Other Eye-strain while using iPhone X and up

[jm31828]

Terrible news. What do we do if this ends up being true? I guess I'll have to get the SE 2022 while available even though it's to small for me to type on or use for anything but phone calls and some occasional browsing the web, and then lug around an iPad. Except iPads are starting to use PWM again. My 11 won't last forever.

Apple have always been great with accessibility but they don't seem to care about flicker sensitivity.

I tried going to the SE2022 hoping it would be easier on the eyes, but it's not. I didn't get headaches, but it made my eyes feel really dry/slight burning sensation within minutes of using it.
I tried for two weeks, finally had to return- then later bought another thinking I just had a bad one- and same issue.

I don't have that issue with my iphone 13 Mini, or my basic Dell work laptop/external monitor, or my 27" 2017 iMac- but I do also have this on a MacBook Air M1, iPad Air 5th Gen, and iPad 10th gen that I tried.

It's maddening, the MBA has very high frequency flicker, the other devices have no flicker- so why this discomfort?

 

[2mw2]

I love my 13 mini but can't get on with the OLED screen but I found this

Tests incell For iPhone 13&Pro&Pro Max Mini 13Mini LCD Display Forntal for iphone 13 Screen TFT Digitizer Asse Replacement Part - AliExpress 509

Smarter Shopping, Better Living! Aliexpress.com

www.aliexpress.com

I asked if it was a TFT screen and they said it was

No idea how easy it is to replace a 13 mini screen

I've learnt a bit about the screen type RJ, ZY, etc. These in cell LCD screens aren't too bad but they all suffer from lack of auto brightness. True Tone works but requires a serial number to be programmed in when the screen is replaced - most reputable repair places do it. I have ordered a screen so will let you know - happy to give up auto brightness if I can have a pwm free iPhone 13 mini

This is the one I ordered

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/100...!sea!SG!4469128075&curPageLogUid=ZpeJp5zOPFj2

 

[vinhanlv]

i sold my iphone 12 and bought a new iphone 11. it's such a nice feeling looking at the iphone 11 screen. i can use it at night, a few minutes before going to bed at the lowest brightness without having to worry about the screen flickering. I bought iphone 11 because I was afraid that it was the last iphone to use ips screen and it was about to be discontinued. At first I was afraid that the screen was not sharp. but after buying it, with my 10/10 eyes, I really can't tell the difference between it and my iphone 7 plus.

 

[pipapoh]

So, after an iPhone 12 Mini, iPhone 13 Pro, 14 Pro, 14 Pro, I'm on my third 14 Pro and got no issues.
Couldnt handle any of the OLED iPhones before.

My wife got the 14 Pro at launch (like I my first 14 Pro) and it still flickers. But my third unit is usable like a Samsung S9.

So, it isnt PWM for me, its something else and its a panel roulette after all. So now, I have to really watch out to not damage my phone and eventually get the screen replaced.

 

[du57in]

I’m on week three (maybe two?) of using an iPhone XR and I gotta say, I really like it. Compared to any OLED, not even including PWM, the Liquid Retina is just so much more pleasant to look at. I MUCH prefer the colors and the viewing angles. The color tone is perfectly calibrated. An SE based on the XR would have truly been something special.

 

[PurpleIsAFruit]

I’m on week three (maybe two?) of using an iPhone XR and I gotta say, I really like it. Compared to any OLED, not even including PWM, the Liquid Retina is just so much more pleasant to look at. I MUCH prefer the colors and the viewing angles. The color tone is perfectly calibrated. An SE based on the XR would have truly been something special.

I've loved my iPhone XR but it's so old now and it's really showing. The battery sucks for me now and the performance had become very choppy. It also overheats easily.

Has anyone tried the normal iPhone 14? I've read a few people saying they're better for PWM than the Pro models and the 13s. The notebook check website seems to confirm this. I'm tempted to try one...

 

[du57in]

I've loved my iPhone XR but it's so old now and it's really showing. The battery sucks for me now and the performance had become very choppy. It also overheats easily.

Has anyone tried the normal iPhone 14? I've read a few people saying they're better for PWM than the Pro models and the 13s. The notebook check website seems to confirm this. I'm tempted to try one...

The one I’m temporarily using has 97% battery health and performance seems better than my old SE 2020.

