Other Eye-strain while using iPhone X and up

[Gollygeewillikers]

For the record, I switched to the Google Pixel 3a, no headaches, and the screen looks identical to my wife's iPhone XS. Like exactly the same. I compared photos. Colors and tones match. Samsung supplies both screens. Anyhoo it makes me wonder if Face ID is the difference in causing eye discomfort at the end of the day.

 

[5105973]

For the record, I switched to the Google Pixel 3a, no headaches, and the screen looks identical to my wife's iPhone XS. Like exactly the same. I compared photos. Colors and tones match. Samsung supplies both screens. Anyhoo it makes me wonder if Face ID is the difference in causing eye discomfort at the end of the day.

Nah, Apple does some patented weird power on-off thing on the subpixel level that consumes less power. I think it may also be why movies on OLED iPhones don’t suffer black crush (loss of detail in dark scenes viewed in dark ambient lighting) the way even the top of the line Samsung displays do.

I absolutely CAN use some OLED displays and had zero issues with my S9+, but when Samsung introduced some weird sub pixel mojo of their own in the S10 series this year, my eyes felt strained. I think they might have sneaked in some adjustment during one of the updates because I have an okay time of using my S10 display now, but it’s still not nearly as comfortable as the display on my Pixel 3XL.

I did see the articles talking about all of this and did link them to one or more of the discussions around here but I don’t have them handy at the moment and I’m kind of rushed as well as too sleep deprived to go looking. It’s all kind of buried information and not really talked about. The Samsung one came up in a passing comment on one review. I can’t remember about the Apple one but it wasn’t terribly in depth, either.

Now, having said all that, if I try to play around with Animoji, yes my eyes quickly feel gritty and weird. I haven’t had any issues with Face ID, at least not that I’m aware of. I have more floaters in my left eye in the last two years but I AM 52, so that could just as easily be due to my age. Face ID fires off so fast. Maybe there are cumulative effects but I find it hard to believe all but the most sensitive eyes would feel any effects. Of course I turn attention aware OFF.

 

[Gollygeewillikers]

Nah, Apple does some patented weird power on-off thing on the subpixel level that consumes less power. I think it may also be why movies on OLED iPhones don’t suffer black crush (loss of detail in dark scenes viewed in dark ambient lighting) the way even the top of the line Samsung displays do.

I absolutely CAN use some OLED displays and had zero issues with my S9+, but when Samsung introduced some weird sub pixel mojo of their own in the S10 series this year, my eyes felt strained. I think they might have sneaked in some adjustment during one of the updates because I have an okay time of using my S10 display now, but it’s still not nearly as comfortable as the display on my Pixel 3XL.

I did see the articles talking about all of this and did link them to one or more of the discussions around here but I don’t have them handy at the moment and I’m kind of rushed as well as too sleep deprived to go looking. It’s all kind of buried information and not really talked about. The Samsung one came up in a passing comment on one review. I can’t remember about the Apple one but it wasn’t terribly in depth, either.

Now, having said all that, if I try to play around with Animoji, yes my eyes quickly feel gritty and weird. I haven’t had any issues with Face ID, at least not that I’m aware of. I have more floaters in my left eye in the last two years but I AM 52, so that could just as easily be due to my age. Face ID fires off so fast. Maybe there are cumulative effects but I find it hard to believe all but the most sensitive eyes would feel any effects. Of course I turn attention aware OFF.

I'll compare low light video in my Pixel 3a to the iPhone XS some time. There isn't any black crush on my 3a compared to some other phones I've tried that were horrible. I've heard the Samsung S10e suffers major black crush and so does the Pixel 3. Your 3XL does pretty well, the size on that one is too large and heavy for me in daily use though. Sorry for somewhat off topic post! But the point was that all things being equal (possibly same OLED on 3a as XS) I'm not getting a headache at all. Though to your point, I guess the XS OLED has some extra tech happening that I didn't know about.

 

[5105973]

What I wonder now is what’s coming up. Apple has been made aware of the PWM being an issue for some of us. I know I did my part giving them direct feedback.

The question is: Do they think there’s enough of us left out of buying their more expensive OLED phones to induce them to try to do anything about it this year? I know even if they make a change, some people are always going too be sensitive to any PWM. But they theoretically could reduce the threshold that makes people feel ill or uncomfortable.

I’d really love to get the successor to the XS or XS Max. I want that wide angle lens they’re rumored to be adding. But I don’t want to be rendered disabled to get it.

 

[TDDM]

What I wonder now is what’s coming up. Apple has been made aware of the PWM being an issue for some of us. I know I did my part giving them direct feedback.

I think hoping for a DC Dimming option is our best bet for now. It seems like more and more Android phones are starting to include this, so I could see Apple taking notice and doing the same.

