Banglejs 2 screen brightness

I just received my Banglejs 2. I've charged it up and started it and the screen brightness is poor. I'm inside and have my cheater glasses on and am unable to read the settings menu. I used a lighted magnifying glass to get to the screen brightness and changed settings but it was already up on setting 1.

After seeing some images people have posted, I am concerned my Banglejs 2 is not lighting up as bright as it should. I did download the flipper app to change the contrast but it hasn't helped enough to see.

Any suggestions or if there is a known issue with some being dimmer than others would be helpful.
thanks.

Could you check the LCD brightness level in Settings / System / LCD?

Sure could,
yep LCD brightness is set on 1, timeout on 1o, wake on bini On, wake on face: off, wake on touch: off, wake on twist: off, twist max y: -000, twist timeout: 1000.
thanks.

I can only speak for myself, but in even fairly low light the screen is readable without the backlight. I have brightness set to 0.1, but most of the time it is unnecessary. Something sounds odd for you.

Wow.. i installed the Torch app hoping it would brighten up. I couldn't use the screen to read a note in the dark let alone navigate a room as the app doc suggests. I think I got a dud. Does anyone know how I get a replacement? I have searched around a bit and am not seeing anything... :(

Gordon will be along during working hours. I will bet he has some ideas to diagnose the problem, but if not I've seen a few people on here offered a replacement for faulty watches, so I am sure you won't have an issue.

Thanks for that. I really need a smart watch but have to be able to see it. Hopefully he has some things i can try to get it going.

Hi,

I couldn't use the screen to read a note in the dark let alone navigate a room as the app doc suggests.

The app may be talking about the Bangle.js 1 screen there. The Bangle.js 2 backlight is definitely a lot darker than Bangle.js 1 - it's nowhere near an actual torch. The LCD is sunlight readable so the backlight is really there for when there's not enough ambient light to read the display, so much like on an ebook it won't even be that noticeable in sunlight.

As @myownself says:

I can only speak for myself, but in even fairly low light the screen is readable without the backlight.

Are you saying you're having trouble reading it in daytime when there is for example enough light to adequately read a book?

Please could you try the steps here for restarting without loading code? https://www.espruino.com/Bangle.js2#rese­tting-without-loading-any-code

You can just long-press again to return to normal, but following those steps will disable all running code and leave the backlight turned on and at full brightness, so you can see what the maximum is.

Maybe you could take a picture of it with the backlight on so we can get some idea what you mean?

We do test all the Bangles here before sending them out so I'd be surprised if yours had a bad backlight and slipped through testing.

This is a photo of me showing my daisy clock, using the dark theme.
I am sat on a sofa with back to a bay window that faces north.
Its a dreary day. The back light is off.
This is the sort of clearity you should see outside.

Which clock are you using ? Can you definitely see something or just a black or white screen -as the clock you are using might have crashed with an error.

1 Attachment

Ok, I followed all of the steps. It is not any brighter. I can see that walking out into the sunshine that I can see it. Unfortunately, I work indoors, in an office building.

I tried HughB's suggestion below and add the daisy clock. Nice looking and functional clock. I took this photo in the same light condition as he described, back to a north facing window. It does appear to be as bright as in his photo. I did, however, notice my sunset is way off though my local is set correctly and the clock is correct. I'll look for another post that might address that.

1 Attachment

Have a look at the MyLocation App to set your location up. You may have to use GPS rather than one of the preset cities. If you use GPS, be sure to use the AGPS app first. The Sunrise and Sunset will then calculate correctly.

I would say your screen looks normal. I work in an office and can read the watch ok. And it works brilliant in sunlight which is a rare thing with most smart watches.

It sounds like your display may be behaving normally - it's just that these sunlight readable screens aren't super bright. It's a tradeoff - you can have something that's super-bright and vibrant indoors but not great outside, or something good outside that's not great indoors.

However there is some good news. You mentioned having trouble with the menus? The upcoming firmware version 2v13 has a different menu that's an awful lot easier to see and use, and it's easy to choose clock faces (or a color scheme) that you find easy to see.

Slightly longer-term I'm looking at changing the fonts across the whole system to something that's a bit more coherent and also more visible too.

It is not any brighter.

so can you make photo indoors with full backlight on?

On left Bangle JS2. On right - Amazfit Bip. Both use the same type of trans-refective screen. Only problem with the BIP is that the watch is RED whether you like it not it cant be changed.

1 Attachment