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Other Eye-strain while using iPhone X and up

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Are you experiencing this issue?

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thejadedmonkey said:
26.1 was completely unusable for me. I find 26.2 with the PWM toggle off and the screen dim, to be mostly usable.
Click to expand...

I’m so curious why this is. How would one even go about testing this?

I know we’ve all tried this in the past, but has anyone attempted to communicate with support and get connected to someone in engineering or something since the 17 series was released? Even just from an Accessibility standpoint, I wonder if the PWM toggle has opened up avenues that didn’t exist for communication.
 
dimitricook said:
So good you can tolerate the air now.
I am testing an Air with an LG display but can't really get used to it, seems to give me the symptoms like all other phones even with your advised settings.

What was the big difference when you go an Samsung panel, was the brightness less harsh or something you noticed?
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I don’t have a clue mate. It just felt more constant at different axis and maybe cooler colors. And the reason i did was someone from Reddit that had a Samsung, broke his screen, replaced it with an LG and pain started hitting him. But keep in mind they are 2 Samsung panels available. G9N and G9Q.
 
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thejadedmonkey said:
I have a 17 non-pro, sorry about the confusion. I just know that whatever Apple did, it was terrible on 26.1, but is mostly better now.
Click to expand...

I haven’t updated my 13 Pro yet to iOS 26 because of concerns about things like you have talked about here. In fact it’s probably one of the main reasons I haven’t updated to iOS 26.
 
my base 17 gave me some issues on and off when I first got it at launch. After a while I became irritated with other aspects of the phone and eventually decided to try swapping for a 17PM. And I have been using that for a week or so now with no teething issues at all. It seems like such a lottery as to whether you get a panel you can stand, so odd!
 
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DJTaurus said:
I don’t have a clue mate. It just felt more constant at different axis and maybe cooler colors. And the reason i did was someone from Reddit that had a Samsung, broke his screen, replaced it with an LG and pain started hitting him. But keep in mind they are 2 Samsung panels available. G9N and G9Q.
Click to expand...
Ok good to know, which panel do you have? and is this considered the top tier or lower grade :) Maybe the difference in displays is causing dithering to be more or less present / noticable for our nervous system.
Thanks for your help!
 
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martin2345uk said:
my base 17 gave me some issues on and off when I first got it at launch. After a while I became irritated with other aspects of the phone and eventually decided to try swapping for a 17PM. And I have been using that for a week or so now with no teething issues at all. It seems like such a lottery as to whether you get a panel you can stand, so odd!panel are you using?
martin2345uk said:
my base 17 gave me some issues on and off when I first got it at launch. After a while I became irritated with other aspects of the phone and eventually decided to try swapping for a 17PM. And I have been using that for a week or so now with no teething issues at all. It seems like such a lottery as to whether you get a panel you can stand, so odd!
Click to expand...
Know which panel your using?
Click to expand...
 
dimitricook said:
Ok good to know, which panel do you have? and is this considered the top tier or lower grade :) Maybe the difference in displays is causing dithering to be more or less present / noticable for our nervous system.
Thanks for your help!
Click to expand...
From best to worst: G9N,G9Q,G9P,GVC,GH3....some few are with JV5 which is from BOE..... dont know about their quality. Samsungs tend to be more bright, less yellow and more solid off axis. Also some users found LGs to have green tint.
 
Still a lot of sensitivity during the day where the PWM toggle makes no difference…

Flickering has to be eliminated entirely for PWM-sensitive folks to use these devices. It’s entirely impractical for users to have a phone on them they’re forced to rely on and use for a majority of the day just to have it cause migraines/tension headaches.
 
Not a solution at all, but it is possible to use the Low Light filter under the Zoom Accessibility setting to dim the display further. Just avoid three-finger taps to not activate the display zoom and keep the max zoom at 1.2x. This can also be combined with Reduce White Point or the Display Pulse Smoothing. 75%-100% brightness seems to bother me slightly less than being around 40%-50%.
 
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MICHAELSD said:
Not a solution at all, but it is possible to use the Low Light filter under the Zoom Accessibility setting to dim the display further. Just avoid three-finger taps to not activate the display zoom and keep the max zoom at 1.2x. This can also be combined with Reduce White Point and/or the Display Pulse Smoothing. 75%-100% brightness seems to bother me slightly less than being around 40%-50%.
Click to expand...
Unfortunately, you can't use reduce white point and display pulse smoothing at the same time. They cancel each other out for some reason.
 
john g. said:
Unfortunately, you can't use reduce white point and display pulse smoothing at the same time. They cancel each other out for some reason.
Click to expand...
I was referring to the Low Light filter being usable with either one of those settings also enabled. I suppose and/or was unnecessary. Although I don’t find the low light filter to be all that worthwhile either, just a tip that could maybe help somebody else as it is a strong effect. I assume Display Pulse Smoothing already uses a technique similar to Reduce White Point for dimming.

I just need a constant signal reduced by voltage, or true DC dimming. I’m convinced the only solution for me is ultra low-modulation synced to refresh rate.
 
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MICHAELSD said:
I got the display panel I would have chosen if given the option, which is the LG GVC. I’ve found LG’s displays to be generally more natural-looking and easier on the eyes than Samsung’s, although I don’t have another display to reference. I do have to say that I did notice a difference between various iPhone 17 and iPhone 17 Pro panels in the Apple Store, with the Pro not necessarily being better although there was variance between models.

