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Lumia 920’s Sensitive Screen Could Drain Battery, Nokia Says It Won’t

The phone’s firmware was tweaked to save battery, avoid accidental screen activation

Oct 2, 2012 06:55 GMT  ·  By
Nokia Lumia 920
   Nokia Lumia 920

One of the appealing features that Nokia’s first Windows Phone 8-powered smartphone will arrive on shelves with is a sensitive touchscreen, one that can be operated even with gloves on.

For the people who are doing a lot of activities in the open this feature should prove great, especially when it’s cold outside and they don’t want to remove the protection of their fingers in order to be using the phone.

However, JDB Pocketware suggests that this might actually be an issue with the new smartphone, and that users might find the battery of their Lumia 920 devices to be draining fast due to it.

The scenario in which this could happen is simple: if the power button is pressed when the device is in your pocket, the screen will activate, and a timer to power off the display starts.

Provided that the screen is not touched in a specific number of seconds, it will turn off, thus saving battery.

However, with the new sensitive screen on Lumia 920, if the phone is mistakenly activated when in the pocket, the screen won’t turn off, JDB Pocketware notes, claiming that all touches on the display, including accidental ones, will keep it awake.

According to Nokia, this is not the case. They considered this kind of scenario when building the phone, and took specific measures to ensure that it doesn’t happen.

“While the Lumia 920 and Lumia 820 both enjoy super sensitive touch, the firmware has been configured to avoid accidental activation of the display. In testing this has not proven to be an issue or to cause unwanted battery drainage,” Nokia said in a statement, MyNokiaBlog reports.

Nokia also explained that “the firmware requires a ‘landing event’ to move into active mode and without a repeat of that landing event it will eventually return into sleep mode.”

This means that users should be safe from unwanted battery drainage, and that the sensitive screen will remain only a great feature of the new device, and not an actual issue. What remains to be seen is how well Nokia's new Windows Phones will perform when brought to shelves later this year.