Other Eye-strain while using iPhone X and up

[Peter_M]

This is interesting. I noticed a similar issue when I had the iMac Pro. I got dry eyes, feeling uncomfortable using it, esp. for several hours at a time. Now I use a PC monitor with a matt anti-glare screen and a Mac Mini - much better.

Getting dry or irritated eyes is definitely a real issue, although I don't own an iPhone with an OLED screen - the topic of this thread (I have the regular LCD kind, ie. standard iPhone 11).

 

[Abiyork]

I’m so sorry to hear that!
Did you have clear symptoms relating to the use of the iPhone 12, it was rather severe and you absolutely knew it was the phone?

And I assume an SE would be a decent option for you or those similarly affected?

I’m in a weird spot headache-wise. I’ve had rather frequent headaches for probably 20 years. I’ve had much more frequency with them- almost daily- in the last year to year and a half.

I’ve had oled phones for the last two years- a 12 mini for a year that honestly didn’t seem to have any direct correlation with my headaches… and now for the last year a 13 pro- which seems to be easy on my eyes as well, in that I don’t develop a headache or eye strain when or directly after using the phone- even if it’s a long hour or two session.

But I’m now a bit paranoid over that coincidental increase in my headache frequency. I’ll go stretches of a few days without any problem (even when using my phone a lot), then have other stretches with constant headaches- even if I am not using the phone a lot.

My wife and doctor think it’s more to do with changes in the last couple of years now that I work from home- not as active, staring at a computer screen in a rather poorly lit bedroom for 11 hours per day with bad ergonomics compared to what I had when working in the office.

But who really knows- part of me wonders if even though my phone seems fine, if I’d get into a better routine headache-wise if I were to switch to an SE, to get away from pwm.

Anyway- I wish you the best, hopefully you do get past the headaches or at least the Botox treatment really knocks it out.

Apologies for the late reply.

I had the Iphone X and had seen this thread on the forum and thought everyone was being OTT and making the headaches up.

I bought the Iphone 12pro thinking I wasnt effected as I obviously was fine with the OLED Iphone X.

It started with headache/migraine behind my left right eye immediately after getting it, but it clashed with working from home with Covid in a particular room in my house with a big bay window. I was sat looking out of the window so looking at my monitor and having lots of sunlight making it contrasty. I did some reading up and moved things around but no help.

It wasn't until I remembered this thread, had a read and saw that people were experiencing differences with different OLED screens. My works phone was an iphone 8 so swapped to that for and found immediate relief, unfortunately it took 4 weeks of using the 12pro and the damage was done.

On the 5th week my right eye drooped and watered (it went half closed) one of the main syptoms of my condition.

The pain left my eye and sat on the top right of my head, pound coin size. Good days feel like sunburn and bad days feels like a hot poker being pushed into my brain.

Not sure which part of the world you are from but with Covid and the reluctance of NHS in the UK to refer outside of their region.... (York where I live has a neurology department with a 13month wait, and even then I know they arent qualified as none of them are headache specialists. However I would have had to wait 13months to have my appointment and then get referred to Leeds/Hull)

I paid for private at Hull and the headache neurologist then reffered me into his NHS practice (basically a £300 shortcut). I am in good hands now.

I keep busy at work and the pain goes fairly unnoticed with my medication. Its when I chill on a night that I feel it.

Hope you get sorted with your pain, maybe getting seen by someone might help if its effecting your day to day life.

If you are in the UK this site is great

OUCH(UK) - The Cluster Headache Charity | Support for Sufferers & their Families

Ouch, Raising general awareness of cluster headache and offering support and guidance through our helpline and user forum

ouchuk.org

They can advise you of the headache neurologists in the country (they specialise in Cluster Headaches which is an awful condition)

 

[matthijst]

Did you quit using the phone?

Never had headaches in my life, thought I had a brain tumor when I got the X: headaches every day, top right temple. Luckily I found this thread, sent back the iPhone and headache disappeared.

 

[jm31828]

Apologies for the late reply.

I had the Iphone X and had seen this thread on the forum and thought everyone was being OTT and making the headaches up.

I bought the Iphone 12pro thinking I wasnt effected as I obviously was fine with the OLED Iphone X.

It started with headache/migraine behind my left right eye immediately after getting it, but it clashed with working from home with Covid in a particular room in my house with a big bay window. I was sat looking out of the window so looking at my monitor and having lots of sunlight making it contrasty. I did some reading up and moved things around but no help.

