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Are you experiencing this issue?


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I assume the new iPhone SE will be PWM-free. Any chance the September/October OLED phones are PWM-free? Rumor is that Apple will use BOE as the OLED provider for the 5.4-inch phone. (Source: https://www.macrumors.com/2020/03/17/5-4-inch-iphone-oled-display-boe/)
There’s always a chance, but I personally doubt it. I think our best bet is to hope for a DC Dimming option or wait for MiniLED :confused:

On the bright side, a leaker with a very solid track record has said that there will be a 5.5” Plus model of the SE. It was apparently supposed to launch simultaneously with the 4.7” one today, but there were production delays. Seems like we’ll most likely get it at WWDC or later in September-ish. It doesn’t solve our OLED problem, but a freshly spec’d non-flickering phone does buy us all a few years.
 
I chose no for my xs max. There are 3 adults and two children in my home and none of us see any kind of flicker.. I wonder if you guys have a defective phone?

Wouldn’t surprise me if they use a Samsung screen haha 🤪

I kid.
 
I chose no for my xs max. There are 3 adults and two children in my home and none of us see any kind of flicker.. I wonder if you guys have a defective phone?

Wouldn’t surprise me if they use a Samsung screen haha 🤪

I kid.
You can’t really see the flicker unless you record it in slow-motion, it’s more that you’ll get a headache and eye strain if you use the device for an extended amount of time. Keep in mind that the number of affected people seems to be relatively low, so it’s definitely not a common thing.
 
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I chose no for my xs max. There are 3 adults and two children in my home and none of us see any kind of flicker.. I wonder if you guys have a defective phone?

Wouldn’t surprise me if they use a Samsung screen haha 🤪

I kid.

PWM causes eye strain and it is not new nor the result of defective equipment.
 
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Oh ok, I noticed that when I did some slomos with my kids and the room was lit with an led bulb and the flicker was fairly heavy. I’ve stared at my phone for extended periods with no problem. Maybes it’s because I already need glasses lol.
 
There’s always a chance, but I personally doubt it. I think our best bet is to hope for a DC Dimming option or wait for MiniLED :confused:

MiniLED/MicroLED changes nothing except for the LEDs being made of traditional materials instead of organic materials. The backplane and driver technology is the same, unless Apple has invented a new PWM free technology that doesn’t introduce color shift at low brighness levels, but it they have it can be used for OLED as well.

I’m concerned for the future of display technology for those of us who are sensitive, and everyone else that may not be sensitive but may still feel it without knowing it. I don’t think flickering light at these relatively low frequencies are good for anyone and there are studies that suggest the same. Let’s hope for a breakthrough display driver technology for LED based displays really soon.
 
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MiniLED/MicroLED changes nothing except for the LEDs being made of traditional materials instead of organic materials. The backplane and driver technology is the same, unless Apple has invented a new PWM free technology that doesn’t introduce color shift at low brighness levels, but it they have it can be used for OLED as well.

I’m concerned for the future of display technology for those of us who are sensitive, and everyone else that may not be sensitive but may still feel it without knowing it. I don’t think flickering light at these relatively low frequencies are good for anyone and there are studies that suggest the same. Let’s hope for a breakthrough display driver technology for LED based displays really soon.

Well Mini LED certainly is quite different than OLED and the driver technology can be quite different depending on how they implement it. There is no reason to be certain that PWM will be needed.

Regardless mini-LED is definitely different since OLED is self emissive and mini-LED is a new type of backlight for LCD.
 
PWM is not a problem on the non-pro Iphone 11, which uses LCD. No reason to think the Iphone SE2 will be any different.
 
Well Mini LED certainly is quite different than OLED and the driver technology can be quite different depending on how they implement it. There is no reason to be certain that PWM will be needed.

Regardless mini-LED is definitely different since OLED is self emissive and mini-LED is a new type of backlight for LCD.

While it’s true that Mini-LED is a backlight technology the purpose of it is to give very local brightness control to LCD panels. This requires thousands of LEDs all individually controlled, and that has so far been proven difficult to do without colorshift without using PWM. I fully expect the Mini LED matrix to be driven like an OLED panel is, but I’ll be the first one to celebrate if it’s done without PWM.
 
