The T-Mobile Nokia Lumia 710 has been prepared up for sale

Nokia Lumia 710

The T-Mobile Nokia Lumia 710 has gone up for sale today, though you wouldn’t know if it you dropped by the US carrier’s site: there’s no mention of the Windows Phone 7 handset until you dig through the smartphone range. Priced at $49.99 with a new, two-year agreement and available in black and white, the Lumia 710 runs Windows Phone 7 Mango on a 1.4GHz single-core CPU with a 3.7-inch WVGA screen.

There’s also a 5-megapixel main camera with 720p HD video recording though, unlike the AT&T Lumia 900 announced earlier this week, no front-facing camera. Preloaded apps include Nokia Drive and ESPN, along with T-Mobile TV for streaming video and Nokia Music for streaming audio. We grabbed some hands-on time with the Lumia 710 when Nokia initially announced the smartphone, back at Nokia World 2012, which you can see here. We’re hoping T-Mobile wakes up soon and starts pushing the new Lumia a little more, if only for Nokia and Microsoft’s sakes. Earlier this week Nokia confirmed it would be offering the original Lumia 800 in the US, albeit as an unlocked, SIM-free device with no carrier subsidy. The Nokia Lumia 710, the company's first Windows Phone smartphone to come to the U.S., is now available for purchase from T-Mobile.

The Lumia 710 features a 3.7-inch, WVGA ClearBlack LCD display and is powered by a 1.4Ghz Qualcomm processor. At that price, the Lumia 710 is a very attractive option for new smartphone buyers.--Analysis Humiliatingly, Nokia was forced to deny rumours last week that it was planning to break up and sell its crown jewels to Microsoft. Normally a company can remain impervious to Twitter-born gossip, particularly from a known antagonist. Redmond has got an excellent product, for the first time, and people who have a Windows Phone love using it.

The phones aren't shifting. It's the phone that leaves no footprints. So that makes Nokia's American comeback all the more challenging. Either the operator gets cold feet or Nokia gets cold feet first. Yesterday Nokia launched what's probably its most competitive US product for a decade. The greater problem for Nokia - and Microsoft - is the nagging idea that there's no room for Windows at the smartphone table, no matter how fabulous it is. Remember that Elop's great gamble at Nokia is to make Windows the 'third ecosystem'. Nokia has yet to throw its best designers (assuming they haven't all left) or radical innovations at Windows Phone yet.