Auto Brightness

[restlessdan]

Hello everyone,

has anyone noticed since the latest firmware (17.8.200.3) that the auto brightness seems to activate at the lowest brightness setting and slowly adjust to the light around you, which makes it harder when me or my partner are outside in bright sunlight to quickly check stats, time or notifications that come through.

I just find it a bit to slow now whereas before it felt like it woke the screen at mid brightness and then adjusted up or down,  and was wondering of the general consensus of the new auto brightness?

and also i was hoping for some official feedback as to this change? 

[Talahthas]

Hi restlessdan,

I noticed the same. I think this change was done to further increase battery live, but I hope they'll reverse that.

Regards,

Stefan

[restlessdan]

yeah i can agree with that statement but i wouldn't say that the blaze suffers from a bad battery life i am currently getting 3 - 5 (depending on types of exercise tracking) days if i am letting the battery drain to near empty but i have the habit of charging while in the shower so makes it feel like its never on for a complete charge any more.

i would of thought that having it set to medium brightness and then adjust would have been better, i don't want to turn off the auto brightness as even dim brightness setting is to bright for night time viewing and also the opposite can be said for when it is to bright normal brightness just doesn't cut it sometimes.

[DavS]

@restlessdanI was just going to post something similar to this!  Prior to this update I never had trouble reading the display out in direct sunlight, but now it is difficult to read in even moderate light.  I wasn't aware of too many complaints about this, so I'm not sure why they made a change.  Maybe it was an unintended consequence of another change, but there are other issues (innaccurate steps counts, incorrect distances when using connected GPS, etc ...) that come up time and time again in these forums that haven't been address in the firmware updates.

[Rich_Laue]

The only complaints I read was that the light from the Blaze was so bright that it wakes people up. One even reported that the 1000 watt light (17 X60W bulbs) was just to bright to sleep with.

I agree it is to dim, and would like to have a way to control the range of brightness..

[Fosse66]

I wish they had left it the way it was; I've had to set mine manually as it was too dim to read; this is my only complaint thus far - it seems that many must have defective Blazes going by the number of issues on the update thread - that or user error.

[TPW]

Absolutely Yes!!!!

i thought it was me? ....... But yes. The auto brightness now is awful!

---

@restlessdan wrote:

Hello everyone,

has anyone noticed since the latest firmware (17.8.200.3) that the auto brightness seems to activate at the lowest brightness setting and slowly adjust to the light around you, which makes it harder when me or my partner are outside in bright sunlight to quickly check stats, time or notifications that come through.

I just find it a bit to slow now whereas before it felt like it woke the screen at mid brightness and then adjusted up or down,  and was wondering of the general consensus of the new auto brightness?

and also i was hoping for some official feedback as to this change? 

---

[Hockeycrew]

First thing I noticed after the update.  Too slow to adjust and it does start from a very dim setting which it did not do before the update. 

[wysiwyg78]

Also at night it is very bright if you move your arm. It lights up easy

[Fosse66]

That isn't my experience - using auto brightness in my bedroom (not completely dark) the Blaze is dimmer than its own dim setting. Why should I have to manually set the brightness since the update borked it?

Yesterday whilst going for a walk through the snow, I raised my arm several times to see my progress. The Blaze was too dim to read.

Display is everything - the main reason I got the Blaze and a vast improvement over those tiny old-fashioned OLED screens. I can't believe Fitbit would want to tweak this to increase battery life. Previously I was getting the same 5 days without charging that I get with my smartphone. Battery was never an issue so why make the screen dimmer?

If this isn't fixed I may return the device.

[Rich_Laue]

we've had some gloomy days in NJ so I haven't been able to test it in sunlight. however shining a flashlight on the Blaze, I do notice that it turns on very dim then gradually gets brighter. In the dark I find it too dim and never brightens enough to see clearly.

[Fosse66]

The Blaze is staying in my pocket until this gets fixed.

It's too dim to read properly in the house without manual adjustment; outside it requires a good 3 seconds to brighten enough for legibility, rendering it pretty much useless (who has that time when exercising?); the Dim setting is brighter than auto; Normal setting is about right.

But I want auto brightness for outside - like it was before.

[richvie]

Same with my Blaze, VERY slow to become bright enough to read outdoors..

[msrose84]

Thank you! I thought it was me going crazy. It's way too dim for me. Thank you for posting. Hope it gets fixed soon.

[Rich_Laue]

Ok I got a chance to use it of the sun light today, the first time I raised my arm the Blaze was very light and took a few seconds to brighten. After that for the rest of the day it was bright and as responsive as the old firmware.

[TPW]

Was this while outside only? Or did it last ?

[Rich_Laue]

I was outside for seven hours with no problems or delay in seeing the screen.

When I went inside I didn't look so am unable to comment on inside and how it might have changed.

Many hours later while inside and now dark out I'm having no problems.

[hellybob]

I'm finding it too dim and taking a longer time to be able to read it, inside and out.

[Fosse66]

Through Chat, Fitbit recognised that this is a problem and are working on a fix.

[TPW]

That's great news that Fitbit are aware and they are efferting a resolution!😎

Terrance P. Winkler