It took awhile for my eyes to adjust to the X when I first got it back when it launched. I came from the 6 plus and the OLED did strain my eyes at first, especially scrolling through facebook. It's like a jittery scroll that takes some getting used to. I don't even notice it anymore though.
 
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Dear iPhone user,

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PWM is not a problem on the non-pro Iphone 11, which uses LCD. No reason to think the Iphone SE2 will be any different.
The iPhone 11 has the "Liquid Retina Display" which uses Temporal Dithering to achieve the affect of a sharper image. This may be what is causing issues for some people. The SE2 uses the older "Retina HD display" which less people are having issues with. Not saying nobody has had issues with the HD display, its just not as common on the forums as the newer devices like the iPhone XR and 11, as well as the iPad Pro line which use the newer tech.
 
The iPhone 11 has the "Liquid Retina Display" which uses Temporal Dithering to achieve the affect of a sharper image. This may be what is causing issues for some people. The SE2 uses the older "Retina HD display" which less people are having issues with. Not saying nobody has had issues with the HD display, its just not as common on the forums as the newer devices like the iPhone XR and 11, as well as the iPad Pro line which use the newer tech.
Very interesting I haven’t heard about temporal dithering before
 
The iPhone 11 has the "Liquid Retina Display" which uses Temporal Dithering to achieve the affect of a sharper image. This may be what is causing issues for some people. The SE2 uses the older "Retina HD display" which less people are having issues with. Not saying nobody has had issues with the HD display, its just not as common on the forums as the newer devices like the iPhone XR and 11, as well as the iPad Pro line which use the newer tech.
Am actually the using the 11 right now. Several months so far. No clue what the hypochondriacs could be possibly complaining about....
 
Even if I wasn't affected by PWM, I would still want a display that I look at all throughout the day, every day, to not use PWM.

"Would you rather use a device that flashed its entire display on and off at you constantly or a device that didn't?" Simple choice.

Political side note: I truly believe that most people are affected by PWM, but they don't recognize it or understand it.
 
I switched to an OLED device for the first time with the 11 Pro, all of my prior devices have used LCD panels which did not implement PWM. I too have experienced symptoms. My theory for this issue being more prevalent amongst iPhones users is based partly on research, but with an element of guesswork on top.

OLED screens are superior to LCD in terms of appearance and there is no argument, it’s immediately apparent. However, OLED screens are inferior in terms of their longevity. Being organic means that they will degrade with use, considerably faster than an LCD. This is fact. Burn in and irreversible image retention are also common with this technology, due to uneven wear. This is a cumulative affect, it matters not if you are leaving your device on one image for days on end, or if you achieve this over a period of months a little each day, the end result is the same.

Apple claim to mitigate these issues by identifying static content and making adjustments to lessen the risk of burn in, this can only be achieved by turning those pixels off for longer periods of time compared to the rest of the screen. This fix is likely to cause uneven flickering across the panel as a whole and is possibly why Apple screens are causing some people issues, whilst other devices using the same tech, are not.

Apple avoided OLED for several years as it gained popularity, to their own detriment, but when they did hop on board they had two main objectives, colour accuracy and prolonging the life of the display. They achieved both these objectives as far as testing would imply, but perhaps this comes at the cost of a proportion of sensitive users who are already affected by PWM, being further impacted by an uneven flicker.

Please do not take any of this as fact, I’m simply reading between the lines and this is purely my theory. I would be happy to stand corrected.
 
OLED screens are superior to LCD in terms of appearance and there is no argument, it’s immediately apparent.

I can't fully agree to that. OLED screens might have beautiful blacks, but their whites are just "unstable" depending on the viewing angle. I posted this before, which shows the blueish and reddish tints when tilting the device:
giphy.gif


An OLED screen takes up less space in the device compared to a LCD, which of course is attractive to manufacturers. In my opinion, screen quality should not be sacrificed for (let's say) smaller borders.
 
It is certainly subjective, I agree, lots of people praise OLED very highly, others say they can see little difference, whilst others dislike the colour shifts, personally, I prefer the OLED in my new device to LCD, but would in hindsight choose an LCD in future, due to the obvious shortcomings, I’m talking the longevity and PWM.
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I would like to ask if anyone else here has found only mild discomfort for a period of two to three months in use, before experiencing more severe symptoms such as a migraine? Just curious!
 
It's all about implementation. An OLED TV looks essentially perfect from any angle. An OLED phone can look like sh-t.
 
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