Other Eye-strain while using iPhone X and up

[thadoggfather]

I'm now beginning to wonder if this is affecting me

trying out a plus for a day or two, (my old 7plus)

I swear I have been having headaches more frequently recently, and wondering if X is the culprit after a few months

 

[MICHAELSD]

Deleted

 

[decder]

Couldn't you just keep the phone's display at full brightness and reduce brightness of the display input signal (RGB values) to simulate dimming? Perhaps also compensate for the lost saturation. Then, no PWM would be necessary?

 

[Atomic Walrus]

Couldn't you just keep the phone's display at full brightness and reduce brightness of the display input signal (RGB values) to simulate dimming? Perhaps also compensate for the lost saturation. Then, no PWM would be necessary?

I used to do this on the Note 3, which was the last Samsung OLED to have zero PWM at 100% brightness. It works, but it also effectively decreases the bit depth of the display. For example, if you use a 50% dimming overlay then the value sent to the display for “white” is (127,127,127). That means you only have 127 discrete output levels to render shades between black and white. The effect gets worse at very low brightness (at 25% brightness you are seeing 6-bit output, 0-63 for each color, and so on).

This would be less of an issue if you moved to a 10-bit display; Starting with 1024 levels of output per pixel, at 25% brightness you would still have the 0-255 range (8-bit).

 

[MICHAELSD]

Still getting throbbing eye pain and burning headaches from my X. I can’t keep using a phone that affects my health practically every minute I’m awake. To satiate my curiously I’ll try buying another X and hope that the first was just defective. At that point I’ll have exhausted every possible option and will have to switch to a different phone if the eye strain persists.

 

[TDDM]

Couldn't you just keep the phone's display at full brightness and reduce brightness of the display input signal (RGB values) to simulate dimming? Perhaps also compensate for the lost saturation. Then, no PWM would be necessary?

That was a solution with that app Iris, but it's broken on iOS 11 and the dev has no interest in updating it.

Also, the iPhone X PWM is actually worse at full brightness IIRC, 50% is the sweet spot.

Still getting throbbing eye pain and burning headaches from my X. I can’t keep using a phone that affects my health practically every minute I’m awake. To satiate my curiously I’ll try buying another X and hope that the first was just defective. At that point I’ll have exhausted every possible option and will have to switch to a different phone if the eye strain persists.

Yep, it's been 4 months since launch and Apple hasn't shown any signs of fixing this. On the bright side, we only have 6 months to go for the new iPhones, one of which will hopefully be that 6.1'' LCD one with the X form factor.

 

[MICHAELSD]

Yep, it's been 4 months since launch and Apple hasn't shown any signs of fixing this. On the bright side, we only have 6 months to go for the new iPhones, one of which will hopefully be that 6.1'' LCD one with the X form factor.

I’m still holding out hope that our devices are just defective. I find it difficult to believe that Apple would release a phone that could cause so much pain for even a handful of users.

 

[gr4z]

I’m still holding out hope that our devices are just defective. I find it difficult to believe that Apple would release a phone that could cause so much pain for even a handful of users.

I find that hard to believe. Your health is more important than a phone. Return it and go back to the 8.

 

[MICHAELSD]

Ordered a replacement. Apple has been very supportive. Will test and report back.

 

[radiologyman]

Do LED iPhones have pwm also?

 

[RD207]

Thanks for sharing the post about the 11.3 update helping somewhat.

I am hopeful the issue will get resolved at some point. I had compared a few X’s at carrier stores and they seemed better.

I found a kernel update for android phone screen flicker by googling, forgot if it requires rooting the device, but regardless it’s not for iPhones.

It is interesting reading though -
https://forum.xda-developers.com/s7-edge/development/amoled-pwm-s7-edge-t3517739

I don’t notice any flickering on the LCD iPhone 8, no headaches from using it either.

Be interesting to hear if the replacement MICHAELSD ordered is improved.

 

[ScreenSavers]

I got an iPhone 8 Plus just because of the screen. No pain, and a great size. The X is just too weird for me. Next year, I’ll try whatever they come out with.

 

[Pazman2000]

Since having my iPhone X i have also had eye strain and focusing issues .
As I have watched oled tvs at home for 4 years and used other oled phones I don’t see the screen to be the problem.
I think it’s the 3d projector , shining thousands of dots in to my eyes and causing focusing issues and a prolonged time after use .
This feature is always on when your using the phone as it’s scanning to see if you’re Viewing the screen so it doesn’t switch off the screen .

I have been to get my eyes tested and was told I still 20/20 so no problems there .

I’m now testing the phone without the true depth camera for a week to see if this is the cause .

Switching off Face ID and awareness in the settings .

 

[RD207]

@Pazman2000 ... please report back on your experience with those changes. I had eye focusing issues as well after using the X.

 

[MICHAELSD]

No one besides one person in this thread (who had said some iPhone X’s don’t affect him the same way) has gone the replacement route so I’m hopelessly optimistic once I receive my second iPhone X tomorrow all will be well. Still holding out hope that a minority of users have defective devices, or that Apple silently issued a hardware revision (unlikely but they’ve done it before).

