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Too low brightness in low ambient light.

Istvan

Hi,

Just received my Fenix 8 AMOLED 51mm and sadly noticed its new feature, which significantly decrease the brightness in low ambient light. Not to be confused, I do not mean the configurable timeout (4, 8 or 16 sec) or focus or red shift either.

Imagine I am in a dark room. Brightness is set to maximum, battery saver is off, gesture is on. When I raise my arm, the screen comes up, but it is too dark. If I illuminate the watch display by a flashlight, the brightness goes up automatically. When I switch off the flashlight and keep the display busy, the brightness goes down again after a few seconds.

In this dark mode I hardly see the display, and can not see the small letters/numbers at all. I had no this issue with EPIX, of which brightness was independent form the ambient light.

Unfortunately I did not find any settings to get rid of this kind of dimming.

Any thoughts?

Best regards,

Istvan

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  • 0 in reply to 1246733

    Shesh, yeah, I luckily canceled my order of the MIP that's still on shortage. But it's great fun to see you rambling about buying a very high-priced watch with a lot of errors, thinking you have the right to demand that things get fixed in the order you want.

    I just fancy seeing all those sunk cost fallacies and buyer's remorse kicking in, convincing yourself that this is the must-have piece of gear. It's all the flaws are just swept under the rug because, hey, it’s "the best." Classic case of hyping something up to avoid facing the reality, right?

    But hey, if you're happy with it, more power to you. Just don't expect everyone to agree that it's the ultimate 'must-have' gear when there are still obvious issues hanging around.

  • 0 in reply to bw

    Yeah, because being able to actually read your watch is secondary. Rofl

  • 0 in reply to 9638684

    Yeah, a 1200€ watch that mutes the alarm when in sleep mode Rofl

  • 0 in reply to 1246733

    Nah, display brightness is also set by software. The AMOLED eventually is bright enough, otherwise you couldn't see it daytime.

    I think it's fun to see you early adopter getting that aggressively insisting that a product that obviously is not ready yet is the best thing you could get your hands on.

    I came from an F6Pro to an F7 after it's been on the market over half a year and the worst errors were buffed out. So there still are errors and instabilities on the F7...

    Do yourself a favour, get a thought if this watch is worth 1200 bucks for you as it stands right now. If not return it, monitor the forums and if it's ready then buy it and save yourself a few hundred bucks. IT JUST WON'T BE WHAT YOU WHISH IT WAS, at least not the next half year. Now you still have refund policy on your side.

  • 0 in reply to 1246733

    Update November 20, 2024: 

    Software version 11.89 when released included fixes for screen brightness. Our engineers have determined this has resolved this concern. 

  • +1 in reply to Garmin-Laurie

    Update April 25, 2025: 

    Our engineers investigated concerns about the ambient light sensor dimming the watch too dark. They have determined this behavior is by design. 

    Your watch has an ambient light sensor that will dim the display in low light so that it is not blindingly bright. Your watch will also automatically brighten in bright light conditions to make your screen easier to read. 

    Your watch also behaves differently based on your Always On setting:

    • Always On Display Mode is On:
      • After your set display timeout period, the watch will dim to low power mode. In this mode, the watch is conserving battery and extending the life of the display. 
      • It may be difficult to read at times once it has dimmed to low power mode. To resolve this, press the Light (top right) button to brighten the display to full power mode. Alternatively, you can use gesture, or press buttons if you have those options turned on in your display settings. Once the display has brightened it will remain bright for the length of your timeout period, and will then dim again. 
      • If your watch is not detecting heart rate (for example you are not wearing the watch), the display will turn off after your timeout period instead of going to low power mode. 
    • Always On Display Mode is Off:
      • The display will turn off after your set timeout period. 
      • To brighten the display, press the Light (top right) button. Alternatively, you can use gesture, or press buttons if you have those options turned on in your display settings. Once the display has brightened it will remain bright for the length of your timeout period, and will then turn off again.

    You can learn more about your display in this FAQ: Understanding Always On Setting for the fēnix 8 AMOLED Watches 

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