Lumia Windows Phones picking up 'Display' system update to tweak settings

By Daniel Rubino
published

Microsoft, and previously Nokia, tend to release system app updates every few months to keep things humming along for Lumia owners. Today, Display is being refreshed in the Store with version 3.1.3.3 and the changelog is either old or just the generic 'bug fixes and improved usability'.

Display can be found on Lumia phones under Settings near the bottom of the list. Depending on which Lumia you own, your settings can vary. For instance, if you own a Lumia 630, 730, 830, 930 or Lumia 1520, you have a setting for Brightness Profile and another for Color Profile. By comparison, other Lumia models just have Color Profile, and this is presumably related to their older S4 chipset (the newer phones run newer Snapdragons).

Today's update does not appear to bring any new features, so if you are on the Lumia 1020 with Lumia Cyan, you still do not get the Brightness Profile (nor should you ever expect it to). More than likely, this update is for the Lumia 73x and Lumia 830 devices, which are just now launching worldwide. Like most new phones, last minute tweaking of brightness, color, and other screen qualities is needed before the phones end up in many people's hands.

If you have not already received the update, you can force an app update check or just hit the Store link.

Thanks, everyone, for the tips!

QR: display

Daniel Rubino
Daniel Rubino
Editor-in-chief

Daniel Rubino is the Editor-in-chief of Windows Central, head reviewer, podcast co-host, and analyst. He has been covering Microsoft since 2007 when this site was called WMExperts (and later Windows Phone Central). His interests include Windows, laptops, next-gen computing, and for some reason, watches. Before all this tech stuff, he worked on a Ph.D. in linguistics, watched people sleep (for medical purposes!), and ran the projectors at movie theaters because it was fun.

