It's best to deal with the track history of this model line first, it's predecessor the 7700 never made it past production prototypes, there are many widely peddled reasons as to why but this is the first Series 90 phone to actually make it to market thus far.

Measuring 128 x 69.5 x 19 mm and tipping the scales at a pocket bulging 189 grams this is not a small phone, but that is very apparent from the moment you open the box, of course your shock at the size is quickly overcome by the sight of the huge screen.

The widescreen boasts a resolution of 640 x 320 pixels which is the best we've seen on a smartphone that isn't PDA based, the 65k colour screen is truly stunning and the sheer size of the landscape surface makes using applications much easier as we'll see later.

As a phone the GSM 900/1800/1900 7710 offers excellent RF performance, the calls we made were all crystal clear even in an area of low signal strength, the unit seems quite tenacious in holding onto calls other phones would easily have dropped. While we are on the subject of dropping, the Nokia 7710 is one rugged smartphone, the overall build quality is very good and we were only really concerned by what damage could be done to the screen if the phone was in a pocket near sharp objects, the supplied pouch is ok but not a real protective case.

Connectivity for this Nokia Smartphone is comprehensive, there is Bluetooth, Nokias own Pop Port connection, EGPRS and HSCSD perhaps the only notable absentee is IrDa. Bluetooth worked an absolute treat connecting with both a Nokia Headset and a Motorola HS850 with no issues, we also managed to use the PC suite Sync over Bluetooth, the sync can also be performed using the USB (pop port) connection.

All this wireless connectivity can take it's toll on the battery life and the claimed 12hr talk time and 9 day standby are only achievable without using any of the extras, even the screen backlight, once you start making the most of the 7710 a 40hr Standby is more common.

This Series 90 Smartphone runs on the Symbian OS and has enough processing power to run many cut down office applications and 3rd party software, onboard memory gives 90mb of useable space and this is further supplemented by a supplied 128mb MMC card, the 7710 can take up to 512mb cards.

Applications are the lifeblood of any Smartphone and the Nokia 7710 comes equipped with  the full range of PIM programmes, calendar, to do lists, contacts, messaging (email, SMS, MMS) and document editing (Microsoft compatible Word processor and spreadsheet) and viewing PowerPoint files. The Opera web browser is very good and we managed to surf the web with ease using GPRS and the benefit of the excellent screen and the landscape view becomes very apparent when using excel spreadsheets which would have been off limits on almost every other phone we've tried.

Perhaps the strength of any Nokia phone is its user interface, using the 7710 as a mobile phone is as easy as using any other model in the range, only the size makes the experience any different and in our opinion the Nokia interface is the best amongst the mobile manufacturers. The 7710 also brings a combination of fixed controls and touch screen navigation, many common tasks can be performed by use of the navigation pad and selection buttons, but the phone also has a pen / stylus which is used to perform the more complex touch screen commands.

Text entry is via either the floating keyboard (virtual) which was our preferred method or via the handwriting recognition systems, which wile accurate and not reliant on special secret squirrel kung foo moves are still too slow for our liking. Also it is a great shame that predictive text is not available inside applications as the text generation (in which we include ourselves) are perfectly at home with T9 and can type very quickly with it.

Another nice touch is the global find feature, this is a bit like a mini search engine and allows very quick location of files within the device memory and also on the MMC card, overall a lot of thought has gone into the interface and menu system making it a joy to use.

Extras include a 1 mega pixel camera which produced some very passable pictures, these can then be used tagged to contacts, sent as MMS or exported out of the device via Bluetooth or USB, the 7710 can also record video as Mp4. The radio is hyped feature of the Nokia 7710 and the "visual radio" gets a mention in every press release, this is a nice system which gets information about the station and tracks playing through your data connection to enhance the experience.

Far better for us is the level of overall multimedia support, Nokia have used Real Player as the main engine for display of video and also as a means to replay MP3, AAC and WAV audio formats, the loud inbuilt speaker is a real bonus and is quite good for listening to music and radio, plus it is also excellent as part of the hands free function.

Video replay of a few short ripped files worked well but we did struggle with online streaming though the GPRS connection, however audio replay was first class with good bass reproduction when using headphones easily on a par with the mid range MP3 players.

Perhaps the killer application is the future support of the DVB-H mobile television format, you will need the Nokia Streamer SU-22 in conjunction with a Nokia 7710 but this will allow you to view real time broadcast TV as it becomes available. Pilots using DVB-H have already been carried out and Spring 2005 will see Oxford participating in a 9 transmitter trial which may pave the way to a wider commercial service in the UK.

It does seem like the Nokia 7710 packs in almost every feature you could want in a Smartphone and that is our overall judgement. Our biggest reservation is the design and size of the phone, it is big and quite heavy but then that is the price you pay for having a large high quality screen. We do expect Nokia to release new Smartphones at Cebit in march which may mean the 7710 is the first and last series 90 phone and that may put off some potential purchasers.

We'd really have liked to see wireless 802.11b on this model but Nokia are pushing the device as a multimedia phone, this will appeal to a younger age group and possibly put off business users who may opt for the wifi enabled communicator instead.

However if you are ok with the size and want a feature rich Symbian powered phone the Nokia 7710 is the best on the market, better than the Sony P910 and perhaps only matched by the iMate range of windows Smartphones, which win in terms of size but don't have the same quality of screen.

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