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Nokia has confirmed that its second Windows Phone goes on sale in the U.K today, meaning that the cheaper Lumia 710 will finally join its big brother, the Lumia 800.

We first met the Lumia 710 when Nokia unveiled it last October, and the device landed a few months after in the U.S, but we’ve had to wait a while longer for its UK release. This of course, was a deal sweetened by the Lumia 800 going on sale in the UK first.

Nokia confirmed the device’s release via Twitter today, also confirming that it will be available on O2, Orange, T-Mobile and Vodafone. We’ve had a scout around and you can register interest for the phone with Carphone Warehouse here, and Phones4u are advertising the handset on Vodafone and Orange for free, from £20.50 per month, which is a decent deal in our eyes.

Despite its lower model number and pricetag, the Lumia 710 shares many of the same hardware specs as its bigger brother; the same 1.4GHz processor, 512MB of RAM and of course the Windows Phone 7 (Mango Update) operating system. It has a lower quality rear camera, which is still a decent 5-Megapixel sensor with LED flash, which many tech sites have praised. The main difference is on the outside, with Nokia dropping the gorgeous and smooth polycarbonate unibody design from the Lumia 800 and opting for something different.

The Lumia 710 has a glossy plastic finish with angled corners and a signal physical ‘push’ button to cater for Windows Phone’s three main functions – Back, Home and Search. We prefer the touch versions of these buttons on the Lumia 800, but from our experiences with the Lumia 710, they work pretty well too.

Will you opt for the Lumia 710 or do you prefer its stablemate, the 800?

Let us know your thoughts on our comments below or via our @Gadget_Helpline Twitter page or Official Facebook group.