Regarding the iPhone 14, I’ve posted about this a few times in this thread but it seems like the internet isn’t sure what to make of it. Opinions seems to range from its the worst PWM on an iPhone yet, to it looks to be using some form of DC dimming.

Of interesting note, the owner of Blur Busters said he was getting an iPhone 14 Plus in the future and would do some comprehensive PWM and motion blur tests.

 

[badger1212]

The one I’m temporarily using has 97% battery health and performance seems better than my old SE 2020.

Regarding the iPhone 14, I’ve posted about this a few times in this thread but it seems like the internet isn’t sure what to make of it. Opinions seems to range from its the worst PWM on an iPhone yet, to it looks to be using some form of DC dimming.

Of interesting note, the owner of Blur Busters said he was getting an iPhone 14 Plus in the future and would do some comprehensive PWM and motion blur tests.

iPhone 14 didn't work for me but I've found people's experiences vary wildly so best to give it a shot.

 

[martin2345uk]

I've loved my iPhone XR but it's so old now and it's really showing. The battery sucks for me now and the performance had become very choppy. It also overheats easily.

Has anyone tried the normal iPhone 14? I've read a few people saying they're better for PWM than the Pro models and the 13s. The notebook check website seems to confirm this. I'm tempted to try one...

I went from a XR to a 14. At first it was very hard on my eyes and gave me headaches but that seems to have passed now and I seem to be able to use it with no issues. Which leads me to wonder was it PWM sensitivity? Coincidence? Psychosomatic..?!

 

[MICHAELSD]

Does anyone ever miss having a modern iPhone?

Missing iPhone 13 Mini quite a bit now. 😞

Although to be fair iPhone SE is almost equally modern, albeit in an older design.

 

[martin2345uk]

I have an SE for work and I actually love it, it has a lovely feel and is lightning fast. If my 14 did get too much for me I think I’d be happy enough using an SE as my main phone.

 

[jimmy_uk]

Does anyone ever miss having a modern iPhone?

Missing iPhone 13 Mini quite a bit now. 😞

Although to be fair iPhone SE is almost equally modern, albeit in an older design.

I'm still enjoying my 11 purchased at the end of last year. But my heart still wants a Pro Max.

 

[vinhanlv]

I'm still enjoying my 11 purchased at the end of last year. But my heart still wants a Pro Max.

you can buy a new iphone as a secondary device. You use it only a little time, only use it during the day. and at night, you use iphone 11. I think that's the best way. apple has given up ips screen, there will be no iphone pro max using ips screen or mini led.

 

[1369281]

Does anyone ever miss having a modern iPhone?

Missing iPhone 13 Mini quite a bit now. 😞

Although to be fair iPhone SE is almost equally modern, albeit in an older design.

I was at the beach yesterday and my girlfriend and I both took pictures with our phones. There really is no comparison between the camera quality. iPhone SE (2022) is acceptable, while iPhone 14 Pro is marvelous.

That said, I greatly prefer how lightweight my phone is. Apple should really focus on reducing the weight of their phones, IMO.

 

[jimmy_uk]

you can buy a new iphone as a secondary device. You use it only a little time, only use it during the day. and at night, you use iphone 11. I think that's the best way. apple has given up ips screen, there will be no iphone pro max using ips screen or mini led.

Might work some, sadly the iphone OLED triggers migraines for me so even light usage is an issue. 😞

We might yet get mini or even micro LED on iPhone as Apple want to get away from Samsung OLED and use their own manafacturing - this is still many years away though.....

 

[vinhanlv]

Might work some, sadly the iphone OLED triggers migraines for me so even light usage is an issue. 😞

We might yet get mini or even micro LED on iPhone as Apple want to get away from Samsung OLED and use their own manafacturing - this is still many years away though.....

mini led has too many disadvantages on ipad pro. Hope apple will fix it and put it on iphone. for now, let's continue to use iphone 11 for a few more years.

 

[sorgo †]

I was at the beach yesterday and my girlfriend and I both took pictures with our phones. There really is no comparison between the camera quality. iPhone SE (2022) is acceptable, while iPhone 14 Pro is marvelous.

That said, I greatly prefer how lightweight my phone is. Apple should really focus on reducing the weight of their phones, IMO.

Even compared the the dual-lens 13 mini the SE is far shallower and more reduced in dynamic range. One of the reasons that, despite loving the SE’s general performance and comfy LCD, I had to return to my beloved green 🍀 mini.

