The Federal Communications Commission gave consumers a big clue today about what T-Mobile USA and Nokia will be announcing next week in New York. After approving the Nokia 710 for use in the United States, the agency today posted a manual for the phone on its website, and the image in the online manual shows T-Mobile branding at the bottom.
On Dec. 7, Nokia and T-Mobile USA sent out invitations to an evening event Dec. 14 in New York’s SoHo neighborhood with the teaser “T-Mobile and Nokia have something exciting in the works.” Speculation about the Lumia phones began at once, despite the fact that the Finnish handset maker has suggested in the past that it will focus on creating new custom phones for U.S. carriers. The Lumia 710 and 800, both Windows 7.5 phones, launched in Europe this fall.
Sales projections so far are disappointing to some who had hoped the Lumia could be the beginning of a comeback for Nokia. In the United Kingdom Nokia has made the new phones available only to selected retailers, which might be putting a damper on sales.
Both the Lumia 710 and the Lumia 800 use a 1.4 GHz Qualcomm chip and have a 3.7-inch, 480 x 800 display. The 800 has more storage (16 gigabytes vs. 8 GB for the 710) and a better camera (8 megapixel vs 5 MP for the 710). Both phones have 512 megabytes of RAM.
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