Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

Apple Watch Ultra brightness issues

Is your WatchOS up to date?

The brightness absolutely has an effect. Jump from low to high in a dark room. Are you really telling me that setting has no effect?

What am I missing here?
 
techno-Zen said:
Is your WatchOS up to date?

The brightness absolutely has an effect. Jump from low to high in a dark room. Are you really telling me that setting has no effect?

What am I missing here?
Click to expand...

The ambient light sensor determines how bright to make the "normal" screen (not the AOD rest mode). @EyeOS is saying that when the ambient light sensor identifies a dark room, when the screen comes on (or comes awake) even on the highest setting it is too dim. Also, that it appears that all 3 brightness settings seems the same in a dark room.

When the room is bright, it works as designed.

At least this is how I understand the issue.
 
  • Like
Reactions: NFernoSlyr
JT2002TJ said:
The ambient light sensor determines how bright to make the "normal" screen (not the AOD rest mode). @EyeOS is saying that when the ambient light sensor identifies a dark room, when the screen comes on (or comes awake) even on the highest setting it is too dim. Also, that it appears that all 3 brightness settings seems the same in a dark room.

When the room is bright, it works as designed.

At least this is how I understand the issue.
Click to expand...
👍
 
I commented prior I felt like the display was too dim at times. The latest beta I dont notice that any longer. I suspect something has changed making the display just a bit brighter in some conditions. Not sure when the beta will become the release but look for 9.1. It appears to me, they allow the face to brighten an extra level that prior I only saw when it was much lighter out and forced to counter the bright light.
 
EyeOS said:
9.02

Brightness setting has no effect.

You are not missing something.
Click to expand...

I ran your test last night on the latest official OS. Either it was fixed, or was never a problem on my watch. I did notice a slight difference in brightness between the different settings when awaking from AOD sleep. The difference is subtle, but enough that I noticed it without my glasses one. They could make the ambient light sensor have less effect on the brightness, but it was ok on my watch.

Perhaps there is an issue with your ambient light sensor?
 
  • Like
Reactions: techno-Zen
Thank you for testing, thanks to all others who tested and replied.

As already mentioned I talked to Apple support and we came to the conclusion, that the light sensor is the problem.
I hope - as described above -, that a software update will fix this behaviour. If it should be a hardware issue, I can compare my watch with an other one, which will be send by Amazon to me as soon as it is available.

I checked the brightness this night again and there was a funny effect, I guess independent of the dark screen issue: Opening the phone dial screen of the watch in a dark or bright room, the screen gets suddenly very bright, nearly like full brightness at sunlight. This brightness remains even after closing the phone app and using any other app of the watch. The effect disappears once the display turns off and is turned on again.

No idea what happens here.
 
EyeOS said:
Thank you for testing, thanks to all others who tested and replied.

As already mentioned I talked to Apple support and we came to the conclusion, that the light sensor is the problem.
I hope - as described above -, that a software update will fix this behaviour. If it should be a hardware issue, I can compare my watch with an other one, which will be send by Amazon to me as soon as it is available.

I checked the brightness this night again and there was a funny effect, I guess independent of the dark screen issue: Opening the phone dial screen of the watch in a dark or bright room, the screen gets suddenly very bright, nearly like full brightness at sunlight. This brightness remains even after closing the phone app and using any other app of the watch. The effect disappears once the display turns off and is turned on again.

No idea what happens here.
Click to expand...

When you are in a dark room and have the watch awake, does the brightness change if you point a flashlight at the face of the watch? I wonder if it is the sensitivity of your ambient light sensor vs. not working at all (I guess it is working if when you go outside it works).
 
Pointing a flashlight at the watch face in a dark room changes the brightness significantly.
So the sensor works, but it has problems in low light surroundings. Looks like it does not adjust brightness level at all in a darker surrounding.

That was the reason, why the Apple supporter assumed, that the sensor may have a hardware related problem. I don´t believe, that the sensor has different adjustment options for low light and bright light situations which can be changed independently by software (but I hope :cool:).