It seems odd to me that a few thousand users out of tens of millions can experience eye strain, especially to the severity that I have, from a device like iPhone X. That signals to me that perhaps the PWM isn’t operating properly on those devices.
[doublepost=1520368596][/doublepost]@Pazman2000 I’ve tried disabling FaceID multiple times and still experienced eye strain. It’s entirely possible some users may be sensitive to the IR sensor rather than the OLED display, so perhaps it will resolve the issue for you.

 

[IowaLynn]

Side note, I have had headaches and eye strain on Galaxy S8+ and Note 8, but it wasn't iris recognition, though that is momentary and felt odd - it was the feature to keep the screen on when looking at it - which I turned off and headache went away. And this thread helped me look for a cause. Was on the fence debating switching to the iPhone X at that point.

 

[blackberrycubed]

any chance apple can address the flickering via kernel update (software) ?

 

[MICHAELSD]

Interestingly, full brightness on iOS 11.3 beta 4 doesn’t seem to affect me as much as it did previously. This could be purely anecdotal but I’m going to try rocking it at full brightness with reduce white point by 50% enabled in Accessibility. The flicker is less apparent when I record it on video with these settings.
[doublepost=1520375004][/doublepost]

any chance apple can address the flickering via kernel update (software) ?

Technically, yes. At this point though I’m not sure they will introduce an option to disable it. Totally possible they can adjust though. I can’t say definitively but iOS 11.3 may be slightly better.

 

[newellj]

Do LED iPhones have pwm also?

No.
[doublepost=1520384967][/doublepost]

any chance apple can address the flickering via kernel update (software) ?

Unlikely. There are hardware issues potentially involved.

 

[MICHAELSD]

Still getting throbbing pain after the fact with the display at 100% brightness with reduce white point by 50% enabled, but man does it look good. My only hope is that the new iPhone X is better.

 

[Gollygeewillikers]

Since having my iPhone X i have also had eye strain and focusing issues .
As I have watched oled tvs at home for 4 years and used other oled phones I don’t see the screen to be the problem.
I think it’s the 3d projector , shining thousands of dots in to my eyes and causing focusing issues and a prolonged time after use .
This feature is always on when your using the phone as it’s scanning to see if you’re Viewing the screen so it doesn’t switch off the screen .

I have been to get my eyes tested and was told I still 20/20 so no problems there .

I’m now testing the phone without the true depth camera for a week to see if this is the cause .

Switching off Face ID and awareness in the settings .

Wondered if this was the cause myself. Has anyone taped over the IR emitters and tried using the phone?

 

[MICHAELSD]

Until I get my replacement iPhone X tomorrow I will refrain from using my current iPhone X throughout the day so that it doesn’t bias my experience with the new phone. I’ll also skip setting up FaceID for a few days to see how the phone affects me without it. After I’ve decided whether the other X causes eye strain issues of the same severity (hopefully not at all) then I’ll try comparing the two and coming to a conclusion.
[doublepost=1520399641][/doublepost]

Wondered if this was the cause myself. Has anyone taped over the IR emitters and tried using the phone?

The IR emitters shouldn’t function at all if FaceID isn’t setup. (You can test this on video.) Go ahead and try though.

 

[Pazman2000]

Wondered if this was the cause myself. Has anyone taped over the IR emitters and tried using the phone?

It can be switched off in three different places in the settings ,mine has been off for 24 hours now and have not noticed any eye strain as yet .
I’ll give it 7 days to be sure but so far it looks to be the problem .
The 3d projector that’s used with the true depth camera is basically a low power laser pointer shining in your eyes.
Face ID is a great feature so I will enable it after a week even if the 3d projector is the problem but will enable it for unlock only as it’s only on for a second or two as long as the feature that constantly scans for your attention to keep the screen on when viewing it .
I’ll just set auto screen off to say 10mims or something so it doesn’t go off when I’m using the phone .

 

[falcon511]

This is interesting. I have a Glaxy s8+ that has an oled screen but havent had any issues with the PWM. Its the same 240hz as the iPhone X? I ask cause right now I got an iPhone 8+ and will get the new oled 2018 iphone. I Galaxy s8+ screen never bothered me so I assume the iphone will be no different. I have poor eye vision, but my eye doctor says they are healthy.

 

[Artvandelay1212]

I too have been having eye problems with my iPhone X. It didn't bother me at first. I started noticing that I was much more sensitive to lights, especially headlights. Some would be blinding, even during the day. It had started in Mid November when I got the phone. I thought it might be the Face ID, so I turned it off (which is the one feature I really liked). The light sensitivity has gotten worse so I thought the phone might still be sending the lasers dot from the face ID even though I turned it off, so I taped over the front cameras and sensors about 2 weeks ago when I also began to get eye pain and strain. A couple days ago, I came across this forum and was relieved to have possibly found out it's most likely the OLED screen and the PWM. I plan to get an iPhone 8 asap, but I was wondering if anyone else had issues with light sensitivity and trouble with headlights. If so, did they go away after you stopped using the iPhone X? I'm worried the phone may have caused permanent damage. I do have an appt with my ophthalmologist on Friday and today is the first day that I barely used it. Hoping the eye problems will go away soon! Perhaps it takes a while to recover.....