Other Eye-strain while using iPhone X and up

[jimmy_uk]

SE 2022, if it comes, will just be the current model but with 5g and newer processor. This has been a long standing rumour and would be very Tim Cooks Apple in order to have a cheap, entry level iphone made from current parts.

The 11 is a to be retired device next year. It's successor is now the standard 13. They won't make a special phone that could cannibalise those sales.

 

[nicklear]

Got 13 Pro - first iPhone and first OLED screen. Had very strong reaction to it. Eye strain, headaches, tiredness - couldn't focus on anything over 20m away for all of yesterday, which was not a nice experience. Had never heard of any of this. Tried all the workarounds like max brightness and reduced white point, made no difference. I've seen some people are fine with the 13 and others not.

24 hours of not using it and my long distance focus is mostly back, but not completely. Hopefully will be back in another day.

 

[orange23]

My god is OLED a double edged sword. Here's my story: I realized I was affected by PWM when I purchased a used iPhone XS Max two years ago. It was instant: severe eye strain when looking at the screen. Like unpleasurable pressure in the back of my eyes. Unbareable. Did some quick research on it ("iPhone hurts eyes" type of google search), saw a few people mentioning PWM, but I didn't really take it seriously. It was all new back then. I sold it, and went to purchase the newest LCD iPhone, the 11.

Now, 2 years later, this week exactly, I decided to try the iPhone 12. New, from Apple, with a 14 days return policy. And yet again, the eye strain was still there. I told myself "maybe it'll get better? My eyes will get used to it?". 4 days after using it, it kind of got better, but not enough. The pain was less intense, but I could still tell that my eyes were sore and tired. I asked myself "Do I really have to kill my eyes to have the latest iPhone?" (heck, it's even last year's iPhone). No. It's not worth it. Returned the iPhone 12, and went back to my iPhone 11. I plan on changing its battery in 2022 and using it for at least another 3 years.

But the OLED fiasco doesn't stop here. This exact same week, on our family group chat, my uncle sent us pictures of his OLED LG C7 TV asking us what the heck is this: visible banding of burn-in on his TV. A brand new TV he paid a premium price for a few years ago. We checked for him and the warranty doesn't even cover burn-in.

And now, today, the Nintendo Switch OLED model released and, a few months ago, I was interested in buying it. I even pre-ordered it. Now, knowing what I know, I don't dare touch anything OLED related. It's even been confirmed on the Nintendo Switch reddit page that the model has PWM. I canceled my order.

Now, don't get me wrong, OLED screens are crisp and beautiful to look at. But at what cost? Apparently your eyes, burn-in, and your wallet.

I sure hope this OLED screen trend will be short lived in the industry. I doubt it. But only time will tell.

In short, OLED cost human being's eyes...just like in sci-fi movie "human invent tech to end human"

 

[now i see it]

But we now have Fitness+ videos and Apple Watch health initiatives!

 

[LostAggie]

Just initiated the return of my iPhone 13 pro. Going back to the 11…

 

[ghanwani]

This thread needs to be retitled to read "...while using OLED iPhones".

 

[now i see it]

Actually the title now fits. For all of us here, four generations of unusable iPhones has delegated all OLED iPhones simply as generation X (ex). No name, not usable, another generic toxic OLED iPhone that gets tossed in the “X” bin.
Next year’s OLED iPhone? It’ll be an “X” too along with every flickering OLED model that follows it. They’re all iPhone X as far as I’m concerned.
Ex it off the list.

 

[The.Glorious.Son]

Actually the title now fits. For all of us here, four generations of unusable iPhones has delegated all OLED iPhones simply as generation X (ex). No name, not usable, another generic toxic OLED iPhone that gets tossed in the “X” bin.
Next year’s OLED iPhone? It’ll be an “X” too along with every flickering OLED model that follows it. They’re all iPhone X as far as I’m concerned.
Ex it off the list.

You’re certainly not wrong lol. Not they misery loves company, but I’ve found it almost comforting to see all of the new names and threads weighing in on the issue. For a while it seemed like it was the same group of us keeping the issue alive. But folks have come out of the woodwork with this release. I really hope something happens soon that allows us back into the flagship game. I am fine with my 11, but I really want 512gb storage, better battery, macro mode, and the improved cameras.

 

[jimmy_uk]

It doesn't work for me even at 50% brightness. The only choices for a new phone now are 11 and SE 2020, and IMO the latter is horrible value since they have not changed the price since introduction and they even dropped the charging brick since then.

I also think the 11 is not a great choice being it's two year's old and at almost the same size as the Plus iPhones, only has an 828p resolution. This factor alone stops me from giving in and settling because it's a step backwards from my 1080p 7 Plus. I genuinely can see the text appearing less sharp which in itself causes eye strain for me.

I'm happy for those who love their iphone 11 and don't want to take away from that - I'm just genuinely dissatisfied with the XR and 11 options and still can't believe Apple opted for this non HD resolution.

The rumors of a SE Plus had me so hyped at the time and it would have been easy for Apple to implement, it's not like they care about having too many SKU's anymore. But like with the cheap jelly scroll LCD in the ipad mini 6, Apple push technology which is inferior to what it's replacing and the public eat it up. 😡

 

[ghanwani]

There's definitely more and more awareness building around this issue.

The iPhone 12 Mini Makes Me Sick (Literally)

Manufacturers don’t like to talk about OLED display flicker, but for the sensitive, it’s a nightmare

spectrum.ieee.org

 

[ghanwani]

I also think the 11 is not a great choice being it's two year's old and at almost the same size as the Plus iPhones, only has an 828p resolution. This factor alone stops me from giving in and settling because it's a step backwards from my 1080p 7 Plus. I genuinely can see the text appearing less sharp which in itself causes eye strain for me.

I'm happy for those who love their iphone 11 and don't want to take away from that - I'm just genuinely dissatisfied with the XR and 11 options and still can't believe Apple opted for this non HD resolution.

At least they have been dropping the price on the 11.

That said, if I was to buy a phone today, despite it being a terrible value, I would get the SE 2020. It wouldn't be a phone that gave me the thrills, but it would at least get the job done.

 

[ghanwani]

The rumors of a SE Plus had me so hyped at the time and it would have been easy for Apple to implement, it's not like they care about having too many SKU's anymore. But like with the cheap jelly scroll LCD in the ipad mini 6, Apple push technology which is inferior to what it's replacing and the public eat it up. 😡

The Apple refurb store has 8P's on sale but only 64GB.

 

[majkom]

In short, OLED cost human being's eyes...just like in sci-fi movie "human invent tech to end human"

OLED TVs are fine, just dont use BFI (wont use it even if it doesnt cause flicker)… i love my oled tv, i cant stand oled iphones

 

[now i see it]

The Apple refurb store has 8P's on sale but only 64GB.

19 days ago they had 128 GB and 256 GB models available

 

[gigapocket1]

Had a 256gb iPhone 13 Pro Max for two weeks. Didnt have any problems and decided to upgrade storage while I still could. Now I feel like this one is giving me some problems. Eye strain is def noticeable with this particular one.

 

[RobinYerbank]

I also think the 11 is not a great choice being it's two year's old and at almost the same size as the Plus iPhones, only has an 828p resolution. This factor alone stops me from giving in and settling because it's a step backwards from my 1080p 7 Plus. I genuinely can see the text appearing less sharp which in itself causes eye strain for me.

I'm happy for those who love their iphone 11 and don't want to take away from that - I'm just genuinely dissatisfied with the XR and 11 options and still can't believe Apple opted for this non HD resolution.

The rumors of a SE Plus had me so hyped at the time and it would have been easy for Apple to implement, it's not like they care about having too many SKU's anymore. But like with the cheap jelly scroll LCD in the ipad mini 6, Apple push technology which is inferior to what it's replacing and the public eat it up. 😡

I love my 11. Although it’s not as sharp as the Plus phones, the display is otherwise gorgeous and has amazing colour and contrast that’s comparable to the OLED models. The only downsides are that black isn’t perfect black (only visible in the dark and I don’t care) and it doesn’t show HDR (another thing I don’t really care about).

The LCD obviously has benefits vs OLED as well, such as no grey uniformity issues, no weird tints, much ‘purer’ looking solid colour and white (no PenTile graininess) and no burn in!

I think they went for 828p in particular due to the UI scaling factors of iOS, which are all based on the original iPhone. The 11 has the same pixel density as the SE and all the other non-Plus iPhones since the 4. The Plus models are outliers because they use the standard 1920 x 1080 resolution and don’t match the other models in terms of density and scaling. They run the UI at 3x instead of 2x (I think) and are actually super-sampled. That makes them look very detailed, but there is a slight blur due to the way the image doesn’t line up with the pixels of the display.

