Nokia Starts Rolling Out Windows Phone 7.8 To Lumia Owners, Will Continue Over The Coming Weeks

Nokia has announced via its Conversations blog that the long-awaited Windows Phone 7.8 update, which brings a few of the features from Windows Phone 8 to older hardware, has begun rolling out as promised to owners of Nokia 510, 610, 710, 800 and 900 owners and will continue to do so over the next few weeks through February, pending operator approval.

Features included in the update include the ability to resize Live (and inert) tiles on the home screen, new options for configuring the lock screen like fetching a changing daily background image from Bing and child lock features, and additional theme colors, as well as new languages. It’s not a huge step up, but it is a way to breathe new life into older devices left out in the cold in the wake of Windows Phone 8’s arrival, and that might bring some comfort to buyers of devices who were looking for something new.

Owners of one of the devices listed above should get notified via their smartphones once their carrier has approved the update and it’s available to install. Notifications must be on for this to happen, Nokia points out, which is managed via “Settings > Phone Update > Notify me when updates are found.”

Nokia is the first confirmed manufacturer to announce the rollout, but other OEM partners including HTC are said to be getting the update by month’s end as well, so keep an eye out if you’re running these older devices.