Other Eye-strain while using iPhone X and up

[Omega Mac]

I went to look at the new phones in store today for a little bit becasue of the lates PWN setting and this long running topics. It has prevented me from upgrading. I do like touchID. Be nice if that was on a side button on the iPhones as an alt or common unlock.

I don't know if I spent enough time with them or the right environment to get an idea if there might be an issue. It is hard when there is a huge clunky security grip lock on to get an idea of weight and feel in the hand.

I was impressed with the screens overall, the pros looked great and the largest pro didn't seem all that "too big", all this is as much as you can tell when you have store lights overhead creating all kinds of reflections from all angles.

I can't rememeber now exactly which one when look gin at the new air or 16e (which was also new to me) but I feel maybe it was the 16e screen, somethign different about that one, maybe better, more appealing for no rational reason.

On another point, the air also looked bent! That's another issue to consider. It appears the security grip lock was adjusted too tight and bent the device! Yikes...

Bottom line - Did anyone notice issues when viewing in store before they bought or did they generally need to spend more in normal use pattern to gauge intensity of PWN affect or not?

 

[john g.]

I have an opposite experience. I can’t use it with PWM toggle off….. i get instant eye pressure. Only on for the toggle to me….. and this thing supposedly works only below 25% brightness….. very weird.

I think I am with you here, even though it seems like it might be somewhat placebo. However, here is a Reddit post where this person seems to know a lot about settings and feels like leaving the PWM smoothing toggle enabled might be helpful, even above the lower brightness..

https://www.reddit.com/r/PWM_Sensitive/comments/1ns6xkw/iphone_settings_to_minimise_pwm_what_really_works

 

[ghanwani]

Bottom line - Did anyone notice issues when viewing in store before they bought or did they generally need to spend more in normal use pattern to gauge intensity of PWN affect or not?

PWN means something else I think in gaming land. This is about PWM.

For me, I notice the screens causing headaches within minutes. Again, I don't think it's PWM for me as much as temporal dithering. Because I have the same issue with iPads and MacBooks.

 

[now i see it]

Bottom line - Did anyone notice issues when viewing in store before they bought or did they generally need to spend more in normal use pattern to gauge intensity

Playing on an iphone in the store for a while to gauge whether it will bother you or not is not long enough (unless it nails you right away).
It can take a few days of use at home to realize the display is toxic for you (or not).
Sooo - the only good test is to buy one and test it for a few days. If it bothers you, return it for free within the allowed return period.

 

[ghanwani]

If it bothers you, return it for free within the allowed return period.

I got tired of returning stuff, but fortunately I can tell in short usage what is going on since my sensitivity is to temporal dithering. When I pay attention, I can actually see the edges of letters and lines moving. With too many returns, I think the store staff also start looking at you weird.

 

[DJTaurus]

I found (by accident) better settings to make 17 air even more comfortable. And those settings were always in front of us but we ignored them…. very very simple solution. Stay tuned…. I need 1-2 days more to confirm.

 

[super chimp]

Playing on an iphone in the store for a while to gauge whether it will bother you or not is not long enough (unless it nails you right away).
It can take a few days of use at home to realize the display is toxic for you (or not).
Sooo - the only good test is to buy one and test it for a few days. If it bothers you, return it for free within the allowed return period.

For me I can usually tell within less than an hour what a screen is going to be like for me.

 

[DJTaurus]

Guys it’s over. Second day with 17 air and almost perfect results. 6 hours screen day….. goodbye iPhone 11. I ll share my settings when i ll have time to post. I just want to share how happy i am. I really hope others to take the leap of faith and try what i did…… and i am super sensitive not like some who couldn’t use 16 pro max but they can use 17 pro for example….. lmao and no offence

 

[MICHAELSD]

Guys it’s over. Second day with 17 air and almost perfect results. 6 hours screen day….. goodbye iPhone 11. I ll share my settings when i ll have time to post. I just want to share how happy i am. I really hope others to take the leap of faith and try what i did…… and i am super sensitive not like some who couldn’t use 16 pro max but they can use 17 pro for example….. lmao and no offence

Congrats, brotha! Do you think these settings would work on the 17 Pro?

 

[john g.]