And yeah, weight isn’t an issue here, nor is PWM at this point—like at all. I feel like the software (firmware?) -level tuning is so mature and/or my eyes and nerves are simply fried

The 14 Pro though—that beast’s nauseating display and bump-ridden heft (along with correspondingly eyebrow-raising price tag) made it an insta-return…unlike the SE (2022) which sucked to return. If I could afford to I’d buy one to just have, you know? Really an excellent (value) device.

 

[cgolca]

Ah another user like me. I also had the iphone X for years without any issues at all.

Yet anything from 12 onward I cant stand for more than a minute or so.

What did the X do that others didnt?

Same here. I used my iPhone X for over 3 years without any issues. When looking at the PWM on notebookcheck the curve appears much more fluid and stable.

 

[5105973]

I tried going to the SE2022 hoping it would be easier on the eyes, but it's not. I didn't get headaches, but it made my eyes feel really dry/slight burning sensation within minutes of using it.
I tried for two weeks, finally had to return- then later bought another thinking I just had a bad one- and same issue.

I don't have that issue with my iphone 13 Mini, or my basic Dell work laptop/external monitor, or my 27" 2017 iMac- but I do also have this on a MacBook Air M1, iPad Air 5th Gen, and iPad 10th gen that I tried.

It's maddening, the MBA has very high frequency flicker, the other devices have no flicker- so why this discomfort?

I don't know. I am using OLED S23 Ultra. The first one I had, I didn't get along with and returned. I noticed I could use my husband',s S23 Ultra so I got another and that's what I'm typing on now. I'm fine on it. I had to adjust a little bit since my S22 Ultra display is more friendly to the eyes. But I adjusted just fine.

My first S23 Ultra that I'd returned had an uneven display with a terrible off axis color shift.

I can't use LCD iPhones much. They don't cause me physical discomfort but I start losing the vision in my left eye. It gets overtaken by a white shimmering mist starting at the periphery and gradually moving to the center of my vision. It's bad enough it was starting to mess with my ability to drive. On Samsung OLED I'm fine. It goes away. It is never completely gone but it retreats and diminishes significantly.

I'm not getting a new iPhone. I'll stick with my 14 Pro Max. I would love to find out what is going on but neurologists where I live are booked up a year in advance. I'm taking care of too many people who need doctors appointments and I have to put myself last. And I actually have more pressing health concerns to get addressed as it is.

 

[Ac1d 8urn]

I'm starting to feel crazy 🤯 So friday night my husband pretty much made me buy a 14 pro since I've been so butt hurt about missing out on the island and pro camera. Said I had to at least try it since I wanted it THAT bad, I could always return it if it gave me headaches. I picked it up saturday morning and have been using it pretty heavily since then, and I'm... fine? No symptoms at all even with ProMotion enabled, reduce motion off, and no blue-light screen protector. How?

Any time I played with one in stores for even a few minutes my eyes would start to hurt, so how is it that it suddenly stopped affecting me after I bought one? Granted it's still soon to fully call it, the true test will be on the next pokemon community day when I'm staring at the screen for 3-6 hours, but I'm starting to think my problem really might just be psychosomatic. I always run betas so maybe Apple changed something in 16.4 to make PM less jumpy, or maybe my specific unit is just special in some way? I am not complaining at all, I'm thrilled with the phone but I'm just so confused lol.

 

[jimmy_uk]

I'm starting to feel crazy 🤯 So friday night my husband pretty much made me buy a 14 pro since I've been so butt hurt about missing out on the island and pro camera. Said I had to at least try it since I wanted it THAT bad, I could always return it if it gave me headaches. I picked it up saturday morning and have been using it pretty heavily since then, and I'm... fine? No symptoms at all even with ProMotion enabled, reduce motion off, and no blue-light screen protector. How?

Any time I played with one in stores for even a few minutes my eyes would start to hurt, so how is it that it suddenly stopped affecting me after I bought one? Granted it's still soon to fully call it, the true test will be on the next pokemon community day when I'm staring at the screen for 3-6 hours, but I'm starting to think my problem really might just be psychosomatic. I always run betas so maybe Apple changed something in 16.4 to make PM less jumpy, or maybe my specific unit is just special in some way? I am not complaining at all, I'm thrilled with the phone but I'm just so confused lol.

Perhaps you got lucky with the screen lottery - although you have been OK with the 14 Plus right? Would be interesting to find out who the display manafactuer is on your new 14 Pro.