The only thing that worries me is that Apple is extremely serious about product quality, and DC Dimming can apparently mess with color accuracy, screen life, etc. I hope they'd be willing to put customer health over screen quality in this situation though.

Also, I found something interesting about DC Dimming; apparently it can be added through a software update without hardware adjustments:
https://www.androidcentral.com/oneplus-7s-new-features-are-headed-oneplus-5-5t-6-and-6t

That definitely makes me more hopeful that it could come to iPhones. Apple having to change their hardware would be a big deal, but if it's theoretically possible just through software? Maybe it could actually happen

 

[Vanilla35]

What I wonder now is what’s coming up. Apple has been made aware of the PWM being an issue for some of us. I know I did my part giving them direct feedback.

The question is: Do they think there’s enough of us left out of buying their more expensive OLED phones to induce them to try to do anything about it this year? I know even if they make a change, some people are always going too be sensitive to any PWM. But they theoretically could reduce the threshold that makes people feel ill or uncomfortable.

I’d really love to get the successor to the XS or XS Max. I want that wide angle lens they’re rumored to be adding. But I don’t want to be rendered disabled to get it.

Apple is usually lazy imo (in a big company way), they probably will wait for MicroLED presumably 2021. Best bet would be software update, but I'm not hopeful for that.

 

[Eirik2306]

I have myself the iPhone X, have had it since dec 2017, had eye-strain in the start. It seem to have gone away, but always going to bed with very tired eyes, almost like hurting a bit. Using my iPhone X for 4 hours a day, might have something with to do with the Oled sceeen flicker...
[doublepost=1559601579][/doublepost]If its the Oled causing my pain, il go to a 8 or a XR

 

[stafil]

I have myself the iPhone X, have had it since dec 2017, had eye-strain in the start. It seem to have gone away, but always going to bed with very tired eyes, almost like hurting a bit. Using my iPhone X for 4 hours a day, might have something with to do with the Oled sceeen flicker...
[doublepost=1559601579][/doublepost]If its the Oled causing my pain, il go to a 8 or a XR

Some people, myself included, report eye strain with XR too. 8 is the safest bet.

 

[Vanilla35]

Some people, myself included, report eye strain with XR too. 8 is the safest bet.

I'm still more included to believe this could be Face ID (brand new technology) in addition to OLED. What was the confirmation on people who put tape over Face ID, and minor tests like that?

 

[GlenK]

^^Tried all those ideas and nothing helped me with the X, XS, or XR. I'm just hoping they figure something out or I'll be using my 8+ until it won't work anymore. Then I'll be forced to go so some older phone still available.

 

[Vanilla35]

^^Tried all those ideas and nothing helped me with the X, XS, or XR. I'm just hoping they figure something out or I'll be using my 8+ until it won't work anymore. Then I'll be forced to go so some older phone still available.

From your experiences was it a mild irritation or moderate/heavy? Also do you have experience using iOS without nightshift and with? Does any negative effect from the blue light give you similar headaches/eye irritation, etc.?

 

[TDDM]

From your experiences was it a mild irritation or moderate/heavy? Also do you have experience using iOS without nightshift and with? Does any negative effect from the blue light give you similar headaches/eye irritation, etc.?

I'll add in my experience:

-iPhone X: Heavy eye strain/headache from the PWM flicker.

-iPhone XR: Medium eye strain, feels like my eyes are drying out and leads to a headache. No idea why, it's apparently the exact same LCD as older iPhones (in terms of configuration and other eye strain factors).

Absolutely none of the settings help on the X or XR, I think we've pretty much exhausted every available option between all of us in the thread.

I was hoping for the DC Dimming option in iOS13, but there's no sign of it unfortunately.

 

[Vanilla35]

I'll add in my experience:

-iPhone X: Heavy eye strain/headache from the PWM flicker.

-iPhone XR: Medium eye strain, feels like my eyes are drying out and leads to a headache. No idea why, it's apparently the exact same LCD as older iPhones (in terms of configuration and other eye strain factors).

Absolutely none of the settings help on the X or XR, I think we've pretty much exhausted every available option between all of us in the thread.

I was hoping for the DC Dimming option in iOS13, but there's no sign of it unfortunately.

Thanks for the feedback, that's what I was looking to hear. I'm ultimately curious as to why the XR causes issues still, but I'm guessing it's either the fact that the screen is much bigger (or even higher peak brightness compared to previous models), or there is just more going on than just the traditional LCD elements. I don't know enough about display tech to say.

I'd say iOS 13 is too soon, for anything to be implemented. In general the issue has to be way overblown for them to really put any attention on it, and even though it's a popular thread here, it's not anywhere near as relevant as the MBP keyboard problems, or any other issue that would be fixed relatively quickly. Once again my guess is they blow it off altogether until MicroLED.

