I’m currently testing the Air after being fairly successful with the 16 pro (LG panel) for the past 9 months. I do feel a new strain in my eyes with the Air; it’s mild (for now) but definitely present. I checked my panel and I have a G9Q (Samsung?). I have the PWM toggle on, fwiw. If it doesn’t smooth out and become perfect for me in the next few days the Air is going back and I’m sticking with the 16 pro.
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Other Eye-strain while using iPhone X and up
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You're no doubt gutted but you get to go back to an Iphone 6 pro and not an 11 or SE2 like most of us 🤣
Very true, I got lucky with my 16 pro (it’s not perfect, but it’s the easiest on the eyes that I’ve dealt with since the 11).
I have tried and it never goes anywhere. I am going to the media to deal with this as a result. I work in music and have connections in the media and many have expressed interest in doing a story on my experience with this issue.
There is likely a connection between your underlying health and sensitivity. But I believe based on anecdotal data that most people are affected by flicker and screens but it is not severe enough to create a correlation in their mind. It’s often dismissed as age related or blue light or screen time. We are just the ones who are having very severe reactions to problematic technology.
And no, the medical field is woefully ill-prepared to tackle this topic because A. They know very little about the brain and nervous system and B. The technology is so rapidly changing that it’s hard to do an RCT or study that takes several years, not to mention get funding for it.
There is no permanent damage that can be observed within the eye itself, as almost everyone here will attest. We don’t have any technology to properly assess the brain, nerves, or nervous system on a level deep enough to draw any conclusions. All tests will come back normal using current diagnostics.
My health conditions are fairly complex. I’ve had POTS and inappropriate sinus tachycardia since a 2018 flu infection, but was fine with flashing lights, screens, phones until I got COVID in 2022. So even with dysautonomia I was fine until COVID. Doctors are still trying to figure out if there’s an autoimmune connective tissue disease component (MCTD, Lupus) but no one can agree.
The neuro ophthalmologist I saw essentially said COVID is just wrecking people. By treating one of my conditions we end up making the others worse, so it’s a real problem. I’m reticent to mention this because it’s often dismissed, but the doctor actually brought up EMF and 5G. This is a doctor at a major NYC eye center and university. I know nothing about EMF or 5G and didn’t even bring it up - I’ve dismissed it as conspiratorial. Apparently, it is very real, according to this doctor. She told me that for 90% of people it’s safe, but there is a small subset of people - of which constitute the majority of cases she sees and her colleagues see across the country - who are sensitive to these technologies and are very much affected. Honestly, I was shocked. I’m very much grounded in science and reality but when she explained the mechanisms, I couldn’t dismiss it outright.
There are things they wanted to try. They tried different colored lenses (I’ve had visual snow basically since birth) but all of them caused my eyes to shut and a headache. Syntonic light therapy was also an option but in my current diminished health state, I could not tolerate it. Essentially their approach is that I have to try to get my other conditions more under control before my body can even tolerate anything they might be able to try. I was told I was one of the most severe she’s seen, which surprised me since I don’t think of myself as that. But I suppose that’s a bit of denial on my part. You sort of have to be in denial to function when you’re this sick for this long.
I should note I’m pretty young (32) and this all started when I was 29…so age plays no role.
My perspective/hypothesis with all the research I’ve done? I think COVID has played a major role. If you look at “eye strain” as a Google trend it starts spiking as soon as the pandemic hits. Now maybe this can be explained by everyone working from home and being on screens more, but I don’t think that explains why every year we get more and more posts about being unable to use Apple devices in particular.
I think it’s been a perfect storm between the pandemic, Apple silicon, supply chain and quality control issues, increased brightness, and a marketing race to create the brightness, most colorful and vivid, and longest lasting devices by tech companies. This has led to a lot of cutting corners and software tricks (flickering) to meet benchmarks and as a result more and more people are being affected. It doesn’t help that the switch to LEDs in all public places also started in 2020, so people are exposed more often whether it’s streetlights, car headlights, or store lighting. Couple that with a very observable decline in overall health from a global populace being repeatedly infected by a virus that damaged the nervous system and vascular system…yeah, it starts to add up.
I think there’s hope because there are screens we all can use. The difficulty as has been articulated is knowing what is being added to software updates where even a security update can make a device unusable. The issue is these technologies are essentially a black box which leaves us all to use limited tools (Opple, microscopes, oscilloscopes) to try to suss out what is going on. And because there’s variation between even the same device models themselves it makes it even harder.
^ Great post. I did send my concerns to Apple two days ago and just got the canned response from them.
The only piece I've seen in mainstream media would be
spectrum.ieee.org
Of course there is no mention of dithering (and apparently there are many different kinds of dithering).
The connection between health issues and extreme sensitivity is interesting.
