Lumia Denim still planned later this year for some Lumias, early in 2015 for others

In a bit of non-news news, many Lumia owners are wondering about the status of the Lumia Denim update. Some sites had reported that Lumia Denim would begin rolling out sometime in November, but such claims have since proven to be false.

However, Microsoft did note in September that at least some Lumias would get the update by the end of the year, with older devices continuing into 2015 as carriers approve the update.

Today, there are two bits of information to add, although some context is needed. First up, news site Puhelinvertailu is reporting that Denim is not due until early next year, implying that the Q4 time-frame has been pushed back.

The source of the Puhelinvertailu article comes from Facebook where the Microsoft Lumia Finland account responded to an inquiry from a customer:

"Denim päivitys lähetetään kaikkiin Lumioihin, joissa on Cyan, ensi vuoden alusta lähtien operaattorien testien jälkeen."

Roughly speaking, the translation states that those phones with Lumia Cyan get Lumia Denim early next year after carrier operator testing.

However, this statement in and of itself is nothing new. Indeed, we reached out to Microsoft today regarding the update and whether or not it was still planned – at least for some devices – for December. As of today, it sounds like things are still on track:

"Lumia Denim update is being tested in selected markets ahead of broader rollout, which begins later this year as planned. It is expected to be available for all Lumia smartphones running Windows Phone 8.1 early 2015, following partner testing and approvals."

In other words, to our knowledge nothing has changed.

The first phones expected to get the Lumia Denim update include the Lumia 930 and Lumia 1520, as the Lumia 535 , Lumia 73x and Lumia 830 already ship with the upgrade. Still, some carriers like O2 do not expect Denim until that 'early 2015' date and our guess puts most Lumia users in that category.

Previously, AT&T was the first carrier to roll out Lumia Black nearly one year ago for the Lumia 1020, so it will be curious to see if they once again lead the pack with Lumia Denim.

Lumia Denim brings numerous imaging enhancements to PureView Lumias, including passive-listening 'Hey Cortana', 4K video, Rich Capture (Dynamic Flash, Auto-HDR), latest-generation imaging algorithm along with the most recent version of the Windows Phone 8.1.1 OS. Recently, some users reported having the Lumia Denim update on their phones, but this is due to a bug with Extras + Info.

Thanks, palmujukka, for the Finnish story tip

Daniel Rubino
Editor-in-chief

Daniel Rubino is the Editor-in-chief of Windows Central. He is also the head reviewer, podcast co-host, and analyst. He has been covering Microsoft since 2007, when this site was called WMExperts (and later Windows Phone Central). His interests include Windows, laptops, next-gen computing, and watches. He has been reviewing laptops since 2015 and is particularly fond of 2-in-1 convertibles, ARM processors, new form factors, and thin-and-light PCs. Before all this tech stuff, he worked on a Ph.D. in linguistics, watched people sleep (for medical purposes!), and ran the projectors at movie theaters because it was fun.