It wasn't until I remembered this thread, had a read and saw that people were experiencing differences with different OLED screens. My works phone was an iphone 8 so swapped to that for and found immediate relief, unfortunately it took 4 weeks of using the 12pro and the damage was done.

On the 5th week my right eye drooped and watered (it went half closed) one of the main syptoms of my condition.

The pain left my eye and sat on the top right of my head, pound coin size. Good days feel like sunburn and bad days feels like a hot poker being pushed into my brain.

Not sure which part of the world you are from but with Covid and the reluctance of NHS in the UK to refer outside of their region.... (York where I live has a neurology department with a 13month wait, and even then I know they arent qualified as none of them are headache specialists. However I would have had to wait 13months to have my appointment and then get referred to Leeds/Hull)

I paid for private at Hull and the headache neurologist then reffered me into his NHS practice (basically a £300 shortcut). I am in good hands now.

I keep busy at work and the pain goes fairly unnoticed with my medication. Its when I chill on a night that I feel it.

Hope you get sorted with your pain, maybe getting seen by someone might help if its effecting your day to day life.

If you are in the UK this site is great

OUCH(UK) - The Cluster Headache Charity | Support for Sufferers & their Families

Ouch, Raising general awareness of cluster headache and offering support and guidance through our helpline and user forum

ouchuk.org

They can advise you of the headache neurologists in the country (they specialise in Cluster Headaches which is an awful condition)

So sorry to hear that!! Sounds like a rather unique but really frustrating condition, I wish you the best in treatment to get it taken care of, or at least to minimize the impact as much as possible.

I'm in the US, but we have our own challenges- we can get in to see specialists with no barriers, but there are significant delays in being able to get in to see someone, and of course without good medical insurance, the costs would be astronomical. (fortunately my job does provide really good medical insurance)

My situation is definitely more mild than what you described, and my frequent headaches go back many years to before I even had a smartphone. I have had them more frequently, though, almost daily in the last year or two- coinciding with working from home with terrible ergonomics and lighting in the room I work from, but also coinciding sort of with my move to OLED phones.
I have noticed I can sit and have a long session on my 13 Pro without much issue, and there are other days where just looking at it for a few minutes can make my eyes feel just a bit sore- or at least behind my eyes feeling a bit irritated.
For the last couple of evenings (generally when I sit down for more time, an hour or so to read news, catch up on social media, etc.) I have left my phone along and switched over to my 2015 MacBook Air to do these things. It's amazing how much more comfortable that has been on my eyes.

I don't know honestly if some soreness or strain is occurring as a result of simply focusing on the small text from a small phone screen, or if it is indeed the OLED flicker- especially in a darker room as my living room would be late in the evening.

Given what we know about OLED flicker and the fact that I know I am at least mildly sensitive to it (and the increase in headaches I've had the last year or two), I am tempted to sell my 13 Pro and move to an SE 2022. I always liked the LCD displays, hate bigger sized phones, and prefer touch ID....

 

[happy orchard]

Been using the 14 Plus for 3 days, 4 hours a day.
Seems to be the best yet. Had issues with XR, X, and some of the Pro Maxes (can't recall which ones I ordered anymore). 14 Pro was annoying me as well.
Checked the Pro Max 14 in store and think that was similar to the 14 Pro.

Can't wait to get the notebookcheck review of the regular 14 and Plus. No ideas why they are easier on the eyes even though pwm may be similar.
Screen is not as white it seems.

Interesting. I had the opposite reaction.

Picked up the 14 Plus in the store and was like 'this is lovely.' Then I felt my eyes almost flinching. So I pulled out my 11 to slo-mo record, and the 14 Plus had flickering even at 100%!

Wondered if it was that store's lighting, so I recored both Pro and Pro Max, and NO flickering at 100%.

I thought that 14 Plus was a dream to hold, but its screen bothered me almost immediately when the Pros do not.

Argh. So frustrating that we can't find a consensus to better understand what's going on and know how best to handle it.

 

[5105973]

Goodness, to add to complications, my husband gave me his 14 Pro Max last night to order from a Uber Eats restaurant menu. My eyes did not like that, either. Side by side I can see differences between his display and mine. They’re slight but his display is slightly colder in the same settings. I like mine better.

I do hope it’s not a matter of having to vibe well with a specific phone vs a certain model. That would complicate things so much more.

I’m still not quite feeling normal though after trying to use my Pixel yesterday. That was pretty bad.

