Nokia Lumia 710 - £99.95 (+£10 topup) - SIM FREE at CPW instore and online!!

MattLFC

prowla wrote: »

The compromise is that it's not an iPhone - it's a Windows phone; it may have similar features but it won't do the iPhone apps & won't link in to iTunes.

Aye, if she has an iPhone already, it will be hard for her to move, as she will be "married" to the iOS eco-system. All the apps etc she has paid for, will be locked to iOS and a move to another eco-system such as Windows Phone or Android, would mean she would have to purchase the same apps once again. A divorce could prove expensive, depending on how she uses her phone. Of course that's only if she already has an iPhone with lots of paid apps. The same can be said about any OS, but if she wants an iPhone and doesn't already have one, then she will be looking to divorce from her current OS anyway, in which case Windows Phone may certainly be a better deal for you.

Fifer

Does anyone know if the CPW phones are definitely unlocked (or how easy it is to unlock a Lumia 710)? I want to stick a GiffGaff wim card in one for my wife and I notice the O2 vesrion is £10 more expensive. Not a deal breaker by any means, but unnecessary expense if they are all unlocked anyway.

MattLFC

100% unlocked. Just grab the cheapest deal. I bought the T-Mobile deal, because the Three deal was £30 more at the time, and threw my 3 sim into it.

They sell you a SIM-free phone, in a generic Nokia Lumia 710 box, as if you bought it from Nokia themselves and paid their wholesale price. And then with it they sell you a separate "sim-pack" for £10.00 (includes £10 credit), which has nothing to do with the phone. The phone has no network branding on the box or the handset, and is unlocked (though to be pedantic, it isn't unlocked per se, because it was never locked to any network in the first place lol).

prowla

MattLFC wrote: »

Aye, if she has an iPhone already, it will be hard for her to move, as she will be "married" to the iOS eco-system. All the apps etc she has paid for, will be locked to iOS and a move to another eco-system such as Windows Phone or Android, would mean she would have to purchase the same apps once again. A divorce could prove expensive, depending on how she uses her phone. Of course that's only if she already has an iPhone with lots of paid apps. The same can be said about any OS, but if she wants an iPhone and doesn't already have one, then she will be looking to divorce from her current OS anyway, in which case Windows Phone may certainly be a better deal for you.

If she already has an iPhone or iPod (for music & apps).

Fifer

MattLFC wrote: »

Should also add, unless you know you definitely want the Lumia 710 (like I did), I'd advise you purchase it online, as you then have a 14 days "cooling off" period during which you can return it to the store or via mail for a full refund (minus the top-up). If you buy instore, you don't get this, but still get 28 days to return for a replacement if faulty, and 14 days to return for an exchange iirc (only on Vodafone at £129 though, not T-Mobile).

So if in doubt, just buy it online. Also, you "will" need a decent data plan with this phone, if you intend to use to its fullest (500MB+).

Does anyone know if the distance selling regulations still apply if you buy online but specify delivery to your local store for collection (as CPW provides that option on their website)? Shop collection is more convenient for me than home delivery as I can order tomorrow (online, before the deadline) and collect from my local store on Saturday.

grumbler

MattLFC wrote: »

...I'd advise you purchase it online, as you then have a 14 days "cooling off" period during which you can return it to the store or via mail for a full refund (minus the top-up).

I think both DSR and CPW's policy say 7 days, not 14.

If you buy instore, you don't get this, but still get 28 days to return for a replacement if faulty, and 14 days to return for an exchange iirc (only on Vodafone at £129 though, not T-Mobile).

I think replacement neither within 14 days nor within 28 days is obligatory.

grumbler

Fifer wrote: »

Does anyone know if the distance selling regulations still apply if you buy online but specify delivery to your local store for collection (as CPW provides that option on their website)? Shop collection is more convenient for me than home delivery as I can order tomorrow (online, before the deadline) and collect from my local store on Saturday.

The T&C say:

4.4.1. Consumers ordering Goods or Services at a distance (such as via telephone or online) have certain cancellation rights under the Consumer Protection (Distance Selling) Regulations 2000.

Dreamnine

I bought one yesterday...it's a good phone for the price, good for me as a beater, will be using Nokia Drive quite a bit.

Pity about having to go through Zune to put content on it - that I won't be bothering with.

