A couple of months ago I took a look at the HTC Radar 4G and recently wrote up some first impressions of the Nokia Lumia 710. I recently paid over $750 for a Samsung Galaxy Nexus (yes, that is a bit crazy but part of my job to get the latest and greatest), but I have now pretty much given up on it and am back to Windows Phone nearly full time on T-Mobile. I personally find the Windows Phone platform to be much more efficient for daily usage and have decided this is my personal platform of choice.
After using the Nokia Lumia 710 and HTC Radar 4G off and on over the last week or two I have decided that the HTC Radar 4G is the Windows Phone for me and am sticking with it until something better comes along. I have removed devices and now have the Radar 4G setup as one of the phones supported by my Zune Pass too. I really though the Lumia 710 would have been my phone of choice and if T-Mobile and Nokia would have just released the Nokia Lumia 800 with T-Mobile USA support then that would likely have been my phone of choice.
Here are the reasons I chose the HTC Radar 4G over the Nokia Lumia 710:
The Lumia 710 is a decent device, especially at only $50, and it does have an advantage over the Radar 4G. The Nokia Lumia 710 comes with Nokia Maps so you can get full offline GPS navigation with the device. There are 3rd party programs for Windows Phone so you can get this on the Radar 4G too, but if navigation with your phone is important then the Lumia 710 may be the one to consider.
Both of these are generally consider low to mid range Windows Phone devices due to their slower processor speeds, slower data limit (14.4 Mbps HSPA+ radios instead of 21 or 42) smaller internal memory capacity (8GB only), and low price. However, I am finding the 25 GB of Skydrive available for free to make up for the lack of storage capability and even with 25+ apps loaded on the Radar 4G I still have over 1.5 GB left (out of about 6.5 GB available). I also stream music through Zune or Slacker Radio and am starting to feel that 8GB may be just fine on Windows Phone.
Why am I even considering one of these instead of sticking with my HD7 or Dell Venue Pro? The HD7 camera is horrible, battery life is limited, and these two devices have better displays too. The DVP is a big device and the camera is barely usable.
I hope that the Lumia 710 and Radar 4G low prices and excellent performance encourage people to try out Windows Phone since I find the platform to be my personal favorite and believe it is a system someone needs to try to believe in. The customer reviews for both of these devices are outstanding with both currently earning 5 star ratings on the T-Mobile site. I look forward to more Windows Phone news at Mobile World Congress and CTIA over the next few months and am hopeful we will see even more compelling hardware for T-Mobile USA.
UPDATE: I was just informed that Mark Guim from The Nokia Blog posted the video below yesterday that offers a very nice video comparison of these two devices. In addition to the HTC Hub, I think the HTC utilities I mentioned above are even more compelling.