 

[GlenK]

From your experiences was it a mild irritation or moderate/heavy? Also do you have experience using iOS without nightshift and with? Does any negative effect from the blue light give you similar headaches/eye irritation, etc.?

It was heavy eye strain and I could feel it within 10 minutes. Went into a full headache within a couple hours. It was slightly better with the XR but still too much to keep using the phone. I tried nightshift on/off and every thing else I could think of or read on here.

The only other time I had a headache from any device was a 65" Samsung QLED TV 4k. I returned it and got a 55" of the same TV and the headaches stopped. Can't explain any of this and had no idea it was an issue for many people until I found these threads.

 

[Vanilla35]

It was heavy eye strain and I could feel it within 10 minutes. Went into a full headache within a couple hours. It was slightly better with the XR but still too much to keep using the phone. I tried nightshift on/off and every thing else I could think of or read on here.

The only other time I had a headache from any device was a 65" Samsung QLED TV 4k. I returned it and got a 55" of the same TV and the headaches stopped. Can't explain any of this and had no idea it was an issue for many people until I found these threads.

It sounds like there are a ton of factors for the types of headaches people are getting.

 

[Vanilla35]

https://blog.elcomsoft.com/2018/03/...to-stop-oled-flickering-in-just-three-clicks/

Little bit more information about how the PWM works.

 

[5105973]

I’m probably repeating myself but to me the crazy thing I’ve discovered is that my most comfortable display, the one that beats my iPhone 8 Plus display, is the OLED display on my Pixel 3XL. It is made by Samsung and employs pwm.

Not only is it comfortable to read ebooks on, but my myopia actually seems better when I have been using this display for awhile. That’s not necessarily some weird placebo effect, I’ve read somewhere there are certain kinds of light that supposedly help with nearsightedness just as some make it worse.

Unfortunately for me, I do prefer my iPhone and have no intention of trying to make that particular pixel my main phone again. I once considered it, but I am too reliant on iOS for a number of reasons that aren’t going to change anytime soon.

I’d love for the OLED display on the iPhone to be as easy on the eyes as my Pixel one. However I don’t know if the way it’s calibrated meets Apples exacting standards for power consumption and accuracy and so forth.

 

[Falhófnir]

I’d be seriously surprised if they kept the iPhone’s 240hz PWM on the macbooks and iPads. That would honestly be ridiculous.

I seem to remember the MBP already uses PWM dimming even though it's an IPS LCD. I'm not sure about the smaller MacBook or Air, but I assume they might be the same if they use similar display technology?

 

[Gollygeewillikers]

I'll compare low light video in my Pixel 3a to the iPhone XS some time. There isn't any black crush on my 3a compared to some other phones I've tried that were horrible. I've heard the Samsung S10e suffers major black crush and so does the Pixel 3. Your 3XL does pretty well, the size on that one is too large and heavy for me in daily use though. Sorry for somewhat off topic post! But the point was that all things being equal (possibly same OLED on 3a as XS) I'm not getting a headache at all. Though to your point, I guess the XS OLED has some extra tech happening that I didn't know about.

Just following up on the screen comparison, my wife's iPhone XS does a better job showing color in low brightness (greens in particular) than my Pixel 3a, but not a huge difference overall. No black crush or graininess on either display. Video is comparable in low brightness, aside from the aforementioned color advantage in the XS.

And btw she's not reporting any headaches so she probably doesn't suffer from whatever caused my eye issues. Lucky her. Oh and she's not using Face ID, so there's that too.

No solutions here, just sharing my own comparison of very similar OLEDs, both 3a and XS are supplied from Samsung. I'm not getting headaches on the 3a. I got instant migraine on the iPhone X but I still don't know why exactly. Gotta say I'm still leaning towards Face ID or IR tracking as the cause honestly, mostly because of the reported eye strain on the iPhone XR that wouldn't be OLED related at all.

 

[David13_13]

Is this still a problem or it was solved by software?

If it’s hardware related, did Apple say anything about it and plan to fix it for next iPhones?

Thanks

 

[TDDM]

Is this still a problem or it was solved by software?

If it’s hardware related, did Apple say anything about it and plan to fix it for next iPhones?

Thanks

No solutions yet. DC Dimming is a software based way to mitigate the flickering, but we have no idea if Apple will include it.