Guys it’s over. Second day with 17 air and almost perfect results. 6 hours screen day….. goodbye iPhone 11. I ll share my settings when i ll have time to post. I just want to share how happy i am. I really hope others to take the leap of faith and try what i did…… and i am super sensitive not like some who couldn’t use 16 pro max but they can use 17 pro for example….. lmao and no offence

That's fantastic! I've decided to keep my iPhone 17 Pro [second attempt] because it works for me well. But I am eager to hear your settings and try them for even more improvement

BTW, my settings are PWM smoothing enabled, no true tone, reduce motion enabled, prefer Crossfade transitions enabled, and for now, limiting the refresh rate to 60 Hz.
As I become more acquainted with the phone, I might try the full 120.

 

[SkateboardingFrog]

Guys, am I the only person who gets burning eyes much more than headache ?

The headache is very light compared to the eyes. The eyes burn and it takes several minutes to hours for it to calm down depending on how much I was exposed to a bad screen.

The iPhone 11 & Moto G75 gave me burning eyes but no headache.

16 Pro gave me both.

 

[MICHAELSD]

That's fantastic! I've decided to keep my iPhone 17 Pro [second attempt] because it works for me well. But I am eager to hear your settings and try them for even more improvement

BTW, my settings are PWM smoothing enabled, no true tone, reduce motion enabled, prefer Crossfade transitions enabled, and for now, limiting the refresh rate to 60 Hz.
As I become more acquainted with the phone, I might try the full 120.

I expected the Air to have a better display since it’s a newer size and outlier, but remarkably all iPhones this generation seem to be fairly comparable although I’d assume* the regular iPhone 17 would get a slightly inferior yield of display panels. I’d still need to see them in an Apple Store.

 

[DJTaurus]

Congrats, brotha! Do you think these settings would work on the 17 Pro?

I wish i knew my friend but I never tried.

So let’s go. Here is my short story and findings:

As i said one month ago I purchased 17 air. It had LG panel and from day two it gave me head heaviness overall feeling and tired eyes. Sold it after week.

I am super super sensitive. As many know i have made screen surgery to many iPhones like 14,13,16,16e,14 plus,15 plus with lcds incell (Ifixit,mobile sentrix alli express etc) and soft oled…. most of the qualities:JK,JR,EK Pro,TCL,EBR etc….. you name it. I have lost the count….. money and emotional health. I am so sensitive that LCD in cells gave me more pain even that OG Oleds….i am also very jealous and suspicious with people that say 16 pro was usable and 17 isn’t …. i mean i had issues even with iPhone 11 after iOS 26. It’s a very miserable situation…. and I don’t want to use an android smartphone.

2 weeks ago a guy from Reddit posted that he has 2 iPhone 17 airs….. the one with LG which was not tolerable and the Samsung which was fine. His Samsung had a battery issue and got a replacement with LG. That’s why.

I immediately started searching the after market for an air with Samsung panel and found one. I tested it for 2 weeks and my experience was so and so. Better than LG but still gave me some headaches, eye trembling and minimal eye blurriness.

Yesterday morning i decided to make a random YouTube search. I typed: iPhone 17 air PWM….. aside the usual YouTube videos a new one appeared.

This is the video…. I believe nobody has clicked on that:

I said to myself. What do i have to loose. Let’s copy his settings and see how it goes.

I turned off double invert.
I turned back on 120hz
Turned off reduce transparency
Turned off reduce white point.

So here are the settings he uses and he also stated that 13 pro max was giving him headaches etc:

-My air is with Samsung G9Q panel
-Turn on PWM toggle
-Turn on True Tone
-Night mode at 70% all the time non stop!
-Light mode instead of dark mode. Even in apps everything in Light.
-Turn on auto brightness.
-Display zoom (LARGER)…. like your grandmothers
-i also REMOVED the matte screen protector! Back to a clear tempered glass for gods shake. Finally!
-Screen motion back at 120hz.
-Text size 2-3 dots more than the default. So bigger too.

A few words about those settings: I was always against dark mode…. some people on ledstrain have mentioned it too that makes things more difficult to read.

I believe that the 2 key settings were the night shift and larger viewing mode. I mean when I turned on night shift i felt like a tone of pressure went off my head. And True Tone helped me even more. On ledstrain some users were suggesting not to use night mode because it may interfere with color intensity and confuse the brain…..they say that PWM toggle may be a placebo but i know for sure when I turn it off things are getting worse…. tried it off 2 days ago and my eye started to burn like hell. It was ****ing awful. And who would have thought that even with auto brightness i would also have success….. so a win win situation even for better battery consumption!

Guys it worked for me. I am closing now around 7 hours and i am at least 90% ok with the phone…. no headaches and blurry vision. Just a little bit eye dryness.

