Apple Watch Ultra Display Too Dim in Low Light, Say Some Users

[tomtad]

in accessibility you can mirror your watch to your iPhone…who thought of that??

Never knew about this and just had a go with it. What a bizarre feature

 

[jeffjank33]

I totally agree with this. It’s too dark for me to make out at night and I’d really like them to fix it.

Me too.. I always kept original ultra on the lowest light setting. Ultra 2, have to put on the second setting because the lowest is almost not visible.

 

[jeffjank33]

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.

Same boat.. moving from U1 to U2, same observation.

 

[missingar]

Not to discount this issue...but do people know how eyes work? If you move from a bright room to a dark room, you aren't going to see dim lights for a few seconds/minutes as your eyes acclimate to the new brightness levels. I also suspect people could be looking at max brightness iPhones or a TV in dark rooms, then looking at a 1/2 nit watch display.

Just don't want these people to force apple to ruin my 2 nit night mode which is one of my favorite ultra features.

Add an accessibility setting to force a minimum brightness level, problem solved.

Based on this response it sounds like you don't have a complete understanding of the issue, which can best be explained by simply looking at an Apple Watch Ultra 2 next to literally any other generation after Series 5 in the exact same watch face, and same lighting at the exact same time. The Ultra 2 AOD will ALWAYS be significantly dimmer and nearly impossible to read in comparison.

 

[Mac_The_Ripper]

Could you use the other wrist? I never thought about the ink blocking the sensors, but who knows.

I don't mean this to be snarky, but do you hear what you are asking? Use another wrist, really? How would this ever be a suitable resolution to this issue?

 

[Mac_The_Ripper]

Based on this response it sounds like you don't have a complete understanding of the issue, which can best be explained by simply looking at an Apple Watch Ultra 2 next to literally any other generation after Series 5 in the exact same watch face, and same lighting at the exact same time. The Ultra 2 AOD will ALWAYS be significantly dimmer and nearly impossible to read in comparison.

Best post of the day right here.

 

[missingar]

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.

I don't mean this to be snarky, but do you hear what you are asking? Use another wrist, really? How would this ever be a suitable resolution to this issue?

Tattoo reference in the post they're replying to it's unrelated to the AOD issue tho. But it does keep locking the watch -- my partner deals with this on the arm with the sleeve tattoo

 

[djrm]

Agreed. It's bizarre that we cant control the brightness at night to what we want.

 

[jhwalker]

No problem here. Yes, my original Ultra switches to night mode more frequently than in earlier software versions but, no, it's not too dim - I can read it just fine 🤷‍♂️

 

[a.jfred]

Why is this article just about the ultra 2? The series 9 is just as bad. I was excited about having a brighter always on display coming from a series 5 and now I can barely see my screen in a dark room unless all the colors are white and even then it’s dim

I'm having the same issue with the new OS update on the S9, and did NOT have this problem with my S7.

As someone who's losing their eyesight, this is a MASSIVE step back for accessibility. If I'm in a theatre, I'll put it in Theatre mode. I need to be able to see the thing at night when I'm home - or out for a walk when it's dark outside

 

[GermanSuplex]

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 here. I upgraded from a Series 4, and was real pleased with the watch during the day. When I was doing something in the dark, I noticed how dim it was and thought I just had a setting I needed to tweak. Was surprised to see you're stuck with what they offer.

It should be an easy software fix, luckily, as its not an issue with the brightness capabilities.

 

[btrach144]

Goes down to 1 nit at night which was the point. I think the solution should be that it only drops this low if the watch is in sleep focus. In general low light conditions the display needs to be brighter.

Or if the person remains in a dark room, lower the display brightness slowly over an hour. As their eyes dilate they should be more adjusted to lower nits. Maybe even 1 nit. Although 1 nit might be best for charging in a dark room.

 

[Apple_Robert]

I haven't experienced the Ultra 2 being too dim. I did notice launch day that the transition from dark red screen to the normal light screen is not a smooth transition.

 

[rjp1]

I don't mean this to be snarky, but do you hear what you are asking? Use another wrist, really? How would this ever be a suitable resolution to this issue?

I'm not sure if you are joking or serious.

I wear mine on my right wrist and flipped upside down so when I scroll with the crown I'm not covering the screen. The settings app lets you pick left/right and which side faces up so you can wear it in different positions.

I was being serious when I said they could try their other wrist if it doesn't have tattoos. It seems like a perfectly reasonable solution to the issue since we are lucky enough to have 2 and not forced to wear it on one particular wrist.

 

[patent10021]

Why isn't this customizable like the phone? Peculiar.

 

[darngooddesign]

I don't mean this to be snarky, but do you hear what you are asking? Use another wrist, really? How would this ever be a suitable resolution to this issue?

It may be the only resolution to tattoo ink interfering with sensor.

 

[xgman]

changed faces and now my U2 is unreadable at night on full brightness. geeze

 

[coastinthefog]

I just contacted Apple support about this. They told me engineering is aware of the problem and is working on a fix.

 

[Jimmy Bubbles]

When it works, it’s just right for me. It doesn’t seem to work as consistently as it did in beta IMO.

 

[ackmondual]

This should really be user-configurable, because one size (brightness curve) does not fit all.

But, we pay Apple to make these decisions for us /s

 

[pcd213]

I just contacted Apple support about this. They told me engineering is aware of the problem and is working on a fix.

How did you contact them?

 

[xgman]

beta 10.1 is no better at all. This is really bad. I may have to return the watch and get something else if this doesn't get fixed quickly. It's that bad at night.

 

[HMFIC03]

I totally agree with this. It’s too dark for me to make out at night and I’d really like them to fix it.

It’s perfect for me - maybe best way is to allow users to select how low it can go?

 

[usmaak]

I turned off night mode because it was having issues deciding what brightness to go to and whether to go to night mode while I’m indoors.

1. Tap to wake watch.
2. Watch gets bright.
3. Watch dims down.
4. Sometimes night mode comes on and then turns off.
5. Watch adjusts to correct brightness.

It was really annoying so I just shut off auto night mode. I don’t know if it’s’ just me or anyone else is having this happen. I don’t know if it’s a hardware issue or software. I haven’t really seen anyone talking about it except a few folks on reddit. I feel like the watch should make a decision what brightness to display and whether to display night mode before it turns on the screen. But I’ll admit that I don’t really know how all of the hardware works.

 

[Mac_The_Ripper]

It may be the only resolution to tattoo ink interfering with sensor.

Or this version of the Apple Watch could work like they have in the past, with tattoos, like the user said.