Other Eye-strain while using iPhone X and up

[arforbes]

Cross-post from another thread in here since it directly applies:

I switched to an XR from an X due to eye problems. I went to a neurologist and eye doctors multiple times within the last year because of a major increase in ocular migraines. I was seeing black splotches flashing in my vision, blurry vision, and would get migraines. I saw this thread about three weeks ago about iPhone X possibly causing eye strain, and started putting together that my eye issues and the phones might be interrelated. I must make it known that my eye issues may be exasperated due to intraocular contact lenses for long-distance vision corrected that I had implanted in Germamy. But other than that I am a healthy 27 year old with no other medical conditions.

To me, the screen is not any worse than the X/XS. I feel they're just "different" and it's all about what you prefer in a screen. If you prefer a color-shifted bright-as-hell feeling screen that's capable of turning blacks completely off, then get the XS. This screen feels more even to look at and I feel like my eyes are adjusting less.

I definitely *feel* like eye strain and future migraines may have gone away, but time will tell. The bright ass colors that the OLED produced in specific locations felt piercing to me. The XR screen has super rich colors that seem spot on. Blacks obviously aren't pure due to the LCD. Text does not appear pixelated, at least to me.

 

[stafil]

Can people who are not affected try the following and report if they are feeling anything or not?

Go in a dark room, go to settings and choose to setup FaceID from scratch. Once you get to the screen where it asks you to start rotating your head, move the phone so the "Flood Illuminator" is 1 inch away from one of your eyes and leave it there for a few minutes.

Do you get the some “weird” feeling? If yes, what does it feel like? Any pain over the next 24 hours?

 

[sddabrow]

Can people who are not affected try the following and report if they are feeling anything or not?

Go in a dark room, go to settings and choose to setup FaceID from scratch. Once you get to the screen where it asks you to start rotating your head, move the phone so the "Flood Illuminator" is 1 inch away from one of your eyes and leave it there for a few minutes.

Do you get the feeling like you have been staring at a bright light for long time?

Did you find out if you can shut off all the IR in settings? Or is tape required?

 

[stafil]

Did you find out if you can shut off all the IR in settings? Or is tape required?

The test was inconclusive. I cannot tell with certainty if what I see is the flood illuminator or the proximity sensor(which was there in older phones too)

This is the video:

 

[sddabrow]

The test was inconclusive. I cannot tell with certainty if what I see is the flood illuminator or the proximity sensor(which was there in older phones too)

This is the video:

Cool thanks, I’ll try just turning FaceID for a few days.

 

[5105973]

Can people who are not affected try the following and report if they are feeling anything or not?

Go in a dark room, go to settings and choose to setup FaceID from scratch. Once you get to the screen where it asks you to start rotating your head, move the phone so the "Flood Illuminator" is 1 inch away from one of your eyes and leave it there for a few minutes.

Do you get the some “weird” feeling? If yes, what does it feel like? Any pain over the next 24 hours?

Holy crap no I will not try that. I can already feel a sensation on my eyes doing it the normal way. And when I make Animoji. It doesn’t hurt, but I feel something. Then I get watery eyes for awhile with a scratchy sensation. No I’m not going to put that thing an inch away from my eyes. I think even Apple wouldn’t recommend that.

I’ve got attention aware off. Face ID still working. I did get a full screen protector but it was horrible crap so I had to go back to the notched one until I can order a new one. So no taping over anything.

So far I don’t have eye aches. I don’t have migraines. No headaches. I don’t have eye strain in the same way I had it on the X and the Max. I used the flood illuminator a lot last night when photographing Halloween displays in a friend’s neighborhood. So I’ve gotten dosed a lot in the last few days. But not as much as someone using Attention awareness on.

I’ve been experiencing more dry eyes, alternating with watery eyes and scratchy eye feeling on my Xr than on my 8 Plus, but less so, today. But it’s a new phone so I’m probably not in my normal behavior with it yet. I’ll let the newness wear off and see how it goes. I’m cautiously optimistic. I know a few people who bought the Xr and X recently and they’ve had no complaints.

