Other Eye-strain while using iPhone X and up

[MICHAELSD]

I wish you all the best.

Mine did cause me a headache on Saturday but I was overusing the phone. The headache went way on its own fast enough.

Unfortunately I now have no way of fairly evaluating the pwm effect of the phone because my health took a big crash Sunday evening, unrelated to pwm.

I’ve got a migraine from having to suddenly withdraw from caffeine. That’s brutal, I hate those.

I’m not sure what’s wrong with me, because all I’ve done is go to a lab. My doctor didn’t even see me, he only talked to me on the phone. That’s the way it is now. He went from a office with regular 5 days per week hours down to 4 days per MONTH and from what I can tell, those need to be scheduled about a month in advance. I guess you have to plan in advance when you’re going to be sick? 🤪 I mean I was in excruciating pain and unable to sleep and it wasn’t considered an “emergency” so…

So anyway, until the lab results are back, my doctor is basically guessing kidney stones or UTI and meanwhile I am avoiding coffee to avoid aggravating my condition further.

And I was not able to take pain medication of any kind until today because my stomach was in pain from acid reflux and hiatal hernia. Thankfully THAT calmed down and I could take aspirin and an ibuprofen a few minutes ago.

I’m a big mess, so I’m just using my phone because I can’t possibly feel any worse. Since I couldn’t sleep Sunday night I was up early enough to watch the Queen’s funeral on my phone. The display is amazing. Even more so than that of my S22 Ultra which is also amazing. Samsung really needs to return to fully flat panels. I did not notice any discomfort from watching the funeral. My headache came much later after my body realized I wasn’t going to get any coffee that day!

Speaking of Samsung S22 Ultra, I can NOT comfortably switch between using the two displays. It makes me feel a bit woozy on top of the abject misery my other ailments are visiting upon me. We will see how that all works out when I’m less sickly.

Godspeed. Caffeine withdrawal can be difficult.

Ironically caffeine is one way I’ve been able to make these displays more tolerable, but even now I’m experiencing quite a bit of discomfort using this iPhone 14 Pro Max and definitely also experience my eyes not wanting to fully focus on the MacBook Pro Mini-LED display as well. I should attempt to avoid all types of PWM display flickering in the future.

 

[5105973]

Maybe a contributing factor is how much we’ve been playing on these phones since we got them. I’m using my 11 this morning, and I still have a bit of headache. My eyes are tired. Could it be the extra screen time? The slight change in weather? An increase of some allergen? Gnarly phone-decision stressing?

Anybody else?

The weeks leading up to preorder I was wondering how I’d know if the phone was bothering me because I was already having small headaches every day caused by goodness knows what. However there definitely is a specific kind of motion sickness feel that comes with overuse of an OLED display for me. I felt it after definitely overusing my 14 Pro Max one morning over the weekend.

I just turned off Attention Awareness after thinking it was already off. That’s helping. That always helps reduce a slight feeling of strain. I have come to love Face ID but I definitely don’t like being bombarded by the infrared dots more than absolutely necessary.

 

[5105973]

Godspeed. Caffeine withdrawal can be difficult.

Ironically caffeine is one way I’ve been able to make these displays more tolerable, but even now I’m experiencing quite a bit of discomfort using this iPhone 14 Pro Max and definitely also experience my eyes not wanting to fully focus on the MacBook Pro Mini-LED display as well. I should attempt to avoid all types of PWM display flickering in the future.

Thank you. My eyes have difficulty focusing on any computer display. Even that of the M1 Air or my father’s laptop. Neither has pwm flicker. I don’t know why but they’re always blurry to me.

I’m sorry the 14 Pro Max is causing you discomfort. I honestly don’t know for myself because I’m already in rough shape. I can focus on the display most of the time, though. I could not say that about iPhone X.

I appreciate that on this 14 Pro Max display that letters don’t look like they’re vibrating. I truly can’t see the pwm flicker this time around.

