iPhone 7 Plus screen brightness

[VB7]

Hey guys, on day two with my Jet Black 7+ from using a S7 Edge and 6+ before that. While I am loving the phone, the one thing I don't like is the screen brightness (or lack thereof). While I expected it to be somewhat more dull than the OLED of the S7 Edge, it absolutely destroys it. Even my old 6+ is brighter on the min/max scale.
What annoys me most is that using auto-brightness turns it down to 0-5% in a dimly lit room so I can hardly see it. This have never been an issue with other phones. Is this common or do I have a dud on my hands?

 

[jetjaguar]

hmm dunno I always use my phone at 40% brightness

 

[VB7]

hmm dunno I always use my phone at 40% brightness

I mean turning it up manually doesn't really cause an issue, I can set it where I like. It's min, max and auto that seem to be off.

 

[AppleB]

In comparison my 7 Plus seems slightly brighter than my 6 Plus that I still have.

 

[douglerner]

My iPhone 7 Plus is definitely dimmer than my iPhone 6 Plus. I've taken side-by-side photo. It's quite annoying. I've been in contact with Apple over this for a few weeks now and I'm not getting any help.

Here's a discussion I started about it (with photos) at the Apple support forums: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/7744754

 

[Europa13]

Hey guys, on day two with my Jet Black 7+ from using a S7 Edge and 6+ before that. While I am loving the phone, the one thing I don't like is the screen brightness (or lack thereof). While I expected it to be somewhat more dull than the OLED of the S7 Edge, it absolutely destroys it. Even my old 6+ is brighter on the min/max scale.
What annoys me most is that using auto-brightness turns it down to 0-5% in a dimly lit room so I can hardly see it. This have never been an issue with other phones. Is this common or do I have a dud on my hands?

Have you tried a hard reset? Press the lock button and the volume down until it reboots. I had screen brightness problems on my 7 and that would fix it for a week or so and then I'd have to do it again. When it did it, it was too dim to see in the bright sunlight, with auto-brightness on and maxed out, and significantly dimmer than my 6s. I haven't noticed any brightness problems on my 7+.

 

[douglerner]

Well, some possibly encouraging news. My persistence in sending emails to various people at Apple, including my side-by-side photos might be paying off.

I just received a phone call from an Apple executive office and they agreed with me that my iPhone 7 Plus display did not look as advertised, compared with my iPhone 6 Plus and they are escalating this with their engineering team and said they would call me again tomorrow.

So at least Apple is not ignoring this now and maybe something will happen.

Other people have reported that after multiple exchanges they did finally end up with as-advertised brighter iPhones. And I've read some technical articles about how there is some manual per-device visual backlight LED calibration that takes place during manufacture to achieve a certain color gamut (which, if true, is astonishing). So it does seem likely that there are per-device variations in display quality.

I'll report back after hearing more.

 

[Steve686]

Hey guys, on day two with my Jet Black 7+ from using a S7 Edge and 6+ before that. While I am loving the phone, the one thing I don't like is the screen brightness (or lack thereof). While I expected it to be somewhat more dull than the OLED of the S7 Edge, it absolutely destroys it. Even my old 6+ is brighter on the min/max scale.
What annoys me most is that using auto-brightness turns it down to 0-5% in a dimly lit room so I can hardly see it. This have never been an issue with other phones. Is this common or do I have a dud on my hands?

When you swipe up from the bottom of the screen and access the brightness slider, even with auto-brightness -ON- , doesn't the slider set the Minimum brightness regardless of external light?

 

[44267547]

hmm dunno I always use my phone at 40% brightness

That's about where I set mine for optimal range for indoor/outdoor.

 

[douglerner]

When you swipe up from the bottom of the screen and access the brightness slider, even with auto-brightness -ON- , doesn't the slider set the Minimum brightness regardless of external light?

With auto brightness on the slider automatically adjusts to within certain parameters. In maximum outdoor brightness thought it will be at maximum.

 

[ericwn]

Have you tried a hard reset? Press the lock button and the volume down until it reboots. I had screen brightness problems on my 7 and that would fix it for a week or so and then I'd have to do it again. When it did it, it was too dim to see in the bright sunlight, with auto-brightness on and maxed out, and significantly dimmer than my 6s. I haven't noticed any brightness problems on my 7+.

I doubt a forced restart does anything to solve this issue that a regular restart doesn't do.

 

[Jetcat3]

Hey y'all, check out Anandtech's iPhone 7 and 7 Plus reviews under display. It shows the 7 Plus only hitting 550 nits whereas the 6s Plus hits 586, but in auto mode with high ambient light (sun shining down on your iPhone) the 7 Plus reaches 618 nits and the 7 hits 700.

Also, on the low end they can get down to 2-3 nits which is a really good thing! That's been a weakness of Apple's panels for a while now.

 

[Steve686]

With auto brightness on the slider automatically adjusts to within certain parameters. In maximum outdoor brightness thought it will be at maximum.

I referred to minimum brightness, not maximum, with the slider. The OP wrote that he thinks the brightness is too dim for him in little ambient light.

The "certain parameters" would be the maximum(unchangeable), and the minimum(which you set with the slider).

 

[Europa13]

I doubt a forced restart does anything to solve this issue that a regular restart doesn't do.

Have you experienced it? I tried a regular reboot and it didn't work. A hard reset did fix it temporarily.

 

[ericwn]

Have you experienced it? I tried a regular reboot and it didn't work. A hard reset did fix it temporarily.

No, I haven't experienced it myself, neither have I come across any other situation in years of using iPhone and iPads where a forced restart would have solved anything other than restart a frozen device. I'm trying to view this from a perspective of logic, and I just don't see how this approach solves anything.
I also don't rip the power cables out of my computer at my desk in case some app or the OS has an issue.

 

[Europa13]

No, I haven't experienced it myself, neither have I come across any other situation in years of using iPhone and iPads where a forced restart would have solved anything other than restart a frozen device. I'm trying to view this from a perspective of logic, and I just don't see how this approach solves anything.
I also don't rip the power cables out of my computer at my desk in case some app or the OS has an issue.

It's weird, but it's what it took. Bad analogy, though. I'm not taking anything apart or disconnecting cables and it doesn't take any longer than a regular reboot. Also, a regular reboot on a computer does not solve every problem.