Microsoft Rolls Out Windows 10 Mobile To Windows Phone 8.1 Devices
by Brandon Chester on March 17, 2016 3:10 PM EST- Posted in
- Smartphones
- Microsoft
- Mobile
- Lumia
- Blu
- Windows 10 Mobile
The journey of Windows 10 Mobile from announcement to release has certainly been a strange one. The OS itself was announced roughly one year ago, and around that time Microsoft stated that it would make its way to existing Windows Phone 8.1 devices in December. As December of 2015 came and went, they issued another statement which said that it would be pushed to the first part of 2016.
The delays with the release of the OS were fairly well understood by users participating in the Insider beta program, as there were clearly areas that needed to be improved before the software could be widely released. However, October brought about an oddity of sorts as the Lumia 950 and 950XL launched with Windows 10 Mobile while the OS still felt unfinished to users who were beta testing it. While I won't get in to the state of Windows 10 Mobile as it launched in October, the launch of the 950 and 950XL made it clear that the OS needed to come soon to the rest of the Windows Phone user base.
Today Microsoft has made good on their promise to bring Windows 10 Mobile to select Windows Phone 8 and 8.1 devices. Getting the specifics on which devices are supported is probably the most important part of the announcement, as the update does not cover all Windows Phone 8 devices, and it doesn't necessarily cover all devices that were originally eligible for the Windows Insider beta program. By brand, the devices that will receive the Windows 10 Mobile update are as follows:
| Windows 10 Mobile Supported Update List | |||
| Brand | Models | ||
| Lumia | 1520 930 640 640XL 730 735 830 532 535 540 635 (1GB) 636 (1GB) 638 (1GB) 430 435 |
||
| BLU | Win HD w510U Win HD LTE x150q |
||
| MCJ | Madosma Q501 | ||
I have to admit that I'd never heard of the MCJ Madosma Q501, but it's a phone for the Japanese market, so hopefully those users will be pleased with the update. As for the devices from BLU, the update is limited to the Win HD and Win HD LTE. The former of those two is a Snapdragon 200 device with two Cortex A7 cores but 1GB of RAM, which makes it clear that the limiting factor here is RAM more than processing power.
Finally, there's the Lumia devices. The list of eligible devices is fairly substantial, but there's again the caveat with models that came in two versions that you need the model with 1GB of RAM.
To prepare for the update to Windows 10 Mobile and confirm your phone's eligibility Microsoft recommends that you download the Update Advisor application. They've also set up a support page with some more information about the upgrade.
Source: Microsoft Windows Blog
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Sivar - Thursday, March 17, 2016 - link
I've always found the Windows phone UI to be the most intuitive and useful. It's unfortunate that it is taking forever for 3rd party app support to catch up.Yuriman - Thursday, March 17, 2016 - link
It's not going to catch up, and I'm skeptical that it'll even get better. Windows Phone is on the decline.MrSpadge - Thursday, March 17, 2016 - link
It does not really have to catch up, as you don't need 50+ apps all doing pretty much the same thing. However, having at least one good app of each important kind - that's what would be needed.Murloc - Sunday, March 20, 2016 - link
there already is, but it's always your bank or local newspaper app that is missing or something like that that shafts people.djsvetljo - Thursday, March 17, 2016 - link
Anyone knows the process if the device is already on WIndows 10 beta? Will the official one be an older version, e.g. is it worth going to the official? FYI, phone will be for the kid. Grabbed a 640 for $15 - I can't believe how slow this whole Windows Mobile experience is. Multitasking - I read somewhere that it's true - sayyyy whatttt?MrSpadge - Thursday, March 17, 2016 - link
You're aware that a beta is not final yet, aren't you? Especially debug and enhanced error detection and reporting could be enabled, as well as a lack of performance optimization in some drivers or libraries.DanNeely - Thursday, March 17, 2016 - link
RIP my Lumia 520 I guess.I'm not overly broken up, Windows phone is close enough to dead that staying minimally aware as a dev isn't a factor any more; and I had enough problems with it corrupting its music DB when trying to sync large amounts of music to the SD card over about 18mo of software updates that I bought a Moto E as an "I want to listen to music, but not enough to risk breaking a $600 phone so I need something cheap enough to be semi-disposable"; which was a big part of what I originally had the 520 for.
damianrobertjones - Friday, March 18, 2016 - link
U.K. release? Anyone?Daniel Egger - Friday, March 18, 2016 - link
Okay, that's strike 3 (lied about WinMo 8 update for my first Lumia which became worthless after only a few months of use, recently killed the Here apps which were basically the reason why I bought all Lumias in the first place, and now they lied again about the Win 10 Mo update for my Lumia 820): Microsoft, you're out!smartthanyou - Friday, March 18, 2016 - link
Daniel, hopefully the phone still works well enough you can call 911 for a waaambulance.