Lumia Cyan and what it brings to Windows Phone 8.1 and the Lumia 930

Lumia Cyan

Our exhaustive list of what is new in the Lumia Cyan update

Lumia Cyan is the firmware one-half of the Windows Phone eight.1 for Nokia Lumia phones. Although many of y'all are using the Preview for Developers release of Microsoft's latest Bone, nigh of you practise not have yet the necessary Lumia Cyan firmware to optimize the experience. Every bit a outcome, some key features are locked or not visible.

At present, with the release of the Lumia 930 nosotros tin can finally get a adept look at what Lumia Cyan adds to the equation. I take been going through the new flagship and comparing to other non-Cyan devices to figure out what is new. Here's what I found.

Dolby

Every bit I noted yesterday in our unboxing and walkthrough video, the Lumia 930 ships with build 12397 of the Windows Phone 8.1-operating organisation. For those keeping rails, build 12397 is the same version equally the electric current Preview for Developers, which, of course, ways that what you have is not a beta release. The only difference is the Lumia Cyan firmware, which is tailored specifically for each model of Windows Phone. Firmware is super important as anyone who has updated a PC knows every bit information technology can allow certain drivers to work, optimize functioning and enable certain functions.

From what I have noticed, these are some of the important and unique things that Lumia Cyan tin enable. Note that not all of these functions are bachelor on all Lumias, equally some are dependant on more than contempo hardware like the quad-core Snapdragon 800. Many of these are already known, but there are a few new items also.

Double tap to wake – Most Lumias already have this function, but the Lumia Icon on Verizon does not. It looks like Nokia figured out a style to enable it with the Cyan firmware every bit the Lumia 930 has this ability. At that place is still no Glance though due to lack of brandish memory.
Equalizer now works through the speaker – The graphic blaster plant nether Settings > Sound on non-Cyan devices is express to just headphone usage. Nokia has finally expanded this to the phone's speaker besides, letting users have fine-grained control over music. Update: the EQ does not work through Bluetooth devices.
Dolby Headphone is now Dolby Virtual Surroundings – Besides under Audio is Dolby Virtual Surround which is explained as "Surround sound enhancement for headphones enabled only for 5.1 sound". Functionally, the two may exist the aforementioned, but information technology does add some new features similar…
Dolby dialog enhancer – "Improves the dialog clarity for movies," which is pretty self-explanatory
Record audio for videos in Dolby Digital Plus v.1 – On the Lumia 930 (and possibly Lumia 1520, Lumia Icon) users can optionally choose to record audio for videos with Dolby'southward new five.one technology. Dolby Digital on the Lumia 930 represents the first fourth dimension achieving this in a smartphone, and it should evidence to be impressive
Brightness Contour – Users tin can set the default average brightness for their phone. Unlike the Lumia 630, which has controls for all iii levels (low, medium and high), the Lumia 930 has a single slider. My guess is this sets the median, default brightness
Color Profile – With Lumia Cyan in that location are now three presets (Standard, Vivid and Cool) in add-on to Avant-garde, which lets the user modify three settings, including color temperature, tint, and colour saturation via sliders
Motion data – Part of SensorCore, Motion data lets users enable or disable the collection of movement data for apps like Bing Wellness & Fitness or Active Fitness, which can deed as a pedometer to count steps. Movement information is merely available for the Lumia 630, Lumia 635, Lumia 930, Lumia Icon, Lumia 1520 and devices with the mod Snapdragon chipsets
Bluetooth four.0 LE – Some Windows Phones had Bluetooth 4.0 LE enabled with Update 3 last year, but the Preview for Developers disabled it due to changes made by Microsoft to the stack. Lumia Cyan re-enables this characteristic for things like Nokia Treasure Tag or smartwatches. Official apps for smartwatches and other continued devices are coming later this summer once Cyan achieves a larger rollout.
Living Images – Also announced earlier, Nokia'southward Living Images briefly records a second or two before the photo gets taken. When viewing the image through Nokia Camera or StoryTeller, users tin can meet the image blithe, giving life to the memory
USB Settings – Currently hidden on devices with Preview for Developers, the USB settings are finally enabled with Lumia Cyan, bringing two options for users including "Ask me before using USB data connexion" and "Notify me when I connect to a slower charger."
Miracast support – Plant nether Settings > Projection my screen, certain Lumias are getting full support to wirelessly stream content, or mirror the telephone's display on Miracast devices such as PCs and TVs. You can watch my demonstration of this on the Lumia 630
New Camera algorithms – For the Lumia Icon, Lumia 1520 and Lumia 930, its 20 MP PureView camera is improved. Changes include "much better low-light performance," "better colors," continuous auto-focus, better video quality and improved RAW quality. Continous autofocus works past autofocusing the image when the camera launches (and assuming the user does non utilise tap to focus). If the user steps back or forward, the photographic camera continually adjusts without the demand to manual refocus saving fourth dimension and removing one extra step.

No USB OTG back up

In that location were false reports of support for USB On-The-Become (OTG) in Windows Phone viii.1, which would enable the Os to read USB thumb drives and peripherals. However, in connecting 2 different Micro-USB ii.0 On-The-Get (OTG) adapters along with diverse thumb drives this feature is non present on the Lumia 930 with total Windows Phone viii.1 and firmware.

hidden USB

Conclusions

In addition to the in a higher place observations there are presumably many enhancements to how the hardware interacts with the software due to Lumia Cyan firmware. For instance, Lumia Icon users with Windows Telephone viii.1 without Lumia Cyan are experiencing an issue where the display does non enable on the starting time effort. The Lumia 930, its sis device, obviously does not suffer from this problem. Instead, the brandish fades in when enabled. Technically, this is slower than the more than instant LCD brandish on the Lumia 1520, and information technology is a bit odd, simply information technology works.

Likewise when it comes to speed or lag. Afterward spending 24 hours with the Lumia 930 I tin say that Windows Phone 8.1 – and specifically launching apps – I feel slightly less lag than devices without Lumia Cyan. The difference is subtle, not in all apps and presumably has to practice with optimizing the display and animations for the OS.

Overall, the enhancements Lumia Cyan brings to Windows Telephone eight.ane are impressive, if not subtle. As such, users of the Preview for Developers should hold off on whatever final sentence until they receive the corresponding firmware. The combination of Lumia Cyan and 8.1 should address some functioning issues users are suffering from in addition to any early on quirks. Finally, as detailed to a higher place, there are unique functions enabled with the forthcoming update that make information technology worth the wait.

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