The only piece I've seen in mainstream media would be
The iPhone 12 Mini Makes Me Sick (Literally)
Manufacturers don’t like to talk about OLED display flicker, but for the sensitive, it’s a nightmare
spectrum.ieee.org
The connection between health issues and extreme sensitivity is interesting.
As A-Inc sees it (which is stated in their publicly posted iPhone usage warning - but using different words). In a nutshell:
"If you're allergic to our product, don't use it"
"If you're allergic to our product, don't use it"
I cannot help wondering if this obsession with creating brighter and brighter screens is contributing to the problem. I really don’t understand what this mania for insanely bright screens is all about. I’ve always had the brightness on my phone turned right down, and that’s on screen that can get nowhere as bright as current iPhone screens.
Well, to make a long story short, the higher maximum brightness (i.e HDR) does make the PWM curve worse.
Today I say bye bye to the Air…this is very disappointing but I really feel the PWM switch did nothing. Based on comments above I will try the 16. Which has the highest chance? The 16e, Pro?
I tried the iPhone XS, 14p, 14PM, 15p, 15PM, 16, 16p, 17, 17air. None of them worked for me. some with mixed results. I’m sure I just need a flicker free phone. But I really need someting new. My 11 is slow and old. I’m willing to use a phone for just regular task and use an iPad mini for other things. And based on reviews and results from opple which phone should i try next:
iPhone 13
iPhone 13pro
iPhone 15 plus
iPhone 16 plus
iPhone 16e
iPhone 13
iPhone 13pro
iPhone 15 plus
iPhone 16 plus
iPhone 16e
I am still on Iphone11. I tried the X, 13 and 17 air so far
In the spirit of “if you can’t be heard, take action”, I wonder if there is an estimate of how many people some the world are affected by our issue? If the number is large enough, would it make sense for an entrepreneur to make a dedicated phone? I assume it would have to be Android though. Imagine there is a 0.1% that could be more than 1M people. If the phone was sold for $1000 that could be a $1B revenue. It seems it could be a good business plan
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After a week with the iPhone 17 Pro Max, I'm still thrilled.
It's by far the best OLED smartphone I've ever had in terms of eye health.
I have no pressure on my eyes, no neck pain, no headaches at the back of my head; I feel great, it's perfect!
I highly recommend trying out the iPhone 17 Pro Max. I'm so happy to use an iPhone Pro Max after 7 years.
I hope everyone else here finds a smartphone that will be symptom-free.
One more thing: I have an LG display.
It's by far the best OLED smartphone I've ever had in terms of eye health.
I have no pressure on my eyes, no neck pain, no headaches at the back of my head; I feel great, it's perfect!
I highly recommend trying out the iPhone 17 Pro Max. I'm so happy to use an iPhone Pro Max after 7 years.
I hope everyone else here finds a smartphone that will be symptom-free.
One more thing: I have an LG display.
So then the 17 pro max has better modulation than the regular pro? Because I couldn’t use it.
I don't know.
But what was important for me not to deactivate 120Hz.
120Hz is the reason for me why it works so perfectly.
With 60Hz it didn't feel so comfortable.
But what was important for me not to deactivate 120Hz.
120Hz is the reason for me why it works so perfectly.
With 60Hz it didn't feel so comfortable.
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So funny to discuss 1920x1080 as "low resolution" on a 10-inch diagonal display.
In 26 I think I saw a video where you can press-and-hold on the background of the home screen, choose Customize and change/remove the transparency items. Maybe that would help?
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I’m thinking the same and use 2 devices. How was the 16plus compared to the 16e for you?
Can someone please try to educate me?
I’ve been stuck with an iPhone SE as I originally purchased the iPhone X and had immediate issues, back before I knew this was even a thing.
How are some people having luck with certain phones over others? Aren’t the issues themselves consistent with all these phones? I have no issue using the SE because it’s an LCD screen, so I’m wondering how one person can have issues with the new screens and another have no issues at all?
I’ve been stuck with an iPhone SE as I originally purchased the iPhone X and had immediate issues, back before I knew this was even a thing.
How are some people having luck with certain phones over others? Aren’t the issues themselves consistent with all these phones? I have no issue using the SE because it’s an LCD screen, so I’m wondering how one person can have issues with the new screens and another have no issues at all?
Share a secret with you: iPhone screen has a major update/change every two years, that means if 13 works for you, 14 won't be much different; and the other way around too...
It makes totally sense, that's why Apple is so stupid not to provide such a "eye friendly" model every 2 or 3 years... they would be surprised at the sales...
I had tried all of that, while it doesn’t really affect after turning off all the transparency effects, the OS looks worse than ever. Also animations still stay the same, I believe these animations might cause motion sickness. I actually don’t get why Apple doesn’t wanna add option to completely disable all animations, on Mac it seems to still be possible via few terminal commands