better, with message, friend and notification icons appearing at top as on the desktop version.

Both are our most-used apps, along with Shazam, which we love to use to find the name of any songs we want to know the name of. We also love the WhatsApp app. The instant messenger app is a nice way to talk to a group of friends at no extra cost. All you have to do is enter a friend’s number, and then invite them for a chat. We love it. And we’re sure that we’ll love it more once we get used to the Nokia 700’s keypad. However, our favourite Nokia 700 app so far is Fruit Ninja – it’s just too addictive.

Web browsing was faster than we thought. A handy window splitter even lets you view multiple pages at once at once. However, typing in web addresses on that dainty keypad is not fun. The touchscreen keypad is well made, but on a screen this small, you’ll make more than the odd spelling mistake.

Overall our experiences of living with the Nokia 70, bar a few niggles, have been largely positive. Nokia Belle has already showed that it can transform a mid-entry phone into one that feels more like a high-end handset.

A keypad that is easy to make typos on, and fiddly built-in social tools are so far the biggest blots on what is otherwise turning out to be a very good fully-featured smartphone: one that we still look forward to playing with some more. Look out for further write-ups of our Nokia 700 extended hands-on experience.

Check out our Living With The Nokia 700 (review) photo gallery below: