Other Eye-strain while using iPhone X and up

[AJAAY]

I know how to fix the eye strain problem. It's the attention awareness feature, not PWM. Turn off the Face ID attention awareness setting. I had the same eye strain, but with this setting off, I immediately felt 100% better, and have had 0 eye problems since. Also to note, I keep the brightness above 50% just in case. But everyone please try turning the attention awareness off and increasing brightness above 50% and I promise the eye strain will stop.

The attention awareness is continuously shooting the IR into our eyes, I believe that is what's causing the strain. I never got the horrible pain again since I turned it off. The relief was immediate. The sandy, dry feeling in your eyes, the sharp, achy mid forehead pain, the stabbing back of the eye pain, all of that was gone. Improved my whole experience.

Please let me know if this helps anyone, I'm curious to know if it works for others.

Unfortunately for some of us, the issue still persists even with attention aware turned off. I went a whole week with Face ID turned off and all the sensors taped over and still had issues with eye strain and headaches. Even with my issues still persisting with the XR/11, I’ve come to the conclusion it has to be something with the screen technology Apple has started using.

 

[F23]

Unfortunately for some of us, the issue still persists even with attention aware turned off. I went a whole week with Face ID turned off and all the sensors taped over and still had issues with eye strain and headaches. Even with my issues still persisting with the XR/11, I’ve come to the conclusion it has to be something with the screen technology Apple has started using.

Have you tried keeping the brightness at max 24/7 and using reduce white point to manage brightness instead? With brightness on max there should be no PWM, and with attention awareness off there's nothing else that should bother the eyes.

Maybe some are sensitive to blue light and need blue light glasses. If full brightness and no IR blasting into the eyes and you still have pain, that's something that may require the attention of an optician.

 

[ghsDUDE]

Looks like I’m keeping my 11.

I’d love the 12 or 12 Pro, but I can’t deal with the headaches it gave me.

 

[TDDM]

Have you tried keeping the brightness at max 24/7 and using reduce white point to manage brightness instead? With brightness on max there should be no PWM, and with attention awareness off there's nothing else that should bother the eyes.

Maybe some are sensitive to blue light and need blue light glasses. If full brightness and no IR blasting into the eyes and you still have pain, that's something that may require the attention of an optician.

Unfortunately, iPhones have PWM flickering at all brightness levels, even 100%.

 

[AJAAY]

Have you tried keeping the brightness at max 24/7 and using reduce white point to manage brightness instead? With brightness on max there should be no PWM, and with attention awareness off there's nothing else that should bother the eyes.

Maybe some are sensitive to blue light and need blue light glasses. If full brightness and no IR blasting into the eyes and you still have pain, that's something that may require the attention of an optician.

I’ve done all of that. Max brightness, reduced white point, blue light glasses, even an optometrist appointment. Said my eyes were 100% healthy.

Fortunately for me I can tolerate the 11 pro max and only get eye strain and headaches after extended use. But it would be nice to have no issues after extended use; which I experienced with all iPhones pre X.

 

[F23]

I’ve done all of that. Max brightness, reduced white point, blue light glasses, even an optometrist appointment. Said my eyes were 100% healthy.

Fortunately for me I can tolerate the 11 pro max and only get eye strain and headaches after extended use. But it would be nice to have no issues after extended use; which I experienced with all iPhones pre X.

interesting, sorry to hear that. definitely an annoying issue

 

[mituhk]

Update, I have suffered from PWM since iPhone X, been using iPhone 8 and iPhone 11 ever since.
But I am brave to try out iPhone 12... since the evening of 23rd, till now... I don’t feel any pain in my eyes... that’s great news, just want to share.
Just for the sake of comparison, I still got the same pain when looking at my wife’s iPhone 11Pro.
Will test for a few more days, and let everyone know.
cheers

 

[jm31828]

Update, I have suffered from PWM sainted iPhone X, been using iPhone 8 and iPhone 11 ever since.
But I am brave to try out iPhone 12... since the evening of 23rd, till now... I don’t feel any pain in my eyes... that’s great news, just want to share.
Just for the sake of comparison, I still got the same pain when looking at my wife’s iPhone 11Pro.
Will test for a few more days, and let everyone know.
cheers

Thanks for sharing, that’s great to hear!

 

[Samut]

I have posted this to other topic also but I found this measurement for iPhone 11 pro max.

Could it be possible that Apple might have tuned the PWM so that it is at lowest at 50 percent brightness?

If so, has anyone tried to fix brightness at 50 percent level?

 

[dimitricook]

Update, I have suffered from PWM since iPhone X, been using iPhone 8 and iPhone 11 ever since.
But I am brave to try out iPhone 12... since the evening of 23rd, till now... I don’t feel any pain in my eyes... that’s great news, just want to share.
Just for the sake of comparison, I still got the same pain when looking at my wife’s iPhone 11Pro.
Will test for a few more days, and let everyone know.
cheers

Great to hear! Did you had a chance to check if PWM was present on your iPhone 12 unit?

 

[TDDM]

I’ve used the 12 for ~48 hours now as my main device, and I’m fairly sure that the PWM implementation is better than it was in the 11 Pro. Could be completely placebo-ish, but this doesn’t give me the more serious eye strain/headache that I got from previous iPhones. It‘s still uncomfortable to use for extended periods of time though, so I think I’m going for a SE instead.

Still though, seems encouraging that the PWM is getting less and less harmful each year.

 

[QuattroRS6]

I find your Experiences interesting, i never had Problems with PWM Flickering and the iPhone Displays in the X, XS and 11 Pro, i also own the latest Galaxy S Devices, but with the 12 Pro i had Eye Strain and i feeled dizziness.

 

[jm31828]

I’ve used the 12 for ~48 hours now as my main device, and I’m fairly sure that the PWM implementation is better than it was in the 11 Pro. Could be completely placebo-ish, but this doesn’t give me the more serious eye strain/headache that I got from previous iPhones. It‘s still uncomfortable to use for extended periods of time though, so I think I’m going for a SE instead.

Still though, seems encouraging that the PWM is getting less and less harmful each year.

What device did you have before buying the 12? Just curious about your potential move to the SE vs say the 11.

Part of me, from my past experience, wonders if the smaller sized displays such as SE, 7, 6S, etc- are the cure for eye strain, instead of LCD vs. OLED. I started having off and on eye strain when finally upgrading above the 4.7" phones- first the XS which I thought was because of PWM, then off and on with my 8+ that I traded the XS for (though that got better, and came back on occasion), and now over the last year on and off with my 11 (again, LCD, so no PWM factoring in).

There is a lot of light piercing our eyes with these 5.5" or 6.1" or even 6.5" displays vs those smaller ones.... and I am very sensitive to bright lights- I run my brightness at or below 20%, and even then some apps or sites I go to, if they have bright colors, really feel like they are piercing my eyes. Never once had that issue on my smaller 6S or 7 phones.

 

[TDDM]

What device did you have before buying the 12? Just curious about your potential move to the SE vs say the 11.

I’d definitely go for the 11, except there are an even smaller subset of us who *also* get eye strain from the XR/11/iPad Pro 2018/etc. I had an 8+ before, but I kinda want something with a better chip at this point.

Part of me, from my past experience, wonders if the smaller sized displays such as SE, 7, 6S, etc- are the cure for eye strain, instead of LCD vs. OLED.

Def could be for some people, hopefully the 12 mini will give us more info on that when it comes out.

 

[GlenK]

I haven't been keeping up with the 12 roll out. Is the 12 mini out yet and has anyone tried it that has had the eye strain issues? Only thing I've been able to use lately has been the SE, but I'm wondering about the mini. Any news on that one?

 

[jm31828]

I’d definitely go for the 11, except there are an even smaller subset of us who *also* get eye strain from the XR/11/iPad Pro 2018/etc. I had an 8+ before, but I kinda want something with a better chip at this point.

Def could be for some people, hopefully the 12 mini will give us more info on that when it comes out.

