Microsoft reportedly working on a fix for Lumia 930 display woes

The Lumia 930 is likely to go down as one of the most divisive Lumias to date. It has not quite lived up to the Lumia 920 legacy, and there are still numerous reports of overheating and screen discolorations. The latter issue is likely due to the use of AMOLED instead of LCD and Lumias have always had some purple tint issues with those types of displays.

Now, the @LumiaHelp account, which offers "global help from Microsoft technical experts for Lumia and Nokia-branded devices" has informed one owner of the Lumia 930 that a fix is on the way.

In a series of tweets @LumiaHelp told user DJDB that they have identified a problem with the Lumia 930:

"We have been made aware of an issue where the displays on a limited number of Lumia 930 units are exhibiting discolourations. This phenomenon is due to the performance of the display in certain brightness conditions. However, we have identified the root cause and are currently working on a software update that will deliver improvements."

The problem in particular is related to the AMOLED display's gradient and hue, which can be off kilter at designated lighting environments. Using the Color and Brightness profile settings does not seem to address the problem either, leaving some users frustrated. Indeed, in our Lumia 930 forums it is not uncommon to find such complaints e.g.:

"…does anybody else's screen seem to be a bit darker on one side with a grey background?"

Interestingly, you can find similar complaints about purple hue issues with the AMOLED Lumia 730 and Lumia 735 as well. It is not clear if this fix mentioned above is for all newer Lumias with AMOLED displays or just the Lumia 930.

Windows Central will, of course, keep you posted when such an update becomes available.

Is anyone here having display issues with their Lumia 930? Describe the problem and sound off in comments.

Source: Twitter 1, 2, 3; Lumia 930 display photo: Imgur; via Reddit

Daniel Rubino is the Editor-in-chief of Windows Central, head reviewer, podcast co-host, and analyst. He has been here covering Microsoft since 2007 when this site was called WMExperts (and later Windows Phone Central). His interests include Windows, Microsoft Surface, laptops, next-gen computing, and for some reason, watches. Before all this tech stuff, he worked on a Ph.D. in linguistics and ran the projectors at movie theaters, which has done absolutely nothing for his career.