I leave it to you from now on….. do as you like. But in the end who knows…. maybe i am lucky or maybe Apple knew better than us with night shift and True Tone which the PWM community was kinda against…. "thank you for your attention to this matter"

 

[MICHAELSD]

I wish i knew my friend but I never tried.

So let’s go. Here is my short story and findings:

As i said one month ago I purchased 17 air. It had LG panel and from day two it gave me head heaviness overall feeling and tired eyes. Sold it after week.

I am super super sensitive. As many know i have made screen surgery to many iPhones like 14,13,16,16e,14 plus,15 plus with lcds incell (Ifixit,mobile sentrix alli express etc) and soft oled…. most of the qualities:JK,JR,EK Pro,TCL,EBR etc….. you name it. I have lost the count….. money and emotional health. I am so sensitive that LCD in cells gave me more pain even that OG Oleds….i am also very jealous and suspicious with people that say 16 pro was usable and 17 isn’t …. i mean i had issues even with iPhone 11 after iOS 26. It’s a very miserable situation…. and I don’t want to use an android smartphone.

2 weeks ago a guy from Reddit posted that it has 2 iPhone 17 airs….. the one with LG which was not tolerable and the Samsung which was fine. His Samsung has a battery issue and got a replacement with LG. That’s why.

I immediately started searching on the after market for an air with Samsung panel and found one. I tested it for 2 weeks and my experience was so and so. Better than LG but still gave me some headaches, eye trembling and minimal eye blurriness.

Yesterday morning i decided to make a random YouTube search. I typed: iPhone 17 air PWM….. aside the usual YouTube videos a new one appeared.

This is the video…. I believe nobody has clicked on that:

I said to myself. What do i have to loose. Let’s copy his settings and see how it goes.

I turned off double invert.
I turned back on 120hz
Turned off reduce transparency
Turned off reduce white point.

So here are the settings he uses and he also stated that 13 pro max was giving him headaches etc:

-My air is with Samsung G9Q panel
-Turn on PWM
-Turn on True Tone
-Night mode at 70% all the time non stop!
-Light mode instead of dark mode. Even in apps everything in Light.
-Turn on auto brightness.
-Display zoom (LARGER)…. like your grandmothers
-i also REMOVED the matte screen protector! Back to a clear tempered glass for gods shake. Finally!
-Screen motion back at 120hz.
-Text size 2-3 dots more than the default. So bigger too.

A few words about those settings: I was always against dark mode…. some people on ledstrain have mentioned it too that makes things more difficult to read.

I believe that the 2 key settings were the night shift and larger viewing mode. I mean when I turned on night shift i felt like a tone of pressure went off my head. And True Tone helped me even more. On ledstrain some users were suggesting not to use night mode because it may interfere with color intensity and confuse the brain…..they say that PWM toggle may be a placebo but i know for sure when I turn it off things are getting worse…. tried it off 2 days ago and my eye started to burn like hell. It was ****ing awful. And who would have thought that even with auto brightness i would also have success….. so a win win situation even for better battery consumption!

Guys it worked for me. I am closing now around 7 hours and i am at least 90% ok with the phone…. no headaches and blurry vision. Just a little bit eye dryness.

I leave it to you from now on….. do as you like. But in the end who knows…. maybe i am lucky or maybe Apple knew better than us with night shift and True Tone which the PWM community was kinda against…. "thank you for your attention to this matter"

The takeaway to the story… use the iPhone as normally as possible since almost none of these over-the-top mitigations like matte screen protectors have an effect. Night Shift, True Tone, etc. are great even if they’re really just making the display warmer which I prefer and find easier on the eyes. Historically, these have zero effect on the PWM or the headache effect but I do think any Apple display looks better with these modern features enabled.

I assume when you say enable PWM you mean to enable the disable PWM setting?

 

[DJTaurus]

The takeaway to the story… use the iPhone as normally as possible since almost none of these over-the-top mitigations like matte screen protectors have an effect. Night Shift, True Tone, etc. are great even if they’re really just making the display warmer which I prefer and find easier on the eyes. Historically, these have zero effect on the PWM or the headache effect but I do think any Apple display looks better with these modern features enabled.

I assume when you say enable PWM you mean to enable the disable PWM setting?

Yeap the PWM toggle. Exactly….. night shift makes the screen immediately easier to read. That’s how I perceive it.

