In a dark room, the auto brightness on my iPhone 7 dims to the lowest level which is unreadable. Under a lamp, the brightness is almost maxed, which seems normal. I know I can turn auto off, but I'm thinking I may have a defective unit. 
Thank you for responding. I just looked at my friend's iPhone 7 and it completely dims in dark environment as well. Something not right with this. Hope it can be fixed in a software update.Have you tried the steps here:
https://support.apple.com/en-gb/HT202613
Auto brightness sometimes gets itself confused (especially if you've manually dragged the brightness slider at all) quite often it can be resolved by toggling auto off and on
It's supposed to dim in a dark environment. If it dims too much, just slide it up a bit.Thank you for responding. I just looked at my friend's iPhone 7 and it completely dims in dark environment as well. Something not right with this. Hope it can be fixed in a software update.
Why is that? To the point of being unusable? I'm seriously thinking of returning and going back to iPhone 6s.It's supposed to dim in a dark environment. If it dims too much, just slide it up a bit.
Every single iPhone and iPad has acted this way. In a dark environment, it dims as low as possible. If its too low, you can turn it back up to what you prefer. There is nothing defective and nothing to fix. Its 100% normal. I have zero issues using my device in a dark room at the lowest setting. I even set up the 'zoom' trick to make the display even dimmer.Why is that? To the point of being unusable? I'm seriously thinking of returning and going back to iPhone 6s.
Ok. Thanks for your feedback. Maybe I need glasses. I absolutely can't read text at lowest setting. No issue with iPhone 6s. Most likely will exchange for that today. I'm bummed.Every single iPhone and iPad has acted this way. In a dark environment, it dims as low as possible. If its too low, you can turn it back up to what you prefer. There is nothing defective and nothing to fix. Its 100% normal. I have zero issues using my device in a dark room at the lowest setting. I even set up the 'zoom' trick to make the display even dimmer.
You're correct! That did the trick. I went ahead and bought another iphone 7 at Apple today, but the screen was yellow. Fortunately, my original 7 is white, which I kept just in case. Since the auto brightness is no longer an issue, back to Apple I go. Yay!You just need to adjust the slider in dark conditions like others have suggested. This basically "calibrates" the auto brightness, and you shouldn't have to do it a second time.