Eye strain - Returned my 2019 16" Macbook Pro

[hungryghosty]

Has anyone found that this issue with the newer M1 Apple Silicon Macbook Air and/or 14"/16" Macbook Pro's? I returned a 2020 13" Macbook Pro due to eye strain and bought a 2020 13" Macbook Air which I found didn't exhibit the same problem.

I'm at the point where I need a more powerful Macbook than the 2020 i3 but I'm concerned I might experience similar eye strain issues on the newer models?

 

[johnscully]

Has anyone found that this issue with the newer M1 Apple Silicon Macbook Air and/or 14"/16" Macbook Pro's? I returned a 2020 13" Macbook Pro due to eye strain and bought a 2020 13" Macbook Air which I found didn't exhibit the same problem.

I'm at the point where I need a more powerful Macbook than the 2020 i3 but I'm concerned I might experience similar eye strain issues on the newer models?

Both the MacBook Air M1 and the MacBook Pro M1 gave me eye strain and headaches.

 

[hungryghosty]

Both the MacBook Air M1 and the MacBook Pro M1 gave me eye strain and headaches.

Did you also find this on previous Intel MBP models?

Regarding this thread did was there ever a consensus as to what was causing some people eye strain on specific models as I found I couldn't use the 2020 MBP (Intel) due to the problem yet had no issue with the 2020 MBA (Intel).

 

[Novius89]

I have a m1 pro 2020, no eye strain. I do get some headache from the shiny display. In my apartment I have a window behind me and when I use the MacBook at my college/outside the shiny display gave me a headache as well.

On the iPhone its not as annoying because its a small screen, on the MacBook I don't understand the shiny screen.
I only see the cons : fingerprints, reflections, and the coating seems to scratch easily.
This outweighs the pro for me : it does look clear and good and sharp!

I put a matte screen protector on it : moshi iVisor. It has adhesive borders and its washable.

I do hope when I am up for a new MacBook in 5,6,7 years there is a matte option as well (and not a 1000 euro upgrade like on the studio display).

 

[DMG35]

I used to get eye strain on both the 16" 2019 MacBook Pro and the 16" 2021 MacBook Pro. I started using the Kensington privacy screen on the 2019 model and it completely solved the problem for me. I wish they made one for the 2021 model.

 

[yesanton]

I used to get eye strain on both the 16" 2019 MacBook Pro and the 16" 2021 MacBook Pro. I started using the Kensington privacy screen on the 2019 model and it completely solved the problem for me. I wish they made one for the 2021 model.

did you also have problems with external screens?

 

[M12020_16gb_500gb]

Anybody tried an M2 Macbook air ? The display changed and I am wondering if it might change anything for our eye strain. I have an M1 macbook air and I am contemplating buying the M2 to try the new screen.

 

[T Coma]

My old man eyes have various issues, but my new 16” M1 pro gives me no problems even at the highest resolution setting with the tiny tiny font.

 

[ufomism]

Anybody tried an M2 Macbook air ? The display changed and I am wondering if it might change anything for our eye strain. I have an M1 macbook air and I am contemplating buying the M2 to try the new screen.

Have no issues with the M2A. The new display has no PWM flickering: https://www.notebookcheck.net/Apple...but-too-expensive-daily-MacBook.636637.0.html

 

[yesanton]

Anybody tried an M2 Macbook air ? The display changed and I am wondering if it might change anything for our eye strain. I have an M1 macbook air and I am contemplating buying the M2 to try the new screen.

First thing I did

I went to apple store and in 3 min I knew it's all the same again with the eye strain.

Once again it shows - problem is in drivers, not the actual screen tech.

 

[yesanton]

Have no issues with the M2A. The new display has no PWM flickering: https://www.notebookcheck.net/Apple...but-too-expensive-daily-MacBook.636637.0.html

It's not about pwm. It's about dithering or maybe power-saving graphics driver optimizations. Enabling safe mode on any Mac solves the issue, but makes machine unusable.

That's my evaluation about the most people's issues about apple devices and my personal experience.

 

[M12020_16gb_500gb]

First thing I did

I went to apple store and in 3 min I knew it's all the same again with the eye strain.

Once again it shows - problem is in drivers, not the actual screen tech.

ah so sad ... Seeing they made chages to the display I had a small hope that by chance it would fix it (I know, wishfull thinking). I will still go check it in store to se it myself, but I have lower expectations.

 

[Samorap]

I'm reposting this solution from Reddit. It relieved the eye strain issues I was having with my 2019 16-inch MBP. The color profile that worked best for me was sRGB IEC61966-2.1.

Disable P3 color gamut to reduce eye strain

Posted by
u/carqueries
2 years ago

Disable P3 color gamut to reduce eye strain​

TL;DR: Go to Displays -> Color, and pick some other color profile. Hopefully this post helps someone.
As some of you, I've been struggling with eye strain with the new MacBook Pros.
I got the 16" Pro about a month ago, but had to return it due to not being able to focus on text, and my eyes being fatigued after only a few minutes of use. Just now I received the 2020 13" MacBook pro, and had the same problem.

I have plenty of monitors and laptops, including a 2015 MacBook Pro, so the typical "your eyes are holding it wrong, Macs can't have issues" response Apple users jump to seemed absurd. I've also never been particularly bothered by PWM.

