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At one stage, Nokia was the go to brand for mobile phones that were simply reliable. In the last 3 years though, the brand which killed the payphone spoiled its impeccable reputation, delivering phones with schizophrenic software, poor build quality and a rigid mobile ecosystem. Nokia desperately needed to admit its shortcomings and as of 8 months ago they raised its hand, recognised its products need to be a lot more competitive and that the path to being a key player is a long one. Today the company revealed two mobiles that show Nokia better understands what consumers want and what they’re capable of when they focus operations.

The two new phones are from the Lumia range and are the 710 and 800. Although sitting on the low end of the smartphone spectrum, the 710 still delivers impressive specs, with the important ones shared between the higher 800.

For starters, both phones have a single core snapdragon processor with a 1.4GHz engine. It took Nokia more than a decade to deliver a phone with a 1GHz processer and that was with its recently launched N9. It’s a sign the company is finally prepared to produce phones that are speedy and capable of carrying versatile operating systems, which in this case is the new Windows Phone 7.5

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Nokia’s Lumia 710

The new Windows OS offers Nokia a much more extensive application environment than it’s used to, topping 35,000 mobile solutions. Both Lumia phones need enough RAM to juggle running apps, especially considering Windows 7.5 offers incredible application handling. Charged with this responsibility is a capable 512MB of RAM. Most people glance right past processing engines and RAM, but how quick and reliable a phone is boils down to these jargon-ridden features.

Both phones offer a 3.7″ screen, but from here on the features begin to differ and endow each phone with individual personality.

The 800 sits a little higher in the range and benefits from a ClearBlack AMOLED screen. AMOLED’s bright and vibrant colour palette will draw a striking contrast alongside Nokia’s full blacks, delivering a sensational viewing experience. Although the 710 offers the same rich ClearBlack technology, it sports vivid-less TFT technology.

An 8MP camera with Carl Zeiss optics, f/2.2 aperture and single LED flash graces the 800’s back, while the 710 has a 5MP shooter with said flash.

The 800 will also have more internal memory, with 16GB on board and access to 25GB cloud storage, compliments of Microsoft. It’s unsure whether the 710 will benefit from the same lavish treatment.

The 710 will come with interchangeable back covers, while the 800 shares the premium body of Nokia’s N9, and although a familiar looks its one we welcome.

Both phones offer strong connectivity options, including Wi-Fi b/g/n, Bluetooth 2.1, A-GPS, 3.5mm (Aux) input and a microUSB port. Nokia’s mapping is preloaded on the phones, letting users load maps instead of feeding off user’s data allowance.

The two phones are a start, but the real gem in Nokia’s chest will be the 900, which hasn’t been revealed yet. We do expect its unveiling during the Nokia World conference though.

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Although the two devices will be rolling across Europe in November, they won’t be reaching Australian shores until early 2012, and Australia pricing has yet to be confirmed.