I think this all very subjective as what one person thinks is really bright another person may not think so. I have my brightness set to approximately 50% and I’m using the Wayfinder watch face set to the Adventurer White option and at night it’s definitely bright enough for me.
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Apple Watch Ultra brightness issues
- Thread starter Maclife80
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I came from a Series 4. Brightness hasn't been an issue for me per se, but I did have to change the setting on the Ultra to the middle option, whereas on my S4 it was bright enough at the lowest setting. I do wish we had more control to fine tune it instead of three rigid options.
I suspect everyone complaining about this is coming from an S4 (or earlier). Correct me if I am wrong.
It is the new normal starting with the S5.
It is the new normal starting with the S5.
I’m coming from an S6 and found this thread wondering if others noticed the watch was dimmer than normal. It’s not way dimmer but feels like it should be a little brighter at times. Fine during the day, plenty when in bed at night like already said but in the mornings and certain times at night just a hair too dim for me. Like I said, I can see the display fine but it feels dimmer than my previous watch at these times of the day.
I am on the middle setting of 3, where do you guys keep your setting?
I am on the middle setting of 3, where do you guys keep your setting?
I'm coming from an S5. But my beef is more with specific color selections on certain watch faces. Some fonts are really hard to see, even with my glasses on in the "auto dim" mode.
When I change to a different color or face, no more problems.
But I agree, I might be used to this from the S5, and others are probably complain about a different thing then me.
I wonder if this is a possible issue with the Ultras, haven’t gotten mine yet, or the 8s and watchOS 9 in general. We set my wife’s new 8 up yesterday. So just now I asked her to turn her wrist towards me, w’re in a fairly low lit room and that thing blinded me. Far brighter than the 5s which is what she had and what I still have. I just held mine up and the difference is dramatic, our brightness settings are the same. If my Ultra, when it comes, is that bright I might have to adjust it down.
It's determining if you're looking at it or just moving your arm which saves battery by not lighting the display unnecessarily.
Got the AW Ultra yesterday from Amazon and it has the same issue. In a darker room the brightness is far too low. This is definitely not a "getting used to it"-effect, it is simply much too dark.
In a bright surrounding, the display is great and works as expected.
So I checked all settings (full brightness, sleep time, etc.), did two hardware resets, one to restore a backup from my former watch, one to set up the ultra as a new device, no change, problem remains.
I do not believe, that it is a software problem, because in a brighter surrounding the sensor works without any issues, but it fails in darker surroundings.
In addition, many ultra watches work well. This indicates that there is a hardware issue of a batch.
I talked to the Apple supprt today and we came to the conclusion, that this may be a problem of the light sensor.
So I talked to Amazon and they will send me a new watch. Great service, thumps up.
Anyway, I will check if the new watch works fine.
In general, I would be happy, if I am wrong and there is an easy solution for the issue.
In a bright surrounding, the display is great and works as expected.
So I checked all settings (full brightness, sleep time, etc.), did two hardware resets, one to restore a backup from my former watch, one to set up the ultra as a new device, no change, problem remains.
I do not believe, that it is a software problem, because in a brighter surrounding the sensor works without any issues, but it fails in darker surroundings.
In addition, many ultra watches work well. This indicates that there is a hardware issue of a batch.
I talked to the Apple supprt today and we came to the conclusion, that this may be a problem of the light sensor.
So I talked to Amazon and they will send me a new watch. Great service, thumps up.
Anyway, I will check if the new watch works fine.
In general, I would be happy, if I am wrong and there is an easy solution for the issue.
I’ve seen this on my Ultra but had also noticed it on my series 5 if always on display is enabled. When I see that it’s too low I do one of two things tap the screen or rotate my wrist down then back up again and the brightness will adjust properly.
Your specific experience could possibly be a hardware problem that a new watch will resolve but I’m doubtful.
Thanks for the reply.
I checked the behaviour of the watch with "always on" enabled and disabled, but it did not make a difference.
As far as I understand the mechanics of the watch, the displays brightness adaption should not work different in brighter or darker surroundings.