 

[matthijst]

As we near the release of the 14 Plus, a visual reminder...

14 Plus PWM

Interesting. I had the opposite reaction.

Picked up the 14 Plus in the store and was like 'this is lovely.' Then I felt my eyes almost flinching. So I pulled out my 11 to slo-mo record, and the 14 Plus had flickering even at 100%!

Wondered if it was that store's lighting, so I recored both Pro and Pro Max, and NO flickering at 100%.

I thought that 14 Plus was a dream to hold, but its screen bothered me almost immediately when the Pros do not.

Argh. So frustrating that we can't find a consensus to better understand what's going on and know how best to handle it.

Not sure if recording with another iphone is the best way to test.
Both pros flicker at 100% as well.

But I agree: annoying we can't figure out what causes it.

I think *for me* it has more to do with brightness and whiteness of the screen. Sometimes it's like your shining a spotlight in your face. And on the white tinted screens it seems harder to focus on text, as if there's slightly less contrast between letters and the white background.
The 14 and 14 Plus seem to be yellower than the 14 Pro I had.

 

[G3Blue]

Just read this…
Post in thread 'Apple Releases iOS 16.0.3 With Fixes for Notification Delays, CarPlay Microphone Levels, and More'
https://forums.macrumors.com/thread...rophone-levels-and-more.2364758/post-31607040

 

[G3Blue]

I’ve been looking for android alternatives to try, all top of the range phones are out of the question due to oled displays.

None are perfect but there are a few mid range options for lcd 120hz refresh displays with 0 pwm.

I’ve been using a 17” z book today which has a standard 1080p display and my eyes feel fresher than with a MacBook Pro 16” M1… iPhone 11 does still give me the staring at a bright light effect and eye strain?

 

[MICHAELSD]

Just read this…
Post in thread 'Apple Releases iOS 16.0.3 With Fixes for Notification Delays, CarPlay Microphone Levels, and More'
https://forums.macrumors.com/thread...rophone-levels-and-more.2364758/post-31607040

It seems unlikely that they would adjust flickering via a software update unless it’s a glitch or they built updatability into the brightness controller. The grayscale flickering bug is odd.

That being said, iPhone 14 Pro Max at lower brightness levels has still been better for me than any iPhone 13 generation device.

 

[jimmy_uk]

Got to fiddle with a 14 Plus for a couple of hours this evening. Usual check list: switched off attention aware and true tone, also reduced motion. Ran it around 40% brightness which felt right for eye comfort.

Tension in the left side back of head/brain and a queasy feeling from my stomach to my throat. So another crossed off the list for me. Can't see me back here next year, this has to stop! 💀

 

[MICHAELSD]

It changes day-by-day, but I do seem to be adjusting to iPhone 14 Pro Max in a way that hasn’t happened with an OLED iPhone before. I couldn’t use any OLED iPhone without getting constant migraines which could become even worse after use, and the effect has been dramatically lessened.

Even some of the workarounds I’d considered in the past, such as setting up brightness Shortcuts, seem to be working better. Reduce White Point is mostly useless for this purpose as amplitudes are already comparatively low across the brightness range.

I’m not quite sure whether the 240Hz or 480Hz rate is better, as I’ve disabled auto-brightness and raised the brightness to 40% as a test. Earlier today when it was brighter out I had virtually no issues at 40% brightness. On second thought, 480Hz throughout the entire brightness range may be better but even the 240Hz rate has been significantly better than iPhone 12 Pro Max.

One more generational improvement could be enough to create a comfortable iPhone experience. I can foresee next year being a 1/10 on my eye strain scale, although I’m not sure whether I’d attribute a 1/10 as being free of persistent headaches but rather 10x better than iPhone X when it comes to eye strain and headaches. The effect is about five times improved on iPhone 14 Pro Max.

 

[MICHAELSD]

Do we have similar measurements for iPhone 14 Pro? This was posted earlier in the thread, and I’m not sure what channel the source video is from. But it does appear that anywhere from 0%-10% brightness then 39% and up will have the lowest amplitudes thereby creating lower potential to cause eye strain.

 

[matthijst]

@MICHAELSD did you.also test the regular 14 Pro?
Is the 14 Pro Max better?
Are you keeping the Pro Max?

 

[MICHAELSD]

@MICHAELSD did you.also test the regular 14 Pro?
Is the 14 Pro Max better?
Are you keeping the Pro Max?

