firmware

Saturday when we picked up our Glossy-white Lumia 900, we were surprised to see that it did not have the latest firmware installed, despite having the green-dot on the box indicating that the data-issue had been resolved.

This afternoon we received an email directly from Nokia PR (and a follow up that went to numerous media outlets) clarifying the situation a bit. It's a tad confusing but we'll try to keep it simple. Basically the 2175.1000.8112.12082 firmware with the green-dot on the box is the fixed firmware. Did we just blow your minds? Hold on...

So why were we prompted for a software update? Nokia basically fixed the 12082 firmware at the factory directly with a patch but in order for Zune Desktop to push out the update for the phones people didn't return, they had to change the firmware build, which is why 12084 exists.

In other words there are sort of two 12082 firmwares out there -- one broke, the other fixed -- and 12084 is the same as the fixed-12082. Get that?

The short of it is this: if you get a Lumia 900 (Matte-black, Cyan or Glossy White) and it has the green dot, it's a-okay and will have zero data issues. You can still update to 12084 but in reality, you're just bumping the firmware number as it is not "fixing" anything at this point.

So Nokia, you're still doing a good job and consumers, there is nothing to worry about.

We heard rumblings that the some Lumia 900s are shipping with an earlier firmware than the data-fix one pushed out last Friday. Our Glossy-White Lumia 900 came with a green-dot on the box, meaning it should be "ok" for data usage. But a quick glance of the firmware and we noticed a discrepancy: it was 2175.1000.8112.12082.

That's the old firmware. The one that had a memory issue causing errant data connections with the Lumia 900.

Indeed, when we plugged into our trusty Zune Desktop we were quickly prompted that an update was available. A quick 10 minutes later and we were on the latest firmware with the important data fix on board which is 2175.1002.8112.12084.

So take heed everyone, don't trust the green dot on the box. Double check your firmware and make sure you sync up with Zune to see if there's an update, otherwise you're likely to have problems.

T-Mobile UK are rolling out the Lumia 800 12070 firmware update, according to customers who have received the notification. We received a few comments on our article covering the Three UK roll out last week that T-Mobile still haven't kick-started the process.

As mentioned before, depending on carriers who chose to release it, the 12070 firmware update will be rolled out to new countries on April 4th, 11th, and 18th until the update has been pushed out to every Lumia 800.

The firmware 12070 "battery fix" update will significantly improve available use between charges by optimisation to bring down the discharge rate. We noticed after updating a drop from 200mAh to <100mAh

Let us know in the comments should you also be receiving the update.

Thanks Scott for the tip!

It appears as though Nokia Germany are rolling out the 12070 update that addresses battery life issues and will prove to be a must-have for Lumia 800 owners. We previously looked at Singapore rolling out the Lumia 800 12070 update, and later confirmed that it tripled the battery life of our handset. As well as the juice improvements, bass has been improved and camera white balance has been tweaked.

The update, which was originally destined to be released on April 18th, will now be rolled out globally in stages / batches (starting today). April 4th, 11th, and 18th will be the three remaining steps until the update has been pushed out to every Lumia 800 (depending on networks). Note that this is not the WiFi tethering update. Be sure to keep an eye on the Nokia update section of their website to see when you'll be seeing the notification.

Source: Nokia, Nokia conversation

It would appear as though Lumia 800 Windows Phones are receiving new firmware, following the rollout in Singapore. The new firmware, 1600.2487.8107.12070, addresses a number of problems and is the next version up from the previous firmware release that arrived in January.

Quick recap of known improvements / fixes in the update:

• Enhanced battery standby and talk time performance
• Battery capacity icon instead of question mark on top right of screen
• Improved bass in audio performance
• Soft-key illumination at all brightness levels
• Fixes for device performance issues including self-reboots, freezes and call-ending

As you can see, it's a fairly sizeable update. Many of our readers have confirmed update notifications (unlocked - U.S. and UK), so be sure to plug your Lumia 800 into your PC to check via Zune. Let us know in the comments should you receive the new firmware.

Thanks to everyone who sent us tips!

Okay, in a way we really don't recommend you do this, on the other hand we just did so who are we to judge. In short, with a few tools and about 20 minutes of your time, you can flash the latest build of Windows Phone (8107 with the keyboard fix) and the latest firmware (12070) onto your T-Mobile branded Nokia Lumia 710.

