Garmin is digging their own grave

Generally speaking, this isn't the way Feature test suites work, particularly in inherited features/code.  These would be adapted for that layer of the s/w, across most/all of the lineup, 

For example, a weight-lifting sport would be owned by a developer/tester, and they would have a set of unit and functional tests for it, some of which might be optional, depending on what a given watch supports at a lower-level of the stack (maybe an additional sensor of some sort, ECG for example).  This way, a singular change to a sport would result in a similar change in corresponding test case/code, across the board.  I suppose it's possible for Garmin to have silo-ed code/test suites for this, but it would come at a huge cost, particularly in user experience across lineups.

It's still very possible to have bugs above/below those stacks, such that say an accelerometer reading isn't correctly interpreted/relayed, so an activity on one watch behaves slightly differently, despite having a common-code base for most of the stacks.

No, I turned off the custom power modes because I felt the AOD wasn't really that beneficial, for most of my use-cases.  Coming from a MIP display(s) over a lot of years, I thought I'd miss this, but honestly I find the wrist-flip sufficient, or a touch motion, to see things mid-activity.

There are times after dark where I find the display not ideal, but (mostly) functional.  I would 100% welcome a discrete adjustment/setting for when the sensor decides to dim things, but I wouldn't want to disable dimming entirely, just modulate it.

Well, this post didn't go in the direction you were hoping for huh?  

I DID start out with the custom power modes (F8 AMOLED, for reference), which did enable AOD for most activities, and it worked FINE.  I only disabled them because I saw them as an unnecessary battery draw, for features I didn't see the value in.

@hakujn What was the behavior you saw when AOD was enabled via Focus Modes, exactly?  For me, it worked *exactly* as described, so either I'm not understanding expected behavior, or expectations are perhaps different?  It turned off the AOD for walks but enabled it for rides, which I found particularly pointless for the winter season since it was mostly covered by a sleeve of some sort.

I understand your frustration — I feel it too at times, especially when I see that some bug reports aren’t being addressed and it seems like they’re not listening to us. That said, overall I’m happy with the watch.

To me, besides being beautiful, it’s way ahead of the competition in terms of features and hardware.

The only alternative I’d even consider is the Apple Watch Ultra, but the 2-day battery life is a dealbreaker for me.

In the end, we have the best and most expensive watch on the market, and we expect it to be perfect — but it never will be, neither this one nor any other.

My advice: enjoy it. But if you can’t, then swap it out and let us know if the change actually improved your experience.

Good luck!

hakujin said:

The people that think their watches are perfect, simply don't use the more advanced features, and as such never find the bugs others do. 

Or maybe they are and you have a bad example, or maybe you just think that you have a better understanding than anyone else, but you don't.

Bye

You will 100% return when you find out the grass is burnt and crisp on the other side. There are critical bugs bugs and bugs in every brand and in every watch... Trying out my fair share of Apple, Suunto and Coros devices i can tell you there is nothing out there for you. 

i think that most bugs (and there were a LOT) have been corrected over the firmware updates. But the dimmed screen issue in low light and naps not being detected have still not. And having Garmin finally come out and say "it is by design" really sounds more like "we don't want to spend any more money on this". That is really disappointing.