I would assume, that you can adjust its sensitivity in general, but while the sensor works perfect in bright rooms or outdoors a change in the sense of raising its sensitivty would mean, that the watch would be brighter in bright rooms as well. And there is no reason to do so, because its brightness in brighter surroundings is more than perfect.
 
Same experience with just recieved Ultra. Highest brightness still controlled via ambient sensor. My Epix2 was just smiling crisp and clear and bright next full max yet still dimmed ultra. I do not want to be lighting up anything around, just want to see clearly and in this moment Ultra does not deliver and I do struggle to read in low light room the display. will try the beta, holefully this will get fixed soon. and I do belive it cam be fixed via software update.
 
  • Like
Reactions: NFernoSlyr
Installed the BETA 9.02 today. Things become strange …

By activating the watch screen, brightness is bad as before.
After pressing the crown to start the app overview it takes one to five seconds (this varies) and the app overview screen gets brighter. Maybe not as bright as expected, at least acceptable. But starting any app reduces brightness again, so you can hardly see the content of the screen. Going back to the app overview and brightness is ok again.

As far as I see the sensor for adaption of brightness is the problem. In dark surroundings it does not work correctly. The BETA had at least a kind of a positive effect, but still there are issues.
So we still do not know, if we have to deal with a hardware or a software problem.
 
  • Like
Reactions: mipo
Yep, I can echo the same experience. No difference. Still quite hard to read in low light. Did wrote feedback to apple and also included comment on very very . .I mean very low haptic feedback when running. Wearing headphones or running in town you absolutely can't feel it. Well, as long you are not a lady with no hairs on your hands and your watch is not tight as rubber band on your wrist. Low brightness and low haptic feedback are my main unfortunate discoveries on overall great watch.
 
EyeOS said:
Installed the BETA 9.02 today. Things become strange …

By activating the watch screen, brightness is bad as before.
After pressing the crown to start the app overview it takes one to five seconds (this varies) and the app overview screen gets brighter. Maybe not as bright as expected, at least acceptable. But starting any app reduces brightness again, so you can hardly see the content of the screen. Going back to the app overview and brightness is ok again.

As far as I see the sensor for adaption of brightness is the problem. In dark surroundings it does not work correctly. The BETA had at least a kind of a positive effect, but still there are issues.
So we still do not know, if we have to deal with a hardware or a software problem.
Click to expand...
I still believe its a software. Its just how much you allow the brightness to go up. Its all about the battery and their statements. For me I do not care if I charge an hour or two earlier. In total dark its ok I guess, but if you have your reading lamp behind you or your spouse is reading next to you - the watch is unable to pickup that ambient light and thinks its dark night. Theu just need to allow the user override that sensor and be in control. (hint learn from Epix2 Apple)
 
I hope you are right.
Anyway, what I do not understand: If it is software, why are there ultra watches, which work fine in darker surroundings? All have the same software. Some users in stated, that they have to reduce brightness in darker surroundings, because they are kind of blinded by the watch face.

Hope, that Apple did not build ultra watches with different sensors.
 
EyeOS said:
I hope you are right.
Anyway, what I do not understand: If it is software, why are there ultra watches, which work fine in darker surroundings? All have the same software. Some users in stated, that they have to reduce brightness in darker surroundings, because they are kind of blinded by the watch face.

Hope, that Apple did not build ultra watches with different sensors.
Click to expand...
Did you see one for yourself? can you point me where this was stated? I am really curious and also hope that its not hardware.
 
EyeOS said:
I hope you are right.
Anyway, what I do not understand: If it is software, why are there ultra watches, which work fine in darker surroundings? All have the same software. Some users in stated, that they have to reduce brightness in darker surroundings, because they are kind of blinded by the watch face.