If it’s any consolation, my husband takes his parents to an eye specialist. This doc uses an iPhone with Face ID!

I’m not saying there’s zero cause for concern. I’m definitely feeling something on my eyes under certain uses. But if we misuse the technology that’s not going to prove it’s harmful under the prescribed parameters for safe usage.

I am not sticking any pinpoint light source an inch away from my eye. I’m definitely not staring at any.

 

[stafil]

The intensity of the flood illuminator is so high that it even penetrates a single layer of black tape!

View attachment 800366 View attachment 800367

I got a red (680nm) class IIIA laser pointer today to compare and put a single layer of black tape in front of it, as I did with the flood illuminator(actually I literally used the exact same piece of tape)

No light at all escapes.

 

[Tijdelijk]

I got a red (680nm) class IIIA laser pointer today to compare and put a single layer of black tape in front of it, as I did with the flood illuminator(actually I literally used the exact same piece of tape)

No light at all escapes.

So you are saying face id is stronger then a class IIIA laser pointer??

You really believe this?
Like I said before your investigations are build on nothing.
[doublepost=1541146247][/doublepost]

The test was inconclusive. I cannot tell with certainty if what I see is the flood illuminator or the proximity sensor(which was there in older phones too)

This is the video:

That's the proximity sensor.
You see this with all older iphones
Do the same test with an iPhone 8 or 7 and you will see the same

 

[travis64]

Yea for all the new people with xr it was not the screen of the x it’s face id that gives headaches

 

[majkom]

All i need to know is, is it possible to turn off face id and never ever deal with those Ir lasers anymore? I can accept idea that with Xr i will use passcode and no biometrics (step back from touch id but acceptable).

Can anyone test/confirm it?

 

[Tijdelijk]

Yea for all the new people with xr it was not the screen of the x it’s face id that gives headaches

For you personally you mean
[doublepost=1541152507][/doublepost]

I got a red (680nm) class IIIA laser pointer today to compare and put a single layer of black tape in front of it, as I did with the flood illuminator(actually I literally used the exact same piece of tape)

No light at all escapes.

You would think face id is safe to use otherwise Apple is lying!!

Not to say off course it can produce discomfort. But dangerous??

Statement from Apple :

Safety
iPhone and the TrueDepth camera system have been thoroughly tested and meet international safety standards. The TrueDepth camera system is safe to use under normal usage conditions. The system will not cause any harm to eyes or skin, due to its low output. It's important to know that the infrared emitters could be damaged during repair or disassembly, so your iPhone should always be serviced by Apple or an authorized service provider. The TrueDepth camera system incorporates tamper-detection features. If tampering is detected, the system may be disabled for safety reasons.

 

[user1234]

I recorded a new video comparing the different settings of require attention and attention aware features.

In my testing, the flood illuminator does not flash when the attention aware features option is turned off. It did in a previous test I did a couple of days ago, so it may be fixed in iOS 12.1 or it may have been a glitch before.

If your flood illuminator is flashing even with attention aware features turned off, do this:
Turn attention aware features on, reboot the phone, turn them back off. This may help.

I had the opposite issue when trying to record this video, I couldn't get the flood to flash even with attention aware features set to on. Turning them back off, rebooting the phone, and then turning them on again fixed the issue. The same was true with auto lock. I set it back to 30 seconds for this video, but the setting didn't take. I set it to another value, rebooted and set to 30 seconds again and it worked.


Require attention for Face ID does not seem to have any effect on how the flood illuminator or dot projector operate, so I recommend keeping this option on, as it has a huge impact on security. My bank won't even allow Face ID authentication without this feature turned on.

I hope this is helpful.

 

[sddabrow]

Yea for all the new people with xr it was not the screen of the x it’s face id that gives headaches

You say that.. and it is true for some people. But why did my eye strain come back when I started using the XR two days ago? I had the XS Max, returned it due to eye strain / pressure behind the eyes and went back to the 6S. After a day of using the 6S, no issues what so ever and used it for the last two weeks.

