Fenix 8 Amoled 51mm UNUSABLE in low light!

I recently “upgraded” from an Epix Gen 2 to a Fenix 8 51mm AMOLED ($1200.00) and may go back to the Epix or another brand if this issue isn’t fixed soon.  The auto dimming can’t be turned off and it’s so dim in low light that it’s completely unreadable even with the backlight set to full brightness and sleep mode turned off.  GARMIN - Please remove the auto dimming “feature” or at the very least, enable users to turn it off.  I would be willing to charge the watch every day if that’s what it takes to fix this issue.  With all the options/competition in the market, it’s shocking GARMIN is allowing this type of issue to go to market and it’s amazing this made it through QA.  What’s equally frustrating is how long it’s taking to get a solution and helpful update.  It’s been more than five months since users reported this issue and the only response I can find from Garmin is “we’re investigating”.  

A response from Garmin with a projected resolution date would be greatly appreciated.

- Joe

  • You won't get a response on here,better to email or ring them.

  • Forget it it's a waist of time and Garmin seems numb regarding the whole dimming situation outright denying it .Most probably they struck a deal with a bad AMOLED company and now there is no back otherwise they would have to recall all sold Amoled F8s Wich ofc they won't. The easiest way for "Them" to say is " we can't reproduce this issue" although 90% of users are complaining  .

    And in my very case Laurie here had the guts to answer to me that " Aside of me NO ONE is complaining". So in best Garmin interest  suck it up . Thank you for 1200USD we are always right you are wrong . I bought the F8 51 coming from Tacitx C and Tactix Delta Solar and might as well be my last Garmin watch if they don't take responsibility and do something about it. 

  • I really hope Garmin does the right thing here.  This isn’t an isolated, imaginary issue.  The issue and Garmin’s handling of the issue needs to get picked up by voices with a broad audience and influence.  DCRainMaker, DesFit, ChaseTheSummit, etc…. It’s unacceptable to pretend the issue doesn’t exist, if that is in fact what they’re doing.  There is clearly something in the code that causes the display to dim in low light.  The hardware doesn’t do that without being told to do it.

  • I just reached out to Garmin’s directly.  I’m cautiously optimistic that I will get a better response than what I’ve seen online.  More to come.

  • Good luck, but from what I've seen so far, it seems that they simply get "offended" and outright dismiss the issue while trying to evade any responsibility. It's impossible that the engineers can't replicate the problem, as it is clearly visible. However, capturing the exact replication using a phone camera is quite challenging; what the eyes can see doesn’t always translate well to video. Perhaps a high-quality, high-speed camera could capture it properly, but I haven't been able to get a good shot. On camera, the difference appears minimal, but that doesn't accurately represent the issue and shouldn't be considered relevant.

  • 3 months ago I complained about the same issue and no real progress so far:
    forums.garmin.com/.../fenix-8-amoled-51mm-low-brightness-in-the-dark

  • Do you mean the dimming after the timeout? That's by design in order to prevent the display burn-in, and to reduce the power consumption. There is no way to disable it. You can only change the timeout. However, you can always bring it back to the full brightness by the wrist gesture, or by pressing the Light button.

    If the wrist gesture does not work, check out the Gesture option in Display settings, and also verify whether the setting for the left/right wrist is set correctly. And if it does not help, then double-check the Sleep Hours settings, or disable the Sleep Mode. The gesture does not work during sleep hours, and the display brightness is set to the lowest level, by default.

  • In a dark environment, the screen immediately dims to about 25% of its full brightness. I don’t understand how some people don’t notice this; it has nothing to do with timeout settings. For me, glancing at the watch in the dark is nearly impossible unless it's in night mode, which only displays in black and white, making it somewhat visible. Outside, in low light or darkness, the screen is very dim. If you use a phone to illuminate the watch screen, you’ll see how much brighter it becomes.

    In my opinion, the screen should start at 100% brightness in the dark and remain at that level until I decide to change it. My Tactix Delta SOL MIP is significantly better in this regard compared to the Fenix 8, so when I’m outdoors or engaging in hiking and mountaineering activities, I switch to the Tactix Delta SOL. The Fenix 8 AMOLED is literally unusable in low-light environments, making it very difficult to read a map and get orientation especially if you need to look longer at the map to decide a rout or whatever .
    I find it utterly annoying constantly taping on the screen while taking a map readout in the dark in the forest or whatever outdoor activity that requests me to check the map or make a decision while deciding the next step.

  • I received a response from Garmin mixed results.  On the plus side, the response was quick and there was acknowledgment that the device dims the brightness based on available ambient light.  On the down side there is still no timeline to provide users with control of this feature or a commitment to ever provide users with that ability.  Official response below: 

    “Hello Joe,

      
    Thanks for providing the email and Unit ID.
    I went ahead and added you to the list of impacted customers requesting an option to disable Automatic Ambient Light detection.
    I recommend submitting feedback through our ideas form as well:
    While we don't have a timeline yet for adding this feature, the more requests we get, the more likely this is to get prioritized. 
    Please let me know if you have any further questions or concerns.
    Thank you for choosing Garmin,“