In brighter surroundings it works instantely correct with no further gestures or taps requried.
in darker surroundings, it should be the same, so if I turn my wrist once or tap on the display once, it should show the correct brightness. This is not the case. It is even not the case, if I turn my wrist up and then down and up again.
I agree, that it may not be a hardware problem, but if it should be a software issue, why do not all watches show the behaviour?
I checked the behaviour of the watch with "always on" enabled and disabled, but it did not make a difference.
As far as I understand the mechanics of the watch, the displays brightness adaption should not work different in brighter or darker surroundings.
In brighter surroundings it works instantely correct with no further gestures or taps requried.
in darker surroundings, it should be the same, so if I turn my wrist once or tap on the display once, it should show the correct brightness. This is not the case. It is even not the case, if I turn my wrist up and then down and up again.
I agree, that it may not be a hardware problem, but if it should be a software issue, why do not all watches show the behaviour?
It may well be hardware and you will know when you receive your new one. It’s definitely worth requesting a replacement as these are the latest and greatest from Apple and they usually bend over backwards with those devices when later on they may not be as accommodating. I had something that bothered me on the very first Apple Watch, the side button was a little too wobbly than I thought it should be. I checked others in the store display and they all seemed to have a firmer button feel to them so I requested a replacement and was given no issue in getting a new one.
But the fact that yours responds appropriately in brighter surroundings makes me doubt a hardware issue. And I think we’ve all seen software issues that some have but others don’t with every software release on every ios device out there. I’ve had a couple issues, very odd ones, that I posted about on various forums and never got any responses at all and one day bam! a new release fixed it. I just always assume Apple fixed it just for me
Compared to the 8s the Ultra may be dimmer. My wife turned her brightness setting down on her new 8, we’ve always had our previous watches on max brightness. I’ve left my Ultra at that setting and it’s been perfect for me.
I’ve always felt that the brightness adjustment on the watches was a less precise mechanism than on the phones.
Just checked the following:
In a bright room:
Turned brightness to minimum, looked at the watch face
Turned brightness to maxium, looked at the watch face
--> Major difference in brightness
In a dark room:
Turned brightness to minimum, looked at the watch face
Turned brightness to maxium, looked at the watch face
--> Nearly no difference in brightness
So it seems, that the brightness setting has nearly no impact on the screen brightness of an Ultra in a dark room.
Anyone out there to test this too?
If there are watches, which show a noticeable brightness difference at max/min settings in a dark room it should be clear, that it is a bug and not a feature.
So, I have noticed the same thing since the beginning of usage.. In a dark room, in the morning mostly when I raise the watch it’s pretty dim. during the day, I would say it’s fine, and outdoors it can get VERY bright. I just thought this was technically ACCURATE, since in a dark room one really doesn’t need much brightness in order to be able to see most things. If I try this in the same darkish room in the morning and then just bring a tiny flashlight near the watch - not shinning it on it but just NEAR, the display increases brightness immediately.
I have noticed since staring to use the AWU (compared to a prior AW 6) that when I raise the wrist, the watch FIRST does a somewhat dim illumination and then nearly instantly will POP up a step to a slightly brighter illumination. In a DARK room, this second step up never occurs or doesn’t occur up till early morning. (It could actually be that the overall room illumination by say 08:30 is enough for the light sensor to sense that extra bit of ambient light and up the illumination).
When I’m in a room with some additional ambient light, the watch will do this low illumination for a split second (~300-500ms) and then step up a notch. Mind you, the SETTING for display brightness is constant.
And in that same room at some point, either TIME based or ambient room illumination based, the FIRST LOW step doesn’t occur anymore and the watch just pops to the regular illumination.
So, part of me thinks this is actually the way it is INTENDED to work.
AOD is not on at all for me.
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Just tried this on my Ultra and there is a noticeable difference in both dark and bright rooms. It takes a second or two for it to adjust after making the adjustment, was using my phone’s Watch App and occasionally I had to flip my wrist but it definitely changes the brightness in the dark room. Whether that’s the expected behavior which I think it is or a bug I have no way of knowing.
The auto brightness is more than bright enough on high. how bright do you guys need it to be??
