Manual handbook

The Nokia Lumia 610 is a simple phone with a simple goal: make the Windows Phone experience even more accessible. This basic smartphone is priced to not gather dust on the shelves and you can guess the features arent exactly top notch. But this is where the Lumia 610 is perhaps more fortunate than its expensive siblings. It must be harder for the likes of the Lumia 800 and Lumia 900 to get away with some of the platforms limitations.

The Lumia 610 looks a lot like the 710 on the outside, but has less-capable hardware inside. Now, that means even tighter limits on what the phone can do but its an entry-level smartphone after all. Focusing on what you get rather than on whats missing is the right attitude in this price range. And thats exactly what were going to do in the following lists.

Key features

Quad-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE support
Quad-band 3G with 7.2 Mbps HSDPA and 5.7 Mbps HSUPA support
3.7" 65K-color LCD capacitive touchscreen of WVGA resolution
5 megapixel autofocus camera with LED flash, VGA video @30fps
Windows Phone 7.5 OS (Refresh)
800MHz ARM Cortex-A5 CPU, Adreno 200 GPU, 256MB of RAM, Qualcomm MSM7227A chipset
Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n
GPS receiver with A-GPS support and free lifetime voice-guided navigation
Digital compass
8GB on-board storage
Active noise cancellation with a dedicated mic
Built-in accelerometer and proximity sensor
Standard 3.5 mm audio jack; FM Radio with RDS
microUSB port
Bluetooth v2.1 with A2DP and EDR
Deep and coherent SNS integration throughout the interface
Main disadvantages

Some apps are incompatible due to low RAM
No Flash or Silverlight support in browser
No USB mass storage (Zune-only file management and sync)
No video calls and no front-facing camera
No memory card slot
microSIM card slot
No native DivX/XviD support, videos have to be Zune-transcoded
No HD recording or playback, due to hardware limitations
Will probably be stuck on this Windows Phone version for good
The long list of cons might ring a lot of bells and, if you are familiar with the Windows Phone OS you already know most of them are platform-wide limitations. On the other hand, familiarity with the OS most probably takes you off the list of potential Lumia 610 targets. Its rather a beginners smartphone, one that will introduce you to WP7 if youre ready to move on from feature phones.

Users with no smartphone experience are less likely to be concerned about the amount of RAM. In fact, people with some experience with older Symbian will see nothing wrong with 256MB. What it actually means is theres no HD video recording and playback. Some apps, like Skype and Angry Birds will not run due to insufficient memory, but you should be getting the same solid set of features for the most part.


Nokia Lumia 610 live pictures

What the Lumia 610 offers is a low-cost Windows Phone experience. It seems perfectly suited for emerging markets, where Nokia should have built a strong customer base of potential first-time smartphone users by now. Carriers on the old continent will most certainly be interested in the Lumia 610, too, and if you think an entry-level Windows smartphone is worth a look, this review will hopefully help you know it better.

Samsung are back to basics and they say theres always room for one more in the low end. Especially one that doesnt take too much space. The Galaxy Pocket makes the Galaxy Mini look like its on steroids and the Y series like a bunch of semi pros.

Life at the bottom of the food chain is far from enjoyable but it can be pretty exciting, and some creatures have figured out how to adapt. Theyre usually small, fast and good at mimicry. The Galaxy Pocket meets the size requirement, but well have to check about the speed. And no, no one will mistake it for a trimmed down S III but some feature phones may be fooled into getting too close.

Its an exaggeration perhaps that the likes of the Galaxy Pocket herald the demise of the dumbphone. But this and other droids in sheeps clothing will just keep on coming.

Key Features

Quad-Band GSM and dual-band 3G support
2.8" 256K-color QVGA TFT touchscreen
832MHz ARMv6 processor, 289MB of RAM
Android OS v2.3.6 (Gingerbread) with TouchWiz UI
3 GB of internal storage, hot-swappable MicroSD slot (up to 32 GB)
2 MP fixed-focus camera with geotagging
GPS receiver with A-GPS
Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n, Hotspot functionality
Stereo FM radio with RDS
3.5mm audio jack
Accelerometer and proximity sensor
Swype text input
MicroUSB port (charging) and stereo Bluetooth 3.0
Social network integration
Main disadvantages

Low screen resolution limits choice of apps
Fixed focus camera
No secondary camera
No camera flash, no dedicated camera key
QVGA video recording @15fps
No Adobe Flash support
This is obviously as basic as a smartphone package gets, but the Galaxy Pocket is still a true droid. It gives users quad-band GSM connectivity and dual-band 3G, Wi-Fi, GPS, and a capacitive, multi-touch enabled screen. It can be a basic music player and a basic camera - and the expandable memory is one of the key features that make the Galaxy Pocket a smart buy.

Therere lots of blank spots on its spec sheet, which make it vulnerable to older midrange droids in the same price range, but the Samsung Galaxy Pocket is for learners, not knowers. Convenience and affordability were top priorities, in what Samsung would like to see as the first step towards a long-term commitment.

General Info
2G network : GSM 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900
3G network : HSDPA 900 / 2100
Announced : 2012, January
Status : Coming soon. Exp. release 2012, February

Body
Dimensions : 114.5 x 62.5 x 11.2 mm
Weight : 115 g
Others : Touch-sensitive controls

Display
Type : TFT capacitive touchscreen, 16M colors
Size : 320 x 480 pixels, 3.65 inches (~158 ppi pixel density)
Multitouch : Yes
Others : TouchWiz UI

Sound
Alert types : Vibration; MP3, WAV ringtones
Loudspeaker : Yes
3.5 mm Jack : Yes

Memory
Card slot : microSD, up to 32GB
Internal : 3 GB storage, 512 MB RAM

Data
GPRS : Yes
EDGE : Yes
Speed : HSDPA, 7.2 Mbps
WLAN : Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n, DLNA, Wi-Fi hotspot
Bluetooth : Yes, v3.0 with A2DP
USB : Yes, v2.0 microUSB

Camera
Primary : 5 MP, 2592x1944 pixels, autofocus, LED flash
Features : Geo-tagging, face and smile detection
Video : Yes
Secondary : No

Features
OS : Android OS, v2.3 (Gingerbread)
CPU : 1 GHz
Sensors : Accelerometer, proximity, compass
Messaging : SMS(threaded view), MMS, Email, Push Email, IM
Browser : HTML, Adobe Flash
Radio : Stereo FM radio with RDS
GPS : Yes, with A-GPS support
Java : Yes, via Java MIDP emulator
Colors : Black
Others : MP4/H.264/H.263 player, MP3/WAV/eAAC+ player, Organizer, Document editor, Image editor, Google search, maps, Gmail, Youtube, Calendar, Google Talk, Picassa integration, voice/memo dial, Predictive text input (Swype).

Battery
Type : Standard battery, Li-Ion 1300 mAh