New Nokia 920 firmware points to camera changes, possible Storage issue fix

By Daniel Rubino
last updated

Yesterday on Nokia’s Navifirm servers evidently a new firmware update for the Lumia 920 briefly appeared. The current version for most users is the 1249 branch but this new version is of 1308 variety (1232.5957.1308.0004).

Unfortunately, the firmware is now off of the server meaning we personally cannot analyze it for changes. The good news is that some in our forums already did do some digging and there do appear to be changes to the camera for the better. In addition, new Storage options may give users a means to clear their Temporary cache on their Lumia.

In a nice comparison post, forum member Axefield did a before and after with the 920’s firmware (and even an iPhone 5) to show the differences. While it’s hard to know how well the conditions were controlled for, assuming they were it appears that the new 920 makes some adjustments to white balance and increases sharpness. This is especially evident in the third comparison with the flash on.

See more comparison shots below.

New Storage options and temp file deletion?

Other new features weren’t noted in our forums but on the popular social website Sina Weibo, two images have come out that show new Storage options on Windows Phone.

The image to the left shows the storage allocation with applications (green in the pic), media files (blue), OS (pink), blank (grey) in a nice, circular graph.

The second image, to the right, allows the user to go into more detail.  The first bar is for “Applications” and in this example it takes up 417MB of storage. Below it is a button for “Details”, which presumably will bring the user to another screen for more information.

Below the Applications bar is one for “Temporary” files and in this image it reads 164MB of storage space. The potential big deal here is that Temporary files is coupled with a “Clear” button to dump and clean out your system cache.

The four bars at the bottom are "pictures: 7.9MB", "music + video: 906MB", "Office documents: 586KB", and "email + contacts: 52MB". It looks like you can't do anything about the last four in terms of management.

Recently, Microsoft’s Joe Belfiore tweeted that some improvements are coming to the “other” storage issue in future updates. This may be the first example of it.

Source: Sina Weibo, WPCentral Forums; Thanks, Chassit, for the translation assistance

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.

74 Comments
  • Today was gooood day
  • Yea I didn't have to use my AK
  • Lol
  • +1000...no helicopter looking for the murder♫♫♫♫
  • 2 O'CLOCK AND LOOKING FOR A FAT BURGER
  • The Lakers also beat the Supersonics.
  • Saw the police and they rolled right past me.
  • I like big butts and I can not lie
  • Friday Friday gettin down on Fridayy 
    Everybody's looking forward to the weekend
  • http://memegenerator.net/instance/24950559
  • Glad somebody had a good day. Forget what that feels like. . . Sigh
  • amazing,. today has been one hella fun day, more of this kind of days.
     