111 Comments
  • Awesome news!
  • Seems brighter!
  • LOL
  • Today, Display is being refreshed in the Store with version 3.1.3.3 and the changelog is either old or just the generic 'seems faster'.
  • I hope this helps to fix all the 930 display issues.
  • The last update already did fix those, at least for me. No more purple hue and the blacks are truly black.
  • Oh alright that's good news, I still have to get that update
  • Purple hue has gone from my 930 at last. Screen is a pleasure to look at now.
  • I dont get it! Why old snapdragon dont get it The brightness profile ??? Is that so hard ???
  • +525
  • Because fuck logic
  • Its just that they don't want to work hard. I don't think its a big thing bringing this to every phone.
  • don't you know it's very Graphic & Processor intensive feature.   Just like "Hey Cortana".
  • Anyone who honestly thinks this is a chipset limitation is a moron and a sheep
    This is completely ridiculous. It's a feature that should be on all phones. Please edit out the chipset bit Daniel. Makes me cringe..
  • yeah, this is bull***p, I want it for my Lumia 925
  • +820
    Cyan update is the same Preview For Developers version on my Lumia, the only change I see is Dolby Headphones... Wow ¬¬
  • Updated... But nothing new
  • Still don't get it how just because of processor difference, the older phones don't get brightness profile....
  • Likely requires development of new APIs. The chipset is not just the processor but lets the rest of the phone's hardware e.g. display, interact with the software.
  • My Nokia 5530 has manual brightness adjustment.
  • Mine 5230 too...
  • Please tell me more about getting a new processor because of the brightness settings.
  • I have the Lumia925 with also a Snapdragon chip but without a Brighness settings profile?
  • oh oeps i have the S4 :'(
  • I have Lumia 520 with Lumia cyan update still I received this update
  • Of course, everyone gets the update with a Lumia. Not everyone will necessarily benefit from it as well.
  • Since the update, I have had to soft reset my 928 at least fifty times.  Not kidding.  Phone basically worthless today.  When it doesn't "freeze", I get to push a button or two and then it freezes again.  Seems to be better tonight, but all my MSN (formerly BING) apps, as well as Calenday, e-mail, Skype, and the podcast app are broken.  I can't do searches through Cortana either.  Onedrive not backing up photos to the cloud.  It is like all built in systems are down.  The new Display shows in my settings window, but I cannot click into it.  When I swipe to the right, I have a bunch of @{Microsft...apps there.  Never seen those before.  Looks like Data Sense just reset on the wrong day; shouldn't happen until the 21st. Anyone else hearing anything like this?  Daniel?
  • Should have added on Preview for Developer, obviously without Cyan.
  • Actually, the S4 is an snapdragon, newer ones are snapdragons too.
  • I am very much aware.
  • I just quietly chuckled
  • No brightness profile for older lumias. Very poor by Microsoft
  • Your device could potato.
  • What?
  • Yep! (it cannot be supported due to hardware limitations)
  • automatic works wonders for me. 920
  • What??
  • automatic brightness setting, that is :-D
  • My display is faster
  • Lawl
  • lel
  • 930 updated
  • 1520... Updated.
  • And?
  • It seems faster
  • Lol
  • Is this update any preparation one for the Lumia denim update or WP8.1.1 ?
  • I have a filling that they wont do the denim update untill they luanch windows 10 on phone they will release them together just like they have been doing
  • They may just give the 8.1.1 update with a seperate update then bundle denim with windows 10
  • They said for 930, icon and 1520 denim will be out in Q4
  • Last night my 1020 from Rogers with PfD program pick up the Cyan Update, but since the past first update of the PD the Living Images feature ran off of working, I dont know why but I has it for a while and after an update it stops working... Someone knows why the Living Images feature doesnt work on the 1020???...
  • Was there anything beneficial in the Cyan update for those of us rocking devices such as the 1020?
    I can't believe the best cameraphone on this platform is being put out to pasture without there being mention of any new flagship to replace it.
  • That's how I felt... When I finally got the super hyped Cyan, I notices NOTHING new when compared to Windows Phone 8.1 w/Black. I honestly was confused if I had successfully updated or not.
  • Made a long post about this but people were too caught up in the hype.
  • 520 can have automatic brightness sensing but not Brightness Profile?! -_- LAME!
  • Sigh, I really want custom brightness profiles for my Lumia 1020. :(
  • Actually its not the problem with the processor, but its Microsoft's inability to handle the Os properly for both low and high end devices.....
  • My NL 720 running Lumia Cyan got the update...
  • Did nothing for Icon...what a surprise...
  • Sounds to me like MS just doesn't want to go to the bother of coding for and supporting older devices. There's no reason whatsoever why this shouldn't work on any phone. Imagine your PC being saddled with the same kinds of limitations. That said, this is an argument for sticking with the Lumia family as you wouldn't get this at all on phones by other makers.
  • Yeah, like PhysX being supported only on nvidia gfx cards, how lazy is amd/MS/Obama/your mom for not supporting that api, right?
    1st world problems + pseudo-nerd rage ftl...
  • Feels brighter ;)
  • Just curious, will the cyan update for the Icon add the brightness profile? It is completely retarded to not be able to lower the brightness on my phone enough. The battery drains much faster, and night reading is impossible with this phone currently.
  • Hopefully a talented developer like Rudy will create a glance app for the 930/730 that can be activated using the peek option thus side stepping the 'display memory' requirement... If that's even true (920 can't do glance- Nokia & 3 row tile option only possible on 1080p displays that are 5" or above- Belfiore)
  • I have an extra row of tiles on my 925, which is only 4.7".
  • First of all you clearly did not understand and second the 925 has a 4.5" display..... Sigh
  • The 920 does both Glance and 3 rows of tiles.
  • My god..... I was saying that those two things were lies hence why I said assuming that's even true about display memory on 930.... Please don't reply to me as venom guy is more on your level so converse with him. Sigh
  • Oooooh. So I was off by .2". Cry some more about a phone that can't handle glance. Too hard to press the power/lock button to check time/notifications? You obviously are as smart as you think since you apparently have bought a device that couldn't do what you want.
  • Hahaha bet u always overestimate the inches don't u? Pmsl. Who said I own a phone without glance? I was pointing out lies and hoping for a dev to make an app. Once again you have made another reading fail. Wow what a loser... Fyi seeing as your such an intelligent being I own 2x L920s 1x 1020 and yes a 930. Lol wish I was as smart as u loser who can't read, can't measure and don't even know what device u have.... Lol how many gb u got there? 18? Thought u were smart with that reply but once again fail. Hehehe.