 

[MICHAELSD]

For those waiting for iPhone 14 Plus, I don’t think it will be much different than iPhone 14:

I presume they must have demo iPhones at Apple Stores ahead of the release.

iPhone 14 Pro Max for comparison from a random YouTuber:

They do appear to use two different rates.

 

[jimmy_uk]

Another "micro" report from me, hope your not bored yet

After several hours of 14 non pro usage this evening I can say that I have a little tension in my neck, slight unease in my gut - both of these could be stress related - and the front of my eyes are a little sore. (I am using my phone like you would a tablet, which can't be good, but it's my usual usage patterns).

I think this is because the display still feels too bright (torch in eyes) especially on a dark evening with lamps on. At 70-80% brightness I can read text but feel like outside of my centre focus everything is too bright.

At 60% brightness I struggle to focus on reading and blink more because text starts to look less sharp, perhaps this is where the PWM frequency is annoying me? Also turning the brightness down seems too dim for my yellowy white background which looks muddy.

To really try and describe it: when I read on my 7 Plus I can feel my centre focus sharpen up on text while the outer edge of my vision softens and relaxes. With the 14 I feel my vision always trying to stay focused on the whole display.

It's starting to add up to a return. Will give it at least another day as I realise typing this I have no other alternatives.....



Returning to my 7 Plus with its cool white display, wider screen + keyboard and the easy to read text really is a comfort. But the speakers and so quiet, the battery is shot, touch ID suddenly feels slow, the heavy top border can been seen. The 14 is really spoiling me! Sorry, this was looooong!

 

[5105973]

Well after several hours of 14 non pro usage this evening I can say that I have a little tension in my neck and the front of my eyes are a little sore. (I am using my phone like you would a tablet, which can't be good, but it's my usual usage patterns).

I think this is because the display still feels too bright (torch in eyes) especially on a dark evening with lamps on. At 70-80% brightness I can read text but feel like outside of my centre focus everything is too bright.

At 60% brightness I struggle to focus on reading and blink more because text starts to look less sharp, perhaps this is where the PWM frequency is annoying me? Also turning the brightness down seems too dim for my yellowy white background which looks muddy.

But this feeling is up and down as I keep adjusting brightness and the distance I hold the phone to reach my comfort levels. I have 10mins of good usage then my eyes feel annoyed and I blink alot more to wet my contacts and continue fiddling with brightness.

While I've said many times before "I will take any modern flagship iphone I can use" and I'm 80-90% there for the first time, I should be excited. But the yellowy overly warm whites which I hate, the need to have the screen brighter than I'd like, slight discomfort with vision + the fact I'm not liking the smaller phone (typing and tap errors galore), is adding up to a return. Will give it at least another day as I realise typing this I have no other alternatives.....

Have you tried reducing white point under Accessibility? It’s under Accessibility, Display and Text Size. Sometimes between adjusting the white point and screen brightness some people reach more of a comfort level. I wish my original XR had had a reduce white point setting because that display used to burn my eyeballs with overly bright white backgrounds even when the screen brightness was turned down low.

 

[5105973]

Just an update that turning off Attention Aware made all the difference to me in reducing any feeling of strain using this 14 Pro Max display. So now it’s roughly equal to using my iPhone 11 display in terms of eye strain or tension. Either display, if I overuse them I’ll be feeling it somehow.

I’ll still need a full week to know if overall migraine issues are affected. It’s hard to tell when I am battling an unrelated illness.

 

[jimmy_uk]

Have you tried reducing white point under Accessibility? It’s under Accessibility, Display and Text Size. Sometimes between adjusting the white point and screen brightness some people reach more of a comfort level. I wish my original XR had had a reduce white point setting because that display used to burn my eyeballs with overly bright white backgrounds even when the screen brightness was turned down low.

I'll give it a try. I was using a screen filter off and on to make the whites blue. Fiddling with the display like this does dim the colours and punch of the display, which is a shame, but everything is worth a go.

