Nokia To Issue Lumia 800 Battery Fix

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Nokia is distributing a firmware patch designed to fix a number of bugs and boost performance in the Lumia 800 in several key areas, including battery life--a widely criticized feature of the otherwise well-received smartphone.

Some users have complained the Lumia 800, which runs Microsoft's Windows Phone 7.5 Mango operating system, suffers from battery life that falls well short of the advertised 8 hours--even when in sleep mode. The new firmware build, 1600.2487.8107.12070/PR1.2, is designed to fix that and other issues. The forthcoming patch was first spotted by bloggers at Mobile TechWorld.

In addition to improving battery life, the patch is also designed to increase bass output through headphones, fix auto-white balance in the camera, maintain constant backlighting of buttons, and improve the accuracy of the phone's diagnostic app.

It was not immediately clear whether the update would be distributed directly by Nokia or through Microsoft.

[ At Mobile World Congress, HTC and Nokia try hard to cast smartphones as femme fatales--but leave us more bothered than hot. See HTC, Nokia: I'm Too Sexy For This Smartphone. ]

The Lumia 800 is yet to be available on a plan from a U.S. carrier, but it is being sold unlocked by Microsoft as part of a bundle that also includes Nokia Purity HD stereo headphones by Monster, a Nokia Play 360 wireless Bluetooth speaker, and a Nokia Lumia Bluetooth headset. Gadget fans might want to wait for a carrier plan, however, as Microsoft is selling the bundle for a whopping $899.

The phone itself features a 3.7-inch AMOLED display, 8-megapixel camera with Carl Zeiss optics, 16 GB of storage, and a 1.4-GHz Snapdragon processor from Qualcomm. Earlier this year, Nokia rolled out the Lumia 710 and also introduced the higher-end Lumia 900.

Nokia is betting big on the Windows Phone operating system. Under an alliance announced with Microsoft last year, Nokia mostly ditched its Symbian OS and will use Windows Phone 7 and future Windows Phone editions to power the bulk of its smartphone line.

In return, Microsoft is funneling billions of dollars to Nokia for research and development on Windows Phone hardware.

Microsoft's hope is that Nokia, by virtue of the fact that it still ships more phones worldwide than any other device maker, can use its formidable distribution networks to jumpstart market share for Windows Phone, which lags well behind Apple's iPhone and market leader Google Android.

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