When Nokia made a promise to connect the next billion users, one of its efforts was to make smartphones affordable. The Nokia Lumia 610 seems to be the Windows Phone model for this strategy.

Priced at RM699, the Lumia 610 seems promising, with features such as sleek and colourful design, interactive Live Tiles on its user interface, Internet support, wide connectivity options and useful apps that include Nokia Maps.

There is also a five-megapixel rear camera, music and video players, and People Hub to get quickly connected via social networking services.

The review unit, in white finishing, got a lot of "Hey, it looks like an iPhone!". Its fine curves appeared only upon close scrutiny. Its easy-to-remove back panel covering the battery and slot for microSIM card is a breath of fresh air after a slew of Nokia´s monoblock designs.

Once the screen lights up, the Live Tiles prove to be fluid and then there is the minimalist "Metro" layout. Gone are the line-by-line text, pixelised graphics and gaudy animated icons that one usually gets with a low- to mid-range feature phones and smartphones.

The constantly updated Live Tiles also make the Start screen more informative at a glance and facilitate a more timely and active participation in Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and more. If you need more menu items, simply swipe the page to your left.

The Lumia 610 is powered by a 800MHz single-core processor aided by the 256MB RAM. As other smartphones of Android platform in the same price category are offering higher specifications, this is a bit of a letdown, especially for gamers. But once you let go of Angry Birds and go for Fruit Ninja and other less power-hungry games, life goes on.

While Nokia may be targeted at beginners, the inclusion of App Highlights means users get to grow with the phone by adding more useful apps.

They also stay productive with mobile Office and the inclusion of Nokia Drive and Nokia Maps adds value to Lumia 610’s software offering.

Storage is quite ample to match the five-megapixel camera which records at the highest 2592 x 1944-pixel still shots and VGA quality videos. That’s right, there is no HD video recording but you get geo-tagging and face detection.

The storage also caters to other multimedia needs which include music via Zune and audio recording, as well as other apps. However, if you need more, it is not going to be as easy as popping in a microSD card, as this model does not come with the slot. Perhaps, the Lumia 610 propels users towards cloud services, as support for SkyDrive is included.

The phone´s 3.7-inch display is large enough for surfing. Scrolling and zooming gestures are smoothly captured by the touchscreen. The quickest way is to use the preloaded Internet Explorer Mobile, which brings you straight to Bing.

The review unit was tested with WiFi connectivity for accessing YouTube, and everything works just fine without much lag.

Lumia 610 also supports a hotspot feature. All in all, Lumia 610 performed quite well, and its 1300mAh battery offered three days of regular use.

It is for first-time smartphone users and those who want to get acquainted with Windows Phone.

Verdict: 4/5
Physical design: 4/5
Documentation: 3/5
User-friendliness: 4/5
Features: 4/5
Performance: 4/5
Value for money: 4/5