As expected, iPhone Air still exhibits all of the negative effects of flickering OLED. Uncomfortable to stare at for more than short bursts, some degree of migraines/headaches after use although still gradually reduced generation-over-generation, and just not practical for me to be using daily.

I’m not disappointed since this is what I expected, and I’ve grown more accustomed to using an iPhone SE as my main device. Frankly the only way to provide feedback is to try it, so I will send feedback to Apple along the lines of either eliminating flicker altogether or creating an Accessibility setting that’s ultra-low-modulation with the goal of measuring no-risk on a flicker meter equivalent to any LCD iPhone.

I would designate the flicker as getting 10% better every generation, so maybe iPhone 20 will be usable? There are brands releasing smartphones with OLED “flicker-free certified” rates of 5,000Hz+. As long as these panels continue getting better in regards to eye health and flicker, and brands like Apple are encouraged to become an industry leader, the situation will continue to improve. Unfortunately, iPhone 17 is not the generation with a solution for the most sensitive users.
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Completely agree. I’ve been using the iPhone Air for about a month, and it’s easily the best OLED phone I’ve ever tried. Still, I can only handle it in short bursts just a few minutes at a time, like you said. It’s really frustrating, but I think I’m going to sell it and stick with the SE 3. Even though I can’t use that for long periods either, likely because of dithering, it’s nowhere near as bad symptom wise as PWM.
 
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Happily carrying on with my TCL 60 ULTRA but set up my partners Iphone 16e for them over xmas.

Quite easily the worst phone I have ever looked at. Almost instant bad reaction pain and dizziness.

I have used a few models over previous year, tending to opt for flagship models but wow that 16e is horrendously bad.
 
cgolca said:
Completely agree. I’ve been using the iPhone Air for about a month, and it’s easily the best OLED phone I’ve ever tried. Still, I can only handle it in short bursts just a few minutes at a time, like you said. It’s really frustrating, but I think I’m going to sell it and stick with the SE 3. Even though I can’t use that for long periods either, likely because of dithering, it’s nowhere near as bad symptom wise as PWM.
Click to expand...
The more I use it, the more favorably I can reflect on my experience with iPhone Air. There is no doubt that even right now as I’m typing on it I feel some degree of tension headache, but overall it’s been reduced about 90% compared to iPhone X.

Apple has been making generational progress and is developing displays with sensitive users in mind, but not taking drastic enough steps. Realistically I need an iPhone that causes no headache response at all, or at least a more practical response.

These displays must look amazing to users who aren’t sensitive, as I still find my eyes don’t like to focus as easily as they would on a non-flickering display. If I choose to use this display for hours, I can retrospectively do it much more easily than a majority of past OLED iPhone generations. The headaches and migraines I used to experience were at such a high level of intensity that even light headaches are a major improvement.

Ironically, I disabled the PWM toggle at 25% brightness as I was experiencing some discomfort and tend to go back and forth when I do and don’t necessarily find this worse. I don’t think the current approach is the solution: we need flickering across the board to be eliminated. This does perhaps cause more of the behind the eyes effect, but really there’s no pronounced throbbing either way as I experienced with nearly all past OLED iPhone generations.

Apple technically listened by adding a PWM toggle, but the fact of the matter is that OLED flicker-sensitive users such as myself are sensitive to all forms of flicker: Pulse Amplitude Modulation, and whatever the technical term for brightness modulation from 26%-100%+ on this latest iPhone generation is. Go back to true DC dimming and/or target .75% modulations at the current 480Hz rate.
 
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Scratch that - I conducted a test at 20% brightness of PWM on vs off. It’s not problem-free with the toggle on and I was finding the display oddly easier to stare at with the PWM on (toggle off) but then noticed some behind-the-eye throbbing after setting the phone down. Colors are a little more spot-on with PWM and grays get a little darker with the toggle on. Regardless, it’s still not a perfect experience even at higher brightness levels where the switch doesn’t make a difference.

I was about to write the PWM toggle off entirely since it’s not creating the effect I’m looking for where the display becomes perfectly comfortable like an iPad Pro LCD. This test confirms that the PWM toggle does at least prevent some of the worst issues possible with flickering iPhones.
 
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DJTaurus said:
From best to worst: G9N,G9Q,G9P,GVC,GH3....some few are with JV5 which is from BOE..... dont know about their quality. Samsungs tend to be more bright, less yellow and more solid off axis. Also some users found LGs to have green tint.
Click to expand...
This post is gold.

I concur with your finding and returned a few until I got a Pro and Air with G9N panels. The LGs were tolarable, BOE''s were terrible. (Eye strain and screen quality)

Perhaps we are both lucky to have this panel and its characteristics be the right combo.

I can definitely tell the difference between them.
 
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Maven1975 said:
This post is gold.

I concur with your finding and returned a few until I got a Pro and Air with G9N panels. The LGs were tolarable, BOE''s were terrible. (Eye strain and screen quality)

Perhaps we are both lucky to have this panel and its characteristics be the right combo.

I can definitely tell the difference between them.
Click to expand...
You have success with Samsung panel ? Air and pro both ?

To be more precise. I made the list from best to worst in terms of screen quality as many users report not to which is tolerable for PWM. In my case only G9Q was tolerable…. haven’t tried a G9N Samsung :)
 
DJTaurus said:
You have success with Samsung panel ? Air and pro both ?

To be more precise. I made the list from best to worst in terms of screen quality as many users report not to which is tolerable for PWM. In my case only G9Q was tolerable…. haven’t tried a G9N Samsung :)
Click to expand...
G9N 17 Pro was the most comfortable OLED I've used to date.
 
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