179 Comments

AMOLED Guilty!
It also has really bad calibration issues http://anandtech.com/show/8441/nokia-lumia-930-review/4 something Windowscentral doesn't care to mention.
Windows Central doesn't perform those kind of tests. If you want to go that deep you need t visit sites like Anandtech, ArsTechnica and others. Anyway, that review and the lack of glance steered me off from buying one.
It's not a big issue for me, but do notice it at times. I do miss glance but not enough to put me off. The 930 is just been amazing
Totally agree, it's an amazing phone.
I concur with the smart ones above ^ ... amazing phone! The glitch is indeed there but i had completely forgotten about it, until i read this good news; that's how barely noticeable it is.
It is a nice phone but I wish it had a bigger aperture on the lens. I get lots of looks of wonder, probably because of the bright orange lol
Possibly, or the front cam should have been higher-res but its not bad. Haha naa this phone is a looker; i have the white one and friends tend to find the need to pick it up to have a look, the valet even commented on it saying thats a beautiful phone but unfortunately followed with, "its a sony right?"
I need this phone. The 1520 was ok. But selling it to pick one of these up.
Don't know if its called purple tint but while scrolling the side of the tiles do get purple and it looks like the display is actually 'leaking' on my L730..and recently I've been observing some strange flickering of the screen :| Am I the only one?
I believe that it was the down side of having a faster reaction time of the pixels , you can replicate this with IPS tv's, moving a grey object fast will leave a pinkish-purplish tint. Correct me if i'm wrong, but I think the proper term for this phenomenon is "reverse ghosting".
I don't buy Amoled display devices, IPS LCD for me anytime!
I had purple tint issue on my 930, but after latest pfd update it's gone. Bit on a greenish side now, tough.
I've never had this issue on my 930 - Denmark
+930... Or maybe not yet? Hope not!
I'm glad you didn't. It's not a dealbraker issue for me, but I hope it will be repaired any time soon.
Same here on My 930
No display / other issues on my 930 (HK variant)
Battery drainage is a common issue for all the 930s though...
Same issue on my new 830.
That's another matter since it's a different type of technology (LCD).
Hopefully one day they'd address the 1520 display woes too! Posted via Windows Phone Central App for Android!
Right! I have many problems with that phone screen. Etc...
Finally ditched the 1520 for the m8 because of all of the display issues and I have never been happier with a phone! It is so nice to be able to scroll without it tapping random things all of the time.
I thought I was the only one opening apps that I didn't want to xD. T
Hmmm. I haven't checked the 1520 forums yet to see if its common but I do have issues with light in the corners when its supposed to be black.
I've had a plethora of problems with the 930. I have to replace it 3 times. Meanwhile, Microsoft has been aware of this problem since September. Back then (the last time I bothered trying to have the 930 fixed before I ditched the phone for an Android device) I was so frustrated with all the problems that I passed over the normal Care Centre burocracy and reached out to some friends at Microsoft. They told me that Microsoft had received a lot of complaints across Europe over the same problem (hardly "a limited number of Lumia 930 units are exhibiting discolourations.") so much that they recalled a bunch of units from every European country to try and sort out how generalized was the problem and what exactly was the source of it. Updates since then have minored the issues but they're still there. However, even if the purple tint problem gets solved, there's still the overheating, the battery drains, the lifting screens, the misaligned headphone jacks etc etc. The 930 not only didn't live up to the 920 legacy, it hasn't lived up to the Nokia brand it undeservedly bares.
I know the feeling, I had to do this with all of my Windows Phones..smh!
Screen lift issue is horrible. They also introduced incredibly annoying touch issues mainly in Internet Explorer with the WP 8.1 update 1 that still are unfixed.
No overheating, no screen issues and no jack misalignment either for me :-/ Looks like I'm lucky, this or you're clearly not ;-)
Out of curiosity, when did you get your device?
No issues whatsover for my 930. Happy camper!
Yep me too. No problems yet
When did you get your device?
Neither did the 1520, all of the hardware issues made such an awesome device so annoying to use.
No issues here. Funny you went to Android. Working in tech I wouldn't touch android with a ten foot pole. I do over a dozen exchanges weekly for android software.
I have absolutely no complaints about Android at all. Nor software and most definitely not hardware. Sony's Z3 line is extremely well crafted and well worth the money. I've dropped my Z3C three times already and it doesn't have a single scratch or dent or anything. It doesn't overheat, it doesn't lag, it lasts me for 2 days and it has all the functionality I wanted and then some. And let me guess...from those exchanges you do...most of them pertain to Samsung devices?
..delete duplicate
..delete duplicate
