Nokia Lumia 820 tips and tricks

Getting started

 Swapping your phone’s shell

For the first time, you can personalise your Lumia 820 by switching its shell. As well as customising the colour of your phone, you can also pop on a shell with integrated wireless charging, or one with extra protection to keep your Lumia safe in even the roughest conditions. The interchangeable shells all have the look and feel of the regular fabula unibody design.

Just remember to keep your phone safe by only using your fingers when you’re changing the shell.

Firing your phone up for the first time

When you first hit the power button, your new Lumia 820 gets busy installing all its built-in features and apps ready for you to use. As it comes packed with Smart Shoot, Nokia Maps, Nokia Music and loads more, this could take a couple of minutes. But good things can’t be rushed – so please wait until this one-off installation is complete before you continue. Once it’s done, your Lumia 820 is set to be the smartphone of your dreams. Enjoy.

Using it at home and abroad

LTE on your network and device

Your new Lumia 820 comes with LTE capability. That means it’s ready to take advantage of the highest data speeds going as 4G/LTE networks are rolled out around the world. Check if your operator supports 4G/LTE for smartphones -- if they do, you’re ready to enjoy the ride with your Lumia 820.

When travelling outside of your home network, we recommend you simply switch your ‘Highest connection speed’ to 3G to avoid any issues with calls or text messages. You can change that in Settings by tapping ‘Cellular’ or ‘Mobile Network’.

If your operator doesn’t support 4G/LTE for smartphones yet, you can use 3G instead. Thanks to technologies like the Snapdragon S4 processor and Windows Phone 8 in your Lumia, you’ll still enjoy speeds so fast that some networks identify themselves as 4G. So don’t be alarmed even if your phone says it’s on a 4G network -- it's just using the fastest available data speed.

Exploring and getting around

Get more from the neighbourhood you’re in with Nokia City Lens, our exclusive augmented reality app. It gives you an intuitive way to navigate the real world. Point the camera at a city street, look at the viewfinder and see up-to-date info on what’s around – from restaurant reviews to places of interest – overlaid onto the live image. It’s a whole new way of looking at things.

With Nokia Maps, Nokia Drive, Nokia Transport and City Lens, Nokia location services represent an amazingly comprehensive, integrated mapping experience. When you’re on the road, Nokia Drive+ navigation is the ideal travelling companion. We’re still putting the final touches to it but you can already hit the road with the first beta version. Just be sure to download the latest maps for free before you travel. Then you never have to think twice about coverage or data connectivity: Nokia Drive+ will be there for you, even if reception isn’t. Full offline support will help you save costs when travelling abroad too.

Nokia Drive+ offers voice-guided directions and speed limit warnings to make sure you dodge any tickets – and it now works even when active navigation has ended. Don’t want the alerts? Just use the back key to close the app and keep on rolling.

Enhancing your experience

Get creative with your Lumia

Lenses give you more ways to get the best from your Lumia 820. Fire off multiple shots with a single click using Nokia Smart Shoot, and make taking and editing your perfect picture a doddle. Create live pictures with Cinemagraph and really get things moving.

You can shoot great videos too. Improve the performance by saving your videos to the phone memory, and make transferring videos off your phone quicker by keeping your filming concise (good advice for budding directors all round, really…). When you’re uploading a video, we recommend using your SkyDrive to make accessing it from your laptop, PC or other devices even easier.

Wireless charging and other extras

Your phone will love a good energy boost every now and then – and you can now power up without plugging in. Simply put on the wireless charging shell and just lay your Lumia on a colourful charging plate or the new Fatboy Charging Pillow until you’re ready to go. Plate up in your kitchen, office, bedroom, or wherever – the more plates you have, the more places you can get a charge easily. If you prefer the traditional way of charging, Nokia Lumia 820 supports USB compliant chargers. For the best results, always use a Nokia charger with your Lumia device.

Step your Nokia experience up a level with other handy add-ons. Listen in style with great speakers and headsets, including the Nokia Luna headset – pair it with our DT-900 wireless charging plate and boost the battery wherever’s convenient. To find out what extras could work best for you, ask your local Nokia retailer or operator.

Improve your memory with a micro SD card

Need more space on your Lumia 820? Increase your phone’s memory with a micro SD card and 7GB of free SkyDrive storage. If you are getting a micro SD card, it is worth noting that some cards are currently incompatible with the Lumia 820. While we are working on expanding the micro SD card support, we’d recommend you to use a faster random write performance card from a well-known manufacturer. You can also save videos to phone memory by setting ’Store new pictures on’ to your phone (in Settings tap ‘phone storage’).

How to Factory Reset (Hard Reset) Nokia Lumia 820

There are two ways on how to reset your Nokia Lumia 820,  it can be through the hard reset or soft reset. When you say hard reset it involves on the hardware part, so you need to remove the battery of you Nokia Lumia 820 and reinsert it. Then turn on your device normally. This should refresh the content of your device but will not remove any data.

