I’m not too worried about PWM outside of these low-frequency/high-modulation smartphone panels, as most other devices and even flickering displays don’t seem to bother me. It’s almost unavoidable in automotive displays/lighting.
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Other Eye-strain while using iPhone X and up
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I understand, I work in IT and always want to use the latest iPhone or at least one that is more modern than the classic iPhone style. I went into IT because I enjoy technology. If I am unable to use the latest technology it could change how I feel about working in IT. But, I'm hopeful that changes will happen. We're seeing more articles and YouTube videos discussing PWM.
Also, for awhile monitors had PWM but now it's pretty easy to find a monitor that is "flicker-free". I remember buying my current monitor about 5.5 years ago it was difficult to find one that was flicker free. And, when I was asking in stores before buying one they were looking at me like I was crazy. I don't know how well this translates into a smaller device, but I'm optimistic that we'll see improvements. I'm hoping it will be before the SE 3rd gen is no longer supported. If not then there are Android manufacturers that are releasing phones now that are close but still not good enough, so maybe they'll be PWM-free in a few years or sooner!
It certainly sounds like “flicker-free certification” and “high-frequency PWM” are being thrown around as buzzwords by more niche smartphone manufacturers, which in turn leads to them being mentioned on large channels like MKBHD and Unbox Therapy. The Chinese market is particularly conscious of these terms, and that’s a market Apple needs to focus more on so it’s a bit of a win-win if they can best the rest of the industry.
I hear constantly that “iPhone xx Pro Max is so good, there’s nowhere to go from here. It’s too perfect. What will they do, make the next iPhone a little faster with better battery life?” A truly flicker-free smartphone OLED would be a genuine innovation. I consider the flickering to be a tragic flaw with the current design.
Quite honestly, somehow a pristine iPhone SE feels less enjoyable—like I’m now being reminded the display resolution is subpar and the home button design is less intuitive compared to the newer iPhones. I really want an upgrade whereas I was content in January.
If it’s any consolation, I am planning an upgrade to an iPhone 16 in the fall. It’s a shame because iPhone 15 Pro is quite literally unusable for me. It could only get better, right?
Forgive me for not having citations handy (might be able to find some later), but there's been some discontent about what these certifications actually mean in practice. TUV Rheinland with their "Eye Comfort" certification seems to be the most popular, but the flaw is outside of a strict outline of requirements the actual testing methodology seems to be unavailable for public scrutiny. Some people in other communities have claimed that with some devices that are certified they don't use explicit PWM, but they still potentially suffer from ripple of the backlight, leading to still being an issue. And even if the certification was entirely honest it could still lead to a false sense of security due to per unit variance or the manufacture switching components without changing the model number (there is prior precedent for this, see "panel lottery").
I updated my iPhone 7 due to some software I needed to install for work that required iOS 15. (I previously was on iOS 14.) This is a work phone that I've had for years with absolutely no issues. Immediately after the phone rebooted I began have the same severe issues that I have with many other new devices (both LCD and OLED when in comes to phones. I've not been able to use any OLED iPhone).
For me the symptoms are a hard to describe mix of extreme unease - a warmth through the head and face and body, something that feels like dizziness, a brain fog, nausea, strain, and sometimes muscle pain and weird chest feelings - all of which take quite a while to completely go away. These symptoms for me are pretty much immediate with a "bad" device.
I have two other devices (an iPhone SE 2020 and an iPad Pro (1st Gen) 9.7") that are on iOS 15.4. Those are completely fine so I wasn't worried about the update on the iPhone 7. The update last night took the iPhone 7 to iOS 15.8.1 which is the most recent iOS 15 version.
My anxiety is through the roof today because this was one of the last phones I have been able to use. My main phone is an iPhone SE 2022 that is on iOS 16.1.1. I'm haven't updated it because of the issues I've seen online with further versions of iOS.
It seems like later versions of both iOS 15 and iOS 16 render many previously usable Apple products unusable. I know there are people who have similar issues so I put together a summary of LCD iOS products that I have access to. I've included the iOS. Maybe other people could add to this and we could potentially track down with Apple exactly when/what changed.