I hear you. My friend is on his 3rd Lumia replaced icon within a year. Display gone bad and exchanged by Verizon everytime - from discoloration to phantom touchs - and screen gone totally black. The Nokia Icon / 930 is a below par product that Nokia should be ashamed of building. NO flagship from any manufacturer has / should have these many issues in 2014. Why do I care about my friend's issues? I was the one who encouraged to try WP and Nokia. Will have to think 100 times before I do this again. Microsoft has a lot of Nokia crap to clean up and tighten up quality control before they release another flagship
I don't have any of the problem you listed with my 930 and I have it for more than 2 months now
So you bought it in October, correct? Posted via the Windows Central App for Android
Well, I (sadly) have to agree with you. Appart from the misaligned headphone jack, i had all of these problems. I do love my 930, but... common Microsoft!!! They should replace our devices, period. Its completely unacceptable that their most expensive phone is so poorly made.
That's great for you 930 users but how about a fix for the phantom touch issues with the 1520!
This assumes that the problem has been properly identified and it can be fixed via software/firmware. To our knowledge, neither one of those things has been verified.
My 1520 has phantom touch issue due to a tiny crack of the display... I don't understand, so many people can live quite happy with there iPhone display cracked, but a tiny hair-width crack, hardly noticed at all will cause the touch screen useless.... I like the device, but there must be something wrong with the design of the giant display: so easily to be shattered and not usable after shattering. Gotta change back to a smaller phone though...
Yeah..makes it real awkward when you tap the wrong niche. Kills the vibe.
I fixed mine! Get an m8 and it will be fixed for you too!
My HTC 8x did that, randomly type, press and do funny things all the time on its own.
Had this issue in my 820 previously... I think in pre amber days... My 830 never had that problem till date... So mostly related to amoled displays only as mentioned in the article
+925
+925
Is MS aware of this purple tinting in L730/5 too?
more than the tint, the display seems to have a really slow refresh speed.
if you keep a black background and try scrolling tiles on the start screen (especially grey coloured ones) you'll notice they load really slowly and have weird flickering.
happens even to the text and buttons in settings or any other place where there is black vs. another colour.
i guess the switched off pixels fail to start up quickly enough.
My Lumia 930's screen seems to be fine. However, I could use a fix for overheating. Feeling my phone is getting warm after browsing for 15 minutes is a little bit strange. Of course, there is four-core CPU, but shouldn't there be a speed stepping in place not to spin all cores just to browse the Internet?
I'm inclined to think the overheating issue is not at all unique to the 930. Numerous people have complained about their 1520s and 920s running hot after minimal browsing too. Sometimes mine gets warm just sitting in my pocket and the battery drains to nothing.
I've had the exact same issue you describe on HTC 8X but only when Facebook was installed (and I don't use it a lot). I tried numerous times to spend a week with and without this app always with the same result. A few months ago with one of the FB updates, this wen away. I just think the issue of overheating might have quite a few underlying causes, problematic apps being the usual suspect, and I really don't expect a golden remedy, but an update placebo claiming "fixed some issues with overheating" could be beneficial ;)
Overhearing and battery drain on my L920 is an annoying issue and it's obviously software related, as I only experience these since 8.1 had rolled out. End I could to continue the list with the wifi and bt connection glitches and so on.
I have the 930 and 1520. The 1520's screen causes me far more frustrations.
Right, changing from the 1520 to the m8 was so nice! Having a screen that doesn't randomly tap is amazing!
Pity the screen is a full inch smaller than the 1520. No way I could go so much smaller.
Lumia 930 screen problems: - Turns on with a marked delay of about a second
- There is lag when scrolling, text not rendered fast enough
- Uneven brightness and dark vertical lines when displaying a single color
- White areas get a purple tint when viewing at an angle
- The screen flickers when loading pages on 2G/EDGE
- Grey areas in apps and UI still has a purple tint when brightness is low
I don't have such issues, except for AMOLED screens being too slow when scrolling (the same goes for Samsung's AMOLED screens, or at least it did with the two I owned), and the (light) purple tint on white areas, but only when looking at the screen from a weird and useless angle.
Do you use the awful "sunlight enhanced mode"? I hate how it saturates all colors, so I keep it off (its still perfectly readable outside anyway), and I'm pretty sure it's an AMOLED killer...
The sunlight readability mode is the first thing i change/disable on a Lumia device. They should have deleted that function long time ago.
+930, let's see how fast "the fix" will arrive.
Shud or shudnt i get lumia 730/735 :(
I love its display...
I don't have the purple tint issue but my screen flickers sometimes. Overheating happens when playing games. Lumia 930.