Ah, got it. I asked because I have had off and on eye strain with my 11 over the year that I have had it, and again I wondered if part of it was the large screen. I really like the small size of the SE, and it has the A12 chip..... and I really prefer touch ID- I was torn on whether it would be a bad choice to sell my 11 and get an SE, given that it in some ways seems to be a downgrade. (though really besides the single camera and 3GB RAM vs 4GB, it pretty much has everything else)

I eagerly await the 12 mini and results between now and then on the PWM frequency, that seems like a great phone- though I do wish it had touchID.

 

[ghsDUDE]

Have any official tests been done in the 12’s yet?

 

[Squeak825]

I haven't been keeping up with the 12 roll out. Is the 12 mini out yet and has anyone tried it that has had the eye strain issues? Only thing I've been able to use lately has been the SE, but I'm wondering about the mini. Any news on that one?

Mini is not out for 2 weeks still

 

[GlenK]

Mini is not out for 2 weeks still

Thank you!

 

[mituhk]

Great to hear! Did you had a chance to check if PWM was present on your iPhone 12 unit?

PWM is still on...

 

[TDDM]

Out of curiosity, has anyone here with PWM sensitivity used either of the 2020 iPad Pros? Apparently they both have PWM, just curious if they’re usable for us or not.

 

[Maven1975]

Out of curiosity, has anyone here with PWM sensitivity used either of the 2020 iPad Pros? Apparently they both have PWM, just curious if they’re usable for us or not.

I tried the 2020 IPP, but went back to my 2019 12.9 1TB. This is really getting bad.... Selection of devices are dwindling across all manufactures.

Just have to use those cheap digital controllers to save a few cents and get better battery figures!

Even LED bulbs in your home are cause for feeling concern. I suggest people look into this before fully replacing their bulbs.

Creed makes some good PWM/Flicker Free bulbs

Im no doctor, but mental health has been getting worse. Perhaps there is a link? Some users are not even old enough to remember / been exposed to anything different than the environment we have now.

 

[TDDM]

I tried the 2020 IPP, but went back to my 2019 12.9 1TB.

Did you try the 11 or the 12.9? & did you have the same symptoms as if you were using one of the OLED iPhones?

 

[Maven1975]

Did you try the 11 or the 12.9? & did you have the same symptoms as if you were using one of the OLED iPhones?

My PWM discomfort with lager screens can be described as disoriented, failure to focus and blurry eye drift. (I tested the 12.9 2020 IPP. FWIW)

With the PWM phones, its more sharp and pronounced. It actually makes me very fidgety, frustrated, impacient and of course gives me the dry/bruised eye feeling quick.

Had Lasik surgery 10+ years ago. I have my eyes checked yearly as well and they check out fine with normal testing.

Off topic slightly,

I tried a friends 13” Razer Blade Stealth 2020 1080P 120HZ screen laptop last weekend. He was very impressed with it. However, I could not take more than a few minutes of that display. I dont know the readings on that, but the PWM has to be off the charts!

The last good laptop display I could use for hours was the Lenovo X1C 7th Gen- Flicker free, 1440p, 96% aRGB + HDR. Would put that on any current laptop at a premium if I had the chance/option. No questions asked!

Final last tidbit. Samsung, king of slapping OLEDs on everything, recently released a good flicker free LCD tablet in the Tab s7. (Not the s7+) It’s still Android, with Samsung overlays ... but is cheap for a good, quick, non PWM alternative tablet. ($200 off as of today)

OLEDs are not the problem. LG OLED TV’s do not use digital controllers and show no signs of PWM. This is all down to the controllers used and more likely than not, intergrated in the panels ribbons/cables so that OEMs have zero choice in the matter.

 

[dan98]

Yeah I'm using the X1C 7th gen and it's perfect...but to be fair there are tons of LED laptops without PWM these days.
Personally I've never had a problem with LED lights / light bulbs, but did have a huge problem with the earlier designs of LED, including Macbook Pros due to awful PWM.
I do wonder how many people find themselves getting uncomfortable / tired using all this new tech but never actually figure it that it's down to PWM.

I own a total of 4 2016 iPhone SEs to keep me going until Apple release another small PWM-free iPhone.
It could be that OLED is going through a similar 'maturing' process as LED did and that we'll soon start to see more and more PWM free OLEDs.
The main thing is to keep shouting about it until the manufacturers finally realise they're losing sales because of it.