Long story short, after playing with settings and trying to compare this laptop to my 2015 Pro, I changed the display color profile to something else and... BAM! All eye strain immediately went away. I turned the P3 profile back on, and the problem returned. It's the weirdest sensation. I found the sRGB IEC61966-2.1 profile looks the best, but will need to do some more comparisons to see what looks closest to the default profile on the 2015 Pro.

My one regret now is that I didn't find this when I still had the 16" Pro, but maybe I'll be able to catch it on sale within the return window of this 13".

As to why this made a difference - my crackpot theory is that the ****** LG panels that Apple uses need to use dithering to approximate the P3 gamut, and changing to sRGB disables said dithering. Again, I'm not an expert on the topic, so this theory could hold no water.

 

[M12020_16gb_500gb]

I'm reposting this solution from Reddit. It relieved the eye strain issues I was having with my 2019 16-inch MBP. The color profile that worked best for me was sRGB IEC61966-2.1.

Disable P3 color gamut to reduce eye strain

Unfortunately for me this colour profile don’t relieve the eye strain. Working on an external monitor seems to help however. Weird how it is different for each, yet we all seem to have more problems with Mac machines than with Windows (however the surface pro 7 also cause eye strain for me, but not my galaxy tab S7+ which I can use for several hours in a row).

 

[CRoebuck]

Unfortunately for me this colour profile don’t relieve the eye strain. Working on an external monitor seems to help however. Weird how it is different for each, yet we all seem to have more problems with Mac machines than with Windows (however the surface pro 7 also cause eye strain for me, but not my galaxy tab S7+ which I can use for several hours in a row).

Same. If you see some of my other posts you'll see I have zero issues with my 2017 MBP but find the 2019/2020 models unusable for more than 10 minutes. Tried different profiles, filters etc. Even my 2017 has gotten worse as I've updated the OS over the years. I also have a 2017 Surface Pro 5 and it was fine until a specific Windows update then became unusable. Rolling back fixed it (until the next update). I then installed an app called Ditherig to disable the dithering on the iGPU and this seemed to work for me (Windows only). I'm firmly in the camp that many (not all) of these issues are related to Temporal Dithering (or Frame Rate Control) rather than just PWM or glare.

 

[Expos of 1969]

I had no eye strain or headaches from my MacBook Pro 2013 or my MacBook Air M1. However, I had to sell a new iPhone 13 mini as it was giving me a feeling of burning eyes and strain. What this means, I really don't know.

 

[alex.e]

This issue is annoying me. My iPhone 7 Plus is end of life. My MacBook Pro 2013 does not receive new OS anymore but I cannot upgrade them since this eye strain issue. These two products have the most comfortable screens I have ever used.

Worse than that, I still do not know what exactly causes that and what I need to avoid.

 

[M12020_16gb_500gb]

I had no eye strain or headaches from my MacBook Pro 2013 or my MacBook Air M1. However, I had to sell a new iPhone 13 mini as it was giving me a feeling of burning eyes and strain. What this means, I really don't know.

If it’s only the iPhone 13 and not the M1 MBA that is giving you eye strain, it might be PWM. Have you owned other oled phones in the past? If you did, you can check the Notebookcheck website review of the phone and see if it did had PWM. If it did and it didn’t bother you, I wouldn’t know what is causing you eye strain.

For me PWM is not an issue. It is really something else with Apples new screens.

 

[M12020_16gb_500gb]

Sooo...
Out of curiosity I bought an M2 MacBook Air (base model) to test it out myself because of the new display and the fact that it doesn't have PWM anymore. Turns out I get the same eye strain from the display (text getting blurry end eye getting dry and fatigued). It makes me completely mad because those Macs are incredible machines !
I tried again the different colour profiles and, once again, it made absolutely no difference. Turned off True Tone, reduced transparency, bla bla bla.. no difference, same eye strain.
At that point I give up. Windows here I come. I get no eye strain from a couple of Windows laptops so I think for me this is the way to go...

 

[IJBrekke]

Sooo...
Out of curiosity I bought an M2 MacBook Air (base model) to test it out myself because of the new display and the fact that it doesn't have PWM anymore. Turns out I get the same eye strain from the display (text getting blurry end eye getting dry and fatigued). It makes me completely mad because those Macs are incredible machines !
I tried again the different colour profiles and, once again, it made absolutely no difference. Turned off True Tone, reduced transparency, bla bla bla.. no difference, same eye strain.
At that point I give up. Windows here I come. I get no eye strain from a couple of Windows laptops so I think for me this is the way to go...

Exact same experience for me on the M2 Air, and similar with the 14” Pro. Thankfully I had previously found the M1 13” Pro to work for me (still not as good as my 2017 15” Pro, but workable) so I went back to that.

Again, same frustrations you are finding: these are otherwise incredible machines.

 

[M12020_16gb_500gb]

Exact same experience for me on the M2 Air, and similar with the 14” Pro. Thankfully I had previously found the M1 13” Pro to work for me (still not as good as my 2017 15” Pro, but workable) so I went back to that.

Again, same frustrations you are finding: these are otherwise incredible machines.

Interesting, you get less eyestrain from the m1 pro than the m1 air? I though the Displays were very close. Do you know whatis different on the m1 pro display ?

 

[asus389]

Anyone find Mac OS Ventura to help? Make it worse?