LasseK1981 Author

Level 1

48 points

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

Hello.

I just bought a very expensive Ultra 2 Watch. I am happy with the watch overall, but what totally ruins the experience is it is SO dim inside and in dark enviroments! I can hardly read it. There is no override available and the brightness is set to full. My son has a Series 6 and that is brighter in the same conditions. This cant be real? This so called "ULTRA" is more weak in brightness performance than an older regular Apple Watch. If there is something I HATE it is factory controlled auto stuff like this! We know the watch can be brighter so WHY on earth is it locked to a weak sensor that is WAY to low calibrated? I know its unfortunately not a hardware issue as ALL other Ultra Watch suffer from this ridicolous factory setting. Why can I not disable this auto dim or at least raise the lower minimum brightness. This is a disaster, as I can hardly read the watch in my office and living room where we have low light usually. This is almost a RETURN ISSUE for me! The fact that the user cannot set this setting when I bought and paid for the watch is a disgrace! And for those that reply its working as intended I can see by a search that hundreds of other users complain about this "error". This HAS to be corrected in a software update ASAP!

Apple Watch Ultra 2, watchOS 10

Posted on Sep 22, 2023 12:31 PM

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LasseK1981 Author

Level 1

48 points

Posted on Sep 23, 2023 3:21 AM

Hello. Yes you are right- it almost seems like it dosent matter with this brightness slider! And I know the watch can be ultra bright IF you take a flashlight and light onto it. :( I just HATE these factory locked settings where "they know whats best for you!". But this is an essential thing for me to use! What if I was 70 years and had a bad vision! I really cant understand Apples way of thinking here! So I contacted support and they say the best we can do is write this complaint/ request at this feedback page which I did from two email accounts! ;) So PLEASE file a request or hardware issue! I did one on both topics!

Feedback - Watch - Apple

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611 replies

LasseK1981 Author

Level 1

48 points

Sep 23, 2023 4:13 AM in response to Branta_uk

Thats very interesting to know- because the Ultra2 and Series 9 share a lot of the same components including the CPU. So it could be a new sensor that is basically wrong calibrated! But nevertheless its frustrating that the setting cannot be manually set and or overriden. It quite simply not understandable.. But GREAT with the feedback! The more people that complain and awareness of the problem- the more chance of a fix via an update! (hopefully!)

LasseK1981 Author

Level 1

48 points

Sep 25, 2023 1:41 AM in response to Strawhat1491

Hmm .. I am actually in writing trying to see how long I can stretch the battery and I am up to 48 hours now with 47% left on the Ultra 2 battery. The main things for me is that you should disable almost all notifications. Thats a real power hog. But battery wise I have no complaints so far. It more this DIM issue we all are suffering from. Remember the feedback link- otherwise nothing happens.

LasseK1981 Author

Level 1

48 points

Sep 25, 2023 4:39 AM in response to dggontan

I can confirm that my brother has the Ultra 1 and he says he has the same problem. Which makes me think its a software issue. But the bad thing is we now are in gen. 2 and they have not fixed it. It COULD be because not enough people have reported it with Ultra 1. But I also got my brother to write in the feedback link with his Ultra 1 just 10 min. ago... So im thinking we really need to push this one. Its so bad that I had to disable the red evening mode because I simply hardly can see it when watching tv in low light conditions.

Sep 26, 2023 1:21 AM in response to LasseK1981

I have both Ultra and Ultra 2 watches and did not experience any issues with the original as with Ultra 2.

Side by side and in daylight, the screen is noticeably brighter on the Ultra 2 but at low light levels, the screen is very poor and barely visible in comparison.

Also, I much preferred the manual night screen setting via rotating the Crown. Apple please fix !!!

BeCause2

Level 1

21 points

Sep 26, 2023 5:31 AM in response to LasseK1981

Same for me. It’s dimmer than my previous series 7. I can’t read it in a dark environment at all! I hate it. I have the brightest turned up to the max setting and it is still useless. I purchased this watch for its enhanced brightness as advertised, but this is so awful I’ll have to rerun it. Very dissaoointed. False advertisements Apple!

Sep 26, 2023 4:33 PM in response to LasseK1981

Hello there, I found out that this latest Apple Watch update adds a night mode sensor that is a bit of a pain on the Apple model that you and I have.

