Nokia Lumia 710 Review - T-Mobile's Nokia WP7
by Brian Klug on January 5, 2012 12:01 AM EST- Posted in
- Smartphones
- Nokia
- Mobile
- WP7
- Lumia 710
Battery Life and Charging
I still believe one of the most important factors for a smartphone is how it fares in battery life testing. We’re going to revamp the entire testing suite in early 2012, but until then, the 710 gets the 2011 treatment like all other devices to date. Those three corners are a series of page loading tests with the display set as close to 200 nits as we can get it on both WiFi, and cellular data (in this case, WCDMA 3G). In the case of Windows Phone, the lack of an analog slider for brightness does force us to use the “HIgh/Medium/Low” presets instead, which can make comparison a challenge. The third corner of our battery life test is a call time test, where we simply place a call between the device under test and another line, and play music at both ends until the battery dies.
Unfortunately, the Lumia 710’s smaller battery doesn’t do it any favors in our battery testing. On cellular data, the Lumia is indeed ahead of the Focus, and right behind the Venue Pro which we also tested on T-Mobile, but still doesn’t last very long by comparison with some of the other major devices. WiFi page loading also shows a strange little departure from the Lumia’s positive performance, though I can’t verify that the Lumia 710 likewise uses a BCM4329. Call time evens out performance between the two Lumias, but I wager again that we’re just seeing the battery size differences between the two at this point.
On a more positive note, the Lumia 710 doesn’t have any of the charging or battery reporting issues that the Lumia 800 had. The 710 charges speedily enough, and doesn’t get stuck in a pre-boot environment - unable to draw current or charge - like I saw the 800 do when deeply discharged. On that note, the 710 also includes the same diagnostics menu which can be accessed by dialing ##634#, and the interesting/realtime current draw display.
Facebook
Twitter
RSS
48 Comments
View All Comments
deputc26 - Thursday, January 5, 2012 - link
nexusBrian Klug - Thursday, January 5, 2012 - link
Anand and I are both working on it, and will have it done end of this week :)It shall be epic!
-Brian
bplewis24 - Thursday, January 5, 2012 - link
Thanks, looking forward to it.deputc26 - Thursday, January 5, 2012 - link
Awesome, I don't buy phones 'til I see the AT review. It's amazing to me that no other mobile sites are trying to catch up with the quality of AT reviews.a5cent - Thursday, January 5, 2012 - link
So true. What others call a review rarely goes beyond a verbose version of the spec sheet (particularly when it involves andriod devices). I also appreciate that Brian takes battery life and display quality seriously... the two most important aspects of any smartphone, provided your purchase isn't just about getting a shiny new status symbol.tipoo - Thursday, January 5, 2012 - link
Same. AT seems to catch little bugs more often than any other site too.niva - Friday, January 6, 2012 - link
I'm real glad of this Lumia 710 review, if my original Samsung Galaxy dies this will probably be the phone I get. Ideally I want to wait for the 2nd generation Nokia phones. The 710 seems better rounded and with less compromises than the 800 to me though. The only real benefit to the 800 is the external design from what I can tell, better screen?jjj - Thursday, January 5, 2012 - link
That's so... last year!I want Krait.
TareX - Thursday, January 5, 2012 - link
Thank you. I came here just to remind you about the Galaxy Nexus review. I went ahead and bought one last week anyway. I love it. Insane display. The only things that upset me are:1) The low, low, low volume (both speakers, and voice)
2) The phone lags with most live wallpapers (except for Photo Beam)...
Vepsa - Thursday, January 5, 2012 - link
I want to see you guys give away a nice big pile of Galaxy Nexuses (Nexii?), preferably with one going to me :)