  • Well since you started whining in your original post, YOU inferred YOU have a 930 (which you've whined about twice now can't do glance). Is glance that important that you can't just look at the lock screen? Smack yourself and move on.
  • I pointed out 2 lies from Nokia and belfiore and said I hope a dev could make a work around.... At no point did I whine or state that I can't use glance. U seem to argue to yourself and are reading something that I never wrote.... Back to school for you
  • Lumia 930 red tint still here, ubelievable...
  • That's a shame, Microsoft releasing a display update gets my hopes up. I wonder when they will fix it?
  • Same here. Nothing new, purplish, and crappy blacks. After every update I uninstall the display app with 2166 trick and leave it. It's the only eay to get proper colors.
  • No changes in 520
  • They dont want to include brightness profile so that people will have more reasons to upgrade to their new lumia line up. But now my 920 is just for texting, and my 4s is for socializing, games, and music.
  • No changes in 720
  • Need a reboot or not?
  • New Update! New photos! :D
  • So when are going to get the manual brightness controlller??
  • Watching the trends, its seem not in the next 5 years.
  • shame. even S60v3 had brightness profile
  • sure they can do it for so called old lumias if they want. when you turn battery saver on , brightness goes to a lower level so they can put that level beside that "high, medium,low"
  • Thats what I am telling, the damn hardware knows this stupid simple thing, its just the greedy MFs in Redmond, who discarded the publish of that feature for not-even-2year-old phones!
  • Come on guys use logic they want u to buy a 630,635,735,830,930 and 1520 theres nthn to this britness thing dont fuss, its just for advertisement purposes soon those phone will be out dated and wont recieve updates
  • they didn't fix the color saturation problem on L630 .... real shame ! the settings get reset after the screen is locked and unlocked again ! the slider still remains in the same position ! sick !
  • There was a change in the colour profile. There's different pictures now. Unless they changed before and I didn't notice the balloon one is gone now its a guy at a desk, writing.
  • Downloaded on my Icon. Wish I could get Cyan this way rather than wait on Verizon!
  • i dont get it, even the most crappy and old phones have brightness sliders that let you go to the most extreme settings, instead on windows phone we got 3 fixed levels and thats it, the "auto" mode lets the screen go dimmer than it actually does on the lowest manual level, stupidity at its highest...
  • For some reason, idiots of Microkia are unable to understand this requirement. I am waiting for the next release, where they dump the SMS feature, or -god forbid- the calling with manually entered digits. I will stop here, dont want to give more ideas to those faktards.
  • I agree, it is silly. I am considering switching back to Android for things such as you described, that may not seem much; however, they are a huge deal to me. Things such as no brightness slider, no separate alarm volume, the lag between pressing the power button and the device waking, forcing full screen mode while in IE (seriously... I want to see the time and notifications without having to swipe down all the time) and more minor things that drive me crazy.
  • I had a problem with zoom in and out on WP Central app and IE pages. That has now gone and its buttery smooth. Lumia 930 UK
  • There are now 3 sliders under the display profile, low- high ,updated then restarted phone
  • *skims down the page for the obligatory 'no new features' message and closes article*
  • Yes, indeed Daniel, fking brightness can only be tuned by "modern" Snapdragons, old (=not even 3 yrs old) chips cannot set the brightness of the damn display. Sad, but its already official: Microkia does not give a sh!t to "old" Lumia owners (old means: all their Nokia phones, that were released to the market more than 6 months ago). No matter what stupid / misleading note you read on any future system app changelogs: the 920/820 and their brothers will NEVER get a damn fking brightness control feature. Amazing to believe, but thats the reality in 2014: the fking phone cannot be set with proper brightness! I forecast the future of WP: with the witholding of similarly simple stupid features will Mikrokia enforce their consumers to upgrade. By the way, if the phones could be rooted, it would be a fking simple registry key change. On MSDN you can find the instructions how OEMs can finetune (even on the OLD chipsets) the brightness. Thanks Microkia, I hope all the people who were involved in this decision will rot in hell.
  • I would be happy with just a check box on my 925 to disable "ultra-low brightness" when in "automatic" brightness mode. This ultra-low level might be usefull in total darkness, but it activates all too often when simply in a room with the lights on at night. It makes the screen look super faded, hard to read, colors are indistinguishable, effectively turning one of the best screens on the market into one of the worst. Setting the phone brightness level to "Low" seemingly brightens things by 500% over the ultra-low auto mode, and works fine--until I go outside the next day and want auto mode back to brighten the screen.
  • My lumens rating went up with this update. :)
  • So no update for l920..
    Please update display of l920 too..please
  • I'll still have to use the battery saving mode to put my brightness at a comfortable level for use at night on my Lumia 1020 then. :/
  • Holy Moses! I thought I had calibrated my 930 so I wasn't purplish anymore. After this update I can tell you I was in denial! Now my 930 display blows my 920 display out of the water. Colors and blacks are super impressive as it was on the 920 but even better. And the fullHD resolution just make the whole OS gorgeus
  • 920 user here, it solves the yellow hue on my screen
  • Hope it fix the too sensitive touch on Lumia 1520, but seem no change.
  • Inte me itna hi milega (to all old lumias) from my Nokia Lumia 925
  • I'm still not seeing these brightness profiles under "display". I've had the Dev preview since the 1520 came out. My phone is completly up to date as well! I really don't understand. The option was there over the summer, now it's just disapeared. Anyone else have this issue? I attached a link to a folder in my OneDrive with a few screenshots I just took. Link to OneDrive folder    
  • My Nokia E72 has brightness settings ^_^
  • Pls improve the keyboard for English and Chinese prediction sentence, thank you.
  • I so wish I can exchange my 720 with 730
  • I had the update with the brightness options working before i took my 930 to Nokia to fix the darn purple display issue, then Nokia got me a brand new 930, which also has the purple issue (not as noticeable), but now i have the update with the brightness option missing... :S Darn!
  • Which OS/Firmware version are you guys using?
  • Nevermind. Found the solution. I only had to disable automatic brightness and the option appeared :P