The Nokia Lumia 800 got off to a slightly bumpy start because of firmware issues that caused problems with the battery, camera performance and the audio quality via the headphones among other things.

Subsequently, Nokia has released two firmwares for the device that have improved the situation to an extent but some niggling concerns remain. It seems Nokia is aware of that and is working on a new firmware that will take care of these issues.

Courtesy of Mobile Tech World, a few details have leaked out about the upcoming 1600.2487.8107.12070 / PR 1.2 firmware. According to the website:

• The battery drain issue has been fixed.
• The lack of audio Bass when listening through headsets has been fixed.
• The auto-white balance issue with the camera has also been fixed.
• The hardware buttons backlights are now always on at all screen brightness levels. The last firmware has introduced this feature/bug.
  
• Diagnostics app has been changed to prevent users from getting misleading info about their device.

The folks at XDA Developers have also been playing with the new Vodafone branded 1600.2487.8107.12070 firmware (Nokia 800 RM-801 Vodafone New Zealand NZ Matt Black V2) that is available on Navifirm and have corroborated many of the same fixes (via My Nokia Blog).

All new camera modes have also been discovered:

• Smart Group Shot
• Action Shot
• Panorama
• Self Timer

Considering the upcoming Lumia 610 already has an inbuilt Panorama mode, it's only a matter of time before the other Lumia devices get it too. At the Mobile World Congress I was also told that Internet tethering was coming to Lumia 800 with the next OS update that Microsoft pushes out. There is no word on when that is happening or whether it would be part of this release, initial reports seem to suggest that it isn't.

There is no reason for Nokia to delay Internet tethering any further and hopefully the new firmware will come sooner rather than later.
Similar Posts:

• Nokia Acknowledges Lumia 800 Battery Issues, Promises Software Fix – India Impact Minimal
• Nokia Lumia 800 Low Light Camera Samples
• Samsung Unviels Omnia HD i8190
• Nokia Lumia 610 Hand On: Budget Androids Beware
• Nokia Lumia 710 Hands On