 

[now i see it]

Glad you found a screen solution that works for you!
None of your setting get rid of PWM except the iOS PWM toggle turned on, which only slightly changes flickering at 25% brightness or less.
So the lesson learned is: You're not sensitive to PWM flickering.
It is other aspects of iPhone screens that were giving you grief.
And these unfortunately are not quantifiable...which is likely why apple can't fix the iPhone OLED screen problem for everyone.

 

[ghanwani]

And these unfortunately are not quantifiable...which is likely why apple can't fix the iPhone OLED screen problem for everyone.

They can most definitely offer an option that disables all forms of dithering.

Apple seems to have offered the PWM toggle (turns out largely as a checkbox item) only because PWM is now finding its way into mainstream reviews.

 

[kargurin]

New One Plus 15 is getting some positive feedback in the PWM reddit forum. But apparently it struggles a bit with photography.

 

[now i see it]

They can most definitely offer an option that disables all forms of dithering.

Absolutely!
But in DJTaurus' particular instance, in respect to dithering, both the painful LG screen and the soothing Samsung have the exact same dithering going on because dithering is driven by the OS, not the display itself. So in this particular instance, it wasn't PWM OR dithering that was making the LG display unusable - but something else. aka unquantifiable - since on paper, both screens have the same specs.

 

[DJTaurus]

Sth weird happened yesterday. For some unknown reason night shift was off for all the day…. I didn’t notice it but felt like sth was building in my head…. some head pressure and kinda low blurry vision. This usually happens when the screen makes viewing experience difficult. I went to check my settings and it was off. So i turned it on and i am back to normal….. as I said night mode makes the image softer and "more light" to read.

 

[DJTaurus]

Absolutely!
But in DJTaurus' particular instance, in respect to dithering, both the painful LG screen and the soothing Samsung have the exact same dithering going on because dithering is driven by the OS, not the display itself. So in this particular instance, it wasn't PWM OR dithering that was making the LG display unusable - but something else. aka unquantifiable - since on paper, both screens have the same specs.

As I said to be honest it’s not perfect. The great thing is that I don’t have headaches or blurry vision any more. Only slight eye dryness. It’s very very usable now.

 

[pwm away]

So here are the settings he uses and he also stated that 13 pro max was giving him headaches etc:

Can you tell us where the Night Shift setting is, on the scale (or show a screenshot)? 70% is a bit unclear, as it doesn't show percentage. For reference, I use my 16e with Night Shift on from 12:00 - 11:59, and I've set it roughly in the middle between "Less Warm" and the middle of the full scale.
The above makes it look better for me, without changing the tone too much.

I'm tempted to try a 17 now, after your experience. I'd probably prefer the Air overall, but I've come to miss the 0.5x zoom capabilities since using the 16e.

By the way, how do you find the battery life of the Air?

 

[DJTaurus]

Can you tell us where the Night Shift setting is, on the scale (or show a screenshot)? 70% is a bit unclear, as it doesn't show percentage. For reference, I use my 16e with Night Shift on from 12:00 - 11:59, and I've set it roughly in the middle between "Less Warm" and the middle of the full scale.
The above makes it look better for me, without changing the tone too much.

I'm tempted to try a 17 now, after your experience. I'd probably prefer the Air overall, but I've come to miss the 0.5x zoom capabilities since using the 16e.

By the way, how do you find the battery life of the Air?

Yeah I only mean the less/more warm slider.

The only negative of air is battery and speaker sound. The camera is fantastic for my needs.

Battery around 20% better than 11. But it charges super fast compared to older iPhones so with 20 minutes you are ready to go.

 

[pwm away]

Battery around 20% better than 11.

This isn't bad at all. I was fairly happy with the 11 battery life, for my usage ...

 

[uacd]

Guys, am I the only person who gets burning eyes much more than headache ?

The headache is very light compared to the eyes. The eyes burn and it takes several minutes to hours for it to calm down depending on how much I was exposed to a bad screen.

The iPhone 11 & Moto G75 gave me burning eyes but no headache.

16 Pro gave me both.

I kind of had headache too but turns out it was smh related to my caffeine intake, turns out I am slow metabolizer and had to fully give it up this year. But I experienced rainy eyes sometimes and still do, also idk why but for some reason I squint a lot, and I never have issues with that unless I use my iPhone, if I do not I cannot look straight into my screen. Maybe it is UI related or smth but yeah, thats another reasob I prefer MacBook, TVs and iPads to iPhone content consumption.

Few month ago made a shortcut which automatically re-enables battery saving mode on my iPhone, so I basically have all-time “yellow” battery. It seems to help a lot with temporal dithering, though it only partially disables it