     
    Now if only real madrid wins manchester then best day ever, hala madrid
     
  • +10
  • Hala Madrid!
  • Hala Madrid
  • I'm English and supporting you. Hala Madrid
  • Spurs fan??
  • Gareth Bale, you know it!!!
  • Or a jealous City fan.
  • Go Spurs Go!!!
  • I don't know what that has to do with anything I just don't like United.
  • I'm a Real Madrid supporter when it comes to La Liga but I love United more than Madrid and would be a great day beating them. Go United!! For a great game!!
  • If these camera and storage tweeks really come with an update soon, I think WP8 is slowly coming to be on par with the functionality totallity I've still been missing since Symbian. Deep skype integration is on its way somehow, brilliant. 
    Add to that a notification centre, and instagram and bbc iplayer, whcih seem to be deal-breakers for many, things are really looking up.
  • Thanks everoneCant make heads or tails of the last photos. What is it?
  • Firewood in a basket. 
  • Looks like fire wood
  • Wood.
    http://forums.wpcentral.com/nokia-lumia-920/218598-new-firmware-lumia-92...
  • While the color is very similar, the sharpness of the photo on the right is much better than the one on the left.
  • Daniel , check how the first sentence reads. But on the subject, giggity.
  • 2013 is year of WP!
  • Unfortunately not. Maybe 2015. Probably not...
  • Can i have this update now Nokia lol
  • What is that app showing the memory usage? Would have loved if MS had that built into OS.
  • I don't think that is an app. It is the new storage settings page that the update is supposed to have. The panel on the left is the detail view.
  • Oh god. Yes please. Thanks for the reply.
  • All we nerd now is to get the DRM fixed, and a half decent desktop client. Like, oh, I dunno - ZUNE!
  • +10000000 Fix the DRM and i will be very happy
  • The updates are still on Navifirm
  • When htc release update for storage issue
  • Wow! I am impressed. The last weeks, we are seeing a flood of system udpates, games, apps, new products. It is a good time to be a windows phone owner. Go MS and Nokia!!!
  • Yes that orange glow from the flash is gone. The images seems more focused and sharp. That was one of a few problems I had. The other is red eye. Needs red eye reduction.
  • Great to see another update, but I still haven't recieved Portico on my developer edition 920 that I got from Build.  Has anyone who has one of those recieved Portico yet?  Can't really complain since I got such an awesome phone for free.
  • @araon m Just get the update from Navifirm
  • Could you explain that process?  I've seen it mentioned where you can retrieve updates yourself but they required flashing your phone and sounded risky.  Thus far I figured its safer and easier to just wait.  The main thing I really want from Portico is probably the perpetual wifi on setting.
  • it's seems that this is the GDR 2 version of WP8 http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/600/catturaru.png/
  • Good about the sharpness.  I'm just not super impressed by pictures but I'm still VERy impressed by Video.  As my old Program lead used to see "Can we get this out sooner rather than later?" ;)
  • Hopefully it will allow for deletion of the hidden drives in the music folder. Came with crap music in them.
  • Im flahing now
  • Now all we need is fixes for random restarts, hangs when using the "back" button, network issues, GPS overhaul for WP8/7x so it actually is up to the competition (and no, its not) and notifications that is notifying.
    I forgotten anything?
  • This news update is awesome!! Can't wait for OTA update..
  • Hopfully every wp8 device gets the other storage fixed asap!
  • Hope this update rolls out soon :)
  • It's good to be a WP8 user nowadays, its actually exciting
  • Bad news: the storage management feature is tucked away around the end of the "Settings" menu, together with "extras + info", "display + touch", "Nokia account", etc, meaning it's more likely a Lumia-specific add-on developed by Nokia. Good news: the text in the screenshot reads quite like translated into Chinese from English, meaning this is probably the localized version of an international feature, and consequently it's coming to Lumia devices everywhere at least.
  • Does this update also include the Flip-to-silence feature? Any idea???? I would love to have this feature on my 920 :)
  • Is there a fix coming to Xbox Music+video app pretty soon? That thing is such a mess, I am thankful Spotify came to alleviate my frustration. Please, please bring back the Zune music app design; it was perfectly functional!!
  • We  probably wont see that until Blue comes out this holiday season unfortunately
  • Joe belfiore 10 other storage 0 great game Joe congrats on the win. My other used is over 8 GB'S that sucks I'm down to 12 GB'S on my 920.
  • the .1308.4 firmware is still there in navifirm... downloading it now :P
  • Still waiting for Portico on my UK unlocked 920. Take care of that first Nokia please.
  • This is great news because my pics are still blurry after Portico. Let's just hope I don't have to wait almost another three months to get the next update.
  • Agree, I have Portico and the day pictures are still blurry.  Hopefully this will come soon enough.
  • Blurry? Sometimes it works better with the camera button. Remember to let the camera focus first if you use the camera button. Tap to take picture does get blurry sometimes.
  • What they really need is to have a Data/Usage tracker without having to rely on the Carriers (ie. a part of Datasense but without needing carrier's to implement it)!!!
  • funny how about a month or 2 goes by after portico update and there's lots of posts and whinges about MS leaving WP and not caring, then we get a day like this with all this news showing a handful of updates and new apps coming up and everyone's all happy again. i think sometimes we all just want update after update but we need to remember releasing updates is process that takes time. i doubt MS will ever throw in the towel on WP and we all just need to be patient. 
  • The update seems to be rushed, notice the grey text above the Clear button, one comma uses a normal comma instead of a full-width comma.
    (Yes I am very picky with typos and formatting)
  • Want to get to your updates? Start marchin!
    Yo mama was there when you left
    You're Right!
    Yo daddy was there when you left
    You're Right!
    Yo mama yo daddy yo bald headed granny,
    Your sister was there when you left
    You're Right!
  • Guys hold on, it CLEARLY states gdr ........ wait for it..... BETA 2! The reason software goes through alpha and beta iterations is to weed out the said issues we're seeing in the comments. The general release may/ may not look like this beta version. All we can do is wait and let them get fixing the identified issues.
  • Was able to download the new firmware but I don't see the changes in Storage and in Touch :(
     
  • http://discussions.nokia.com/t5/Pool-of-Knowledge/Nokia-Windows-Phone-8-... you need to update the modules, i think extras and info for the storage thingy
  • what version should I download for my phone? there are lots of 1308 using navifirm and first time Ive done this!
  • Guys, help!!! my front camera icon in camera dissapear ^^"""after my lumia 920 was updated to the latest firmware(1308). what happen to it? now i am owning a lumia 920 with no front camera function ^^""" help!!!
  • my front camera icon dissapear ^^""" after updated to 1308^^""", now my lumia 920 doesn't have front camera function^^""" anyone face tis problem too?
  • Confirmed version 1232.5957.1308.0008 installed.
    http://twitpic.com/ci4i87
    http://twitpic.com/ci4jaj
    http://twitpic.com/ci4ka6
    http://twitpic.com/ci4krc