Nonetheless, I’d wait for more measurements to decide which iPhone would make the best purchase decision. The feedback thus far has just not been encouraging.
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Other Eye-strain while using iPhone X and up
- Thread starter Kitkad
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At this point nothing surprises me with Apple. Look at all the talk about the 8x zoom on the Pros being 'optical' zoom. There are several places Apple legitimately called it '8x optical zoom' before changing it in other places to '8x optical-like zoom'. I am surprised they are not being more careful with the words they select because that indeed is not a true 8x optical zoom on the phones and the PWM disable switch (while technically turning off PWM) doesn't fix the problem.
I wondered early on why Apple would choose not to address the topic or the setting at all, anywhere, prior to release. On one hand, maybe this is still a good thing given so many journalists covered the addition of this setting and Apple is acknowledging PWM is even a thing. On the other, maybe this was a passive aggressive way to say they did something to try and address it without having to do much of anything at all.
I wondered early on why Apple would choose not to address the topic or the setting at all, anywhere, prior to release. On one hand, maybe this is still a good thing given so many journalists covered the addition of this setting and Apple is acknowledging PWM is even a thing. On the other, maybe this was a passive aggressive way to say they did something to try and address it without having to do much of anything at all.
I wonder if anyone will test the PWM toggle with turning off the 120hz display first since the 16 and 16 plus last year had more positive results with the 60hz screen?
some people say they prefer the 60Hz display in general as it feels more comfortable on the eyes.
some people say they prefer the 60Hz display in general as it feels more comfortable on the eyes.
I'm personally more bothered by the zoom claim. It sets an arbitrary resolution to determine which crop factor counts as optical zoom. It's a 16x optical zoom if you only want a 3 MP image.
Apple does not advertise the functionality to disable PWM. It's not on any spec sheet, as far as I've seen. The setting will help some people, so it's good that it's there. The setting does technically disable PWM, so it's not dishonest, even if it's not what people were expecting from the setting.
Yeah, great points. My phone is still setting up so the jury is out if I can personally use it or not. While I have been here in this thread since day 1 or about 10 lol, I've never taken the time to educate myself on PWM when it comes to using tools for measurements, reviewing graphs, data, etc. Instead, I just try the phones myself to see if they work for me or not as that overrides any data out there. Definitely a bummer for a lot of people who got their hopes up.
Weirdly enough, while I couldn't use the iPhone 15 pro max for more than 10 minutes without eye strain I managed just fine with it for almost a year when reducing the refresh rate from 120hz to 60hz.
That’s exactly what I’m doing, and so far the 17 Pro feels good. Still too early to draw real conclusions—after all, I felt fine with the 16PM and 16E on day one as well. Tomorrow will be the real test to see if my eyes feel fatigued or if I wake with a headache (my usual symptoms).
The screen seems noticeably less yellow than other OLED iPhones I’ve used. There’s a slight blue shift when tilting the display, which I think helps the whites look cooler (though still warmer than LCD overall).
Not a big fan of the glass effects. Even with Reduce Motion enabled, there are still small animations and flashes sprinkled throughout the OS—feels totally unnecessary and frustrating when I've opted to switch them off. App icons look trash with fading gradients. Third-party keyboards don’t seem to work correctly while using this site.
I also spent about two hours testing the phone and the new AirPods Pro 3. They sound slightly better than the APP2, and the ANC blocks a bit more noise. That said, I can’t shake the feeling that my APP2 suddenly got worse over the past few days—I’ve been noticing office noise, like colleagues typing, slipping through much more than before. Is Apple gaming me....
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Ios26 on my SE3 was killing my eyes. The only phone left I can still use and it made it unusable, plus it was buggy. I was missing texts, etc. I had to switch back to ios18.
As I said above I have to lock my 13 Pro to 60Hz. If I don’t I get headaches and eye issues.
As an aside does the relatively new iPad mini with the A17 chip still have an LCD screen?
I’m one hour on the 17 Pro Max and here are initial take away as this is my first time using iOS 26 as well.
- eyes so far feel fine. Like Jimmy mentioned it’s too early too tell. Good news is no immediate symptoms.
- I kept my screen at 120hz, I have the PWM setting “disabled”, auto brightness turned off, and using it at 45% brightness.
- also agree with Jimmy on unnecessary transitions and motion even after disabling in settings.
- and agree on the whites as well lol. My 17 PM has much whiter whites than the slight yellow tint of my 15 PM.
- snappy. Everything is crisp and fast.
- phone has yet to heat up or throttle which is huge cause I’ve been working it
- speakers sound about the same as my 15 PM
- the new selfie camera system is legit.
I’ll report back. So far so good!
- eyes so far feel fine. Like Jimmy mentioned it’s too early too tell. Good news is no immediate symptoms.
- I kept my screen at 120hz, I have the PWM setting “disabled”, auto brightness turned off, and using it at 45% brightness.
- also agree with Jimmy on unnecessary transitions and motion even after disabling in settings.
- and agree on the whites as well lol. My 17 PM has much whiter whites than the slight yellow tint of my 15 PM.
- snappy. Everything is crisp and fast.
- phone has yet to heat up or throttle which is huge cause I’ve been working it
- speakers sound about the same as my 15 PM
- the new selfie camera system is legit.
I’ll report back. So far so good!
If you can already stand with 15PM, that means your eye-strain condition may not be very serious yet, comparing to many of us here can only bear with devices prior to 13...or 11...