 

[MacTime82]

Hello, I bought the iPhone XR for my wife and I. She had to wait for a new SIM card because she was transferring from another provider, so I used mine for a full week. I had the WORST migraine headache I ever had. I only had 3 or 4 my entire life, but my entire head was tight, the back of my head was in very bad pain, like a knot was there, and I could not turn around when driving. I thought it was the angle I slept on or something. Then, my wife got hers and she said she had a headache. I put 2 and 2 together and Googled 'iPhone XR headache' and found the answer, "Pulse Width Modulation, or PWM." This is what was written about above. They use a frequency to dim the phone, not the pixel brightness. I was VERY lucky, that I returned both iPhones within 2 weeks. The Verizon store swapped them out for iPhone 8 models and we are okay now. This is a VERY serious thing if you are dealing with it. I read that someone had to get glasses after 3 months of use. I work on a computer all day and I could not read text anymore and had to lay down. When I laid down, I would, you guessed it, look at my iPhone, dimmed with PWM... If you are experiencing headaches, eyestrains or nausea and have an iPhone X, get an iPhone version 8 or older. I would call your provider with some of this information and demand an iPhone 8. The iPhone 8 uses the older screen technology. When I called Verizon, the rep told me that she heard this complaint many times. Also, my wife is pregnant and her entire back tightened up the three days she used the phone... Might be a coincidence, but if it is not a coincidence and the back pain was caused by the phone, it is really not right that Apple did not recall it OR at least, make people aware of it and let them know that if they have eye, headache, nausea, migraines, etc., then to examine their phone and see if that is the reason behind it, then offer a swap to another phone. Perhaps some sort of push notification to all iPhone X users that references the issue. This is not some imagined thing, I experienced it first hand and, after mentioning it to a few people, they mentioned their eye sight getting worse. My brother said his eyesight is worse now after the iPhone XR. I read this thread and had to post here because I was so adversely affected by the iPhone XR's PWM dimming and wanted to validate that it is, in fact, real and to let others know that the iPhone 8 is fine. Good luck with this and hope you can get into a phone that does not give you a headache.

 

[bolandross]

Hello, I bought the iPhone XR for my wife and I. She had to wait for a new SIM card because she was transferring from another provider, so I used mine for a full week. I had the WORST migraine headache I ever had. I only had 3 or 4 my entire life, but my entire head was tight, the back of my head was in very bad pain, like a knot was there, and I could not turn around when driving. I thought it was the angle I slept on or something. Then, my wife got hers and she said she had a headache. I put 2 and 2 together and Googled 'iPhone XR headache' and found the answer, "Pulse Width Modulation, or PWM." This is what was written about above. They use a frequency to dim the phone, not the pixel brightness. I was VERY lucky, that I returned both iPhones within 2 weeks. The Verizon store swapped them out for iPhone 8 models and we are okay now. This is a VERY serious thing if you are dealing with it. I read that someone had to get glasses after 3 months of use. I work on a computer all day and I could not read text anymore and had to lay down. When I laid down, I would, you guessed it, look at my iPhone, dimmed with PWM... If you are experiencing headaches, eyestrains or nausea and have an iPhone X, get an iPhone version 8 or older. I would call your provider with some of this information and demand an iPhone 8. The iPhone 8 uses the older screen technology. When I called Verizon, the rep told me that she heard this complaint many times. Also, my wife is pregnant and her entire back tightened up the three days she used the phone... Might be a coincidence, but if it is not a coincidence and the back pain was caused by the phone, it is really not right that Apple did not recall it OR at least, make people aware of it and let them know that if they have eye, headache, nausea, migraines, etc., then to examine their phone and see if that is the reason behind it, then offer a swap to another phone. Perhaps some sort of push notification to all iPhone X users that references the issue. This is not some imagined thing, I experienced it first hand and, after mentioning it to a few people, they mentioned their eye sight getting worse. My nephew got a few really bad migraines and my brother has the iPhone XR... My brother is requesting a new phone because of this and because he claims his eyesight is worse now. I read this thread and had to post here because I was so adversely affected by the iPhone XR's PWM dimming and wanted to validate that it is, in fact, real and to let others know that the iPhone 8 is fine. Good luck with this and hope you can get into a phone that does not give you a headache.

Well ... sorry to bring doubt to your story, but the iPhone XR doesn't use PWM .... Are you sure this is the device you are talking about and not the XS?

 

[now i see it]

Ummm
The XR is an LCD screen & doesn't use PWM. The problems you experienced with it is related to something else (or maybe you meant XS)

 

[TDDM]

Hello, I bought the iPhone XR for my wife and I.

The XR doesn’t use PWM, did you mean X or XS? Also, unfortunately, most people are completely fine with the PWM so we haven’t really had luck in getting Apple to address the issue.

If you *are* talking about the XR, then that’s a different issue. Some of us are affected by the XR, but we don’t even know why at this point. There’s a separate thread with a bunch of us if you want to talk about that: https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/eye-strain-on-iphonexr.2150554/page-15#post-27442925