Nokia 2710 Navigation Edition review: Lead the way

Introduction

Navigation on a feature phone, are they for real? Obviously Nokia 2710 Navigation Edition is keen to surprise. It’s among the rather few feature phones that come with free full-featured navigation. It even has all the cool accessories to make it feel right at home in your vehicle.

It’s rare to see a dedicated SatNav phone but that doesn’t mean we’ll let the Nokia 2710 Navigation Edition pass lightly in other departments. It still has to prove it deserves your hard earned cash.

Nokia 2710 Navigation Edition official photos

No matter if you’re walking or driving, the Nokia 2710 Navigation Edition promises to take you to your destination. But that’s not all it can do for you. Here, take a look at the rundown of the key features and the major disadvantages as we saw them:

Key features:

• Affordable feature phone with GPS navigation capabilities
• Quad-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE support
• 2.2" 256K-color QVGA display with good sunlight legibility
• Refreshed S40 user interface, 6th edition
• 2 megapixel fixed-focus camera
• QVGA video recording at 15fps
• Stereo FM radio with RDS
• Bluetooth (with A2DP) and microUSB port
• microSD card slot (16 GB supported, 2GB included)
• Standard 3.5mm audio jack
• Rich preinstalled application package
• Ovi Maps, Store, Contacts and Share
• Opera Mini 4.2 web browser
• Digital compass
• Top-notch audio output quality
• Bundled with car holder and car charger

Main disadvantages:

• Smallish display with narrow viewing angles
• Maps only work in portrait mode
• Camera lacks autofocus and flash
• Doesn't charge off the microUSB port
• No smart dialing
• No multi-tasking
• No office document viewer

Clearly, there are some features missing from that specs sheet. The Nokia 2710 Navigation Edition doesn't have a nice camera and the display could have been larger and of better quality. We totally get that - it's positioned quite low in the product portfolio. Still, some of the omissions that are inherent to S40 such as the lack of a document viewer or smart dialing - competition have had those covered for a long time on various models. There's no excuse for Nokia and their S40 on skimping on such simple features.

But on the positive side, you get a regular no-nonsense handset with nice and conservative styling, solid battery life and excellent build quality. You also won’t be breaking the bank buying it and you can count on its enhanced location-awareness.

Nokia 2710 Navigation Edition in our office

Let’s start with a look at its design and construction. Follow us on the next page to see the Nokia 2710 Navigation Edition package exposed.