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

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.

The challenges as we age, our pupils do not dilate as they do when we’re young. The muscles weaken, hence the reason that people over 50 need twice as much light as someone at the age of 30. I would hope that designers for Apple would have thought about this.

ckmic wrote:

The challenges as we age, our pupils do not dilate as they do when we’re young. The muscles weaken, hence the reason that people over 50 need twice as much light as someone at the age of 30. I would hope that designers for Apple would have thought about this.

umm, I am in my 30s............ I CANT SEE ANYTHING, AND I GOT MY EYES CHECKED FOR THE FIRST TIME AFTER 2 YEARS -- YESTERDAY AND THEY TOLD ME MY EYES WERE BETTER THAN BEFORE AND I DONT EVEN NEED GLASSES, I STILL CANT SEE ANYTHING ON THIS WATCH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I don't even type in capitals ever. is this whole Apple Watch Ultra 2 a joke???

I also have the Series 9 and ended up here when searching for why the screen is so dim at night. I switched from a Series 5 which did not have the problem. When watching tv I don’t have the room very bright, but I do have a light in front of me, and my watch basically doesn’t get any brighter than the always-on brightness, even with the brightness in the settings set to max. I have to point my watch at the light for it to be bright enough for me to use it. I used the feedback left by another poster to send Apple some feedback. Hopefully if they hear it from enough people they will do something about it.

I just rang Apple again about this. I have a Genius Bar appointment set for next week but it’s close to my 14 days so I wanted to make sure they knew all my concerns.

They told me that as far as they’re aware, there is no problem with the Ultra 2. So I really have no hope that this is going to be fixed anytime soon. I’m probably going to have to return it. And this means none of these new watches are for me, yet according to Apple, I’m the problem not the watch/es.

How can this be happening? How can Apple not acknowledge this is a problem? This is all so weird. It feels like gaslighting 101. Maybe there’s not enough of us experiencing the problem? Maybe our numbers fall within acceptable parameters…or something. I just don’t get it.

Hi I bought a new Apple Watch ultra 2 last night and was very happy with it, at first didn't go to bed until late as I was setting it up. When I turned the bedroom lights off about 11 pm as it was about time to go to sleep I thought I would check at my blood glucose as I am a diabetic and have my current blood glucose as a complication via an app shuggah that continuously monitors my blood sugars I noticed that the screen was unreadable as it was so dim turned the light back on and instantly the display was nice and bright again noticed that my bloods were way too low had to get up and eat otherwise I could have gone into a diabetic coma. I went into settings display and brightness and turned brightness to max, still didn't make much of a difference. Been up most of the night, reset all and tried again with the same issue. I am very impressed with the watch, but there is a major bug with the software I guess as it should get brighter in a darker place, not the opposite!! like I said I have been up most of the night trying everything to fix this to no avail and upon googling there are hundreds of people having the same issue, so I guess I will ring apple in a couple of hours time and see what they have to say if they acknowledge the issue then I will keep it as they will fix it if not then I will return it for my money back within the 14 days.

Hey guys, I just had a lenghty call (1h+) with apple support in germany. They are aware of this and it's escalated to engineering.

Nevertheless when or even if they fix it is up in the sky.

A statistical game. Getting enough complaints they fix it soon.

So go and contact support, maybe they can help which i doubt but at least another complaint is filed.

I will go to the apple store next week and return my watch any maybe get a Series 8 if it behaves differently.

Best!!

Request everyone to raise case and Apple will eventually look into the issue for a possible workaround through some fix via software update. Because this product doesn’t fulfill the primary requirement.

According to google Tim read ALL user emails, whether this is true or not this is another thing.

even if he does not read it personally maybe someone will get eyes on it. Send him the links to this forum so they can see what is going on. It seems that more news outlets are picking this story up as well.

this is going to be bad press for Apple product for a watch “with the brightest screen ever” that is capped at what seems 30% brightness.

i tried to send a text using Siri last night while in bed and I had to strain my eyes and bring my watch 1 foot away from my face to even read the message I had sent…

and as far as I could see in the keynote in September Tim was wearing an Ultra watch.

Branta_uk wrote:

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.

I think this is spot on to what I am seeing. Well said. If this is the way it's supposed to work, I wish there were a way to adjust that setting. My old eyes just can't read the really dim screen at night.