Hope, that Apple did not build ultra watches with different sensors.
Click to expand...
It can definitely be software. I remember when the iPhone 12 came out, I had the Max so it might have been just those models, the cameras didn’t work, it just launched to a black screen. That affected mine but not everyone apparently. It was fixed in a fairly quick update.

The brightness on my Ultra works very well but it’s not as responsive as I’d like. I frequently have to flick my wrist to get the brightness to adjust to the ambient lighting when I think it should just adjust without any effort on my part. Hopefully this will be more fine tuned with future releases.
 
EyeOS said:
Installed the BETA 9.02 today. Things become strange …

By activating the watch screen, brightness is bad as before.
After pressing the crown to start the app overview it takes one to five seconds (this varies) and the app overview screen gets brighter. Maybe not as bright as expected, at least acceptable. But starting any app reduces brightness again, so you can hardly see the content of the screen. Going back to the app overview and brightness is ok again.

As far as I see the sensor for adaption of brightness is the problem. In dark surroundings it does not work correctly. The BETA had at least a kind of a positive effect, but still there are issues.
So we still do not know, if we have to deal with a hardware or a software problem.
Click to expand...
9.0.2 is not beta, its general release. The current beta is 9.1 release 5. I would hold out until you see version 9.1 to see if anything has improved. I no longer see the dim display issues.
 
  • Like
Reactions: papbot
@mipo
The bright display was a series 8 display, sorry for the missmatch. Papbot did the related posting on page 2 of this thread.

@gsmornot
Yes, you are right beta is 9.1.r5, that ˋs what I have on the ultra, not 9.02.

So the ultras display is still too dark in darker surroundings, the beta was a little improvement as described above, but the issue is not fixed, at least not for my watch.

In regard to the dial pad effect:
When I open the dial pad of the phone app, the display changes to 100% brightness.
Closing the phone app from the dial pad screen by pressimg the crown, the display stays permanently at 100% as long as I do not close the dial pad. So I can use all apps with a (by far much too) 100% bright screen even in darker surroundings.
This effect is described in some You Tube videos for older versions of the Apple watch as well.
Maybe someone would like to test this effect.

There seems to be a more or less general issue with the sensor and/or the related software, I am still not clear, if software can fix it. Waiting for the replacement ultra to check.
 
Last edited:
Maclife80 said:
So I just upgraded from Apple Watch 4 to the Ultra. And with one thing I am very very disappointed. The brightness of the watch is like not even half as bright as my old Watch 4. I have set brightness to the highest setting and tried it with always on and without it. I know the screen get brighter for instance when I am using a flashlight and point it on the watch it gets very bright. But in just regular scenario it is very dim. Anything I can do against it? or is this an hardware issue?
Click to expand...
I just got the watch yesterday and I’m very disappointed. I also have the galaxy watch five pro and the brightness is for better than this watch ultra. This is a dealbreaker for me to watch is going back it’s not worth $800.
 
nperei said:
Yes I just noticed that. I tried look in accessibility to toggle auto dimmable. Does not have that feature like iPhone. it too dim at night than AW4. Pretty hard to read it.

I hope Apple address this or they might have fixed for next IOS.
This is not great for people who are legally blind or low vision they will feel more frustrating.
Click to expand...
Yes, this brightness issue really sucks. It’s a dealbreaker for me. I think I’m going to get rid of the watch back to Apple $800 it’s not worth it.
I have the galaxy watch five Pro and I can tell you the brightness is for far brighter than the ultra everything and I can do with the Samsung watch for half the price. I’m very disappointed!
 
Is the brightness of your ultra too low in general or in darker surroundings only?
 
Did some investigation. The problem is not an ultra-only issue.
In many forums there are complains about the dark display in low light surroundings for all Apple watches after series 4.
So i have no hope, that this will be fixed or will be solved by a watch replacement. Otherwise it would have been fixed for the former watch generations already.

The „love it or leave it“ options seems to be the only choice.

Strange somehow, I always was more than happy with my apple devices, top technology, top value.
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back