The other day, we doused some cold water on the rumor that the Nokia Lumia 810 on T-Mobile would get a firmware update to enable its LTE radio for that carrier. Seeing as the chipset is a SoC Snapdragon S4, it’s typical for such setups to have features there but not enabled (either by request, OEM choice or lack of proper APIs)—in other words, it’s totally plausible.
Reader of the site jgbstetson emailed the president and CEO of T-Mobile about the update and had his question pushed to the right people in the chain of command (much like Nokia, evidently you can get a response from the bigwigs at T-Mobile).
Responding to the question was Randy Meyerson, Senior Director, Product Marketing at T-Mobile, who noted that such an update is not possible. Here’s an excerpt:
“I’m following up as per my note last night. Unfortunately, the Nokia Lumia 810 is not upgradable to LTE. While it is true that it has a chipset that is LTE-capable in certain circumstances, the variant that was used in this device can’t be enabled for LTE.”
The notion of the Nokia Lumia 810 getting LTE started with Engadget back in late January and picked up some confirmation by a later FCC filing.
A few days ago, Windows Phone Daily had unofficial confirmation via a T-Mobile “rep” but as we all know, they can be heavily unreliable (and are usually the last told of changes). Things went even more downhill when during a recent press release T-Mobile spoke about future LTE devices and current ones getting an update. Only the Note II was announced (and subsequently updated) with no mention of the Lumia 810.
Now with the Senior Director of Product Marketing saying that it can’t (or won’t) be done, it seems to put the kibosh on any hopes for an LTE enabled 810, at least via an upgrade. We suppose T-Mobile could still opt for a “Lumia 810S” or some model variant with the proper LTE bands, but if they’re not seeing strong sales with that device, the impetus to do so could be lacking.
We’re not 100% ready to declare this dead, but we’re getting close. Sorry, folks.
Thanks, jgbstetson, for the tip!
Shopping for a budget laptop? Here's how to pick the right one.
Budget laptops can save you a lot of money and still be completely adequate, but there are also a lot of lemons to avoid. Here's what you should keep in mind next time you're shopping on the cheap.
Seven new HP X Series gaming monitors have been unveiled
Like flat and curved gaming monitors? Good news: HP has seven new models that have either just hit shelves or will be available for purchase in the next few months.
Everything you need to know about AMD Radeon RX 6000 GPUs
AMD has unveiled its new lineup of Radeon RX 6000-series graphics cards, with three new pieces of hardware to look forward to. Here's what you need to know.
These are all the best AMD Ryzen-powered laptops
Looking for a new laptop but you'd prefer to have something powered by AMD Ryzen rather than Intel? The choice isn't as wide, but fortunately, there are some excellent notebooks out there from which to choose.