HTC One M7 picks up too much light

[AC Question]

I picked up two M7s from Best Buy today. I noticed that one had an extremely bright screen, even in low light, which means that the automatic brightness setting is way off, and the back/home buttons don't light up unless it's pitch dark.

You can see the difference in light pickup between the two here: imgur: the simple image sharer

The phone on the left has accurate light pickup and the phone on the right does not. I have already performed a reset and it didn't fix the problem.

Any way to fix this problem, short of getting a different phone?

 

[B. Diddy]

Welcome to Android Central! Make sure the ambient light sensor isn't blocked or dirty. I'm actually not sure where it is on the One, but it is usually along the top, near the front-facing camera.

EDIT: Actually, scratch that. If the sensor were dirty, the screen brightness should decrease incorrectly, not increase. Not sure what else might be causing the problem besides a defect.

 

[RaggedDoll]

OP here, that's what I was afraid of. There's no way to recalibrate the sensor?

 

[B. Diddy]

Not that I'm aware of, but I only did a cursory Google search. When I search for "HTC One light sensor calibration," it brings up articles about the proximity sensor (which is different).

 

[Hooya]

I've had issues with the M7 camera since I bought it a few months ago. For videos I can't fault it and it does what it should do in my opinion.

However, when it comes to stills it is next to useless. It can't handle "light" effectively. You can focus on a point and it is fine. Move a mm to the right on the same subject and it adjusts the light to the other extreme. Some images come out so dark. Other settings are better the images still don't come anywhere near that of the S2 I had previously.

 

[Hooya]

GIves you an idea of the issues. The still shot was taken a few moments after the video shot was taken and you can see the difference in light adjustments.