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

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.

I agree that the screen dimness is a disaster for those of us who cannot use a screen of one nit brightness. The software needs a minimum brightness control, as was previously mentioned.

i am returning my newly purchased Ultra 2, and will continue using my Serie 4, which has a much higher minimum brightness setting.

The designers must have decided that an outdoor- oriented watch would not be of interest to anyone over 40 years of age, or with any visual impairment. Many of the watch’s features actually appeal to those potential customers, so this was a surprise error from Apples.

Call me shocked and. disappointed. I hope they’ll contact me when a usable watch Ultra 2 is released.

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!

Hi, I have an Ultra 2 and used to suffer terribly from the non-existent screen in the dark, I am a pensioner who suffers from early stages of diabetic retinopathy, in which one of the symptoms is difficulty seeing in the dark, so vision is bad, I couldn't read anything except the time as it was in a large font I can't talk about 'beta's' because my post will be deleted, but now I am more than happy with it, I can just about

read even the smallest fonts in total darkness with brightness turned up to max, all I Wil say is just wait a short while until things change hopefully for you also. I am using the horrible Siri face, as that's the only one of two of the faces that calendars that syncs correctly with, unfortunately, but it allows me to just about read my blood sugars in the dark during the middle of the night now the Modular face used to be much better when it used to sync properly.

On average, I get about three days battery use, with the phone syncing with a calendar every 5 to 10 mins, so no problems there either. Thank you for your original post, it has generated a lot of comments from a good variety of users, and I am confident that the correct people have seen or heard about it.

Just bought an Ultra 2 which is amazing as

my first Apple Watch. However I totally agree, this is absolutely useless in the dark???

What a let down,shattered my whole experience , hope Apple sort this asap, PLEASE I haven’t got £800 to throw about for something I can’t see in the dark

Regrettably I had to return my Ultra 2 as it was impossible to read in dim light - I tried the update and every other adjustment possible - NO GO! I have waited till this version to take the plunge - Not a good experience. Hopefully the return goes smoothly! This is a huge oversight by Apple - guess they are trying to save battery life but this should be up to the consumer! I won't be buying another one. I have been working on The Mac since the very beginning - I have 4 Macs running at this very moment. Too bad I really wanted to like this product.

My return went very smoothly. They really didn’t care why I was returning it. I’d recommend that everyone return theirs and maybe they’ll actually do something about it. They certainly aren’t very concerned about it given this has been a problem since September. They could have easily done a quick small update only addressing this one issue. Totally irresponsible to be selling these with this major current flaw with no public recognition of the problem.

Glad your return went well, I’ve had mine less than a week, seriously thinking of returning it myself, don’t want to really as it’s an amazing watch bar the dimming, brightness issue, but it’s a lot of money too.

hope they resolve this soon.

Don’t hold your breath on that happening soon. They’ve known about this since September and haven’t done anything or even acknowledged there’s a problem. From what I’ve read above possibly by the end of the year? I wasn’t willing to own a watch that’s literally worthless at night in the hope they’ll fix it. And three months without a fix is ridiculous in my opinion.

I have had my Ultra 2 for a month. One of the main reasons I decided to upgrade was all the advertisements about how bright it was. I have a vision problem and I could not pass up trying the larger brighter screen. For me, it feels like false advertising because it’s a feature that doesn’t exist at night. I called Apple about the fact that the only way I can see anything on my watch at night, is to use a flashlight so that the watch will light up brighter. I was told that they do know there’s a problem and they’re hoping to have a fix shortly. The technician told me that the more people that complain, the better. Now that I realize how many people are dealing with this issue as well, I will return to Costco within the return window if there has been no resolution. I have already sent in my old watch, so I will be “watch-less” which is really irritating. I depend on my watch for safety as I am disabled. Angry, irritated and disappointed.

I posted the exact same photo with my series 4 and my ultra 2... So terrible. Even worse is that I recycled my series 4 when I got the ultra 2 and now I'm stuck.. Makes me so angry.

I just hope with the upcoming watchOS 10.2 that we see any sort of fix. Even if we don't get back the ability to manually adjust with the digital crown, increasing brightness at least a little bit would help. Not a fix at all if this happens, but at least we would know Apple cares to consider these several hundreds of concerned posts from Apple watch ultra 2 users.

Like I’ve said before, I returned my U2 after 2 days. I couldn’t see the point of keeping a watch that is worthless at night for up to 3 months hoping for a fix. I do assume it will ultimately be fixed, but what a waste of money in the meantime. These are not cheap bottom of the line watches!

Nov 28, 2023 2:50 PM in response to sandler77

I won’t tell anyone what to do.

But I am canceling my return.

Make of that what you will. I’ve been getting deleted lately so…

😀 ⏳

Alan160m wrote:

Lately, whenever I write a post, it gets deleted I guess Apple’s never heard of freedom of speech

Likewise, I decided to keep the watch and have faith that Apple is doing its best to respond to this issue ASAP.

better but not great. i think they are only worried about battery issues. not sure why 9 and U2 use more battery, but i think that was the reason the dimness was done at night to begin with. slight changes are on the way. don't expect anything like prior watch, but better and sorta readable. Should be soon I hope.

@g0sbv I assume you are talking about an updated software version that is not yet released? Can you elaborate on what is so much better compared to before?

on another note, what is the newest series of Apple Watch that DOES NOT have the auto dimming feature? Is it series 4?