Early Rumblings of a Rolling Thunder? Lumia 710 Goes on Sale at T-Mobile Stores (Update: TV ads!)

Alas, the phone itself or plastic mockups even had not yet (it’s the morning of the first day so perhaps forgivable) made it to the phone display stands, but they did have both the black and white versions at the store and were happy to show it to me. The only accessory on display at least was a screen/back protective shell – hopefully they will get different color back covers later.

There was no SIM on the phone which the rep noted and said you really need to have it to get the full

 experience. The sales person said he is an Android guy himself but that he likes certain things in WP, like close integration of certain apps with the OS, the people hub with FB integration, Local Scout etc and that he thinks Android might start copying certain things from it. He seemed to know his way around WP fairly well and told me they have a WP point person at the store who is teaching other reps some of the ins and outs of WP. MS and Nokia representatives had also visited the store. Perhaps the Lumia 710 will get fair treatment or even a bit of promotion in T-Mobile stores!

The Lumia 710 will be available at Target, Wall-Mart and Costco – some of the biggest big box retailers in the US. While I don’t have any data on how many phones these stores sell in general, it certainly does not hurt to have them on display at stores where consumers generally go to get good value for money, which the 710 at $49 with contract arguably is.

What will be equally or more important is of course how much or little T-Mobile features the Lumia 710 in its online, TV, billboard and paper advertisements. Besides a very cool big ad on the homepage of the New York Times (www.nytimes.com), I have not seen anything else yet, but again this is the first day. I will try keep an eye on it, and perhaps update this story a bit later.

As for the phone itself, it looked a LOT better to me in person than it does in pictures. Slimmer and more

compact than I had expected (that may be because anything is compared to my – admittedly – brick of a phone N900). The screen is pretty good and flush with almost no noticeable bezel/rim to bother me – hopefully the Lumia 900 has something similar. WP ran smooth and fast on it, and it comes with T-Mobile TV, Slacker Radio, ESPN, some navigation app, Nokia Drive, Contact Transfer, Weather Channel, Netflix etc. preinstalled.  I was happy to see that I could have unistalled say the T-Mobile TV app with no questions asked which is great for removing any carrier bloat ware you might not want.

So is this a Distant Early Warning (any Rush fans out there? no? ok… 😀 ) of a big Rolling Thunder to come? Perhaps not, but I think I did hear a tiny little winter rumble in the sky this morning (might have been Obama’s chopper though)!

UPDATE:  Couple of TV ads have come out! Have not seen them on TV per se, yet, only online, but they have certainly aired. Let us know in the comments if you have seen them and on which channel and show.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TlofKwgi1QM&feature=player_embedded#!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GD1vPWoePoU&feature=player_embedded