One would think that before Nokia started shipping their first Windows Phone, the Lumia 800, that a team of engineers would have been tasked with testing every little feature of the device to make sure that it was absolutely bullet proof. Turns out that such a scenario is nothing more than a fantasy. In late November the Finnish handset vendor issued a statement saying that two software updates would be pushed out to the Lumia 800 to fix concerns with battery life. As promised, in early December the first of said updates was released. While we’re waiting for the second update we’re starting to get reports that the Lumia 800 is having issues correctly displaying how much juice is inside the non-removable battery. Some users say that their Lumia reports having just 980 mAh worth of power, while others say their Lumia says their battery holds nothing, as in 0 mAh. One guy even emailed Stephen Elop to complain. So what’s Nokia’s response to all this?
On Monday 12th December some of our customers started to comment in various social media that the preloaded diagnostics tool in some of the Nokia Lumia 800 phones was showing lower battery capacity than expected. We immediately started to investigate these reports and can now confirm that while the battery itself is fine, a software problem on certain variants is limiting the phone’s ability to access the full battery capacity. We want to stress that this issue has not been found to affect the recently introduced Nokia Lumia 710.
The good news is that as this is a software problem it can be easily resolved. The planned software update in early 2012, as well as including many performance enhancements, will also include a fix that will enable the affected phones to access the total battery capacity. For anyone who does not want to wait for the software update, Nokia can arrange for a replacement phone. Anyone who requires any further clarification should contact Nokia Care (Care contact details and locations can be found at www.Nokia.com/support).
Anyone who wants to know if their phone is affected can run the battery status test from the diagnostics tool already installed on their phone. (The tool is designed for service use and only displays approximate values.) Dialling ##634# opens the diagnostics tool. By accepting the disclaimer and then selecting ‘Battery Status’ from the list of options, anyone will be able to see their available battery charge capacity. If your full charge capacity reads less than 1000 mAh then your phone is affected with this specific issue and you may find it is necessary to charge your phone more frequently than normal. Once the software update has been applied, you should experience much better battery life. In the meantime here are some tips on how to increase your battery performance and you should also make sure you are using the charger that came with the phone, as older chargers may not be as effective at charging the new Nokia Lumia 800.
Odd that the Lumia 710, the device that the tech media don’t care about, is the one that works just fine, yet the flagship is busted. Anyway, do let us know if you’re one of the few who is having problems and what you plan to do about it!
[Via: Engadget]