New AT&T Nokia Lumia 920 firmware gives more screen-timeout options in latest update

By Daniel Rubino
last updated

Here’s a sneaky (and welcomed) little change that a few of you have tipped us on. It seems yesterday’s AT&T Lumia 920 firmware update, which will be going to other Lumias in the near future, is also sporting a few changes for the display time-out (found under Settings > Lock Screen).

Currently, some users on a few Windows Phone have only four options: 30 seconds, 1 minute, 3 minutes and 5 minutes. The choice determines how long your device will sit idle before the screen powers off (we opt for 3 minutes ourselves mostly due to photo and video shoots). Now, with the 1308 firmware for AT&T new timings have been added including 15 minutes, 30 minutes and Never.

While we imagine not too many of you will need to take advantage of such lengthy time-out options, it’s sure nice of Nokia to give users the choice in the matter. We can think of a few instances where we would want the display to either stay on for longer durations or not turn off at all.

In general, this seems to be part of the trend of Nokia to give users more options with their display. A future systems update is expected to enable a color-profile selection, giving users the ability to manipulate the color intensity of their Lumias—a first for Windows Phone.

Related: You can see our video demonstration of the Storage Check feature found in the latest firmware here.

Thanks, Farnic, for the tip!

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.

99 Comments
  • I think UK EE users got this one already as well
    but my firmware is 1232.5951.1249.1018
  • Had it on my UK Titan, have it on my EE, UK Lumia 920! ;)
  • Yep Same here (But Nokia installed it as my EE Phone couldnt detect the update) another thing ive noticed is my phones webbrowsing speed has increased compaied to pre portico
  • With 1308.x my web browsing speed, data connection and network connectivity - all have gone worse. The call quality complaints I get from the other end of the phone are non-stop! This is on EE, UK.
  • Yep, had this for awhile. Still only use 1 minute myself.
  • would be good when downloading nokia music mix since they cant figure how download when screen timed out
  • my thoughts exactly!
  • Agreed!
  • Hmmmmmm, them sneaky little devils
  • I think this was a US specific fix as it has always been on my EE UK version
  • I just don't understand why everything to do with time does not have a custom option. This, calendar reminders, are the big ones that come to mind.
  • because custom options are not handy for touch?
  • I think the os' time selection is fantastic. To each, their own, except I can't without a custom option! 18 hours for my reminder who thought of that!?!?
  • C'mon adrian1338 "vustom". Shouldn't it be "custom", Or am I the only one who speaks the English language on here. This is absolutely unforgivable, no forum for you for 1 year! I'm just joking, just taking a little jab at those people who think it's sac religious to misspell a word and feel the need to belittle the person to make him or herself feel superior. Go ahead and misspell all the words you want, it doesn't bother me. Although sorry this causes a little attention to it. . .
  • He edited that shiz, he showed you he cares!
  • Good for him, or maybe good for you since you seem so dramatic about it.
  • Agreed. Calendar alarm options are awful. I have to add additional reminders since I can't enter a custom number of hours for example, if an event requires a 2 hour drive.
  • Excellent. Might get one for my mom who has Alzheimer's. Could have just the family members phone shortcuts on screen and remove absolutely everything else from phone, having it on Never.
  • Or you could buy a cheaper phone for that.
  • under contract in the US on ATT you can get it free on your upgrade.can't get it much cheaper than that.
     
  • Leaving in France, I already have this feature.. ;)
  • HTC had the 30 min and "never" options back in 2010.
    Nokia broke in their Lumias and now they are "generously" fixing it.
  • Yup. Had it on my Arrive since day one.
  • +1
  • At least they improve things, unlike HTC.
  • Fixing bugs and broken features is not an improvement.
    Oh by the way, cheap HTC phones had "flip to silence", "pocket mode" and other usefull features since 2011.  Lumia 820 and 920 still don't, and there's no word if it will be fixed at all. They will probably release and update for it in Q4 2013 and call it an huge improvement.
     
