onEnterSleep, DISPLAY_MODE_HIGH_POWER interaction

In low power, onUpdate is only called every minute and not every second, so AMOLED watches as well as MIP watches enter low power mode after onEnterSleep is called, to save battery.  So on any watch, when in low power mode, you don't want to display seconds (except MIP devices with onPartialUpdate(

It's how often the screen updates.  There is a difference on all watches.

On AMOLED devices there are also restrictions as far as wheat you can do in low power with AOD on.

So, what do I gain by selecting always on? In AMOLED it goes to the low power mode display.  On a MIP device, it dims dramatically.  

You gain the "always on" with AMOLED, where the display is "always on" and you don't need to do anything to wake up the display,  It does increase the amount of battery drain.  The battery life is much shorter if you have AOD on vs letting the screen go blanks.  I usually keep AOD off for that reason.

FlyFrosty said:

So, what do I gain by selecting always on? In AMOLED it goes to the low power mode display.  On a MIP device, it dims dramatically.  

In case it's not clear:

- Always on mode only applies to AMOLED watches, not MIP watches

- If always on is disabled on an AMOLED watch, then the display turns off completely when the user isn't actively looking at it. In this case, the display is only on for a few seconds after a wrist turn on button press

To answer your question, what you gain is that the screen doesn't turn off when you're not actively looking at it, but it dims instead.

Ofc many people say that AMOLED displays aren't really that visible in sunlight when they're dimmed, but a dimmed screen is probably better than a blank screen.

FlyFrosty said:

On a MIP device, it dims dramatically.  

Well, one of the differences between MIP and AMOLED Garmin devices is that MIP devices can actually be configured to leave the backlight on indefinitely, at the cost of battery life. AMOLED devices cannot be configured to leave the display at full brightness indefinitely. One can deduce that in the case of AMOLED devices, Garmin has that restriction because they are worried about screen burn-in. (Plus they have said that outright.)

Personally I take advantage of this on my MIP FR955 - I turn off the backlight timeout after sunset for activities, which means that the backlight stays on indefinitely when I go for a run at night.

Furthermore, when it come to watchfaces, you are correct that both MIP and AMOLED watchfaces will time out of "high power mode" after a few seconds and return to "low power mode", but of course the big difference is that MIP watchfaces can still update part of the screen once per second in low power mode, while AMOLED watchfaces can not.

In practical terms, this means that MIP watchfaces can have a permanent seconds indicator (or other small data that changes once per second, like heart rate), but AMOLED watchfaces cannot.

The ability for MIP watchfaces to update part of the screen in low power mode is referred to as "always active" (not always on), and it's not a user setting, it's a feature of the device. Some very old Garmin MIP watches, like FR235, lack the hardware to support always active watchfaces. You can tell because FR235 is not on the list of devices that supports onPartialUpdate, which is the function that implements once-per-second updates in low power mode.

Here's a page where Garmin explains CIQ watchfaces and the concepts of low power mode, high power mode, always active and always on:

https://developer.garmin.com/connect-iq/user-experience-guidelines/watch-faces/ 

Thank you for the information and link.  I read that page several times before making this post.  It does a pretty good job of explaining OMOLED but not so much with MIP.  It’s been a while since I had my Vivoactive 3, but I remember having the background light on all the time (and burning in the watch face).  I guess I figured there was some kind of always on equivalent that would keep it lit the whole time.

BTW…My low power mode only displays 2 time zones and shifts every minute, despite the watch capabilities. Pretty basic.

FlyFrosty said:

I guess I figured there was some kind of always on equivalent that would keep it lit the whole time.

Like I said, there is: change the settings on your MIP watch so the backlight stays on forever (either for general use, during activities, or both). It shouldn't be possible to burn in a MIP display by leaving the backlight on afaik. 

That's why there is no need for an "always on" mode in MIP. MIP is already more capable than AMOLED in this regard [*]

MIP:

- screen stays on all the time

- backlight times out after a few seconds, but user can override this behaviour and keep backlight on indefinitely via settings [*]

- in high power mode (few seconds after user turns wrist), CIQ watchface updates entire screen once per second

- in low power mode (after high power timeout) , CIQ watchface can update part of screen once per second (if the dev implements onPartialUpdate). The full screen can be updated once per minute.

AMOLED:

- screen turns off if AOD is disabled

- if AOD is enabled, screen stays on all the time, but dims after a few seconds. The user cannot prevent the screen from dimming [*]

- in high power mode, CIQ watchface updates entire screen once per second (same as MIP)

- in low power mode, CIQ watchface only updates once per minute.

[*] This is a case where the default behaviour of MIP devices and AMOLED devices (with AOD enabled) is similar (the MIP backlight turns off after timeout and the AMOLED display dims after timeout), but MIP has an advantage that the user can choose to keep the backlight on (and the display readable at night) at the cost of battery life.

Hopefully it's clear why MIP doesn't need "always on". It can already do everything AMOLED can and more, when it comes to keeping the display on and readable. (Yes, I'm aware that AMOLED has many other advantages, like looking good indoors, being very bright, having lots of colours, having a higher refresh rate, and having higher resolution.)

To be clear, MIP and AMOLED are different technologies, so you can't really compare them directly.

- MIP works great outdoors in bright sunlight without a backlight. But at night you do need a backlight to see the watch. It also looks bad indoors. There's no burn-in consideration here, so the backlight can be kept on all the time (at the cost of battery life)

- AMOLED looks great indoors, but needs to be at full brightness to be seen outdoors in bright sunlight. At night, you can see the display when it's dimmed. To avoid burn-in, Garmin will dim the display after a few seconds, and you can't turn that behaviour off

So it's kind of apples to oranges, but we can say that to be visible in all circumstances:

- MIP needs the backlight (the main situation is night time use)

- AMOLED needs to be at full brightness (the main situation is outdoor daytime use)

But MIP allows the backlight to be turned on all the time and AMOLED doesn't allow full brightness all the time. 

If you want a display which is "always visible" without turning your wrist or pressing a button, MIP wins imo. Apparently most ppl don't care and are happy to turn their wrist tho.

I mean, I can see that MIP looks terrible compared to AMOLED, so I don't blame em. If I wasn't a runner, I wouldn't want a MIP screen on my watch.

Thank you all for the in-depth explanation.  I think I have a grasp on it now.  

I have been reducing my low power mode display to local time and zulu time, then shifting them every minute. This is great for the AMOLED.  However, since the only things that update every second on my faces are the seconds and steps (if they are selected for display), I can either use onPartial to update these every second, or I can turn off seconds and allow the steps to update only every minute on any MIP devices in any power mode.  So, on any MIP they can get almost the full face.

Thanks again!