I haven’t tested iPhone 14 Pro, but I am willing to switch to another iPhone 14 depending on which device is proven to be the best as far as PWM rates and amplitudes.

Frankly I’m considering keeping the Pro Max, but I do still get headaches at times as well as persistent headaches which are at least twice as subdued as iPhone 13 Mini—which were already noticeably improved over iPhone X and iPhone 12 Pro Max.

 

[john g.]

It would seem that more more people have better luck with the pro max version than just a regular pro version.
Of course I didn't try the pro max version because even though I have large hands [size XL gloves], I've always had this notion that it would be a small tablet in my hands, and I loved the iPhone mini form factor.

But I've never actually given the pro max size a try.
My experience with the pro max version is just handling it in the retail enviroment.

 

[DJTaurus]

I haven’t tested iPhone 14 Pro, but I am willing to switch to another iPhone 14 depending on which device is proven to be the best as far as PWM rates and amplitudes.

Frankly I’m considering keeping the Pro Max, but I do still get headaches at times as well as persistent headaches which are at least twice as subdued as iPhone 13 Mini—which were already noticeably improved over iPhone X and iPhone 12 Pro Max.

Did you also test iPhone 14 ? Results ?

 

[PwmMen]

Here are 2 videos from Pixel 7 and Pixel 7 Pro, that Pro looks better:

 

[Chrispy]

I was going through a drawer this morning and found the unopened box for my MagSafe charger. I forgot I picked one up when the 12 came out because I was excited by the idea. When the 12 didn't work out, I just kept the charger figuring I would have a chance to use it by the time the 13 came out. And yet here we are. So much time passed that I forgot I even owned it. I guess I can use it with my AirPod Pro now, haha.

 

[john g.]

I live 3 1/2 hours from the nearest Apple store. Today I need to go to that city and if I have time, I’m just going to check the pro max out in the store. Curiosity, that’s all. I can’t see how the pro max or the 14 plus screen would be any different than the 14 Pro or regular 14 that I’ve already had in my house and tried for several days.

 

[jimmy_uk]

I live 3 1/2 hours from the nearest Apple store. Today I need to go to that city and if I have time, I’m just going to check the pro max out in the store. Curiosity, that’s all. I can’t see how the pro max or the 14 plus screen would be any different than the 14 Pro or regular 14 that I’ve already had in my house and tried for several days.

Having now tried the 14, 14 Pro and 14 Plus, I'd say they are all pretty bad! The standard 14 out of the three was the best of a bad bunch as it didn't give me a headache. There's an outside chance for the 14PM I guess...



*edit - sorry, I'm on a downer. I hate this situation!

 

[Abiyork]

Guessing this has been asked before surely OLED technology is renewed on Iphones sooner rather than later.

Guessing mini LED or something will be rumoured for the iphone 15? just keep our fingers crossed.

 

[Evilxardas]

Guessing this has been asked before surely OLED technology is renewed on Iphones sooner rather than later.

Guessing mini LED or something will be rumoured for the iphone 15? just keep our fingers crossed.

Mini LED is bad compared to OLED so i think that you need to wait the micro LED technology.

 

[Chrispy]

Having now tried the 14, 14 Pro and 14 Plus, I'd say they are all pretty bad! The standard 14 out of the three was the best of a bad bunch as it didn't give me a headache. There's an outside chance for the 14PM I guess...



*edit - sorry, I'm on a downer. I hate this situation!

Haha, that edit note made me chuckle because that's how I was feeling end of last week. Just frustrated and totally over the entire thing.

Random thing but I noticed the delivery times for iPhone SE are slipping into November and my store is completely out of stock on all storage options. The iPhone 11 is near impossible to grab in the refurb store when it does briefly show up but the OLED Pro 11s are seemingly always available. Clearly the LCD phones are still rather popular even all these years after OLED was introduced. That or Apple is finally running out of iPhone 8 frames for the SE, haha. Regardless, people are still very much speaking with their wallets and supporting the LCD models.

Maybe it's the price moving so many units, but perhaps there are more of us out there than we thought. I would bet a lot of folks don't know why they prefer the older screens but they know they are easier to look at for them. So they go with that and don't think about it again for another 4-5 years completely unaware they are PWM sensitive.

 

[Abiyork]

Mini LED is bad compared to OLED so i think that you need to wait the micro LED technology.

Sorry yes, I meant Micro LED.

From my research it would be micro that supersedes OLED, hopefully.