Feature request - backlight intensity

[Milan Šádek]

@dimitrios-kanellopoulos In addition, please return the possibility to use the upper left button on S5 to (unconditionally) turn the backlight on/off as it used to be. Thank you.

[Tomas5]

@milan-šádek yes I am also fan of toggle on S5 with upper left button longpress. Hope it will come back soon.

@Dimitrios-Kanellopoulos but S5 have both intensities in HW because it works, it has low intensity for rise to wake, high intensity for button press. So what HW limitations is there why it can’t be configured for button press with low intensity too ? When it works for one function why it can’t work for another function ? It looks more like SW limitation to me. I doubt that buttom press is hardwired to light since with toggle it was possible to disable backlight. So it is triggered now only by software, not hardware, at least this is what i think, but maybe i am wrong.

[Dimitrios Kanellopoulos]

@tomas5 afaik it’s hw limitation but I am no watch engineer. That was discussed internally on launch

[Tomas5]

@dimitrios-kanellopoulos thanks for info. So hope toggle will return

[Dimitrios Kanellopoulos]

@tomas5 just for my info and tests.

Turning off raise to wake and standby light should not trigger the backlight ok button press.

Is that correct. ?

(Both settings on the settings - general - backlight)

[Milan Šádek]

@dimitrios-kanellopoulos just tested and nope; turning raise to wake + backlight off will still trigger the backlight after pressing anything on S5.

[Tomas5]

@dimitrios-kanellopoulos Doesn’t work like that for me:

THIS IS HOW IT WORKS NOW FOR ME:

1. When Settings->General->Backlight->
Standby: off
Raise to wake: off

Low intensity backlight is permanently OFF.
High intensity backlight is ON with every button press for few seconds.

2. When Settings->General->Backlight->
Standby: on
Raise to wake: off

Low intensity backlight is always ON. (but when do not disturb enabled, backlight is OFF)
High intensity is ON with every button press for few seconds.

3. When Settings->General->Backlight->
Standby: on
Raise to wake: on

Low intensity backlight is ON only for few seconds after raising hand.
High intensity is ON with every button press for few seconds.

4. QuickSettings->Backlight: On

High intensity is ON all the time.

WHAT I WISH HOW IT SHOULD WORK: ideally bring back toggle possibility.

a. When Settings->General->Backlight->
Standby: Toggle
Raise to wake: off

Low intensity backlight is permanently OFF.
High intensity backlight is enabled/disabled by long press of upper left button as before with older firmware.

b. When Settings->General->Backlight->
Standby: Toggle
Raise to wake: on

Low intensity backlight is ON only for few seconds after raising hand.
High intensity backlight is ON/OFF by long press of upper left button as before with older firmware.

c. When Settings->General->Backlight->
Standby: On
Raise to wake: on

Low intensity backlight is ON only for few seconds after raising hand.
High intensity backlight is ON with every button press for few seconds.

And my new FEATURE REQUEST
new setting in Settings->General->Backlight->
called Intensity.

Intensity: High
Behavior as in previous cases. Backlight low intensity. Button press or toggle high intensity.

Intensity: low
All behavior as in previous cases except button press or long press of upper left button (for toggle) will enable only low intensity backlight.

Please transfer this to development team. I know you sad there is some HW limitation but I believe there was some misunderstanding because now high and low intensity backlight can be both configured from diffrent settings. So it should be possible to predefine LOW or HIGH.

Thank you very much.

[Dimitrios Kanellopoulos]

@tomas5 not to the development team but rather to the PO team

I did that specifically on this post . (the last one)

[Tomas5]

@dimitrios-kanellopoulos btw. I am very happy that suunto has employes as you on this forum, so they can get feedback from customers.

[Dimitrios Kanellopoulos]

@tomas5 I don’t know if Suunto is happy though

(Little joke as this is not my job per se, aka getting paid for)

[Bradleyd]

@dimitrios-kanellopoulos, I rolled back to S5 version 2.14.16 today, this is after spending two weeks trying to get accustomed to the new backlight functionality in the latest update.

Here are my primary reasons for going back:

1. High brightness backlight with every button press is too much light at nighttime. I’m on-call overnight and my first reaction is to check the time on my watch then reach for the phone to read the alert. The difference between my watch and my phone screen brightness in that scenario is very stark and I prefer the ability to toggle on and toggle off the watch.

2. Battery usage, the backlight consumes ~1% of battery in around 5 minutes, making the minimum 10s backlight per button press adds up to significant battery consumption over a week. I press buttons frequently to move between step counter, sunrise|sunset, moon phase, start a timer, check HR, etc.

3. Raise to wake doesn’t work very well in my scenarios. I don’t notice the dim lit screen during the daylight hours and the raise to wake is disabled in DND mode when I’d really like to have the dimmer screen brightness overnight.

As I said in another post, I’d like to use this feature, it just doesn’t quite work for me without a manual on/off mode for backlight and at least two screen brightness levels. Bare minimum, a dimmer screen needs to be available at night and the backlight needs to noticeably contribute to readability in order to justify the battery usage.

On the positive, I did appreciate never having to verify the backlight is manually turned off. This is the mistake I frequently make when daytime running or cycling and accidentally long-press the top left button and turn on the backlight. With 2.14.16, I have to stop and fiddle around to verify the backlight is turned off. With 2.16.28, the auto-turn-off makes this scenario go away.

[Łukasz Szmigiel]

@bradleyd said in Feature request - backlight intensity:

Bare minimum, a dimmer screen needs to be available at night and the backlight needs to noticeably contribute to readability in order to justify the battery usage.

Agreed. I’d like to have standby at night instead of full backlight too.

[Tomas5]

@bradleyd
Totally agree, for me:
Rise to wake woks only during day but it is not needed and not visible during day. It only consumes battery.
Brightness with every button press and every notification is not needed and undesirable during day and really disturbing during night.
Removing toggle mode (or removing any existing feature of watch after sell to customer) is big step back and deal breaker for me when i will consider new watch.

And in terms of battery consumption, it almost looks like suunto wants to battery die faster so people buy watch more often. Because there is no rational reason to force backlight during day when it has no added value, it just drain battery. And even during some light conditiones i noticed that contrast of screen is worst with backlight.

I will take it to extreme here but when suunto is able to remove toggle mode (for some people important feature), what stops them to remove alarm, date, stepcounter or other feature that they will decide it is not needed in future.