Now, I received the XR two days ago and have had the same pressure the last two nights. It obviously isn't the screen for me.

My next test is to turn FaceID off and try the phone for 2-3 days. Last time it took about 24-36 hours for the pressure behind my eye to go away after returning the XS Max.

 

[Rk01]

Can people who are not affected try the following and report if they are feeling anything or not?

Go in a dark room, go to settings and choose to setup FaceID from scratch. Once you get to the screen where it asks you to start rotating your head, move the phone so the "Flood Illuminator" is 1 inch away from one of your eyes and leave it there for a few minutes.

Do you get the some “weird” feeling? If yes, what does it feel like? Any pain over the next 24 hours?

Are you crazy? You schould not be asking this kind of stuff from other readers! Face id is safe under normal use conditions but what you are doing isnt normal!

Im following this topic for some time now and i think you should stick with a iphone 8.

Apple is a large company and there is no way that they would risk the health of users. That would be the end of the company.

Yes some users may feel discomfort because of sensitivity.

Some people cant eat peanuts because there allergic. They dont complain that the supermarket sells nuts do they?

 

[sddabrow]

Are you crazy? You schould not be asking this kind of stuff from other readers! Face id is safe under normal use conditions but what you are doing isnt normal!

Im following this topic for some time now and i think you should stick with a iphone 8.

Apple is a large company and there is no way that they would risk the health of users. That would be the end of the company.

Yes some users may feel discomfort because of sensitivity.

Some people cant eat peanuts because there allergic. They dont complain that the supermarket sells nuts do they?

I don’t think you understand why he is requesting this. Many folks have said over and over that there is no health risk and no issue with FaceID. Since people are saying there is absolutely no risk, why not try this?

 

[stafil]

For you personally you mean
[doublepost=1541152507][/doublepost]

You would think face id is safe to use otherwise Apple is lying!!

Not to say off course it can produce discomfort. But dangerous??

Statement from Apple :

Safety
iPhone and the TrueDepth camera system have been thoroughly tested and meet international safety standards. The TrueDepth camera system is safe to use under normal usage conditions. The system will not cause any harm to eyes or skin, due to its low output. It's important to know that the infrared emitters could be damaged during repair or disassembly, so your iPhone should always be serviced by Apple or an authorized service provider. The TrueDepth camera system incorporates tamper-detection features. If tampering is detected, the system may be disabled for safety reasons.

No, sorry. You misunderstood my intend. I didn’t imply it is dangerous. But that it is more powerful than the laser pointer, *if* that’s a correct way to compare them.

All I am trying to find out, for the moment, is what’s the power rating of this thing.

 

[Rk01]

I don’t think you understand why he is requesting this. Many folks have said over and over that there is no health risk and no issue with FaceID. Since people are saying there is absolutely no risk, why not try this?

Holding a lightsource 1 inch from your eye for a few minutes doesnt sound like a normal condition to me.

The apple documentation states that face id is safe under normal conditions. This is no normal condition is it?

 

[stafil]

So you are saying face id is stronger then a class IIIA laser pointer??

You really believe this?
Like I said before your investigations are build on nothing.

Why do you reject it with absolutely no counter argument.

Why is FaceID penetrating the black tape while the laser point is not?

 

[sddabrow]

Holding a lightsource 1 inch from your eye for a few minutes doesnt sound like a normal condition to me.

The apple documentation states that face id is safe under normal conditions. This is no normal condition is it?

Sure it is. I have seen many folks with poor vision put their phone very close to their face to read small text / look at small images on the phone. I have also seen children hold the phone very close to their face, engrossed in games or videos. Why would this be any different?

 

[karinatwork]

Would you be willing to re-enable the attention aware features at some point and report if the headaches come back?

Sure. I'll do it right now and report back.

 

[5105973]

Sure it is. I have seen many folks with poor vision put their phone very close to their face to read small text / look at small images on the phone. I have also seen children hold the phone very close to their face, engrossed in games or videos. Why would this be any different?

One inch away? I’m nearsighted and don’t even do that.

