Nokia 7710

Discontinued
2nd November 2004

Pictures and details of the Nokia 7710 have been widely leaked prior to launch, showing us that this is basically a slimmed-down version of the cancelled Nokia 7700. It's a significant phone for a number of reasons: it will be the first commercially available phone running the Symbian Series 90 operating system, it has the largest screen of any handset on the market and it pushes back the technological boundaries of mobile handsets just a little bit more.

Technological features aside, the Nokia 7710 was the result of a hard business decision by Nokia. The company's canning of the 7700 device was a shock to many, but it's clear that the oversized taco shaped unit was just not quite right for market, and it was better for Nokia to go back and do some more thinking, rather than risk an extremely high-profile flop.

Specifications are impressive, firstly the large 640x320 pixel screen displays 65,000 colours and is touch-sensitive (a stylus is supplied for this). On the back is a one megapixel camera, and the Nokia 7710 comes with 90Mb of internal memory, plus another 128Mb supplied for the 7710's MMC card slot (512Mb maximum). This is a tri-band GSM 900/1800/1900 phone with GPRS, EDGE and HSCSD support for data, but sadly there's no 3G versions of this, nor does there seem to be a US version. Of course, the 7710 also has Bluetooth. Included software is excellent, with a Flash-compatible XTHML web browser to use on the wide screen. The Nokia 7710 can also pick up your email via POP3/IMAP/SMTP, edit and view Microsoft Office documents, MP3, RealAudio and video playback, personal management functions and everything else you might expect. There's an FM radio with additional media and information features called "Visual Radio" too, and there will be an optional TV interface in the future.

Most importantly, the Nokia 7710 has been on a diet and slimmed down to 143cc / 128x70x19mm on the new device, from 165cc / 134x80x22mm on 7700. The 7710 is actually slightly heavier at 189 grams over the 7700's 136 grams. Stylistically, it looks more like an oversized N-Gage QD rather than the radically shaped 7700, but overall this arrangement is much more usable.

The 7710 also represents the third installment of Nokia's high-end PDA range, also featuring the 9300 and 9500 series communicators. Nokia seem to be alone in going for big, wide screens on these devices, but we think that they have the approach exactly right. A wide screen is much better suited to web browsing, document editing and media playback than rival "tall and narrow" handsets typified by the Sony Ericsson P910i.

This is a great handset for power users, and those who can't do without web and email access when they're on the move. We very much hope that Nokia will make a 3G version to make full use of the Nokia 7710's excellent features.

 Subscribe to our newsletter for more news on upcoming releases