Over the last couple weeks, there’s been plenty of speculation about launch plans for the Nokia Lumia 710, especially when it came to the phone’s arrival on T-Mobile in the US. We heard non-specific mentions of an early 2012 release, and then caught our first look at the phone with T-Mobile badging (even if just a line-art render) when it put a stop in at the FCC. It wasn’t long after that when we uncovered the first press shot of the phone as it would arrive on the carrier. Invitations distributed for a joint Nokia and T-Mobile event scheduled for this evening had us hoping we’d finally get to learn the specifics of the launch plans today. It turns out we won’t even be waiting until tonight, since T-Mobile has made its announcement a little early, revealing plans to start sales on January 11.
T-Mobile’s wording suggests that there’s a chance that January 11 date might end up shifting a little, but for now it’s official. The Windows Phone 7.5 handset will be available in both white and black, going for an on-contract price of only about $50 after mail-in rebate. Thankfully, there’s no mention of the Sword name we heard attached to the phone’s release; looks like it was just an internal reference, if anything.
The Lumia 710, with its 1.4GHz processor, 3.7-inch ClearBlack display, and eight gigabytes of storage first started shipping internationally in the past week; it’s good to know that Windows Phone fans in the US won’t have too long of an additional wait ahead of them before they get their own chance at the 710. If only the 800 would get here as quickly!
