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Display Brightness - Develop Night Mode

9220840
over 5 years ago

I've just received a new 6X sapphire and am genuinely impressed by the functionality. I bought he watch because I surf, snorkel, swim, and MTB and lead an active lifestyle. The watch is also rugged enough to we worn trekking over miles of sandbars fishing rivers, or a day deep water trolling for mackerel. I work in an office, and frequently wear a suits for corporate wear and needed conservative watch for during these times. I then invested in 3 quick release bands from ebay and other to transform my Fenix from a black stainless steel band James Bond corporate wear, to the surfer, runners, and outdoor look. Also a fabric Khaki band for casual use. 

I had what I though was the perfect watch..... until you want to view the screen indoors.The watch display is great outdoors but HORRIBLE indoors. 

GARMIN, you need to listen to your customers across the hundreds of sites complaining regarding the screen and returning watches for this reason. I'm not sure of whats possible regarding the MIP screen technology, and accept that you have built the perfect outdoor watch, You have forgotten that we humans live inside as well!

Suggested FIX:

Add capability into Power Management a feature/mode to emulate AMOLED type brightness. I don't care if the battery will only last 24 hours while in this mode, if i'm dressed to impress at night i want people to see the watchface (eg: Analog ConnectIQ Army watch) in all it glory. Then I can switch back to Normal mode for battery life and day to day use. 

I've now had my watch for a week and will probably return it to see if there is any changes in GARMIN positons regarding screens. I see the Venu now has AMOLED - great for those that want to charge a watch every couple of days and want a Samsumg/Apple equivalent. 

I'm hoping for a software update to resolve this issue so I could keep the current hardware and get resolved in the future. If this brightness emulation like AMLOED is impossible with MIP screens, It might be the nail that sends my 6X back. 

To make my decision easier, does any one know if the MIP screen can even get close to an AMOLD screen characteristics. I'm most disapointed with GARMIN miss representing the screen usability at night and indoors as all the marketing, store screen shots show bright glowing screens.

Hope GARMIN corporate will comment back.  

  • +1 over 5 years ago
    9220840 said:
    does any one know if the MIP screen can even get close to an AMOLD screen characteristics

    It is not possible. If you have a pain about Fenix screen, then you bought a wrong watch for yourself. Buy Garmin Venu or Apple Watch or any other with AMOLED display.

    If you are ready for a compromise. You can try to change brightness in Menu / System / Backlight / (Not) During Activity / Brightness. Choose the level which you will be more or less satisfied.

    To turn backlight always ON/OFF go to Menu / System / Backlight / (Not) During Activity and:

    • (Optional) Set "Keys and Alerts" option to Off
    • (Optional) Set "Gesture" option to Off
    • Set "Timeout" option to No Timeout

    After that backlight will be always ON/OFF and state of it can be changed by pressing LIGHT (top left) button.

    P.S. Menu navigation is from Forerunner 945, maybe it a little bit different in Fenix 6.

  • 0 over 5 years ago in reply to Digeridoo

    Thanks. I got to the point you mentioned above with backlight, and disabling the time out. This does make the face visible now in low light conditions, but the blacks and colours become washed out due to the course control of backlight intensity. I understand how transreflective technology works, but would love to know if garmin can target the backlight to specific screen layout locations that require lighting. This might not be controlable via the firmware, and limited by the hardware. 

  • 0 over 5 years ago in reply to 9220840

    FOOTNOTE. At 5% backlight, no timeout. This enables the wearer to keep the backlight on permanently at a low level, to shoe of the watch without burning the irises of any patron in a club or special event. It's not too bad. If any thing the backlight needs to be lower. Maybe in the next software update Garmin could support 1% increments below 10 or 5%. They should also give this info in a FAQ area or a READ THIS FIRST document to head off negative "noise" on their product. Happier now but still disappointed at the misrepresentation.  Garmin of the transreflective MIP screen. Should come with a warning to position customer expectations like.... This is not a Samsung or Apple watch.... And it's not meant to be! . 

  • 0 over 5 years ago in reply to 9220840
    9220840 said:
    If any thing the backlight needs to be lower.

    This is a key point.  I've seen most people complaining about the screens over the years on Fenix 3, Fenix 5, Fenix 5+ and now Fenix 6, all seem to have backlight set to 50% or more.  For me that is just way too bright.  I have a watch from all the Fenix series mentioned above and my standard on all has been 10%+wrist gesture when not in activity and 20%+wrist gesture in an activity.  This has always worked just fine; the screen doesn't look washed out, the battery isn't spanked and I've always been able to read the detail on the screen.

    Outside in sunlight during the summer and these screens are brilliant and don't need backlight at all.

  • 0 over 5 years ago in reply to 9220840

    The fenix series is a sport watch, and thats why they uses MIP display. These are better to read in direct sunlight, and are a lot battery safer that other display types. Why should Garmin give a warning? Does Other manufacturers give a warning that there battery only last for 24 hours due to AMOLED ?

  • 0 over 5 years ago in reply to Crispin_Ellisdon

    I've used 10% on my Forerunner whole the time, but now I wrote a widget to display barcodes or QR codes of my customer cards to be presented when shopping. Therefore I needed to increase the backlight level to 30% (there's no chance to set the backlight level within the app).

    But... when I am in bed and check the time I am blended by the bright light - so some improvements to enhance th backlight functionality would be fine.

    Some ideas:

    • different brightness levels depending the time (or at least two levels - one seperate when in do-not-disturb mode)
    • The power/light button allows a "double click" for 100% brightness
    • a hardware sensor will be used in future models to consider the actual light conditions
    • allow temporary backlight changes from user apps
  • 0 over 5 years ago in reply to PUFFOLINO

    Did you shared your ideas with Garmin ?

    www.garmin.com/.../

    a hardware sensor also needs to be powered by the battery and drains it.

  • +1 over 5 years ago in reply to PUFFOLINO

    Go to Menu / Controls / Add. Add Backlight item.

    Case: I want to easily change the brightness.

    Resolution 1: hold light button, select brightness icon (can be skip at second time), choose the desired level.

    Resolution 2: assign a hot key for a Backlight menu settings.

    Resolution 3: post your ideas to Garmin. Maybe some of them will be approved and implemented.

    I know that watch/options/settings is not perfect in all possible cases. But most cases can be covered by some compromise. Nobody said you that this watches can be successfully used in your personal case. At first place it is sport/outdoor watch, second place - smart watch, third place - other tasks. Did you feel the priority? If yes, then buy special watches for bar codes...

  • Former Member
    0 Former Member over 5 years ago in reply to bluefish

    That's so true!

  • Former Member
    0 Former Member over 5 years ago

    This is great to know. I bought a Suunto 9 titanium baro, I was about to trade it in for the same issues regarding the display. Now I know the Garmin has the same issues I’m in two minds. I’d prefer a non touch screen though. The Suunto is infuriating as it can’t be locked. My all time favourite sports watch was and still is my Suunto ambit 3. However the app software is no longer supported by Suunto.