The 11’s image looks ‘sharper’ due to it rendering at native resolution, but it obviously has a lower pixel density.

Sorry, I love nerding out about displays! 🤓

 

[zx128k]

Switch OLED PWM.

 

[Macmelman]

But we now have Fitness+ videos and Apple Watch health initiatives!

And fantastic OLED screens for the vast majority of people not suffering from these issues.

 

[spillerz]

This thread needs to be retitled to read "...while using OLED iPhones".

I was just thinking the same thing!

 

[MICHAELSD]

Switch OLED PWM.

I don’t think Apple is doing anything necessarily wrong or detrimentally different compared to other manufacturers, but I have wondered if I would still get migraines from a Samsung Galaxy phone or a Nintendo Switch OLED. It could be an interesting experiment to try a Nintendo Switch OLED. I’m not at the point where I’d consider leaving the Apple ecosystem to use a Galaxy phone.

It is odd because I typically get instant migraines i.e. if someone shows me a picture on an iPhone 12 Pro Max even without UI elements whereas I could watch a YouTube video on a Samsung Galaxy S21 and be fine. If I had to hypothesize it may be due to past experience owning iPhone 12 Pro Max and my brain getting used to that particular PWM implementation since I’d also get severe migraines just by staring at an iPhone X/XS/11 Pro for a second.

No surprise: I did end up returning iPhone 13 Pro. I had a comprehensive post ready to go in the text box on the forum which unfortunately reset itself so I’ll have to type it again. I do have a lot of insight to share, and it is getting better which is great. Better just isn’t enough for someone who’s sensitive to PWM to be able to continue using it daily for a year or more. Even now I still have a light residual migraine after returning it on Friday.

 

[MICHAELSD]

If I was to test another phone during the extended holiday return period I was surprisingly smitten with iPhone 13 Mini. Even the display looks ever so slightly sharper and more contrasty than the iPhone 13 next to it. I do have to say Apple knows what they’re doing in making premium aluminum designs as well.

I’ve enjoyed having a smaller phone beyond making more errors while typing with iPhone SE and I’m glad Apple is continuing their Mini phone experiment. Even iPhone 13 Pro felt massive despite my having used Plus-sized phones for the past few years. Smaller phones allow users to focus more on life.

5G and the same excellent main camera sensor as the other iPhone 13 models is enough to justify an upgrade. I’m not overly optimistic but I’ll look at all of the PWM charts and measurements and make an informed decision if I get tempted enough to try upgrading my iPhone SE one more time.

 

[now i see it]

The only PWM chart you need to reference is the pain receptors in your skull.
No pain = Keep
Pain = Return

 

[MICHAELSD]

The only PWM chart you need to reference is the pain receptors in your skull.
No pain = Keep
Pain = Return

Exactly. It’s all meaningless if it still causes migraines/headaches.

If there was no PWM at all we wouldn’t have to continue worrying about those charts…

I knew iPhone X would be a completely new iPhone experience. I wouldn’t have counted on it creating this PWM eye strain era.

 

[PwmMen]

Ich have many problems with all OLED iPhones, but with the iPhone 13 Pro its perfekt.
With the X, XS, 11Pro, 12,12Pro I felt sick and had headache. I used LCD for a long time.
With the 13 Pro only a litte bit tired eyes after 1-2 ours of reading. That's ok, and i love it to use an OLED iPhone.
In everyday life, i have a maximum of 30-60 minutes of display on a day. So I am very happy now.

 

[john g.]

No surprise: I did end up returning iPhone 13 Pro. I had a comprehensive post ready to go in the text box on the forum which unfortunately reset itself so I’ll have to type it again. I do have a lot of insight to share, and it is getting better which is great. Better just isn’t enough for someone who’s sensitive to PWM to be able to continue using it daily for a year or more. Even now I still have a light residual migraine after returning it on Friday.

I look forward to your post about the pro. I ordered and received a launch day 13 mini and tried it for almost the entire 2 week trial, but sent it back. Although no where near as bad as the X and XS it still was problematic for me.
I tried a 13 pro at a couple of stores today. While better, I had very mild problems focusing afterwards, so although I am curious about the pro, I think I will end up staying with my 11 for another year.