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Adaptive Dimming Will Have me Returning my new Vivoactive 6 Soon!!!

9595856

Just received a new Vivoactive 6 as a gift and loved it.... until I walked into a dim room. Could not read alerts, information, messages, texts, notifications, anything. Tried different watch faces. Tried setting brightness at maximum brightness. Spent quite a bit of time investigating and cannot find a solution. I understand the intent behind the dimming, but the dimming level is way too low and no way to adjust it. I can read everything on my watch when in a bright situation. I cannot read anything on my watch in a dim situation. Let us control HOW MUCH IT DIMS, because you make it WAY TOO DIM.

Here's an example. You spend a fortune on a new car and you love it and at night, the headlights come on. All of a sudden you drive away from streetlights and your high beams come on. Then as you pass another streetlight they turn off. Then you try to find someone's house with streetlights on their road and you cannot turn the high beams on to see addresses better. Then you have a car coming the opposite direction but there are no street lights so your high beams come on and blind the opposing drive but you have no way to turn them off. Would you be happy with that car, or would you prefer a car that you control when the high beams come on?

Come on Garmin, we don't need overlords forcing us to accept the brightness levels "they think are best" for us. We don't care if we have to put the watch on a charger more often. Let "US" (YOUR customers) decide what we want. Don't dictate what we get. Out TV's don't automatically change brightness depending on what lights we turn on in the living room. Our phones can be set to maximum brightness all the time. Our computer screens don't get brighter when we turn on the overhead lights. Stop with the over-reaching control stuff and let us control the brightness of what we pay good money for, the way we want it. Kind of like EVERY OTHER PIECE OF ELECTRONICS WE OWN. After all, us being happy with, and buying your products is what pays Garmin's employees and keeps Garmin in business.

Also, it appears you have the inactive display dimness set to some fixed dimming, and that never changes. The only thing you change is how bright the display is when active. Give us control of brightness or be ready for a whole lot of returns and bad reviews.

  • 0

    Fenix 8 users have been complaining about that since it was releqased in 2024, but it was never fixed amd official Garmin reply is that it is by design. They obviously are trying to get better battery or avoid screen burn in issue even at expense of makimg their watches unreadable in low light.

    In other words, it will not be fixed.

  • 0

    Agreed. It would be nice if Garmin offered users more control over this. Min and Max levels. An option to turn off adaptive brightness. More levels than just the 3 available. Maybe increments of 5%, etc.

  • 0

    Same, we are returning both of ours. Crazy in 2026 to buy a smart watch that isnt bright enough to read and its such an easy fix for a company like Garmin. 

    Big let down. Going back to fitbit. Luckily still in free trial phase of Garmin+

  • 0

    Was in touch with Garmin tech support and even they agreed they did not know why the Garmin watches lack the ability for a user to set the display brightness the way they want or need.  Support said I should upgrade to the Venu 4, as I would have control with that watch.  So I returned the Vivoactive 6, choked on the cost of the Venu 4 (support gave me a discount but still damn expensive) and ordered the Venu 4.  Was super excited, set everything up, then walked into the living room with only the light from the TV and guess what..... auto dimmed too dim to read.  So I got online and looked and sure enough, the Venu 4 has the SAME dictated dimness as the Vivoactive 6.  Contacted support and basically got the old "oops, sorry about that" answer.  So yesterday, the Venu 4 went on its way back to Garmin.  I have settled on my new watch, a Samsung Galaxy 8 (still looking at which version) but it says that it;s easy to turn off the adaptive brightness and manually adjust things the way you want.  YIPEE!!!  My first piece of Garmin tech was an old eTrex about 2 decades ago.  Had or have MAP60, MAP60c, MAP60cSX, Oregon, Vivoactive 3 (which I can read in ANY light thanks to the backlight), but after all that, I feel Garmin has turned their back on their customers.  So no more shall I wear my "Garmin - You'd Be Lost Without Them" shirt.  No more shall I buy or even consider Garmin products. Any manufacturer who turns a blind eye to the needs of their customers does not deserve our business.  

  • 0 in reply to 9595856

    On the 965 there are times in low light conditions where the dimming is a little too much. The 165 doesn't have this feature and I didn't have issues with it indoors or in low light of not being bright enough, even on the lowest brightness setting. It has a auto brightness feature going from low to high (e.g. stepping into the sun) and that works fine.