Apple Watch Ultra 2 VERY dim inside and dark enviroments..

MAJOR UPDATE: It looks like a fix is on the way. Sort of.

By all means it’s definitely not what we are expect with full control of brightness and there is still no way to disable the auto brightness, however it looks like they increased the brightness when awake from 1 nit to 2 nit when inside. It’s still bad but not as bad

All that’s happened to my Ultra 1 (after teturn two Ultra 2’s) is it just got DIMMER. Ticked off…since this means it is 100% a software CHOICE by Apple, and has NOTHING whatsoever to do with hardware.

Going to add my "Me too" here.

U2 watch inside or at night for me is unreadable. Sure, my eyes are older now, but for $800, I want to see the doggone watch face!

I've filed feedback on this - please do as well as this forum may not be seen by the right folks.

Feedback number for reference: FB13303305

shifflav wrote:

Yes, the feedback links are important as well, but are much easier for Apple to ignore since it’s not accompanied by actual test results and photos and videos that you get with calling in. The engineer confirmed that as well. He said that people need to call in to get results. He said they need actual test data to prove an issue. Also, when they have to send you out a replacement, it’s hitting them where it counts. It’s costing them money.

Actually, that is not true. Reports filed send logs and you may attach photos/videos as well.

And they are easy to followup with and add more info.

Just telling you from someone who's been doing this a lonnnnng time.

As for replacements, as much as I understand doing that, I don't recommend knowingly getting a new watch to prove a point. And trust me, I'm mad as **** too!

To remind people, it's a problem with the Ultra 2, not the Series 9. So a much smaller group. If it was also the same in series 9, it would have been fixed by now with so many more people affected. For Ultra 2 users, there is no workaround currently. No auto on/off, night on/off, different faces, or swapping out replacements helps ... it's just unreadable when it is in a dark environment period!

Bmbsales wrote:

The way I “fixed” this, is to turn raise to wake, on. Now it will show full bright even in dark conditions.

As a note…I use theater mode at night while sleeping, so not much battery loss throughout the night.

I did that last night, and while it does get brighter for a few seconds, that's ONLY good for if I need to know time and nothing else.

For regular use having a face with 8 complications, it's a no-go.

And while I have not SCUBA dived yet with this watch, I will never do it if I need to rely upon it.

Sad, since I got this Ultra2 for a replacement to the other watches I use.

I'm going to still keep trying, but I'm losing hope at this point...

You don’t have to keep raising to keep it slightly brighter. Just tap the screen somewhere that doesn’t activate something else and it will hold that level of brightness (or maybe should say, Dimness). Try it though. You do not have to keep raising hour wrist every few seconds.

Well if you see someone constantly raising their arm up and down at night you'll know why. This is really ridiculous. The 9 goes to 2000 nit max brightness and the ultra to 3000. The minimum on both says 1 nit. So the dimness is as much as 2000-3000 times dimmer than full brightness? How is 1 nit a feature? It's just absurd.

I just got off the phone with Apple tech support, they are NOT, I repeat NOT! looking into this as the engineers determined it’s working as designed. Apparently they are only talking worthless feedback now.

Yes, almost exactly what I posted a while back. I returned mine after 2 days as it was unusable at night or in poorly lit places. What’s aggravating is Apple never acknowledges there is a problem. They stick their head in the sand and hope not enough people complain about it. Remember the butterfly keys on the MacBooks? While it’s encouraging that there may be somewhat of a fix in the future, why doesn’t Apple simply publicly acknowledge the issue and say they are working on a fix so we all know they’re doing something? When I returned my Ultra 2 the Apple employees said they knew nothing about it. Kind of hard to believe since some of them were wearing new Ultra 2 watches. So maybe there will be a fix and maybe not. I wasn’t willing to keep a nonfunctional watch for months waiting for a fix that may or may not come. And I certainly don’t believe they will contact you when there is a fix. And why aren’t any of the YouTube Apple commentators talking about this? So weird! Sorry, but I had to get that off my chest!

Check this comparison on my Apple Watch Series 4 and Ultra 2. Same Settings, Same Room, Same Lighting.

(Image Below, If not visible on Mobile, try desktop.) Ultra 2 is Extremely Dim, Can't tell what time it is(Iphone Camera shows it brightness than it actually is, that's how cameras work)

grdh20 wrote:

So, today the "undocumented" fix is out. What does everyone think? Good Enough?

Like I've been saying (and getting deleted for), the fix is indeed not showing in my feedback, but has been here for three builds. Is it better? Yes. Is it what I want? No.

I want to be able to use all 3000 nits if I want to, and thus far, I can't.

However, it's usable now...that's without testing while diving or other outdoor stuff where it's truly important - most important.

Toltepeceno wrote:

You don’t have to be a dev or seed program, they are public beta’s.

While there are public betas, I will not recommend them to the average user. Only because you can't go back on a watch. It's really better to wait. You also can't return an Apple product for replacement when it's running beta software.

Not that I don't think folks here are "smart" enough, but the end results are risky for many and I won't send you down that path...

It's coming.