The latest firmware fixes the end-call bug in addition to giving other "performance enhancements" e.g. powering on from standby seems faster to us now, whereas before there was delay. We haven't run it long enough to see if battery life has improved, though we presume since this matches the Lumia 800's new firmware that it has some of the same tricks (we're idling at about 135mAh, for what it's worth).

How is this done? The files come from Nokia's servers where you can download various ROM packages. In this case, Nokia has available three variants (by color) of their latest 710 ROMs for India available. That's right, you'll be installing a ROM for India on your US phone. No worries though as it's unbranded and heck, it even has two pics of the Taj Mahal as a bonus.

Downside? Evidently in India you can't give an option to disable the camera shutter sound, so you'll literally lose that option in Settings. This is also a full-on flash, meaning you'll wipe your device and backups won't work (new firmware). Finally, we lost our "4G" icon which makes us wonder if we lost our HSPA+ speeds. Our browser download tests (compared to a T-Mo Radar 4G) show that no loss in speed has occurred and from normal use, it feels just as fast as ever for data.

In order to do this you'll need two pieces of free software: Navifirm and Nokia Care Suite 5.0. The former downloads the ROMs from the server, the latter via the Product Support Tool For Store 5.0, allows you to flash your phone. (Honestly, it's really easy once you read some instructions).

Unfortunately we're not going to give a step-by-step because this is a little risky (although you can just flash back the T-Mobile release ROM). Still, if you want to know more about how this works, just head over to ye'old XDA where you can read the similar instructions on flashing the Lumia 800 (yes, it works on that too). Or you could just wait for the T-Mobile version, which we imagine will be here in a few weeks.

Thanks, Robert, for the heads up

Nokia seems to be wrapping up testing of their much anticipated firmware update, 12070. The update brings better battery life through better controlled screen-brightness and ~70 mA discharge when idle.  In addition, the update tweaks the camera's white balance a little and sound is improved via the bass response.

We can testify that 12070 has nearly tripled our battery life since we forced-upgraded from 11401, making this a worthy and important update for Lumia users.

Those in Singapore seem to be the lucky ones tonight as they are now getting 12070 official through Zune Desktop, making them the first group to get the honors. So if you're in Singapore, y'all need to stop reading this and go get your update as it is totally worth the 15 minutes.

We expect the rest of Lumia 800 users to start to get their updates later on this week. Stay tuned.

Thanks, VoodooKing for the heads up; See XDA forums for further confirmation

We like the idea of white phones only because they stand out in a sea of black-slabs these days. Between our (mostly) white Lumia 710 and all-white Radar 4g, we think the color variation adds some pizzazz and choices to the second gen Windows Phone lineup. So it's with great excitement that we're seeing more and more evidence that Nokia is making a white Lumia 800.

Evidence first came forth a few days ago at XDA where a screenshot (see below) from fshqbizfs. Evidently, he was using an app that browses Nokia firmware and came across some interesting findings. From that screenshot we see listings for a white v2 Lumia 800 coming to Portugal and Switzerland.

And we now have the above screenshot from reader VoodooKing (top picture) who was searching for Nokia ROMs on their server to corroborate those entries. As you can see, there are the same listings for Portugal and Switzerland, giving a little more credence to the earlier screenshot from XDA.

Of course, these could be mislabeled or errant entries but we should note that there is a all-white Nokia N9 (which of course the Lumia 800 is based off), meaning there is precedent for such a design. We're of course excited about such a prospect and hope Nokia sells an unlocked version--between the Cyan and White variations, we think Nokia could have some big sellers here.

Source: XDA, Nokia; Thanks, VoodooKing and Francesco S., for the tips. N9 image credit: Nokia World.

An article has been published over at Nokia Conversations detailing the 1600.2483.8106.11500 firmware update for the Lumia 800, which is in the process of rolling out. The update is being pushed out gradually using Zune software and contains two benefits; battery performance (making use of the capacity too) and WiFi connectivity improvements. This is update number two of two that were announced at the end of last year.

"The update will not be delivered to every Lumia 800 simultaneously, but rather will be staggered over the next two weeks through Microsoft’s standard update process. This helps each owner gets the update without any hitches. Around half of owners will get the update in the next seven days, with the remainder over the following seven days."

Unfortunately, we've received reports that users have encountered issues with soft key lighting and battery performance after updating, but we've yet to confirm this on our models. Let us know in the comments when you get the update.

Source: Nokia Conversations