If you hadn't heard of this, you wouldn't have noticed it in L730. It's that negligible. :>
"shud" go back to school for +1 year spelling class
Even I'm having the problem of screen flickering on my L730... It is really saddening that such a beautiful device has got a crappy display.
You should get the 735. I bought it and have have no issues with the screen. There is no purple hue/tint and blacks are black and greys are grey. Phone never gets hot even running intense games such as asphalt. The screen is definitely great! The one I bought is the bright green version.
I'm happy my 1020's screen hasn't had any problems :D
Here's a problem. Switch on glance screen in a pitch black room. Hold the phone up to your face....
You will almost certainly have a load of black splodges on the unlit parts of the screen.
It can't be seen during normal use...but it is a defect - and one which I have seen on 3 separate 1020 devices!
Yes. I see those 'dead' spots on my 1020 too. Any idea why that happens?
No idea at all. I have also seen the same problem on the 925.
I've never bothered going for warranty repair as it is near impossible to see the defect.
It is clearly an AMOLED specific problem...
Lol. Exactly! I thought of going for the warranty repair. But explaining the Nokia care guys would have taken all day. Anyway, I had the problem with my Nokia 808 and Nokia N8 too. I guess we have to live with some minor issues.
Yes, same issue with my 1020. Also, i find that the screen refresh when scrolling white text on a black backround is way too slow, and everything is blurry when you scroll. Most annoyingly, I use Waze a lot for GPS navigation, and the user interface from Waze is now permanently burned in on the screen. I have the phone for less than 1 year. Other than this stuff, I'm very happy with it. But my next phone will have a IPS display. AMOLED sucks.
Nothing can be compared to lumia 925 woes specially after wondows phone 8.1
Which 925 woes, I have changed my mother board twice
My Lumia 925 has been lovely before and after Win 8.1 update. Not sure what you're referencing.
+925!! I'm on my second replacement which I'm still having issues with. I'm about ready to roll the dice on an M8 and see how it goes. ( I'm on T-Mobile so WP options are limited)
L925 and L525 are the most problematic WPs ever..!!
Yes, I have. And in some case with a dark background I have some odd vertical clearer 'line' too...
Soo bad service from Nokia about this problem. I had a 930, sent it in to get it checked and got it back with the typical "the screen is supposed to be like that". Got tired of it and sold it to use my 1520. Much better display.
Can you guys also address the heat and horrid battery life
THIS! Ever since 8.1 several Lumia phones, old and new have serious, random, overheating issues that cause ridiculous battery drain even while the phone's not being used.
Agreed L920
Let's see how soon is soon.
I had that problem, but the latest update fixed it. However, the screen is still really bad. My screen has lines running down it when displaying some colours, and Nokia couldn't fix, and when my phone was returned, it came back with more problems!
Hey i have that issue but in my lumia icon.. If i use it all day long it overheats and then if the brightness is "high" the screen shows a purple tint
It's a great phone, but too much problems
my screens glows green sometimes, especially when typing with the swipe function. the green glowing lasts about one second and then the screen turns normal again. NL 930, german cv, cyan.
Too early -_-
I have color/screen issues on my 930 but it's nice to know that fix is coming. Also my Lumia gets really warm when playing graphic heavy games so hope that gets fixed too someday.
A fix for the 1020 lockups would be great.
My Lumia 930 is fine so far.
Same problems with the Icon when on 8.1 had to go back to 8.0 just to use it
Have a purple tint, using Cyan. I've also found the colours take a split second to readjust so the colours turn grey-green and then purple tint.
I have this issue, sent my device twice with no fix implemented they just flashed and reset the device... Really annoying issue that takes way from the better elements of this phone.
thats what happens when you take an aberration from verizon and make it the official international flagship phone, what a shame, how lazy can they get, for those who made that poor desicion, here is your payback, its just sad considering how much progress the 920 achieved, and now this 930 crap is just bringing it all down
They have been on this issue since shortly after release about 6 months ago. So far, their only fix has been to make the lowest brightness significantly brighter than before by default. But on Auto it will still show the purple hue. The gradients are simply weird. My first 930 had issues with a vertical gradient, I had the screen replaced under warranty. This replaced screen has a horizontal gradient issue... I have no hope of them fixing it with a software or firmware update.
I got a 1520 with a single stuck pixel. The little white spot is a pain the the ass. Anyone got a clue how to fix it?
Black sharpie