I apologize I’ve been around so long that I errantly just assume my story is known. The X thru 13 series absolutely destroyed my eyes. My primary symptoms were dry eyes, red eyes, headaches, slight nausea, an ‘uneasy feeling’ and I swear it gave me neck and shoulder pain too though I can’t guarantee it was the screens. The 14 pro max was better for me, but the other 14s were bad. I tried the 15 Pro and 15 Plus, and both were bad for me with the Plus being the worst. So I tried a 15 Pro Max and it was the best I’d tried to date but was still off. I got it again during the holiday return period and it seemed to work until around the 5th week and things went south. Tried a third 15 Pro Max in March 2024 and I was able to keep it. My only issues are in the dark, in bed, after 15 min which at that point I go to sleep.
Just wanted to add that cause you’re right, me just noting I came from the 15 PM doesn’t tell the story.
I've had a few phones that really hurt. The 12 Pro Max was the first I think to really hurt me.. The 16 Pro Max was an immediate return to the store.
The 15 Pro Max has been fine..
I can say that although I haven't used my phone as much as I normally would on a normal day, so far so good..
PWM off. Reduce white point is all that I have changed so far.
The 15 Pro Max has been fine..
I can say that although I haven't used my phone as much as I normally would on a normal day, so far so good..
PWM off. Reduce white point is all that I have changed so far.
Yeah. ios26 even made iphone 11 worse. I am thinking to downgrade back to ios 18...... but what about apple watch which i also updated to ios 26.......will it become useless?
So, I can confirm the PWM disable knob exists on the entire iPhone 17 line up (17, 17 air, 17 pro). I think it does help and at least for the short while that I played with them, it didn't cause any issues. But due to temporal dithering, I think I may still have issues, just need to spend more time with them.
Yes unfortunately so.
When I upgraded my iPhone 11 to IOS17 and my watch to similar a few years ago I was able to roll back the phone but the watch was then useless.
I had to move to Garmin which tbh, I wish I’d done anyway. Two weeks without charge and I’m pretty active with workouts too.
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Today I had a headache, so I registered the iPhone 17 Pro Max directly for return.
The iPhone 16 Plus is a blessing against it. I am glad that I have it and don't have to use iPhone SE2022.
For this year I am out of the lottery again, and hope that Apple will make it better in the future with Micro Led.
The iPhone 16 Plus is a blessing against it. I am glad that I have it and don't have to use iPhone SE2022.
For this year I am out of the lottery again, and hope that Apple will make it better in the future with Micro Led.
I dont know how you meant "PWM off" but keep in mind that enable the toggle "Disable Pulse Width Modulation" and "Reduce White Point" can not be active both at the same time. You will see it, if you go back to the settings and back in. "Reduce White Point" disables the toggle "Disable Pulse Width Modulation"
Yes!
The display of the iPhone 16 Plus is also much calmer.
When it comes to the writing (Print) of the iPhone 17 Pro Max, I always have the feeling that she moves.
This is so much more pleasant with the iPhone 16 Plus, or I don't have this feeling.
Wow! I thought I was the only one having to go and buy SE2022 out of desperation to have only usable device.
But it was a huge downgrade over my 11 Pro in terms of screen size and featureset.
I’ve found few lifehacks that let me live comfortably with 11 Pro:
- always using night shift when I wake up and get my phone;
- had not disabled true tone as it seems to help;
- sometimes using it in landscape mode (like PSP). Somehow OLED PWM doesn’t seem to affect me as much as in portrait mode. For that reason I wish phones were more square, not uselessly wide 21:9 abominations. Like a Galaxy Fold but without bending;
- never watch HDR content. Whenever I see “glowing” or when stupid YouTube forces it upon me, I turn on battery saving mode (which likely caps the screen at 8 bits, no FRC).
Overall 17 Pro doesn’t seem like it will be any different than what I currently have. Thus I’m voting with my wallet again. Thinking of abandoning smartphones for most tasks I’ve gotten used to and already eyeing a decent 16’ laptop like ASUS Vivobook as they seem to have better OLED tech + they are TUV certified + flicker-free mode that will use PWM only at super low brightness levels (such as 10%).
But as I noted, PWM eye strain might come from more constrained space on smartphone displays, so that our displays do not fit our eyes enough, eyes lack more space for peripheral vision and thus we start to feel motion sick due to that, but it might as well be a combination of various factors including PWM.
UPD: the best thing to do nowadays is just to abandon smartphones for good. Use them only for occasional texting, calling and staying connected. It means no creative tasks whatsoever, minimum writing and minimum text reading tasks
But it was a huge downgrade over my 11 Pro in terms of screen size and featureset.
I’ve found few lifehacks that let me live comfortably with 11 Pro:
- always using night shift when I wake up and get my phone;
- had not disabled true tone as it seems to help;
- sometimes using it in landscape mode (like PSP). Somehow OLED PWM doesn’t seem to affect me as much as in portrait mode. For that reason I wish phones were more square, not uselessly wide 21:9 abominations. Like a Galaxy Fold but without bending;
- never watch HDR content. Whenever I see “glowing” or when stupid YouTube forces it upon me, I turn on battery saving mode (which likely caps the screen at 8 bits, no FRC).
Overall 17 Pro doesn’t seem like it will be any different than what I currently have. Thus I’m voting with my wallet again. Thinking of abandoning smartphones for most tasks I’ve gotten used to and already eyeing a decent 16’ laptop like ASUS Vivobook as they seem to have better OLED tech + they are TUV certified + flicker-free mode that will use PWM only at super low brightness levels (such as 10%).
But as I noted, PWM eye strain might come from more constrained space on smartphone displays, so that our displays do not fit our eyes enough, eyes lack more space for peripheral vision and thus we start to feel motion sick due to that, but it might as well be a combination of various factors including PWM.
UPD: the best thing to do nowadays is just to abandon smartphones for good. Use them only for occasional texting, calling and staying connected. It means no creative tasks whatsoever, minimum writing and minimum text reading tasks
what do you mean by calmer? like colors wise or motion? I always have reduce motion on my XR on