Software reset will return your device to its default settings. Like a brand new phone, no information or data saved on your device. This procedure will erase all your data save on your phone.

If your Nokia Lumia 820 is frozen, it is recommended to perform the Hard Reset.

You can soft reset your Nokia Lumia in two ways. By accessing it through settings or doing the hard key combination.

Resetting through the settings:

Go to Settings > About > reset your phone.


Hard Key Combination:

Use this option if your device is locked and you don't know the code.

Note: Make sure that your Nokia Lumia is turned off.

Step 1. Press and hold the power key until it vibrates then release.

Step 2. Press and hold the down key volume. If the exclamation mark will be shown on the screen, you can now release the button.

Step 3. You need to input these key combination:

Volume Up > Volume Down > Power > Volume Down.

Your phone will reset and will boot up automatically. This might take a several minutes.

How to Update Your Nokia Lumia 820

There will come a time that Nokia or your Internet Service Provider (ISP) will give a software update for Nokia Lumia device. Verizon did update the Nokia Lumia 822 and has been already rolled out via OTA (Over The Air). The update may come by batch, but if you have not receive the update for a while, then you may need to manually check for the updates.

How to manually check for updates on your Nokia Lumia:

• Go to Settings, and select Phone Update.

• To check for the new updates just tap on Check for Updates.

You need to update your device to experience the improvements and some features added on your Nokia Lumia device.

How to Track and Delete Files Remotely on Your Lost Windows Phone

Did you lose your phone? Or misplaced it? Worried about your files? So many questions but only one answer. Go to www.windowsphone.com. In this site you can track your Windows phone, delete your files, make your phone ring, and locked your phone to show a message to return it.

Find my Phone will make your life easier to find it or it can also prevent other person from using it without your consent.

How to Track your Phone / Map Location:

• Go to www.windowsphone.com.

• Point your mouse on "Explore My Phone" and click Find My Phone. 

• Sign in with the same Microsoft account you used to sign in on your phone.

• If you are not seeing the latest location of your phone, click Refresh.

• You can also print the hard copy of your phone location, just click Print.

• Click Center on Map if you lost the location of your phone.

How to make your phone ring:

• While you are sign in on www.windowsphone.com, click on Ring.

• Just follow the instructions to make your phone ring.

How to Erase your phone:

• While you are sign in on www.windowsphone.com, click on Erase.

• If you are sure to erase your phone, click on Yes! Erase my phone immediately check box.

• To confirm click Erase.

How to Lock your phone and show a message:

• While you are sign in on www.windowsphone.com, click on Lock.

• Just follow the instructions to lock your phone ring.

• If you don't have a password then you need to create one, you will use it to unlock your phone if you get it back.

How to Take a Photo Without Using the Camera Key on Nokia Lumia 820

Capturing vibrant photos in just a snap comes in handy these days. So why bother carry a separate camera when you can capture those moments with your phone? With Nokia Lumia 820 you can take photos and record videos even without using the camera key with the touch capture on its camera settings. Here's how you can do it.

1. On your device's start screen, swipe left.

2. Then tap on Settings menu.

3. Go to Applications and tap on photos+camera.

4. And select Tap screen to take pictures and videos.

To focus a specific object or area while taking a photo, tap the object/area on the screen and hold the phone still until that white box stops blinking. Now you can take photos by tapping your device's screen.

How to Import Contacts From Old Phone to New Phone (on iPhone, Samsung, HTC and Nokia)

Contacts is very important for everyone of us. We can't connect to our friends without a contact number. If you have a new phone, saving contacts on the phone one by one is so hassle. But now, there's an easy way how to transfer or import your contacts from your old phone to your new phone.

Use your PC to transfer contacts to your new phone. This process is applicable in several phone brands, including iPhone, Samsung, HTC and Nokia.

You just need an Internet Connection on your PC, your old and new phone and their own USB cable.

Then you need to install the PC Companion program. This is a free application and the installation files are already saved on your new phone. This program can also be used in updating your phone software.

Please note that if you are using the Microsoft Windows 7 operating system on your PC, make sure that the AutoPlay setting is enabled.

To check your settings:

Click Start > Control Panel, then type "autoplay" on the search box. Click the AutoPlay, and mark the check box Use AutoPlay for all media and devices.

Installing the PC Companion:

• Turn on your new Phone and connect it to your PC.
• On your new Phone, tap "Install" to install PC Companion on the PC.
• On your computer, if a pop-up window that appears notifies you about available PC Software, select Run Startme.exe.
• Then click Install to start the installation and then follow the instructions to complete the installation.

If you are not prompted with a pop-up window to install the PC Companion, you can also download the PC Companion here.

Transferring your contacts to your new phone:

• Make sure that PC Companion is installed on your PC.
• Open the PC Companion application on your PC.
• Then click Contacts Setup and follow the instructions to transfer your contacts.