For iOS 15 it looks like something changed in a version between 15.4 and 15.8.1
For iOS 16 it looks like something changed in a version between 16.1.1 and 16.3.1
The only silver lining I see here is at least for these Apple LCDs it's clearly not the actual physical device/screen causing the issues. For all of the "bad" devices below they were all perfectly usable at one point before something happened in an update. Previously it had seemed that I was fine with anything before Apple moved to "Liquid Retina". Now that isn't the case. Being that this is a software change I feel like there has to be some way to turn off whatever is happening.
Has anyone been able to talk to Apple about potential causes for this? I sent a message to Apple Accessibility but haven't received much of an answer other than they would forward it to the appropriate people. Not sure if that is the best place to make contact with Apple.
Bad Devices - (Cause Immediate Symptoms)
Good Devices - (No Symptoms and can use indefinitely)
I'm at a complete loss as to what to do at this point. I no longer have a usable work phone which is a big problem for me right now. I'm hoping narrowing down when the change happened might help in asking Apple for an accessibility solution. I've seen plenty of posts about "don't update to iOS 15, 16, 17 etc." but I think sometimes what is happening is people are jumping from a "good" version of the iOS generation to the next generation and assuming change happened with the generation change. Based on what I've found here is looks like the switch actually happened mid generation.
For me the symptoms are a hard to describe mix of extreme unease - a warmth through the head and face and body, something that feels like dizziness, a brain fog, nausea, strain, and sometimes muscle pain and weird chest feelings - all of which take quite a while to completely go away. These symptoms for me are pretty much immediate with a "bad" device.
I have two other devices (an iPhone SE 2020 and an iPad Pro (1st Gen) 9.7") that are on iOS 15.4. Those are completely fine so I wasn't worried about the update on the iPhone 7. The update last night took the iPhone 7 to iOS 15.8.1 which is the most recent iOS 15 version.
My anxiety is through the roof today because this was one of the last phones I have been able to use. My main phone is an iPhone SE 2022 that is on iOS 16.1.1. I'm haven't updated it because of the issues I've seen online with further versions of iOS.
It seems like later versions of both iOS 15 and iOS 16 render many previously usable Apple products unusable. I know there are people who have similar issues so I put together a summary of LCD iOS products that I have access to. I've included the iOS. Maybe other people could add to this and we could potentially track down with Apple exactly when/what changed.
For iOS 15 it looks like something changed in a version between 15.4 and 15.8.1
For iOS 16 it looks like something changed in a version between 16.1.1 and 16.3.1
The only silver lining I see here is at least for these Apple LCDs it's clearly not the actual physical device/screen causing the issues. For all of the "bad" devices below they were all perfectly usable at one point before something happened in an update. Previously it had seemed that I was fine with anything before Apple moved to "Liquid Retina". Now that isn't the case. Being that this is a software change I feel like there has to be some way to turn off whatever is happening.
Has anyone been able to talk to Apple about potential causes for this? I sent a message to Apple Accessibility but haven't received much of an answer other than they would forward it to the appropriate people. Not sure if that is the best place to make contact with Apple.
Bad Devices - (Cause Immediate Symptoms)
| iOS Version | |
|---|---|
| iPad 6th Gen | 16.3.1 |
| iPad Pro 1st Gen (9.7 inch) | 16.6.1 |
| iPad 9th Gen | 17.0.1 |
| iPhone 7 | 15.8.1 |
Good Devices - (No Symptoms and can use indefinitely)
| iOS Version | |
|---|---|
| iPhone SE 2022 | 16.1.1 |
| iPhone SE 2020 | 15.4 |
| iPhone SE 2020 | 13.7 |
| iPad Pro 1st Gen (9.7 inch) | 15.4 |
| iPhone 7 | 13.5.1 |
| iPhone 6 | 11.0.3 |
I'm at a complete loss as to what to do at this point. I no longer have a usable work phone which is a big problem for me right now. I'm hoping narrowing down when the change happened might help in asking Apple for an accessibility solution. I've seen plenty of posts about "don't update to iOS 15, 16, 17 etc." but I think sometimes what is happening is people are jumping from a "good" version of the iOS generation to the next generation and assuming change happened with the generation change. Based on what I've found here is looks like the switch actually happened mid generation.
