Microsoft has delivered a Christmas treat for a handful of Nokia Lumia smartphone owners by releasing its Denim update for Windows Phones a little bit early, allowing those lucky enough to get it the chance to capture those special festive moments in glorious 4K video.
Denim will start out today on Lumia 830, Lumia 930, Lumia 1520 and Lumia Icon handsets in select countries in Europe, North America, Latin America, Africa, Asia Pacific and the Middle East – with a full roll out scheduled for January 2015.
The new Windows Phone 8 update will focus on improving the camera functions, the time it takes to launch the app as well as the image quality. Owners of the aforementioned Lumia models can expect tweaks to the auto-HDR and Dynamic Flash for still shots and the introduction of the Rich Capture mode allows the camera to grab more light and convert this into enhanced highlight and lowlight definition. The option to capture moving images in the highest quality is also now available as Denim brings support for 4K video recording.
Along with the camera boost that Windows Phone 8.1 Denim update allows users to open Microsoft’s help service Cortana – the Windows Phone 8 answer to Apple’s Siri – by simply saying the words “Hey Cortana”. Which is not nearly as catchy as “Hey Macarena”.
If you’ve got one of those mentioned Lumia mobiles, already have Windows Phone 8 Cyan installed and live in one of the eligible regions you might want to check your phone today by going into Settings > Check for Updates – or visit the Microsoft WP8 website to see what countries the Denim firmware is available in now.