After much worry, frustration, updates and rumors the February and March 2011 Windows Phone 7 updates arrived today for the Samsung Focus and LG Quantum AT&T Windows Phone 7 handsets. The other Windows Phone 7 handset from AT&T, the HTC Surround, is expected to get its updates in mid May according to several reports across the web.
So how did the upgrade go for our Samsung Focus and LG Quantum? Actually very smooth without any issue on either phone.
I did not receive any notification on the handsets themselves throughout the day but as soon as I plugged them into the PC and Zune started up I was immediately notified about the February 2011 update. This is what has been labeled the pre-update update. This update was very quick and updated the phones to version 7.0.7008.0.
Without unplugging the handset after the last reboot I received notifications on each one that another update was available. I did have to go into the Zune Phone Settings menu to click update for the Zune software to give me the same notification and start the second update.
This second update, the infamous NODO or Cut and Paste update, is from March 2011 and was the much bigger update and therefore took a lot longer. I estimate it took about 26 minutes or so to update each handset with that update. This update brought the phone up to version 7.0.7390.0
Curious to see what the update process looks like? Well here is the 37 minutes I recorded of my desktop with the Zune software running both update processes on my LG Quantum condensed to just over 2 minutes worth of video.
So how does the update impact the phones performance? Well this is not scientific and is based solely on my perception of the phones performance but I say it is definitely much more responsive. The resumption of background programs is way faster than before the update and that is a very welcome thing in many ways. I am very interested to see how this updates impacts overall battery life/usage as well.
While I was updating my phones I did come across a couple of interesting sites about these updates that you may find useful. Check these out:
- Raise AT&T upload speed on Samsung Focus [How To] (via wpcentral)
- Unannounced NoDo bugfixes / features (via WMPoweruser.com)
- Microsoft: AT&T NoDo update ready, WISPr protocol and address book support included (via WinRumors)
That first one, which is about the update resetting your max download speed to a lower level, is a little sneaky on AT&T’s part. It might have been unintentional but is something I am interested in keeping an eye on over the next few days.
Make sure you let us know how your experience went getting the updates installed on your handsets.
