Most of those sensitive seem to be sensitive to PWM, a small percentage however seem to be sensitive to Face ID. Some both.
PWM is implemented on basically all OLED displays. I have heard that there is one or two that doesn't use PWM, but they have issues with color shifts. The reason PWM is used for OLED displays is that every single subpixel is its own LED, and individually controlling the brightness of millions of LEDs is difficult to do with analog methods.
LCD displays use a handful of LEDs to backlight the display, which then regulates individual subpixels using liquid crystals, so analog dimming is much more practical to implement on these backlights.
I have heard of a lot of people having issues with Samsung phones, pixel phones and all kinds of OLED phones. Some however seem to do OK with Samsung phones but not OLED iPhones. It's difficult to know why without a thorough analysis of both.
I personally feel like I have sand in my eyes after extended use, but after a minute or so I can get tunnel vision and motion sickness if it's bad enough PWM. I may also get ocular migraines where I loose sight on my right eye for a few minutes, loose the ability to speech again for a few minutes, and completely loose coordination on the right side of my body. I also experience numbness on my right side and face, and heavy confusion. Basically, OLED is not something I want to stare at all day.
I hadn’t been on this thread awhile since I’ve moved on to the Xr. Wow, You suffer as badly as I have when my migraines were severe. It is very much like having a stroke, isn’t it?
In fact, my mother-in-law said I was the only one who understood how frustrated she was trying to communicate after her stroke and that I was helpful getting the rest of the family to stop upsetting her.
It is rare to come across someone who loses their ability to speak due to migraines. I know it happens, but to actually come across a fellow migraine sufferer who also loses speech is noteworthy.
I have also lost coordination and gotten seizures with migraines before. I don’t experience numbness exactly but the signal between my brain and usually my right arm will simply cease. My arm will lock up rigidly. When things get really bad I will also lose the ability to write and sometimes even the ability to read.
I did not stay with my X or Max long enough for the symptoms to get that bad. My last day on the Max, I did start losing my speech when I went to the grocery highly sensitized to their lighting after a day of pwm on the Max.
I was worried for awhile that PWM was going to bring all the worst migraine hells back down on me. It started off rather well with the Max but deteriorated dramatically before the return period was over. It was a couple of weeks before I could even look at my Galaxy S9+ display again. It appeared to be flickering wildly. Now it looks fine again. Clearly, my Samsung’s display did not change. But something in my brain did.
What in heck did Apple do with OLED to do this to our brains?
I did tell Apple. They had sent me a survey and I told them what the Max’s display did to me. I hope Apple cares and attempts to sort this out.
I sometimes have had eye strain and gritty eyes on my Xr, but it’s a situation that seems to be improving, not getting worse. Thank goodness.