  • Lol! You make it sound like Nokia NEVER had these features...They had all of these features, and then some, on their Symbian devices. So what if the slowly roll these features out to WP. At the end of the day, Nokia devices are still more feature rich than HTC/Samsung WP devices.
  • I don't care about their Symbian devices. I care about Lumia 800 having less features than a HTC Mozart. And Lumia 820 missing features that are present in 800.
  • So in other words Tomass, you're just a bitching fanboy for HTC?
  • No, you silly. I am just a regular European Nokia customer who had to deal with ridiculous bugs in my Lumia 800 for several months, while your fugly 'merican 900 was being fixed in record time and you even got refunds for your trouble. And now I have to watch you AT&T bitches get firmware updates delivering missing features for 820 and 920 several weeks earlier than the rest of the world, because Nokia decided to adopt Microsoft's policy of caring only about the US.
  • +1 and they did have these on their WP7 devices.  Like you said, the fact still stands that Nokia cares and supports their devices and no other manufacturer is even close to showing the same love for WP as Nokia.
  • Those were part of attentive phone, an htc app. Can't "fix" what wasn't there to begin with.
  • If this is a Nokia fix and not from Microsoft, just another reason why Microsoft should give WP developement to Nokia. A very small change but an extremely useful one. Just imagine the great things that could happen if WP belonged to Nokia.
  • Network is more to do with hardware. Microsoft is software which takes a lil bit longer to fine tune. Without the right software your hardware is just a brick
  • Except this is not a Nokia fix. My HTC WP phones already had these options.
  • That was an HTC app not a WP app
  • So is this update coming to all Lumias, including the 620?
  • I have those options since day 1.
    Also never time out. Rogers 920.
  • Me too (Rogers Lumia 920). I have not yet received the update, but I already have these options. 
  • They should at least have an option to keep the display on while on charge.
    Some sort of "Profile" system would be ideal.  Coming over from Android, I really miss being able to set rules...still love my 920.  Maybe "Blue" will bring some more customization.
     
