Nokia Lumia 800 battery issue easily fixable with software update in early 2012. Nokia will replace it if you can’t wait.

Let’s get a few things into the picture:

1) The Nokia Lumia 800 has mixed reviews regarding battery life. Some stating good, some stating bad. Regardless, the fact some people are reporting bad battery life is bad, and there’s a sufficient number to make this an issue.

2) There was a recent update that supposedly improves charging – though note not battery life. Some people had already reported better battery life from that already.

3) Standby time with the phone off ad not in use (no email, no nothing, just screen off) at all is about 5 days. That was tested with the batman phone that has not been charged but still oddly had battery life last time I checked. Just an odd fact that would not be of use to anyone. I might investigate the phone to see what individual activities drain what (like the GSM Arena tests)

4) I have noticed a bug after the last software update where my battery life gets stuck at 94% after charging for a while (I did have something similar on my Omnia where it would get stuck at 0%. You’ld need to remove the battery. Charging on that phone did take forever though, like 8-12 hours sometimes). I was going to make a post on this tomorrow but it seems to have been noticed and Nokia has officially responded already with the following. Note this doesn’t affect the 710. They note an easy software fix coming 2012, but even cooler is that if you can’t wait, Nokia will just replace your phone (go do it if you have any scratches on the display :p)

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.

http://discussions.europe.nokia.com/t5/Nokia-with-Windows-Phone/Nokia-Lumia-800-Nokia-comments-on-battery-life-concerns/td-p/1250749 

 

Using the charger that came with the phone. Hmm, that might be something worth considering. I’ve left mine in Manchester though I’ve never used it. I’m actually using the charger from my Omnia. Perhaps there might be something in that as certain products, though they may have microUSB, might have different charging requirements. e.g. My TouchPad being a tablet can only be charged my the 2amp charger provided. I need to add that to our battery saving tips portion:

http://mynokiablog.com/2011/12/05/battery-saving-tips-for-the-nokia-lumia-800/

Cheers @belon1986 for the tip!

Category: Lumia, Nokia, Windows Phone