The Kindle app is flawless - for anyone looking for an ereader app for their own epubs, Freda is very good. Although you have to upload your books to Skydrive then download them to the app from there, once done it's a highly customizable app - a bit like Stanza on ios.

Pity too about no Bluetooth file transfer, but worth £100, I'd say.

Dreamnine

MattLFC wrote: »

Have you actually used a Windows Phone device, or are you simply talking out of your !!!!?? Windows Phone [IS NOT] Windows Mobile. If you even knew anything about Windows Phone, you would not even be mentioning CPU speed, as Windows Phone runs fast on just about anything, even an 800Mhz CPU (as in the Lumia 610), nevermind the 1400Mhz found in the 710; Microsoft built Windows Phone around speed, reliability and ease-of-use from the start. This isn't clunkdroid, a single-core Lumia will often outperform a quad-core droid device. A friend of mine loves his SII, raves about Android, and was still shocked by the sheer speed and beauty of my 710. He even inadvertently got "smoked" by my 710, and was happy enough to let me take a photo of him, with his SII, and the "smoked by Windows Phone" banner on it in full screen, as he conceeded how good it was. A lot of everyday tasks that the likes of iOS and Android "have an app for", Windows Phone can perform without the need for an app!!

Windows Phone is so crap, that AT&T have made the Windows Phone-powered Lumia 900, their "Hero" phone; that means they rate it, and promote it, ahead of everything else, including the iPhone, SIII etc, and they feel it is where their future success lies. The Lumia 800c already has higher marketshare in China, than the iPhone... bear in mind the Lumia 800c was only launched in China in March!! Analysts have been predicting that 2012 is the year of Windows Phone, and Nokia are really making things happen now, developers are jumping onboard, and the marketplace is the fastest growing app-store around.

Of course it's seen as the underdog right now, it was launched 3 years after the iPhone; but that has advantages, namely, Microsoft got things right, that iPhone and Android got wrong - they learnt from other mistakes. That is what the "Windows Phone Challenge" is all about, showing people that tasks people use their smartphones for every day, multiple times a day, are made easier, faster and smoother by Windows Phone. As Nokia's adverts in the US say, the "Smartphone BETA test" is now over.

You only have to look on the iPhone/Apple forums, where you have hardcore Apple fanbois praising/jealous the smoothness, reliability and usability of the OS (admiration for another OS, from people on the iOS side is something that is unheard of, prior to Windows Phone), the graphical beauty to the point whereby they are demanding Apple up their game significantly, and then "iOS6 wishlists" practically full of features that are already in Windows Phone as standard, to realise how wonderful an OS it is. Steve Wozniak, the co-founder of Apple, recently described it as "Intuitive and beautiful" and "it sets the mark for user interface". He also claimed "it's makes me feel 'Oh my gosh, I'm with a friend not a tool'" and "I just really like the experience and will be carrying the Windows Phone everywhere". In addition, he noted how apps look just "more beautiful than on Android or iPhone" and perhaps the ultimate testament to the OS, he said "I surmise that Microsoft hired someone from Apple and put money into having a role in the UI and appearance of some key apps, and that Steve Jobs might have been reincarnated at MS due to a lot of what I see and feel with this phone making me think of a lot of great Apple things".

Of course it's easy to forgive your scepticism, as that's the hurdle everyone is having to get over now, but really, you should actually bother to use a device (or better still, the OS on any Windows Phone), before making silly comments about CPU speeds and the like.

:money:

It certainly doesn't have higher market share than the iPhone in China; that was just a Microsoft lie. See here:http://communities-dominate.blogs.com/brands/2012/05/paging-truth-police-no-windows-phone-and-nokia-lumia-are-not-outselling-iphone-in-china-utter-bs-sto.html

Nokia is fast heading to oblivion - I bought this phone because I needed a second mobile and it's worth the money for what it can do, but I'm under no illusions about the OS being any good. It's poor compared with Android, Symbian, ios or even Meego.

prowla

Dreamnine wrote: »

Nokia likely will go bust before the end of next year
http://communities-dominate.blogs.com/brands/2012/05/postcards-from-the-digital-jamboree-whats-happenin-in-smartphones-bloodbath.html

I'm wondering if Microsoft will take them over, given that the Nokia boss is a Microsoft man.