Nokia 2710 Navigation Edition review: Lead the way

User interface is customizable

The Nokia 2710 Navigation Edition uses the S40 user interface – given its low standing in the both price and numbering scheme, that’s hardly surprising. This doesn’t get in the way of the device’s primary features though – in fact, it makes them easier to use.

The 2710 Navigation Edition runs the latest available Nokia feature phone software – S40 6th edition. It has received a number of upgrades from the previous versions. The two major functions of the phone – telephony and navigation – are easily accessible from the homescreen and the Active Standby offers very good flexibility for a non-touch homescreen.

The refreshed S40 UI

The standby screen of the Nokia 2710 Navigation Edition features the pre-selected wallpaper with the usual status readings, such as signal strength, battery status, ringing profile icon and time occupying the top part of the screen. The fonts are large and easy to see through the whole interface.

Active standby mode (or Home screen mode, as Nokia call it here) is the default homescreen. It consists of four sections that can be edited or relocated as users see fit.

Out of the box, the top section (which is not editable) holds the clock with letters so large that a quick glance is enough to check the time. At the bottom of the screen there’s a shortcut bar, which grants instant access to favorite functions and applications.

The main menu seems to follow the same easy-on-the-eyes concept with its several available view modes.

The new menu view mode, along with some of the old ones

S40 lacks multitasking and we doubt that this will ever change – but there are things in place that handle the most common functions without the need for multitasking.

Ovi Contacts for example, lets you stay online even when you exit the app. You will be notified of new messages, and if you pin the Contacts tab on your homescreen, you’ll even be able to read the messages without launching the app.

Even Nokia Maps has the option to make a call or send a message during navigation – no need to exit the app to do that. We’ve seen proper smartphones that can’t do that.

Still, you can feel the lack of multitasking and another long-standing problem of S40 – the lack of a document viewer. For its simplicity, the UI is fast and easy to use, which holds some appeal.

We mentioned the nice big clock on the homescreen, but there are two other ways to check the time. Thanks to the built-in accelerometer, there’s the tap-for-time – a double tap on the phone brings up an analog or digital clock (you can pick which), or you could press the End key while the phone is locked to get the same result.

Tap-for-time offers either an analog or a digital clock

The phonebook is decent, knows people’s addresses

The phonebook of the Nokia 2710 Navigation Edition stores up to 2000 contacts – it’s not unlimited storage, but the majority of users will never run out of room.

The difference between normal and large font • the phonebook can be searched by gradual typing

Each contact can be assigned a variety of fields but the phone numbers are limited to 5. First names are separated from last names, eliminating problems which may occur with synchronization. Custom ringtones can be assigned to each contact.

A nice extra in tune with the navigating spirit of the Nokia 2710 is the Find-on-Map option which locates the contact's address on the Ovi Maps for S40 application if it is entered correctly.

Telephony is fine

Signal reception and in-call sound cause no concerns with the Nokia 2710 Navigation Edition. It lacks the Voice Clarity enhancement, which is a common feature on S40 phones but it’s not that badly missed.

Sound is loud and clear on both ends and we had zero trouble with our calls. Vibration strength is pretty decent too.

An application to mention here is the voice dial: no pre-recording of voice labels is necessary as it is fully speaker independent.

Nokia has not included any Smart dialing features though.

Calling Dexter on Nokia 2710 Navigation Edition

We carried out our traditional loudspeaker test to find out Nokia 2710 Navigation Edition is a Good performer. You can find more details about our test, as well as the results of all other tested handsets here.

Speakerphone test	Voice, dB	Pink noise/ Music, dB	Ringing phone, dB	Overall score
Nokia 6600 slide	66.7	66.6	64.6	Below Average
Sony Ericsson C905	65.7	66.1	73.8	Average
Nokia 2710 Navigation Edition	71.0	65.6	75.7	Good
Nokia 6210 Navigator	74.9	70.1	79.2	Very Good
Nokia 6500 classic	74.7	75.7	83.8	Excellent

Passable messaging

Messaging on the Nokia 2710 Navigation Edition is as good as it gets on a phone relying on a 12-key alphanumeric keypad. The phone is capable of handling all the common message types including SMS, MMS and email, as well as flash and audio messages.

Typing a SMS/MMS message is a nice experience with the Nokia 2710 and its keypad. T9 is available to speed up typing.

Nokia 2710 Navigation Edition messaging menu

The editor is well enough organized and you won’t need much time to find your way around it. In the recipient field a few letters of someone’s name are enough – you can quickly pick the desired contact from the automatically offered list.

Sending Dexter a message

The email client does pretty well to meet most user needs. It works with POP3, SMTP, and IMAP4 protocols and supports multiple email accounts. The email client supports SSL, which enables it to handle a Gmail account for example.

Setting up the email client was extremely easy. All the Nokia 2710 Navigation Edition needs is your email address and password and it will take care of techy stuff like server addresses and ports.