Attention aware off
Reduce motion
Reduce White point 50%
Brightness 75%
Auto brightness off

 

[MICHAELSD]

This is admittedly getting out of hand and could have been fixed by now with an Accessibility setting that replaces the display flickering with DC dimming.

I’d be on cloud nine if Apple stopped using PWM flickering on its latest products, and this would result in a better device overall for all users.

 

[Mastrociambella]

Can you explain what you mean with temporal dithering? I’m not a native speaker and I’m not familiar what this exactly means in combination with a smartphone. Thanks.

It’s some sort of flickering/blurring between colours to show more colours than what the display can really show (I.e. flickering yellow and blue could display green without a proper “green colour”)

 

[MICHAELSD]

For all my issues before and persistent headaches still being an issue, I would still say iPhone 14 Pro Max is somewhere between a 2-4/10 on my eye strain scale.

This may be the best experience I’ve had in terms of headaches and migraines, which still doesn’t compare to a 0/10 on iPhone SE or any LCD iPhone.

 

[john g.]

For all my issues before and persistent headaches still being an issue, I would still say iPhone 14 Pro Max is somewhere between a 2-4/10 on my eye strain scale.

This may be the best experience I’ve had in terms of headaches and migraines, which still doesn’t compare to a 0/10 on iPhone SE or any LCD iPhone.

I totally understand where you're coming from. Especially because I sent my 14 pro back on Monday and honestly, I miss it. It was a pleasure to use in every way except of course for the screen effects.

And as I've said several times before I didn't even have bad symptoms. I just got to the point where I refused to spend $1000 on something that was even making me feel mildly crappy. And who knows how those things might have progressed?

For now, I'm gonna enjoy my 11 and look forward to hopefully a spring offering of a newer LCD phone that I can be excited about. If that doesn't happen I will probably just replace the battery of my 11 which is getting long in the tooth.

Then repeat this circus next September

 

[Howyalikdemapls]

Then repeat this circus next September

🤣😝😂…😩

 

[john g.]

Here is a newer video that I think there's a pretty good job looking at the iPhone 14 pro. Makes me want it again of course, but I will resist

 

[iCantSee]

How much better is the iPhone 11 than the XR. Maybe I will just upgrade to an 11 if the 14 doesn’t work out lol. Or rock this XR until the new SE.

 

[MICHAELSD]

I totally understand where you're coming from. Especially because I sent my 14 pro back on Monday and honestly, I miss it. It was a pleasure to use in every way except of course for the screen effects.

And as I've said several times before I didn't even have bad symptoms. I just got to the point where I refused to spend $1000 on something that was even making me feel mildly crappy. And who knows how those things might have progressed?

For now, I'm gonna enjoy my 11 and look forward to hopefully a spring offering of a newer LCD phone that I can be excited about. If that doesn't happen I will probably just replace the battery of my 11 which is getting long in the tooth.

Then repeat this circus next September

I suppose the good news is that there do seem to be further improvements made this generation, and I understand that for whatever reason Apple can’t just prioritize DC dimming on current-generation OLED panel technology—even if LG has OLED TV’s that are essentially flicker-free.

It does oddly seem like I’m having a better experience with this iPhone 14 Pro Max than a 14” MacBook Pro. Notebookcheck is taking their time so my speculation is there there might be a more sophisticated PWM implementation on all of the new iPhone’s.

This does seem to be better than iPhone 13 and even iPhone 13 Mini. If other users in this thread had better luck with iPhone 14 Pro I’d be more optimistic that it has a superior or even doubled rate compared to iPhone 14 Pro Max.

This is getting to become a major drain of time and energy, and if I didn’t have to constantly think about this while using these devices then I’d move on. But we still don’t have a definitive solution.

 

[Mr.Simple]

Here are the flicker percentage for the iPhone 14 Pro Max:

 

[john g.]

