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Ken91

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jun 12, 2022
24
137
Got an Apple gift card for 300 Euro as a present and decided to go for the Apple Watch SE as it fitted that price tag. What a disappointment. The screen is way too small, and the native apps are underwhelming but the biggest problem is how dim the screen brightness is. I can barely make out text in a darker environment. I looked up youtube vids to see if there was a workaround but there is no way to increase screen brightness! What a joke. Returned and may go for AirPods Pro instead. Is the screen on Series 8 or Ultra brighter?
 
bit confused by this tbh, is it the 2022 model or an older one? have the 2022 model and its very bright, and i went into settings and theres a brightness control and im only half way up on it.
 
I don’t see many people complain about brightness, but yes, the Ultra is much brighter than the SE and the Series 8. All of them use an ambient sensor to adjust based on ambient light. You can adjust brightness in the settings though.
 
I went into settings and pushed it up to full brightness.
 
Ken, SE 1 or 2? Yet, haven't read any complaints about that for either version.

You mentioned it was a particular problem in a dark environment.

Is there an auto-brightness setting that might have been ON when it should have been OFF — and dimmed the screen?

And, overrode the general setting even when you had pushed it to full?

You said it was too small… did you get a 40mm or 44mm?

The Series 7 and 8 have substantially larger display areas, thinner bezels, and slightly larger dimensions as well.
 
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bit confused by this tbh, is it the 2022 model or an older one? have the 2022 model and its very bright, and i went into settings and theres a brightness control and im only half way up on it.
2022
Ken, SE 1 or 2? Yet, haven't read any complaints about that for either version.

You mentioned it was a particular problem in a dark environment.

Is there an auto-brightness setting that might have been ON when it should have been OFF — and dimmed the screen?

And, overrode the general setting even when you had pushed it to full?

You said it was too small… did you get a 40mm or 44mm?

The Series 7 and 8 have substantially larger display areas, thinner bezels, and slightly larger dimensions as well.
Hi, it's SE 2. I couldn't find any auto-brightness setting anywhere in settings? Is there one? It was 40 mm which I admit is pretty small but I have smaller wrists. I looked it up and there is no way to override auto-brightness.
 
I'm a bit confused by this. Was there something wrong with the watch? I don't have an 2nd gen SE, but as I understand it the Series 2 to Series 8 and both SEs have a similar peak brightness of 1000 nits. I find the peak brightness way too bright for a darker environment and I actually keep mine on the lowest brightness setting as I find it is a good balance between not being blindingly bright in a dim environment, while still being readable in a bright environment.
 
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