Series 5 Apple Watch is too dim when activated

I had the same issue though mine was a Series 3. Even at full brightness I could barely see what was on the display. I searched online and the only solution was to shine a light on it for a few seconds and it will get brighter. Which is true it does, problem is, it does not last long. And that's not good enough for a watch at that price.

I took it to the apple store and they did a diagnostic on it and all was fine. Now to add, for me during the day it was illuminated perfectly but any dark setting was barely visible. Additionally this was with the latest ios6.

In the end I took it back to get a replacement. I was not having this on a apple product..and surprise surprise I noticed even on some of the display watches it was the same thing. This barely there display syndrome. The rep even said he noticed this same issue and has no clue what causes this. He pointed to a possible software issue. Bottom line, I got a replacement and at half brightness it's waaaay brighter than the first was at full brightness.

If you can, (save the headache and searching) get a replacement.

I spent almost four hours on the phone with several Apple reps yesterday and basically they told me there's nothing that can be done. The forced dimmed setting was put in to preserve battery life and cannot be changed even selecting and deselecting Theater Mode. None of them knew if it was hardware or software issue but all of them said there's nothing they could do.

My 5 is no longer dim. What happened?! An update to 6.1.3 seems to have cured it. It’s as bright as the 3 now. Anyone else?

@ChrisSAU Wow, I am sure you are trying to be helpful but your post comes off as kinda rude. Telling everyone that "you should have no issues unless you need glasses"? I see that you added *opinion* but then you use the word you. lol I'd think something like "for me, I have no issue with the series 5" might be a lot less rude by avoiding telling others what they should and shouldn't have a problem with.

And you might want to conduct your tests in a dimly lit room, not in a bright office setting. Low light conditions are where most people here are complaining the issue most affects them. The dimness issue will be more noticeable in low light because of the configuration of the new ambient light sensor in the series 5 which dims the face more aggressively than the series 4 does in low light conditions.

And thanks for confirming that the display is definitely dimmer and that this is a legitimate complaint. I kind of think everyone here already knew that, but cool. ;)

I am the one who had the problem in daylight. I updated software and restarted the watch and the app on my iPhone. Now watch is visible in bright sunlight again. I never had a 4 so I can’t comment on differences, but I am operable again in daylight on the 5 and am still happy with it.

Just a word of warning to anyone who doesn't have a 5 yet. Photos like that are misleading. All you are proving with your low light photos is how the watch backlight appears in a photo (which is not at all how the lighting will appear to the naked eye). A low light photo is going to blow out the brightness no matter what you do. For example, take a picture of your television or LCD/LED monitor in a dimly lit room and then compare that photo to how the screen looks to the naked eye. See the dramatic difference in how the backlighting appears? That same effect is making your "no light" watch photo blow up the brightness to an unrealistic degree. I get that you are trying to help, but you might consider adding that disclaimer to your photos.

As has been discussed repeatedly here, the 5 is noticeably dimmer than the series 4 in the same "active" face scenario. That's just a fact. Now, if some are okay with the dimmer setting then that's great. Personally, I wouldn't try to convince others that they should also be okay with it by using photos, but that's just me. A photo might be more helpful if you wore a series 4 on your wrist alongside the series 5. I mean, neither watch would accurately convey the lighting in real conditions but at least you could see the difference between the two models and that would be a good thing. ;)

Anyway, the much dimmer active watch face was the problem I had with the 5 and the sole reason why it was returned. For me, I didn't feel like spending several hundred dollars for a watch that ended up being a lot dimmer in the scenario I cared most about. Just my two cents. Now, is the 5 still usable in low light conditions? Sure, absolutely it is, but it's also undeniably dimmer than the 4, for obvious reasons. With an always on watch face Apple need to manage the brightness more aggressively using the new ambient light sensor in order to reach the same battery life numbers as the series 4. Makes perfect sense. But again, for me, I decided I would rather have a brighter screen. I'm not here trying to convince you or others here to agree with me. If the 5 is bright enough for you or anyone else then that's just great! ;)

