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

We are dealing with two issues.

There is clearly a defective version out there. I've had one. My most recent watch probably is functioning as designed.

However, it is also clear that this watch is designed to go dim at night. (It is in their ad, but with no explanation of why this is regarded as being a good thing.

The targeted demographic of this watch is physically active people who are heavily into watersports.....

There is also the risk that this device becomes the watch of choice for senior citizens. This would spoil the mystique of the watch.

So how to keep the watch off the wrists of old people?

Take a hint from the restaurant industry. If you are going for a young hipster feel, you turn down the lights and use an illegible font on the menu. Clears out the old folks.

If you give this watch to gramps, he will use it for about three days. At this time he will get so frustrated by the watch he will put it in his nightstand and pull out the Casio he has been using for decades, because he can actually see it.

I know this sounds cynical, but I have yet to hear an alternative explanation for dimming the watch to 1 NIT.

Nope. It’s FAR more simple than that.

Apple made an exaggerated claim that the Ultra 2 adds 12 hours MORE use than the Ultra 1… And the ONLY way they can substantiate that claim…is by making it EXTREMELY dim for many more of those hours…. So… They are destroying it’s usability…all in the name of convincing people with the claimed 72 hours use…that it’s a good competitor to other leading sport watches, such as Garmin…that last FAR longer per charge.

Apple is punishing us…all so thay can claim battery life “improvements.”

Yeah same issue. The watch is unusable at night. Such a shame, I love the watch but if you cant read it at night then its useless.

Apple only allows a 14 day return window, so I'm returning mine. I can't afford to wait for them to fix it. If I wait and they don't fix this then I'm left with a watch that is useless in dark environments.

What’s infuriating is the fact that Apple could remedy this in about 15 minutes of code writing. Probably less, because they probably already have the code written, many different ways, knowing full well how to remedy this already. But they simply won’t… Why?? —Because our satisfaction is less important to them than the selling point of 72 hours of battery life claims. It is the ONLY conceivable reason why they REFUSE give us this most basic functionality.

People have been complaining about not having full control over brightness on Apple Watches for **years** so clearly Apple has its own way of determining what they care about…. and what they do not..

I suspect Apple believe battery-life claims are selling more watches compared to how many are returned due to this problem.

This sounds like a case for a class action. There should be a proper way to adjust brightness, not only for the way this was pulled off (claims of extended battery life by lowering screen brightness to a non user changeable level) but designing a product without accessibility features for people with visual disabilities is unacceptable for Apple. I don’t know how you can justify a screen brightness setting between 1-2-3 where the brightness between the 3 modes only increases 5% between each level.

Claims of extended and exceptional battery life by lowering the screen display to an unusable display level.

It’s like marketing a car that can get 2000km distance on 1 tank of gas but when everyone buys you discover the car can only go 30KM/h.

lets be honest the only reason we purchased this over the U1 was the +1000 nit brighter screen, which is crippled and useless.

I am in the same boat. I probably will have to return this one, guess they didn't target the over 50 crowd :-) based on my conversation with Support this morning, this is unknown issue, but there is no plan to rectify it. Their position is that it's operating as it was designed.

I'm reading posts here saying that support has been contacted and that Apple is working on a fix. Yet other posts say that they spoken to support and this is an "unknown issue". How can this issue be unknown to Apple? See articles below.

I'd like my watch back (I returned it after 2 day because in a dark environment it became unusable).

My doctor who I saw yesterday, has one. He was unaware of the issue. He turned the light off in the exam room, and there it was, the super-dim display. He's had the watch for a month and hadn't noticed it until then. He's not returning it though because it hasn't been an issue for him like it was for me. Guess he hasn't needed it in a dark environment.

[Edited by Moderator]

Apple support has called me at least three times and had me run diagnostics and collected logs (and simulate the issue). They are aware.

I have a series 9 watch... so it must be an OS issue. I can confirm that my Series 4 watch is much brighter (old OS) under the same conditions.

Just taken delivery today of Ultra2. Can’t read the display in the evening - far too dim it’s just utterly stupid. As I go running at 6am most mornings it’s useless to me. Going for refund at the weekend.

The situation with the overly dim setting in dark areas is not acceptable. At least issue an Accessibility menu to turn auto dim off, or allow similar use as in ios 16 and the Ultra 1 in dim or dark areas. Not everyone can see perfectly and needs a little help. Just make it user adjustable please! It's a no brainer at this point.

Well said .. I do hope we get resolve on this .. I'm actually surprised they would let it go in this state, the some extent it's almost excluding people with visual challenges. I don't think we're allowed to do that anymore in 2023.

New Ultra 2 watch - Same thing, I can't read the display when in the dark. A flashlight will brighten it for a while. Also, the temperature takes a long time to display on the new modular ultra watch face. And I can't read the display on it when its in the red. Disappointing

derderdaist wrote:

same here, series 9 latest watchOS, unreadable at night.

I also have a new Series 9, and I wouldn't call it unreadable at night. Some users may prefer to adjust the display brightness, but in dark conditions I find the default brightness as it installed for me (minimum level) is acceptable and close to my preferred level to avoid nuisance when I drive at night.

I have tried a few tests, and so far it looks like the problem is the auto dimming when the user has the watch display and ambient light sensors facing a dark background (behind the user), but there is a brighter level infant of the user (beyond the watch). The user's eyes adjust to the brighter area in-view but the watch is still looking the other way, at a darker area so the display level remains at minimum.

In this condition the watch is dimming correctly in response to a low level of incident light on the watch face sensors, but the user's pupils will close down in response to brighter light behind the watch as it is viewed (may be some distance away like a sun-lit window across the room).

I don't see an easy way to resolve this with the current design of sensing ambient light. The watch has no way to know how the user's eyes have adapted to external light conditions and the watch would need sensors looking through the wearer's arm to see bright interfering light beyond the watch.