After a long wait since its big brother the Lumia 800 was released, the cheaper, funkier and more  price accessible Lumia 710 has begun shipping.

Nokia have confirmed the Lumia 710 has hit the shelves in Taiwan today, with Singapore, Hong Kong, India and Russia in the next seven days and global roll-out over the coming weeks.

Nokia state the retail price will be €270 (around £230) before network subsidies, meaning it should be free on all but the most meagre of tariffs. The Lumia 710 has a plastic housing, 3.7” WVGA TFT, ClearBlack capacitive touch screen with pinch zoom, 800 x 480 pixels and 16 million colours. It has a 1.4GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon processor, 8GB internal user memory and a 5 MP camera with auto focus, LED flash, and is capable of high definition 720p video recording.

Although aimed at a lower price range than the Lumia 800, the 710 will have the much vaunted Nokia Drive App on board, the voice guidance Sat Nav program is something exclusive to the Nokia Windows Phone range, and despite rumours that it would open up too all WP handsets as a paid App it was recently confirmed it would remain a Nokia exclusive.