I found out how to turn it off

If you hold your finger on your screen until it pops into edit mode you will have a button that says edit tap on it then you will see at the top of the screen it should say style. If you swipe your finger to the right it will get to night mode.

You spin the crown to select the mode to be off.

Apple is already working on a fix

Sep 26, 2023 9:32 PM in response to LasseK1981

Just received my Apple Watch Ultra 2 today and loved it until nighttime. I cannot read my text messages at all because it’s so dim and the brightness feature does not do much. Please re-calibrate!!! This is unacceptable for a Watch at this price.

Sep 27, 2023 1:41 PM in response to dggontan

I have same issue if I shine light on watch the screen goes bright.

I have brightness on full and when i tap screen the brightness won’t increase. In night mode red screen I can barely see or read anything.

Markuson

Level 1

12 points

Sep 27, 2023 9:59 PM in response to LasseK1981

If Apple doesn’t issue an IMMEDIATE fix, I’ll return my Ultra 2. Even worse… WatchOS 10 also rendered my original Ultra much darker than it was before.

The ONLY I reason I bought the 2 after already having the first Ultra was all the talk about a brighter screen. In daylight, yes. But in dark environments, it is UTTERLY USELESS. Totally unreadable.

jmcadres

Level 1

2 points

Sep 28, 2023 12:06 AM in response to LasseK1981

Same issue here. Returning tomorrow to protect myself against it NEVER being fixed. Because right it’s useless in dark locations. If/when this is fixed, I’ll buy it again.

In a dark room, if I shine the iPhone spotlight on the watch face (Ultra 3), it gets nice and bright for a short time. If it would stay this bright all of the time in darkness, it would be perfect.

Sep 28, 2023 1:05 AM in response to jmcadres

I have been testing shining the iPhone light on watch in dark and the screen stays bright for a few seconds and then reverts back to dim mode.

when night mode active the watch is totally useless. Not sure if it’s worth waiting for a software fix or returning phone.

Woz099

Level 1

8 points

Sep 28, 2023 1:46 AM in response to LasseK1981

I have set the Wayfinder face as my default and turned Night Mode off - Watch is still unreadably DIM in low / no light conditions and no Option to make it brighter!

A simple Dim Control AUTO / OFF in Display and Brightness would do and let us choose if we want the Watch Face to DIM in low / no light conditions; why is APPLE deciding that for us?

Sep 28, 2023 9:25 AM in response to LasseK1981

Thanks for posting -- I went in to buy the Ultra 2 at the Apple Store yesterday and was wearing my Series 7 and it was brighter! I was like -- this can't be right. Had an associate set it to max brightness. What was also strange was my tester wasn't as bright as the watches on display on a charger. Now, the Apple Store in Santa Monica lets in lots of natural light so I thought it was a great test environment because I wanted to wear mine for sailing -- no way I could read compass directions in the store so couldn't imagine on the open water. Did not purchase. Disappointing!

FSB2105

Level 1

25 points

Oct 1, 2023 8:33 AM in response to LasseK1981

I also wanted to go over all of the things I have done to try to improve the display. None these have worked.

Steps taken so far:

I have exchanged the watch. Issues persist.

Watch is on 10.0.2

Phone is on iOS 17.0.2

Have reset and unpaired, re-paired the watch.

Have rebooted the phone

Have reset the watch to factory settings and started over.

Brightness is at max

Tried "always on" in both modes, no difference

Tried low power mode, on and off, no difference

Have tried True Tone on and off on the phone, no change

Have tried Night Shift on and off on the phone, no change

Have tried various other settings on the phone in case there was a mirror issue, no change

Have called support. Went through various combination of watch and phone settings, no change

Tried various community recommended hacks, none have worked.

Have had support run Analytics on my watch, no issue found.

Markuson

Level 1

12 points

Oct 1, 2023 5:02 PM in response to FSB2105

15 Pro Max…

But I feel certain this is a WatchOS 10 issue. Updating my original Ultra to O10 rendered ot similarly dim. Extremely irritating. I’ll be returning the Ultra 2, as brightness was the ONLY reason I tried the 2.

Most irritating of all though? It broke my original Ultra…so I’m screwed even after returning this one.

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