As for children, we need to supervise them. I know that doesn’t happen often enough in the harsh real world, unfortunately. Apple perhaps needs to disable all of the Face ID related light emitters if the proximity sensor detects faces within a range where harm could occur.

 

[rnbarg]

My XR also feels better than the X/XS Max.
But I still have more eye strain than with my 8 Plus.
Also compared it side by side with an old 7 today and even though the resolution of the XR and the 7 are the same, text seems sharper (slightly blacker) on the 7.
Same goes for the 8 Plus, but that's to be expected as the ppi is also higher.

It's just as if it's slightly harder to focus on the screen of the XR, which may cause some eye strain. Nowhere near as bad as the Oleds with pwm though.

I have an 8 Plus and returned both the XS Max (waterboarding for the eyes) and the XR. The 8 Plus has sharper text than than the XR, a wider screen, less word wrapping, and a 2x optical telephoto lens that I use with almost all of my photos and I use 3D Touch. HD Videos that display at 1080p on the 8 plus and exactly fit the screen are far superior to the smaller cramped view with ugly black bars of 16/9 videos on the XR. Oh and lets not forget the notch sitting on the content.

In my view, the XR is very poor value as an upgrade from the 8 Plus. It just feed the trillion dollar beast. What exactly are you getting for $900.00, assuming 128GB and tax for the XR, that you aren't already getting on an 8 Plus, which many people have already paid off. The XR has a brighter screen, yes, but I have never considered my 8 Plus lacking in brightness. If you have a non-plus phone 6/7/8, the XR is a reasonable upgrade because you may be used to 326 ppi. But once you have the plus models with wider form factor, HD resolution, 401 ppi, which I have had for 4 years, you can't go back to 326 ppi and cramped narrow screens with smaller fonts.

 

[majkom]

Exactly. Even after trying Xr and 8 plus next tomeach other, 8 plus display is easier on eyes, probably because hugher poi and wider screen, it feels bit easier to read on 8 plus... gonna buy 8 plus and keep it for a while

 

[matthijst]

Wife had a 7. So she got the 8 plus.
Still on the fence if I should keep the XR or get another 8 plus again.
8 Plus screen is a easier on the eyes and the wider view is nicer.
Design of the XR is nicer with the full screen.

 

[5105973]

I have an 8 Plus and returned both the XS Max (waterboarding for the eyes) and the XR. The 8 Plus has sharper text than than the XR, a wider screen, less word wrapping, and a 2x optical telephoto lens that I use with almost all of my photos and I use 3D Touch. HD Videos that display at 1080p on the 8 plus and exactly fit the screen are far superior to the smaller cramped view with ugly black bars of 16/9 videos on the XR. Oh and lets not forget the notch sitting on the content.

In my view, the XR is very poor value as an upgrade from the 8 Plus. It just feed the trillion dollar beast. What exactly are you getting for $900.00, assuming 128GB and tax for the XR, that you aren't already getting on an 8 Plus, which many people have already paid off. The XR has a brighter screen, yes, but I have never considered my 8 Plus lacking in brightness. If you have a non-plus phone 6/7/8, the XR is a reasonable upgrade because you may be used to 326 ppi. But once you have the plus models with wider form factor, HD resolution, 401 ppi, which I have had for 4 years, you can't go back to 326 ppi and cramped narrow screens with smaller fonts.

I got the Xr for the better camera. I do get much better photos on my Xr with far fewer blown out highlights and better low light pictures. I’ve tested the digital zoom and it’s pretty good. It will do. Also, stereo audio recording capability for videos was a must for me.

As for the rest of it, yeah I think the 8 Plus is better. I do much prefer Touch ID right now. And the display is better for reading texts. For movie watching, I did think the Xr display looked crisper. But I would need to do more testing to be sure it’s a clear winner in that respect. The black bars don’t bother me. I barely notice them. But everyone is different.

If it had not been for the offering of stereo audio recording, especially, I would have not even given the Xr a look. Or the Max for that matter. It was the one upgrade I had desperately wanted for years.