Microsoft Starts Rolling Out a Firmware Update for Lumia 950 and 950 XL

Yesterday, I started getting reports from readers in Europe about a mysterious new firmware update for the Lumia 950 and 950 XL. Now Microsoft has confirmed this release, and has explained what we can expect.

Here’s what’s happening.

New firmware version. Microsoft has started rolling out a new firmware update for the Lumia 950 and 950 XL, which is version 01078.00027.15506.020xx.

Addresses key feedback from users. Microsoft points out a few key features in this update. They include:

• Stability and performance improvements.
• Improvements for SD memory card support.
• Improvements for automatic display brightness settings.
• Fix for a camera problem that was causing noisy images in low-light conditions for some users.
• Fix for a 4K video problem that was causing stripes to show up while playing back recorded videos for some users.

Availability. Noting that the availability of this update “may depend on your network service provider,” Microsoft says that the rollout is starting in Europe and “will continue gradually” around the world. I’m not seeing it here in the U.S., but I received my first report about the update, from a user in Germany, yesterday at about 2:30 pm ET.

MICROSOFTMDG. When I was first pinged about this update yesterday on Twitter, there were some questions about the name of the update, which includes the text MICROSOFTMDG.” That’s the OEM, or hardware maker name, which stands for Microsoft Devices Group, e.g. what used to be Nokia.

Still not seeing it here.