I just returned home from the Apple store in the Irvine Spectrum as I wanted to compare the new Series 5 (in Titanium) to my Series 4 in stainless to see if it was worth upgrading. The first Series 5 watch I was shown was so dim (even after tapping on the screen to ensure it was fully activated) that even 2 store employees thought it was broken and took it away from me to find a replacement. The second one we looked at was also rather dim (just not as bad) so I could see the screen well enough to navigate my way to the settings menu in order to “crank up the brightness” to max. Unfortunately, even after I did that, the display was SIGNIFICANTLY dimmer than my Series 4! If I had to guess, visually the Series 5 appeared to have about 30-40% lower light output vs my Series 4. The Apple store I was in also is a new freestanding store surrounded by tall windows on 2 sides and it was bright as heck outside, so... needless to say the ambient light sensor shouldn’t have been doing much. Also, I left without buying one. If this is how dim the Series 5 screen is, I can’t see how Apple found this even remotely acceptable in testing.

Considering I’ve upgraded my Apple Watches every year since the Series 2, this should have been an easy sale for Apple to close, but I could barely read the screen...

Ditto for me. Display lighting was fine until this morning, when on an outdoor walk the display dimmed to the point of it being impossible to see. Alas, that dimming has continued even indoors. The "low power mode" of the Always On feature is stuck. Raising your wrist does not result in a brightness change; the display remains dimmed. Perhaps coincidentally, I just had updated to 6.1. Last couple weeks since I bought - no problems.

I turned off Always On and the display brightness now is normal when I raise my wrist. Outside no change; still too dim to see in bright light. But at least I can see it indoors. I'm going to wait to see if the next update fixes this "feature". If not, it's back to the Apple reject pile...

Just thought I’d post I have cleared up my problem with the dim watch face. Go under the watch app on your phone...click display and brightness...turn OFF Always on. This has totally fixed the too dim problem. Read about this online when u was going crazy with my new watch being dim.

Go under your watch app click on display and brightness and turn off the Alway On mode. This has fixed the dimness problem with my watch. I read to do this online and it works.😊

My s5 auto-dimmed aggressively even with the settings you mentioned. My s4 does as well, just to a lesser extent. Apple overshot with the dimming on the s5, likely to support the always on feature.

Screen brightness is very important to me, such that I know the peak nits of all my devices; hence my dissatisfaction the the s5. I often wonder if I see the same nits as other people.

interesting. the always on display feature in any device including the android phone is always dim. its meant to be just enough for you to tell the time or have a glance at your updated current active app. if you need to see more info at brighter levels you wake the device. to my testing if you set the max brightness on the watch itself then the auto brightness feature will amp it up if required. i have mine on the lowest setting and this will restrict how bright the watch will go and this is more than enough for me, even in very bright conditions.

my biggest concern is that i can bring the brightness even lower when in sleep mode per say.

Best Buy clerk-denier is good story. I have new 5; wife has 4. Difference between brightness of activated watch faces immed noticeable all day long whatever ambient light conditions. Issue should be easily resolved with software tweak to 5 giving user choice between brighter face and greater intra-day battery level.

Hey guys, I have managed to sort it out. No need for flashing your iPhone’s torcher on the watches’ sensors.

i went to Apple store, they didn’t know what to do and advised me to call Tech Support. So I did, waited for quarter an hour to resolve this inconvenience but eventually it helped.

So, basically I have been advised that there is no feature that could adjust Apple Watch brightness. However, the tech guy said that the watch constantly learns Iphone’s mimics/behaviour.

Go to your IPhone Settings-Accessibility-Display & Text size, scroll down and disable ‘Auto-brightness, then restart both IPhone and Watch and the brightness won’t be dimmable anymore, it will be bright.

Just returned my Series 5 IWatch because it would not get above dim. This seems to be the kind of “laptop” problem that Apple just had. The Series 5 is a great watch and I will buy a new one when they’ve fixed the problem.