A friend wants to know: Nokia 710 or My Touch Slide?

[glen]

I am not sure why these are her only choices, but I don't know anything about the windows phone, so I figure I would start here with a general question. Are folsk happy with it? Do you miss Android/iphone?

 

[dagamer34]

Depends on how heavily into apps she is, but the Lumia 710 is a far better built phone and would make for an excellent first smartphone. Good size, good display, good OS.

 

[pantsaregood]

Both are last-generation devices. The MyTouch Slide may age faster if it isn't rooted since it is running an older version of Sense.

Performance-wise, the Lumia 710 will probably feel up to par for longer than the MyTouch.

 

[s44]

Neither, seriously neither.

I assume this is the "4G" Slide, which at 14.4HSPA+ (*not* DC) is hardly worth that name. (The "3G" slide has a truly horrific SOC though -- totally forget that.) That's a 1.2ghz dual-core Snapdragon, but with a small WVGA screen and Gingerbread. (Nice camera for the time though.) Hard to believe this thing came out around the same time as the SGS2, which is still quite current.

The Nokia is even worse-specced (single-core Snapdragon), but the OS can't do as much so performance may be similar. It, too, is on a dead-end OS version (WP7.5), but with orders of magnitude fewer apps than the Slide.

If she's looking for a cheap T-Mo upgrade, point her to the deals on Amazon (can't you get a near-free S3 now?)... if she's going secondhand, don't go lower-end than a SGS2 (Hercules) or GSM Galaxy Nexus.

 

[gmaster456]

The 710 will still feel quite snappy contrary to what it's specs may suggest. App selection is lacking but that may or may not be much of an issue depending on the kind of user she is. I'd avoid the mytouch however.

 

[Crono]

The 710 will still feel quite snappy contrary to what it's specs may suggest. App selection is lacking but that may or may not be much of an issue depending on the kind of user she is. I'd avoid the mytouch however.

Agreed.

I had the Lumia 710 for a little while, felt about the same in terms of performance as any other WP 7.5 device. Windows Phone is consistent as it gets for mobile.

WP8 isn't leaps and bounds ahead of WP7/7.5 in any aspect, so I wouldn't feel to bad about getting the 710. I'm still using my HTC Trophy (fairly similar to the 710) until my contract with Verizon is up in March, still works well for most of my needs.

I like Nokia's GPS app, Drive, that comes with the 710. Good enough to not need a dedicated GPS unit.

 

[bearxor]

I'd totally go with the Lumia.