Nokia’s entry level Mango phone – 610 – finally available in UK

Rating: Triggers debate about first Mango handset with NFC

Well, if you want a entry level W7 Mango phone, then the obvious option is to acquire yourself a Nokia Lumia 610. Thanks to our friends at Clove Technology we can now assure our UK readers that they will be finally able to get hold of this device by Friday [25th may 2012]. if you want to order it from Clove you can visit them here. A little bit of investigation has show that there are potential suppliers of the SIM-free (unlocked version) of this Windows Phone 7.5 device for slightly less than Clove’s asking price. The big question is will the 610 support Wi-fi tethering and NFC? But then you have to enquire about delivery charges and taxes to be absolutely sure.

The point here, however, is that this is almost exactly three months after the initial announcement of the 610 [27th February 2012].

Nokia’s rivals take three months to develop a completely new model not three months to deliver on an announced product.

GoMobile News stands a good chance of being jealous of those purchasing the 610 because it reputedly supports ‘tethering’.

Which means you can use the handset as your own personal Wi-fi hotspot hanging off the back of the handset’s 3G connexion.

It is well worth considering what the actual specifications of the 610 will be if you purchase it right now.

One very good reason for this is that an NFC-enabled version of the 610 smartphone was announced by Nokia at the recent WIMA NFC show held in Monaco just ten days ago.

There has been fervent speculation – even on the official Nokia Support Discussions site here that the Nokia Lumia 900 has NFC embedded but it’s not active.

That’s a bit like the Motorola RAZR which might have an NFC capability hidden inside its components but not yet activated. See our previous story here.

So which will be Nokia’s first W7 Mango handset capable of supporting NFC: – the 610 or the 900? Who can tell?

The important point is that once Nokia 610s finally get out there into the wild, will problems with Windows Phone 7.5 apps finally surface?

After all, the important difference between the 610 and GoMobile News‘ own trusty Lumia 800 is that the 610 has less memory. (See our previous story here).

Finally, there’s the question of how much you can expect to pay for the 610 in the UK – given that it is an entry level model and price is therefore key?

GoMobile News found a very interesting page here on Google’s online price comparison site.

It shows that Unlocked Mobiles appears to be able to undercut Clove Technology’s price of £180.00 (including taxes) by offering the smartphone at £164.98 here.

GoMobile News wouldn’t normally worrying too much about pricing, but when Nokia is attempting to play in the low-cost smartphone sector with a W7 Mango phone such things matter.