When Nokia and Microsoft took to the stage last week and announced the latest Nokia Lumia 820 and 920 smartphones, both of which will be running the latest version of the Windows Phone software, many of us were happy but existing Lumia owners were a little annoyed!
Since the Windows Phone 8 announcement we have known that Nokia’s current range of Windows 7 (or 7.5 ‘Mango’) sporting mobile phones would not get the Windows Phone 8 update at all, but instead they would be getting a lite version of WP8 in the form of a Windows Phone 7.8 update.
Well today Nokia has confirmed a few of the Windows Phone 8 features that will be coming to the older Lumia handsets at the end of the year.
Windows Phone 7.5 devices such as the Lumia 900, 800, and 710 are set to receive the 7.8 update which will come with the Cinemagraph GIF-maker, the new contact sharing app and the long-awaited Bluetooth file transfer functionality. Additionally, the Smart Group Shot camera feature will also be released to devices in “selected markets”.
There is still no official release date for the Windows Phone 7.8 update, but with the actual WP8 software not being released until after the official launch on October the 26th, we can expect the update to be made available by early November at the earliest.
Today Orange and T-Mobile’s parent company announced its new EE 4G network brand that will also exclusively stock the follow-up Nokia Lumia devices the 920 and 820 Windows Phone 8 running handsets.
So unless you want to switch to the new 4G network you may have to wait for the phones to become available on more networks in the future.
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