I wasn't able to use the 11 when I tried it in the past (shimmery display) but my in hand model has been fine.🤷‍♂️ #displaylottery

Happy to read you've made it back onto the flagship iphones.

Oooh, I'd love to try a 14 Pro Max now....

 

[Ac1d 8urn]

Perhaps you got lucky with the screen lottery - although you have been OK with the 14 Plus right? Would be interesting to find out who the display manafactuer is on your new 14 Pro.

I wasn't able to use the 11 when I tried it in the past (shimmery display) but my in hand model has been fine.🤷‍♂️

Happy to read you've made it back onto the flagship iphones.

Oooh, I'd love to try a 14 Pro Max now....

Yup, no issues with the 14+. I ended up not really liking the size after a while so I'm giving it to my mom, but the screen was fine for me. If there are any tests I can run to get more info about my 14P's screen, let me know and I'll post the results.

I played the screen lottery with my old Samsung S2 back in the day too, OLEDs were relatively new in phones back then and most S2s had really bad mura and smearing. XDA figured out that there was a specific production run that had good screens, so I made the poor T-Mobile guy pull out all the boxes so I could check the serials and get a good one 😅

 

[1369281]

...but I'm starting to think my problem really might just be psychosomatic.

iPhone OLED phones use pulse-width modulation to control display brightness. This means it is literally turning the backlight on and off at a quick speed while your retinas are looking at it. The lower the brightness, the slower the on/off.

Your brain is not somehow tricking your body into having negative health effects -- this is a real, physical issue with these phones.

This thread, throughout the years, has gone through two waves of discussion:
1. When a new iPhone is released, we talk about if it has PWM, what the frequency is, etc.
2. After we determine it has PWM and it's still an issue, the bulk of the year is folks trying to force themselves into making these phones work for them, despite the headaches, eyestrain, nausea, and other negative health effects.

It's not worth it. My stance is that I will never use a phone, monitor, or TV that uses PWM. I won't be changing because I value my wellbeing.

 

[2mw2]

I've learnt a bit about the screen type RJ, ZY, etc. These in cell LCD screens aren't too bad but they all suffer from lack of auto brightness. True Tone works but requires a serial number to be programmed in when the screen is replaced - most reputable repair places do it. I have ordered a screen so will let you know - happy to give up auto brightness if I can have a pwm free iPhone 13 mini

This is the one I ordered

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005002245769880.html?spm=a2g0o.productlist.main.1.24f653c1ZoSwps&algo_pvid=d6d3cf3f-303d-466d-bfd8-01c04c736f05&algo_exp_id=d6d3cf3f-303d-466d-bfd8-01c04c736f05-0&pdp_ext_f={"sku_id":"12000019585249282"}&pdp_npi=3@dis!SGD!46.8!35.57!!!!!@2102186a16785376921115748d06e6!12000019585249282!sea!SG!4469128075&curPageLogUid=ZpeJp5zOPFj2

Managed to get a local repair shop to replace the screen of my 13 mini - it's out of warranty - with an RJ incell screen. It was not cheap but perhaps money well spent in terms of an experiment. The good news is that it works. Will see if there is an impact on battery life but I suspect there will be.

Pros
- My RADEX Lupin device now registers only 1.5% flicker rate at 25% brightness. It's not as good as the SE 2022 which is a constant 0.7% across all brightness levels. The OLED screen was around 8-10%. The screen is definitely more comfortable. Whilst I didn't get headaches on the OLED, I did feel a constant kind of burning sensation in my eyes
- True Tone works
- the screen thinness is the same as the original screen

Cons
- Auto brightness does not work
- The notch is slightly longer and does clip the GPS icon and signal bars
- warning in the settings screen that the display is an unknown part

 

[Dejected]

So, after an iPhone 12 Mini, iPhone 13 Pro, 14 Pro, 14 Pro, I'm on my third 14 Pro and got no issues.
Couldnt handle any of the OLED iPhones before.

My wife got the 14 Pro at launch (like I my first 14 Pro) and it still flickers. But my third unit is usable like a Samsung S9.

So, it isnt PWM for me, its something else and its a panel roulette after all. So now, I have to really watch out to not damage my phone and eventually get the screen replaced.

Could you please tell me the produce date ( in the back of the IPhone's box ) for the IPhone 14 pro that you got no issues with it ?
I'm going to try one