AOD brightness - compared to Apple Watch

Hello,

Those of you who have both an Apple Watch (9 or Ultra) and Fenix 8 Amoled - how is the Always On Display in both outside and inside conditions?

Is it bright enough outside, and dim enough inside? I read some posts where folks claim it is too low when inside, but this seems to be a stock watch face problem (I will use a non-stock high contrast one)

I really like how the Apple Watch handles this aspect, and if the F8 is similar I will upgrade from my trusty old F7

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0 indymtb 11 months ago

Incredibly legible in or outside while gesture has turned it on. Pretty dim when it is in the dimmed mode. Mine is viewable but it is dim.

0 akiakic 11 months ago

In full power mode when you move your wrist to activate it is perfectly fine. It could be a bit brighter but it is ok as is. However, in AOD low power mode it is invisible. Totally invisible with built in watch faces. Only one that is ok is the analog built in one. Garmin needs to fix this. AW Ultra is totally better in low power mode. I wish they would just gives MIP that is readable as current F7 MIP is horrible. Maybe F8 MIP is better.

0 9845266 11 months ago

I really dont know if ppl are hiking ON the sun but I have no issues what so ever to read the screen even in the lowest brightness setting

0 1246733 11 months ago

If you exercise during the day (lots of light) you will be fine, but if you exercise in the evening (dark) the image will be dramatically poor.

0 SomeUsername 11 months ago in reply to 1246733

I was just outside running in the dark and heavy rain, I had zero problem reading the screen.

0 1246733 11 months ago in reply to SomeUsername

Then I think you were born with supernatural eyes. It may be that your eyes emit a certain type of light that makes the display think it is daylight.

0 SomeUsername 11 months ago in reply to 1246733

I was cross breed with a cat, maybe this is the cause.

0 dadonev 11 months ago

I went ahead and got the watch. AOD outside is definitely dimmer than the Apple watch, but still readable on my SHN TxD II-E watch face.

The stock watch faces are mostly unreadable (at least the time digits) because they go in "outlined" mode, where the borders are too thin.

All in all - happy with the purchase. So far I am 2.5 days in, with 70% left on battery, worth the lower dimness :) (AW would have been charged twice by now)

0 4284668 9 months ago

Inside I find it too bright (SW beta 12.09). AOD should really be very, very low brightness inside, the sensor should be recalibrated, almost looking like a MIP display. To me it looks like the watch is fully turned on inside in lower brightness situations. They should fix it, it looks like a toy then. But mostly it uses way more battery and could result in a burn-in some day, even so everyone says that shouldn't be the case anymore.

Again to me it is way too bright in low brightness situations.

I don't have an AW anymore but some years ago I did and the AOD inside was way lower back then and looked much better then on the Garmin fenix 8. More like a real watch or MIP in AOD mode.

0 dadonev 9 months ago in reply to 4284668

Yes, this is correct. To work around this, I have set the “down” button to be a shortcut for Red shift, and I turn it on easily if I feel it is too bright