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I give MR forum members more credit than you. I don't see much blind defending of Apple, and I see a lot of criticism of Apple from people who generally love their Apple gear.
So calling people whiners is okay? That's really rather rude and VERY fanboish.

I see a LOT of Apple can do no wrong people in this forum...
 
'so is the series 7 and series 8. It's practically unreadable in the dark. Apple needs to give us the option of disabling the ambient light sensor. That appears to be the source of the problem. I don't understand why Apple doesn't allow/trust us to make our own decisions regarding this. If it affects battery life, so be it. If I have to charge my watch more often, so be it. Put a warning at the switch where one would disable the ALS to say this may affect your battery life. Let us make the choice.
 
Definitely options to control it. Your ability to see things in the dark declines significantly with age, as does the ability to focus on items close to your eyes. Even your ability to see contrast can start to go with slow damage to the optic nerve or cataracts. If you have no problems, give it a couple decades and come back to this thread. :)

The accessibility options on the Watch are pretty much rubbish, or even nonsensical.

For instance, in accessibility you can mirror your watch to your iPhone…who thought of that?? It’s like Apple gave up and said just use your phone instead. (It doesn’t even work well) Then you have the fact that high contrast, zoom, font size, bold fonts, don’t actually work on the watch faces.
 
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I'm sure you'd include me in that since I'm called an Apple fanboy almost daily. Even though I spent a week here relentlessly trashing that garbage FineWoven case.
I remember you talking about that. :) I don't think it's so bad actually, but I wouldn't pay that kind of price for any case, so I didn't order it to see. I like soft silicone cases anyway. (for the grip)

I can complain about something without despising Apple! Just because the brightness is okay for you doesn't mean it is for everyone.
 
Well, as an owner of both the AWU1 and AWU2, the AWU1 with 2 nits was actually fine for me. It’s surprising to say but the 1 nit brightness of the AWU2 is just too low.
Everyone has different vision capabilities and the brightness of what one can see can be QUITE different.

2 Nits is not bright enough for me, not even close. I'm 64, and have already had cataract surgery on both eyes a long time ago. It REALLY should be adjustable.
 
Seems like a feature to me. I hate how bright my series 7 can be in pitch darkness. Having a display that can dim enough when it is dark is an often overlooked part of a good display.
I had the same problem with my 6,7 and 8. In a dark room, it was too bright.

Now I have the 9, when I walk into my living room at dusk surrounded by 6 large windows and it’s dim, but not dark, the screen brightness is way too low; much lower than my 8 was.

This is a huge problem for me. Either the ambient sensor isn’t sensitive enough or the software isn’t working right.

What is working right is that in pitch black, the screen on my 9 is much lower than the 8 could go. This is great.

But, it’s one step forward, 2 steps back since in many other settings, it’s not bright enough. Very disappointing.
 
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Negative news gets clicks ...
Well, its not negative, people were talking about their iPhone 15 getting hot and Apple came out and acknowledged it. If Apple didn't, then fellow iPhone users would keep saying, no, you are the problem, not the phone when it is the phone, at least the software and third party apps.
 
Found the same problem on my Series 9 ⌚️ yesterday. It was noticeable enough that I went into Settings and increased the brightness to the third notch (which only helped slightly).
Same issue here. It’s really frustrating.

I love that it can get much darker in pitch black settings, but the brightness is too low in other settings now.
 
Everyone has different vision capabilities and the brightness of what one can see can be QUITE different.

2 Nits is not bright enough for me, not even close. I'm 64, and have already had cataract surgery on both eyes a long time ago. It REALLY should be adjustable.
You are right. Everyone is different.
 
I just went from an S4 to an Ultra 2 and thought the unreadable night screen was just a problem with night mode but couldn’t find a way to turn it off. Now I know it’s not just me. I hope they come up with a software fix soon.
 
As someone that has had 8 eye surgeries to repair retinal tears and detachments, I"m extremely sensitive to how dark things get, I can see okay in the dark after a substantially longer adjustment period than most. Brighter is better in most cases. I was excited how bright the screen could get and traded in a series 7 for the ultra 2 just for this, and bigger screen. I want the ability to set a minimum brightness. It can dim, but not further than my base/floor setting.
 
I agree. The Ultra Watch 2 is unusable for me in dim or dark rooms. This is true whether I'm using the red dark face or even a normal face. Apps, faces, everything are just to dark to use. I now have a watch with 3000 nits that I can't read in dim/dark environments (WTF?). This obviously can be changed with a software update and this change HAS TO HAPPEN.

We can't use an Ultra 2 as our go-to watch if we need to carry a separate light to read it in dim environments. Come On Apple, don't you use your own product???
 
Same problem on my :apple:Watch Ultra 1.
The red dark mode kicks in as soon as I move from a well-lit room to a less well-lit room.
 
Big mess from Apple this year, I am having also issue with apple watch not detecting my wrist because I have a tattoo. Had garmin and other sport trackers/watches, never had an issue until I got ultra. Even the previous gen of apple watch were not bad as ultra..
Could you use the other wrist? I never thought about the ink blocking the sensors, but who knows.
 
Not sure how it could be the same considering a very different exterior and manufacturing design of the case.
But I’d bet they share a code base, with additional features being coded in for the Ultra or just enabled for the Ultra and not the Series 9.

Either way, with the brightness setting set to full brightness, it’s still way too dim.
 
Now I have the 9, when I walk into my living room at dusk surrounded by 6 large windows and it’s dim, but not dark, the screen brightness is way too low; much lower than my 8 was.

What is working right is that in pitch black, the screen on my 9 is much lower than the 8 could go. This is great.

Agreed with both. It’s a little bit weird sometimes that the S9 gets brighter and therefore more readable in direct sun light, but less readable in low light situations and then more comfortable in pitch darkness 🤷‍♂️

Apple needs to fix the brightness curve or give us some options in settings.
 
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