Fenix 7 Pro Display too dark, not usable in the woods

I agree, and it's too bad.  When I show my Fenix 6 to people wearing a 7 they say 'Wow!  That's so clear!" EVERY TIME.

Hey you can set backlight on during activity with wrist gesture on. I am not sure that is a reason to downgrade. Btw Video can not be displayed in iphone safari browser.

Agree 100%. Garmin's questionable decision to go all-in on solar makes the screen less readable (for some use-cases, completely unreadable) and imposes an unattractive bezel-to-screen ratio which (unfortunately) gets thrust upon even the NON solar units (both Fenix and even EPIX).

erhancetin said:

Hey you can set backlight on during activity

I know but the reason for a MIP display instead of LED is that i do not have to activate backlight during outdoor activity.

And with my F6 i could  cycle MTB and leave the hand on the bar to control heartrate or other things due to the good clear display. With the F7 i have to ride with one hand on the bar while the other is doing gestures 

And what is worse, at the end the touch ended up being useless. It does unintended things far more often than intended things, so I keep it disabled most of the time. It was kind of useful when Fenix 7 was released but now I think the way touch is used is over the top.

If there is an option without touch and solar but with a better display I'd gladly choose that.

And yes, when running in a forest I sometimes can't see a thing on the screen. Low contrast plus reflections of sapphire make that impossible. 

seems that there is no perfect solution...

Quick introduction: main activities are climbing, mountaineering, and ski-touring. Secondly, I am also running and cycling.

What do I love in Epix?
- AMOLED screen - colors and deep blacks and also contrast. I was looking for something like that! I thought that this is it!

Then I started using it... and I noticed that some particular things are irritating me:

• gestures - not performing perfectly, sometimes the screen was turned on when I didn't need it, and when I disabled them I had to punch the screen or press a button which was not so convincing in particular situations during an activity or not during the activity (e.g. boring meeting and you would like to discreetly check the time :P)
• gestures - lack of possibility to add them as a shortcut in the keyboard or to the action menu
• when I performed an exercise indoors I did not need any backlight so the dimmed screen would be sufficient
• when I was biking and put the watch on the handlebar the screen was dimmed and the visibility was much worst, so I thought - nice I have a beautiful screen for maps, but damn I am not able to check that :) The situation is much better when I was doing training in the evening.
• I am not going to complain that AMOLED has bad visibility on a sunny day, because I was able to get any data that I needed, but worth to notice that MIP gives you better readability

To summarize:

• if you are going to use the watch as the only device to navigate/get training data during cycling - pls consider if Epix is a good solution for you
• if you are a climber, alpinist, or skier in some cases gestures are also really not comfortable. I have a lot of situations when I just glance at the screen, so gestures are not an option. In the MIP screen in most cases I see everything which I need, only by minimally adjusting the angle of the wrist, in AMOLED in most cases I have to use gestures.
• It is not a problem but pls notice that if you would really like to perfectly fit the AMOLED to your daily routine you have to manually turn on/off gestures, always on display, etc. There is no scheduler to do that - gestures. There is also no option to make a shortcut for that.

I can imagine using Epix as a second watch for my needs, but still, technology and current solution have some limitations, which I would like to highlight here.

I back to Fenix 7 Pro at the end of the day as for my needs it turn out that is far better (mostly MIP is better in my activities and requirements but I at some points I definitly can agreed on your observations) 

Yes, very much agree. I just bought 7X Pro Sapphire too. And the display really suck, poor visibility. 

Is there any upgrade on software to improve the brightness better display view?

Not really! The poor display visibility is due to combination of LCD display, sapphire crystal and solar layer. LCD relies on the reflected light, but both sapphire and solar layer reduce the light transmission. Even though the solar has almost no positive impact on the battery life it does harm display readability quite a lot. But hey, Garmin marketing advertised this this to users as an important feature!

The only solution that I can suggest is to activate backlight on wrist gesture. Basically, every time you turn the wrist it will turn on backlight, whether that is really needed or not. That would improve display readability but reduce the battery life.

Hi I just sold my Fenix 7, and bought an epix 2....that changed everything, as I run in the woods, or at night, I swim also.... I have the same battery life (no Always on display, but no issue the screen lights up when I turn my hand....and level 2 brightness is sufficient.... and with last firmware everything is smooth right now...