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

I bought the new Apple Watch Ultra 2 on Friday (11/10/23) before having read any of this. I loved it all day and then nightfall came and the watch became useless. I couldn’t read anything and luckily I still had my Apple Watch 4 which still works great. Much better than the new watch at night. I found this string online and decided to return the new watch before it was too late. I returned it after only 2 days. I think it is irresponsible for Apple to even sell these watches until they find a fix. As for me, I decided I wasn’t going to keep a useless watch at night in the hope that Apple would resolve the issue sometime in the future having done nothing to resolve it for over two months. My advice is don’t buy one until it is resolved and tell everyone you know about the problem. The sales people at the Apple Store claimed to know nothing about it…

I’m on my third ultra to watch since it came out every time I go and I complain about the brightness they say they know of no issues and give me another watch the second one the battery drain so quickly the third one I’m wearing now the battery is fine But of course you can’t see the face at night Apple where are you and why are you not resolving this issue you’re gonna lose a lot of customers

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.

Today I filed an official complaint with the FTC regarding this issue. I hate it had to come to this, but unfortunately there was no other choice. Let's hope this will put an end to this issue once and for all.

I want a fix too… but…

Can you explain what you think the FTC will do? There is no requirement regarding how dim a device is set to adjust to. Apple’s claims about brightness, nits, etc remain intact.

Same with phones, TVs, laptops, etc. Max brightness claims are not undone by the device’s ability to lower it in various conditions.

Like I say… I want a fix, but I son’t think the FTC has a role here.

I returned two of them. But honestly…my cynical side suspects Apple will just happily chalk those up as three additional purchases…for sales totals—which don’t have to account for returns or defects.

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'm looking at subscript #4, #5 and #6... so much wording. Can't recall what was there before or if this changed. But I do see now it clearly states the battery/life is based on pre-production software. So... if watchOS is updated and then they maybe fix this DIM issue/bug, if 36 hours turns into 35.5 hours but we can actually use and see the watch at night, I guess users have to be OK with that. If that is the case, YES PLEASE APPLE!

Watching TV (Apple Watch Ultra 2) and I can’t see the watch!! it’s auto dim can not be turned up to full brightness. The setting is buried not like the iPhone either.

Apple wants to conserve battery energy - this should be my choice as I can not see the tiny thing without light!!!

Guess I’m going to have to return it if I can not see it at night!!

I totally agree. My AWU2 is way too dim. I have an AW4 and my display brightness is set to the lowest setting and I can see the display ( face ) just fine. I have the AWU2 set to the highest setting in the display brightness and it's no where as bright as the AW4 in low light setting. I've unpaired and paired again, reboot, hard reboot and nothing. This is obviously a hardware issue. Hopefully Apple will have a fix and be able to have an option to disengage the display brightness like the face slider coming in the next update.

I and many other users have exactly the same problem that the dial cannot be read in the dark. I am from Germany and have read these great reports here. Unfortunately, there aren't that many complaints in the German community.

Very disappointed, just spent $800 on this ultra watch 2, and I can barely see it in the dark. Apple has got to fix this problem. I think that should be up to the user on how dim they want the watch to be considering we pay for it. what a joke I would say anybody considering buying the ultra two should hold off until Apple fixes this issue because it’s practically useless in the dark when I’m driving my car and I want to look at a text that comes through. I can’t even see it.

Yeah, I was driving today and I received an important text, but since it’s usually very dark in my car at night, I raised my hand and couldn’t see anything because obviously my iris isn’t adjusted for it due to many lights on the road…

my ultra 2 just thinks oooh, it’s dark in here, lemme just give you the lowest brightness possibly but doesn’t account for what I’m seeing in front of me…

A A P L wrote:

grdh20 wrote:

Everyone check back in once the next update goes public or release. Something might be somewhat "better". I think at least.

That's what I've been saying... ;)

Yes. That's what I believe as well ;-)