It's been this way since series 5
It's been this way since series 5
I think their concern is the brightness seems too low for them in a dark room. It is not on mine and I do have the watch set to max brightness and it adjusts appropriately in different light and dark settings but some are apparently not doing so which I still attribute to some software differences.
It may be helpful to read the thread before asking questions about topics nobody has addressed
I did read the thread but I still don't understand the complaint.It may be helpful to read the thread before asking questions about topics nobody has addressed
Base brightness isn't as high as the Series 4.. got it.
Took a walk outside wearing a long sleeve shirt which covered my Ultra. When I pulled the sleeve back and turned up my arm to look at the watch it did not immediately go to full brightness. I did have to flick my wrist down and back up and the display went to full brightness.
The same thing occurred when I was in the totally dark room, adjusting the brightness occasionally would require me to flick my wrist to see the level I had adjusted it to. The difference in adjusted levels is definitely noticeable whether in a dark or bright room. But the response may not be as quick as I’d like which could be the intended function or software that needs to be tweaked. But I’ve gotten used to just flicking my wrist and don’t find this to be a bother.
So I try it in simple words:
In darks rooms only, the watch face of my ultra is much too dark.
This issue can not be solved by raisng the brightness to maximum. It stays too dark.
Changing the brightness to minimum or to maximum or to something between makes no difference. Always too dark.
Turning the wrist up-down-up has no impact. Tapping on the screen one or two times has no impact.Always too dark.
The watch face stays at the same very low brightness level, which is too dark.
In bright rooms or outdoor the screen works perfect.
Other ultra owners stated, that their watches do not have this problem.
So you say "Too Dark"
Too dark for what exactly?? Are you not able to see it? What is the problem exactly? "Took Dark" is pretty subjective.
I find the brightness to be too bright in dark rooms, specifically my toddler seeing it at bedtime, it lights up his crib when I put him down and distracts him. I have to put it in theater mode to avoid it.
Apple could add a switch to turn off Auto Brightness I guess, but their algorithm so far has been just right for me since series 5 was released.
Happy to hear, that your watch is working fine.
Mine has an issue to be solved.
Answering your question:
"Too dark" means everything what I already explained in my former postings in this thread and means what all other posters have understood - beside you.
"Too dark" means, that I can hardly read the watch faces in dark rooms/surroundings.
"Too dark" does not mean, that it is relatively darker compared to former watch series.
"Too dark" means, that the brightness settings have absolutely no impact on the brightness of the watch in dark rooms, so it makes no difference if brightness settings are minimum or maximum: Screen brightness does not change, watch screen ist hardly to read.
"Too dark" means, that the difference between brightness in bright rooms and brightness in dark rooms is comparable with daylight at high noon on a sunny day and darkness at midnight on a cloudy rainy night in the deepest woods.
"Too dark" means, that there is no hope for the better in general.
"Into the dark" is a adventure of Kirk, Spock, McCoy and the Enterprise Crew.
"Darkobert Duck" does not exist.
"Dark Nowitzki" stopped playing basketball.
Please let me know, if I can bring more light in this topic.
Mine has an issue to be solved.
Answering your question:
"Too dark" means everything what I already explained in my former postings in this thread and means what all other posters have understood - beside you.
"Too dark" means, that I can hardly read the watch faces in dark rooms/surroundings.
"Too dark" does not mean, that it is relatively darker compared to former watch series.
"Too dark" means, that the brightness settings have absolutely no impact on the brightness of the watch in dark rooms, so it makes no difference if brightness settings are minimum or maximum: Screen brightness does not change, watch screen ist hardly to read.
"Too dark" means, that the difference between brightness in bright rooms and brightness in dark rooms is comparable with daylight at high noon on a sunny day and darkness at midnight on a cloudy rainy night in the deepest woods.
"Too dark" means, that there is no hope for the better in general.
"Into the dark" is a adventure of Kirk, Spock, McCoy and the Enterprise Crew.
"Darkobert Duck" does not exist.
"Dark Nowitzki" stopped playing basketball.
Please let me know, if I can bring more light in this topic.