Microsoft Says Color Issues on Windows Phones after NoDo are HTC's Fault

Soon after updating their mobile phones to a new version of Windows Phone, some users out there reported various issues with the colors their handsets displayed.

Apparently, devices suffered a noticeable drop in color resolution just after the NoDo software update was delivered to them, and started to complain about it.

The good news is that Microsoft is aware of the situation, and that it plans on solving the problem, though it would do so only in the next platform update, Mango, which should land on devices in fall.

The bad news is that the company blames HTC for the issue, since the problems was spotted only on HTC's HD7 and Trophy smartphones, and says that all this could have been avoided in the first place.

In a response to users' inquiries on the matter, a Microsoft employee explained that the Windows Phone platform was designed with a 16bit color depth, and that HTC tried to correct it to 32bit.

Basically, prior to NoDo, HTC's devices would display the colors as the manufacturer intended them to be, namely in 32bit, which, according to Microsoft, was not their intention.

However, as soon as the NoDo update was delivered to devices, the colors on HTC devices began to be displayed as Microsoft wanted them to be, in 16bit. Hence, the noticeable change, which should have not been there.

Here's what the full response from Microsoft reads:

When HTC launched the HD7 and Trophy they upgraded the color depth to 32 bit, which was outside of Microsoft’s design requirements of 16bit.

The color palette change should not make a noticeable change to most customers experience on their Windows Phone 7. Microsoft’s goal is to ensure that the device is performing as optimally as possible – and as always their engineering teams continue to investigate the opportunities for future improvements. In Microsoft opinion, apparently, if it weren't for HTC, who wanted to implement their own color depth with Windows Phone devices, the issue would have never appeared.

All in all, the great news is that the 32bit color will come to Windows Phone in the next OS version, Mango. It would be present on all devices, which means that similar issues should not emerge again.

In the meantime, you can have a look at the said post on Microsoft's support forums here (via WMPoweruser).