ok I've had my 1520 for almost a year now and I've not experienced anything you guys are talking about,however,after upgrading to 8.1 ALL HELL BROKE LOOSE!!!!!!! Overhearing,massive battery drain,the phone just jumps to the camera even when placed on a table,and then (the real deal breaker) started to happen,I've become an official WALL HUGGER cuz the battery keeps dying once it reaches 89% and after rebooting its at 2% LIKE WTF!!?? I'm starting to worry about the integrity of my battery cuz I almost always have to be charging it. Before I upgraded I literally had to try killing the battery.....Asphalt 8,Call of duty,Temple run.....etc!! Now I'm afraid cuz I can't be from the charger an do anything,no IG,fb,WhatsApp,IE,I can't use the phone AND I PAID DAMN GOOD MONEY FOR IT now I can't enjoy it and a real good question,why is it that the TRUE flagships (1520,930 & Icon) are the LAST to get Denim???? Shouldn't it be the reverse!?
I get that on my 1020, mainly when I'm using Internet Explorer
The AMOLED on the Lumia 800, was really good, I'm bit disappointed in the Lumia 930 screen problems
<sigh>. Just get a move on with a new flagship! I'm not leaving my 1020 for anything less.
My 930 never had any problem. Got it via expansys-USA last month. I think it is HongKong region. Waiting for Denim though.
Does anyone know when the One M8 Windows Phone is going to be available in the UK? Posted via the Windows Central App
My L930 battery drains fast.... When using wifi and celular data.. Overheats.. So bad.. Please microsoft.. Fixed this..
I got my Lumia 930 over Christmas and I noticed straight away that battery seems to drain fast, and when I've been jumping between apps or games for a few mins, I can immediately feel the heat at the bottom of the device. Is this a fault? or just the norm? I had a Lumia 1020 before this, and didn't have any problems :( Posted via the Windows Central App
The 930 really isn't much of an upgrade over the 1020...
You should have just stuck with what you had :)
I loved my 1020, the camera was so powerful, that was the main thing I didn't want to give up. What I found hard to hold on to though, was how slow it was - the phone itself wasn't too bad, but the camera was soo painfully slow. It was a hard decision but I am glad I went for the 930 in the end - I haven't given the camera a good go yet but it's seems pretty good so far - I can do everything I could do on the 1020 but it's soo much faster! I know I lose half the resolution but 19mp is still a pretty good res. Everything is soo fast on the 930 and I'm loving it. Plus, I love the 5" screen :) I was also attracted to the fact that with the denim update, the camera will gain some really cool new features that the 1020 won't see, including 4K video recording! :D Posted via the Windows Central App for Android
I find that the display refresh rate isn't good, so if you scroll on a white page with black text the words look like they are made of ink that is running.
Same issues m having with my 730. Purple tint in low brightness!
Me and my brothers have 930 and both of us have been same issues in brightness
I got the 830 and other than the capacitor keys sometimes not reacting to touch too well, I've been happy with it.
+920
I have Purple color issue with my 930. This is the second one and this one have it too. Also my colleague's have it. As far I know all of them have it, just not everyone see it. The easiest way to check is to go a dark room and open the dialer. Or when you like to enter the code, first is gray then itt will change to purple.
I don'thave color issues on my 930! Serious, Belive me :)
What about the overheating? I notice this on my Icon and seems like battery drain also happens along with it. Would a firmware update fix it or should I have MS replace it?
It would be nice if overheating could be fixed too, but I doubt it.
I think it could as it wasn't before 8.1
I agree, seems like it got worse. I'm hoping Denim will make it better.
I have changed once screen on my Lumia 930 and the second one is better but still has discoloration issue and it's too green in low brightness. I hope this will fix it for good, it's taking too long...
They should give there 1520 users something for the screen woes maybe a free phone ;).
Apple gives their customers a free middle finger when their products have faults
Not really apple gave their iPhone 4 customers a free bumper case.
I have Denim on the 930 and the purple hue has definitely become less. Maybe they just turned up the lowest brightness. The battery drain is something related to CPU intensive tasks like gaming. The bottom part of the device (where most likely the CPU sits), should not become that hot though. Should be fixable with a software patch. The amount of complaints make me wonder though - MS must be having a hard time coping with all the RMAs.
Oh crap, totally forgot about this ... And here I was seriously considering getting a Lumia 930.
No Problems on my 930. Ok, the 2G/EDGE flickering issue...
No problems here
My ICON has a bad purple color when in dark conditions
I remember these issues in the time of N8 and E7... It seems they still have to try a lot of tricks ... Poor guys that use these Lumias for photo visualization *Sigh*
I'm having decolorizing problem in my Lumia 930
I'm using Lumia 730. It doesn't have the Purple tint issue. But it flicks sometimes. Waiting for an UPDATE which will fix this flickering issue.
My Lumia 1020's calibration is on the warmer side,display settings doesn't help!
I still have the Pink color issue on my Icon! It's kind frustrating not even to have the cyan to adjust color....