The Nokia Lumia 610 was launched yesterday alongside its bigger-brother the Lumia 900 in its Australian debut. The Lumia 610 is set to become the smallest, most-budget handset in the new Nokia Lumia line. Similar to the Lumia 710 in many respects, the Lumia 610 boasts a slightly different external design, less RAM and a lower price-point.
The Nokia Lumia 610
The Lumia 610 was actually very impressive for a smartphone in its price range. One of the perks about the Windows Phone UI is that even as you approach the lower end of the market just as much work has gone in to the user interface as on a more expensive model.
The same stylish modern on-screen design with Live Tiles and beautiful contrast is still there. Although, the non-AMOLED display of the 610 did provide noticeably less-vibrant colours than the Lumia 900 that was on display right beside it.
That being said, the Lumia 610 offered a surprisingly responsive and fluid experience, especially considering its 800Mhz processor and mere 256MB of RAM.
The camera was none-too-crash hot. It’s apparently the same camera that was found in the 710, so no surprise here that it wasn’t amazingly up to par. For a 5MP camera on a budget phone it was still quite passable, but we’re not going to recommend it to any photo junkies any time soon.
What we did like about the Lumia 610 was the physical design. Very similar to the Lumia 710, the 610 has a replaceable rubberised rear plate that can be switched out for plates of different colours. Unfortunately, it doesn’t sound like the phone will come with any extra colours out of the box, but we hardly expected that with a low-end device.
Unlike the Lumia 710, the 610 is actually available in several colours to match its available rear plates. Magenta, Cyan, White and Black will all be available, depending on your provider or vendor. We have to say that while we liked the addition of the Magenta and Cyan models, we still liked White and Black models far more.
The reason for this was that the surrounding edge of each device has a chrome-like metallic finish. In the Black and White models this looked fine, but the metallic look didn’t lend itself too well to the Magenta or Cyan models and just ended up looking a bit tacky.
Grip-wise the 610 was incredible easy to hold on to. The rubberised back, small size and light weight all added to a feeling of surety when held in the hand. It was so light we got the feeling that even if we dropped it the 610 wouldn’t end up doing much damage to itself. We wouldn’t exactly suggest trying it out, nor did we attempt to do so ourselves; it’s just the impression that we got.
The Lumia 610 will sport a RRP tag of $329 and will be available from Boost Mobile in June and major carriers in July. It will be available in Cyan, Magenta, Black and White. Not every vendor will be able to offer every colour and we’re yet to find out who will get what, so if you have your heart set on a specific look make sure your provider will be offering it.