For me whenever I look at an iPhone with an OLED screen I just get a feeling that something feels or looks off about it. I don't know what it is but it almost feels like it's too bright regardless of the setting that I have it on. It seems better if I wear yellow tinted glasses (something like this: https://gunnar.com/collections/gaming-glasses) but if I don't have those on it just doesn't seem to work for me.
The SE I've been using as a main device for about 4-5 days. I'm feeling nauseous and have a headache in my forehead area. I'm not sure if I'm sick or if it's being caused by the SE but I felt this way about 3 days into using the SE. I would think if it was caused by the SE that it would've happened earlier so I'm guessing that I'm just sick. I'll continue using this through the week and if I don't feel better by the weekend I'll stop using it to see if I start feeling better. Either way, this is weird for me as I usually never feel nauseous.
The SE I've been using as a main device for about 4-5 days. I'm feeling nauseous and have a headache in my forehead area. I'm not sure if I'm sick or if it's being caused by the SE but I felt this way about 3 days into using the SE. I would think if it was caused by the SE that it would've happened earlier so I'm guessing that I'm just sick. I'll continue using this through the week and if I don't feel better by the weekend I'll stop using it to see if I start feeling better. Either way, this is weird for me as I usually never feel nauseous.
It’s a little puzzling when even iPhone SE causes sensitivity. I’m happy to report that I’m fine with Apple’s Liquid Retina displays. But I do know there is scientific evidence to back up PWM adjustments on OLED displays with iOS updates, so there could be changes made to other display technologies that could cause sensitivity like temporal dithering.
Of course I’m not going to discount anybody’s feelings as that is what the typical person who experiences minimal-to-no headaches with OLED/Mini-LED would do. I’ll try to do a deeper dive into what sort of flickering could be going on with iPhone SE, as I am not concerned about updating to the latest version of iOS.
There is still no PWM flickering. iPhone SE appears how I wished every iPhone did: perfectly flicker-free at all brightness levels.
My only source of eye strain oddly is starting to come from the combination of the smaller display/lower resolution. I may end up back on a Plus/Max device next generation. No migraines/headaches for me with iPhone SE.
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15 pro max have the same experience. Eyes feel dried out. It helps to not get too low with the brightness. Same experience on my past two Samsung phones though, and my LG OLED, terrible.
Did you try the iPad 10? Or the iPad Air? What is your experience with that?
Buy a used refurbished iPhone 6S/Plus
They cost $135 at back market. That’s what I’m using. Runs iOS 15. Not a Liquid Retina display. It’s plenty fast enough. Display outputs a sRGB color space (safe).
I run mine in grayscale anyway.
I have a 7 and 8 and a 11. And I don’t like looking at them.
What iOS are you using? All of my Retina display devices (6,7,8,8+,SE2, SE3, multiple iPads) are absolutely exactly how I'd want a display to feel. They are perfect. Until I make iOS updates that I listed a few posts back. They go from perfect to giving me IMMEDIATE symptoms. It's literally unbelievable. Since I have multiple versions of many of them I can even do "blind" texts where I have my wife mix them up (updated vs. non updated ones) to avoid any placebo effect. It's not even a question in picked which one even though visually they seem identical.
Try the suggestion in this thread
15” MBA — any reports on PWM, dithering, and eye or brain sensitivity?
Honestly, pretty sure that the notebookcheck report is just incorrect at this point, since apple devices have used temporal dithering for a really long time. I have a 2015 15" MBP that aggressively dithers in both Intel and AMD graphics modes, and it has an sRGB display that only supports 8 bit...
forums.macrumors.com
>>>>>>
@jm31828 If you've made it this far, I've found a combination of accessibility settings that has actually improved my experience massively with newer LCD iPhones and iPads, which I've never seen anyone mention before. I'm calling it "Double Invert":
Enable Classic Invert in Display accessibility settings. Then enable Zoom, use the three figure gesture to zoom out all the way. Then enable the "Inverted" Zoom filter.
Since there are two inverts happening at once, the screen is now no longer inverted, but something will start to feel VERY different. Some colors will appear slightly off, and if this works for you, static pages will suddenly feel completely still.