  • My HTC 8X has had those additional options for awhile now, puzzling...
  • I noticed this a few days ago when my wife's 8X wasn't locking after turning off the display. I went into her options and to my surprise all these timeout options were available and hers was set to 5 minutes, which o changed to 3. I tried it next on my 920 but the options were not available on my device.
  • I bought a Rogers 920 from the Microsoft store back in January and it has the 30 seconds to never options. Same as a T-Mobile 710 bought last year. I tought that they were all like that.
  • The extended timeout options don't apply to users who have an ActiveSync policy on their Lumia Phones. I'm sure if I modified my EAS policy rule, then I'd see it.
  • This could explain why mine is limited to 30 min. Missing never option
  • Why is it just Nokia improving Windows phone and nothing from MS at all??
  • Because this was only a Nokia issue. HTC WP8 devices already had this option.
  • Hell yay I have always wanted this that was a big thing that I missed from windows phone 7
  • My cellular network got so damn slow after the update. I can barely get Facebook or my stock apps to refresh on cellular network
  • have you done a soft reset  that might cure that!
  • Nice.
  • Meant to say Nokia is more hardware
  • I've had those options on my Lumia 920 since the beginning I think for the Rogers branded one
  • Same here. Just wondering when we will get the new storage and colour options updates.
  • The vibrate on my Lumia 920 seems to be less "rattly" after the update.  Anyone else notice a difference?
  • I hope they do the same with the Snooze feature in WP.  More options please!
  • Yes! There really needs to be a 30 minutes option. 10 minutes is too short and an hour is way too long.
  • When this firmware updates available in India................
  • Will check it out!
  • I would love it if they would change the length of time the sound controls (tracks forward/backward/pause) showed up on the lock screen. Frustrating to try and skip multiple songs and have the controls constantly disappearing.
  • All of these options have always been available on my EE 920 in the UK.
  • Already here. 920 Norway
  • Anybody knows if it's possible to pin the Lock Screen section of the Settings to Home/Start? Just like some third party apps can do with Wifi and Bluetooth settings.
  • I noticed it last night. I really wanted this option after I switched from Android. I have long commutes and I usually have my phone mounted and my map program with the traffic showing on my dash. With the default map program, and the old timing options, this wasn't too practical for me, which led me to find gMaps. This is a great app and allows for a no time out option. Sadly though, for some reason, my battery drains hard with it running. I tried the never time out option and Nokia Maps this morning. Worked perfectly and my battery doesn't drain.
  • This news are only for AT&T Lumia 920 here in the US. We didn't have that options(15 min ,30 min, never)when the phone came out,neither when Portico.Now with this last update (1308) they added them.
  • The new options are not available on the 822 on Verizon either, so I guess we'll continue to wait for the new firmware.
  • Timeout: never. I want this on the 822 SO badly...
  • I've had this on my 8X since portico.
  • +100. My most desired feature not carried over from WP7! Awesomeness.
  • I like Nokia too, but this has nothing to do with Nokia giving us more features. Instead it seems they are fixing bugs. These screen timeout options has always been part of Windows Phone. 
    In general, this seems to be part of the trend of Nokia to give users more options with their display.at all.
  • How about an option for the screen not to time out while playing music?
  • Still would love to turn my phone off to charge.
  • My BUILD developers phone has always had this.  I find it interesting that there is this level of fragmentation among the WP's that are out there.  Minor things like this will slow down release times for _all_ Lumia devices if they have to re-do it for each carrier/region.
  • I do not have the firmware 1308, however my Lumia 920 already came from the factory with the seven options ...I'm Brazilian, and bought the Lumia 920 in Nokia Brazil.
  • I have the 1308 firmwareon ATT Lumia 920. However I am still only seeing 5 options (i.e.) max is 10 minutes. Anybody else noticing the same issue?
  • Did anyone notice the update fixed the vibration rattle?
  • Keep mine on never, when I'm in the car like to see what music I'm listening to
  • Maybe I stand alone, but I'd LOVE a 2 minute timeout. Often 1 minute is just a little too short, and 3 minutes is just a little too long.
  • My max option is up to 30 min, there is never option...L920
  • Correction, there is NO never option after the firmware update
  • I think since I am on ActiveSync, never option was not added, but interesting it doesn't just show up as a disabled option
  • I have no NEVER option also.  
  • I have the 1308 firmware on ATT Lumia 920. However I am seeing another issue (i.e.) I see only 5 options - max option is 10 minutes. Anybody else noticing the same issue?
  • Mine has 5, 15, 30
  • The interesting question is why Never was omitted to begin with. I wonder if it was to debug battery issues? That way they could rule out user error on the screen time. However, I have noticed that keeping the screen on doesn't hurt battery life that much. The Lumia mystery battery drains happen at a much steeper drop rate.
  • OMG as far as I am concerned this was the most important feature to me!!!!!! About time!
    You have no idea of the pain of playing music in my car and having to switch the device on while the device is charging and playing music!
  • Yes car mode in Symbian worked well. Nokia bring this to the Lumias.
  • I had these on my Quantum, I want them on my 900. Timeout after 5 minutes then WiFi disconnects-tired of it!
  • Way too many comments to go through so someone may have already stated this. The time-out settings have always shown up more limited if you have connected your device via an ActiveSync connection to a mail server with an EAS security policy in place defining the maximum time-out allowed. If the EAS policy is set to 15 minutes then your options menu would not show any option longer than 15 minutes. If the EAS policy is set to 5 minutes then your options menu would not show any option longer than 5 minutes.
  • Am I the only one that has always had these options for my att 920? Also, my vibration is much, much better and more mild than before. (and I am loving it)
  • I've been told by someone at Nokia that this FW release also fixes the lockup issues and will release in the UK on EE on 2nd April. Any US users still getting lockups?
  • I got the 1308 update today and do not have these additional times in the lockout settings.  tried everything I know..
     
  • I am also noticing the same issue (i.e.) max option is 10 minutes. Looks like there are some inconsistencies. 
  • Miss situations the most from my N8, Microsoft need to make it possible to change things like that. On my unlocked 920, had those timeouts from the beginning
  • This was it. Just screen time out. What a wait of my 30 min wait. That should have been already a feature.
  • This was on the dev phones and the rogers phones from day one, it's att that customized it out, and finally gave the options back, I've had all my wp7+ phones set that way, except the two days I had an Att 920,
  • Anybody notice any screen differences? It doesn't seem as sharp as it use too to me, including photos.
  • I already have these options in my phone, 1249 firmware, Lumia 920. MEA region :P
  • I also have these options on my RM-821, 1249 firmware.