Yesterday, Nokia announced their first Windows Phone to be available in the U.S.A. on T-Mobile and they held a little launch party in New York City where we got to preview some of the devices. The Lumia 710 will be available in January for only $49 with a 2 year contract, so it’s certainly not intended to be the premiere high-end flagship smartphone, but it could be quite enjoyable for many people who may not need all the high-end hardware features… or really like to change their phone colors.

It feels quite nice in the hand due to it’s curved back battery cover and soft-touch plastic. It’s also quite light, so it won’t weigh down your pocket. I’m not so sure I’ll like the camera button since it’s so flush with the body, but if you’re a gamer you’ll be very happy to hear that the back, start, and Bing buttons on the front are actual hardware buttons and not the capacitve buttons that you can so easily activate while playing games.

The back battery cover is easily replacable with different colors so you can really personalize your phone.

We also got to talk with Chris Weber last night, who wouldn’t give up any details about the rumored Nokia Lumia 900, but ensured us that this was just the beginning of Nokia’s “Rolling Thunder” operation in the U.S. Chris Weber is the president of Nokia USA, by the way. He also hinted that we should be sure to keep an eye out at CES in 2012 and that Nokia is planning to have a wide portfolio of Windows Phones becoming availabile next year on a wide range of carriers and in a wide range of price points.

Getting back to last night’s launch party, the performance by Say Ya was quite entertaining. There were also plenty of other interesting foods including some fresh dry-ice frozen carmel popcorn and mini-grilled cheese sandwiches. Then there was a pool table, air hockey, Arctic Thunder arcade games, snow monster photo booth, and a girl in a plastic bubble with a leaf blower and confetti.