>>>>>
What iOS was it on? Definitely seems like something changed for some of these old phones. Take a look at my thread about what happened to my iPhone 7. Was perfect for years until last week when I thought I was safe to update to the latest iOS 15.
Something to keep in mind for those getting nailed by temporal dithering on LCD screens….
A human with perfect eyesight can detect at most 10 million colors, but in reality it’s more like 1 million colors.
But that same person with perfect eyesight can only detect approximately 64 different shades of gray. A computer screen (or iPhone) can output only 265 different shades of gray on a good day.
Temporal Dithering works by rapidly fluctuating adjacent pixels different colors (aka color flickering) to trick the eyes into seeing a color that actually doesn’t exist.
When the display is set to grayscale (as all my computer screens are) the GPU doesn’t have to dither colors anymore because there aren’t any.
No more dithering.
As to whether or not this is actually happening (dithering disabled in grayscale) I don’t know for certain, but I do know that when my iPhone or computers are switched to grayscale - they are soooooooooooo much easier to look at (for me).
Try it.
A human with perfect eyesight can detect at most 10 million colors, but in reality it’s more like 1 million colors.
But that same person with perfect eyesight can only detect approximately 64 different shades of gray. A computer screen (or iPhone) can output only 265 different shades of gray on a good day.
Temporal Dithering works by rapidly fluctuating adjacent pixels different colors (aka color flickering) to trick the eyes into seeing a color that actually doesn’t exist.
When the display is set to grayscale (as all my computer screens are) the GPU doesn’t have to dither colors anymore because there aren’t any.
No more dithering.
As to whether or not this is actually happening (dithering disabled in grayscale) I don’t know for certain, but I do know that when my iPhone or computers are switched to grayscale - they are soooooooooooo much easier to look at (for me).
Try it.
Turn Zoom on in Accessibility/Zoom.
Then when you triple tap the screen with three fingers, a menu comes up. Tap “Choose Filter”, then choose “Grayscale”.
It’s easy and fast to switch back & forth between grayscale & color when you need to see something in color.
Sadly this didn’t help me at all. Same dry, light burning feeling when using my m2 iPad Pro 11”.Try the suggestion in this thread
Worked very well for me. Excerpt below since it’s a long thread.15” MBA — any reports on PWM, dithering, and eye or brain sensitivity?
Honestly, pretty sure that the notebookcheck report is just incorrect at this point, since apple devices have used temporal dithering for a really long time. I have a 2015 15" MBP that aggressively dithers in both Intel and AMD graphics modes, and it has an sRGB display that only supports 8 bit...
>>>>>>
@jm31828 If you've made it this far, I've found a combination of accessibility settings that has actually improved my experience massively with newer LCD iPhones and iPads, which I've never seen anyone mention before. I'm calling it "Double Invert":
Enable Classic Invert in Display accessibility settings. Then enable Zoom, use the three figure gesture to zoom out all the way. Then enable the "Inverted" Zoom filter.
Since there are two inverts happening at once, the screen is now no longer inverted, but something will start to feel VERY different. Some colors will appear slightly off, and if this works for you, static pages will suddenly feel completely still.
>>>>>
I will deal with it, it’s not severe- but annoying for sure.
I just don’t get it- all Apple LED iPad and Macbook displays do this to be now- including the 9th gen that doesn’t even have temporal dithering.
Oled displays like the iPhones I’ve tried cause some eye strain as everyone here knows due to pwm- though it’s not always too bad for me.
I wonder if the next gen of iPads with oled might somehow be better with much improved pwm— if so I’d be inclined to possibly trade even though I just bought my new pro.
The latest iOS 17.4, as I’m on the beta program. No issues with Apple’s LCDs. I experienced some sensitivity from the 15” MacBook Air, but that could be due to becoming accustomed to the PWM flicker on the 14” MacBook Pro I had at the time. I did have to sell that with its Mini-LED display. Thankfully I love the 11” iPad Pro more.
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The OLED’s have this weird glimmer. I remember being in the Apple Store when iPhone X came out and finding them all to appear odd. Even today I could get the typical PWM headache by staring at somebody’s iPhone 15 for three seconds from a distance.