This does seem to be better than iPhone 13 and even iPhone 13 Mini. If other users in this thread had better luck with iPhone 14 Pro I’d be more optimistic that it has a superior or even doubled rate compared to iPhone 14 Pro Max.

Agreed, this was the first OLED iPhone that didn't give me either a headache or big time focusing issues.

Yes, some mild nausea or motion sickness symptoms, and my eyes didn't feel as relaxed as looking at my 11.

I did however, have a few times where I felt dizzy.
That kind of made me feel like if I kept using it, the symptom list would grow longer.

Still though, what an improvement over the 13s and 12s and especially the iPhone X.
My mother-in-law's 13 and the original iPhone X would give me a bad headache and focusing issues in about two minutes or less.

 

[matthijst]

Second morning waking up with gritty eyes. Not as bad as yesterday. Will try a few more days, but it looks like it's going back. Annoying cause it's a great phone.

 

[PwmMen]

Here's my first experience with the iPhone 14. It's a blessing! It will definitely stay and replace my iPhone 12 Pro. Better battery, better processor, better speakers, better 5G/LTE reception, smaller notch, etc. But now to the most important thing, my eyes and my body do not react to the display at all. I'm so happy and still can't really believe it. The frequency is very high, or DC dimming must be implemented.

 

[matthijst]

May give the 14 a try. Tried my dad's 12 yesterday and couldnt figure out why that seemed easier on the eyes as well.
Only minor annoyance with a 12 and 14 is the missing 2x zoom lens.

Curious about the 14 Plus as well now 🙄

 

[DJTaurus]

Here's my first experience with the iPhone 14. It's a blessing! It will definitely stay and replace my iPhone 12 Pro. Better battery, better processor, better speakers, better 5G/LTE reception, smaller notch, etc. But now to the most important thing, my eyes and my body do not react to the display at all. I'm so happy and still can't really believe it. The frequency is very high, or DC dimming must be implemented.

Did you have issues with 14 Pro on day one ? I mean isn’t it too early to judge 14 ?

 

[dstow]

Here's my first experience with the iPhone 14. It's a blessing! It will definitely stay and replace my iPhone 12 Pro. Better battery, better processor, better speakers, better 5G/LTE reception, smaller notch, etc. But now to the most important thing, my eyes and my body do not react to the display at all. I'm so happy and still can't really believe it. The frequency is very high, or DC dimming must be implemented.

This is great news to wake up too - These anecdotal reports do seem to backup the claims of the highest PWM rate reported so far on the vanilla iPhone 14 - However, I think it's safe to assume the iPhone 14 Plus will have a lower PWM freq in line with previous Pro Max form factors exhibiting consistently lower freq's to there 6.1 counterparts, but to air on the side of caution, I will wait until the October 7th release to confirm once and for all before pulling the trigger

 

[matthijst]

Ordered a 14 to arrive tomorrow, will return the Pro.
Didnt get headaches from the Pro like I did with the previous phones. But still got gritty eyes when I woke up.
And got tired, (sometimes) teary eyes and slight tingling on my cheeck next to my eye when using the phone.
Its like I'm (unnoticeably) contstantly squinting to focus on the screen.
When I pick up my 8+ I immediately notice there's no strain at all.
So while the Pro seems improved, it's still not where I'd want it to be.
Hope the 14 will be better, otherwise its back to waiting another year.

 

[dstow]

Ordered a 14 to arrive tomorrow, will return the Pro.
Didnt get headaches from the Pro like I did with the previous phones. But still got gritty eyes when I woke up.
And got tired, (sometimes) teary eyes and slight tingling on my cheeck next to my eye when using the phone.
Its like I'm (unnoticeably) contstantly squinting to focus on the screen.
When I pick up my 8+ I immediately notice there's no strain at all.
So while the Pro seems improved, it's still not where I'd want it to be.
Hope the 14 will be better, otherwise its back to waiting another year.

Let us know your experience, hopefully another positive one we can tick off the list