Nokia Lumia 800 updates to fix battery woes

We didn't have any battery issues with our Nokia Lumia 800, but some haven't been so lucky. It's been playing up iPhone 4S-style, with the battery not living up to its advertised number of hours.

But there's good news if you're one of those affected: Nokia is releasing not one but two software updates to fix the problem, Engadget reports. Whatever happened to the days of Nokia having marathon battery life?

A Nokia statement reads: "A software update in early December will include improvements to power efficiency, while a second update in early January introduces further enhancements to battery life and battery charging. Both are planned updates and will be made available via Zune."

This follows a thread on Nokia's support forum of people complaining about poor battery life. We had no problems with our review unit, and there are plenty of commenters on the thread saying everything's okey-dokey, so it seems it may only be a small batch of 800s that are affected.

Those suffering have been the usual disabling-everything-that's-not-necessary (with one describing his handset as being turned "into more or less a brick"), but it seems it's a software issue. Unfortunate, but good of Nokia to act so swiftly.

Owners of the iPhone 4S also complained of similar battery issues, though again not every unit was at fault. Apple released iOS 5.0.1 to fix it, though some claim it isn't enough. Location services were blamed for the drain, as was Siri. The Samsung Galaxy Nexus, meanwhile, has a serious volume bug, which is why we can't recommend it.

With bigger screens and more capabilities, it seems you're lucky to get a full day out of your smart phone nowadays. Do you think this is fair, or do you long for the age of three days before a charge? Let us know below, or over on our Facebook page, before your battery dies.