iPhone 11 Has anybody else been having headaches and/or nausea with IPhone 11?

[TDDM]

This theory seems right to me. I got headaches from the iPhone 11 Pro and from the regular iPhone 11 but the 8 Plus and the new 2020 SE are fine. Where can I learn more about dithering?

Keep in mind that this is just my personal theory, but it‘s the closest I’ve come to any kind of answer. I found a good general explanation of what temporal dithering is:

Temporal dithering (FRC – Frame Rate Control)
FRC (Frame Rate Control) or temporal dithering, as explored by Lagom, describes rapid alternation between a very slightly lighter and very slightly darker variant of a given shade. This is done where the shade itself can’t be displayed, for example if the monitor does not have the necessary bit-depth to display that shade. The GPU may also add its own dithering stage, so even if a monitor is free from dithering (e.g. ‘true 8-bit’ rather than 6-bit + 2-bit FRC) there may be some dithering visible. It is therefore very difficult to achieve a viewing experience entirely free from dithering, but it’s certainly minimised if the monitor itself doesn’t use dithering. This can be thought of as a form of flickering, although it is very different to the flickering you get from PWM whereby there are extreme brightness changes of the entire backlight. This is a minute luminance change that affects certain shades, so most users will not find this problematic even if they are sensitive to PWM usage. Some users still take issue with dithering usage and prefer that it is taken out of the equation, or at least minimised.

 

[tonybarnaby]

Keep in mind that this is just my personal theory, but it‘s the closest I’ve come to any kind of answer. I found a good general explanation of what temporal dithering is:

Temporal dithering (FRC – Frame Rate Control)
FRC (Frame Rate Control) or temporal dithering, as explored by Lagom, describes rapid alternation between a very slightly lighter and very slightly darker variant of a given shade. This is done where the shade itself can’t be displayed, for example if the monitor does not have the necessary bit-depth to display that shade. The GPU may also add its own dithering stage, so even if a monitor is free from dithering (e.g. ‘true 8-bit’ rather than 6-bit + 2-bit FRC) there may be some dithering visible. It is therefore very difficult to achieve a viewing experience entirely free from dithering, but it’s certainly minimised if the monitor itself doesn’t use dithering. This can be thought of as a form of flickering, although it is very different to the flickering you get from PWM whereby there are extreme brightness changes of the entire backlight. This is a minute luminance change that affects certain shades, so most users will not find this problematic even if they are sensitive to PWM usage. Some users still take issue with dithering usage and prefer that it is taken out of the equation, or at least minimised.

Whether this is legit or not, it’s good work on your part! Really sucks for people like us who can’t own the newer phones due to our eyes. The 11 pro could be $99 and I couldn’t use it, which really sucks.

 

[TechLord]

No headaches with my 11.

 

[usernamepassword]

Joined to address this issue. I have had android phones for the last several years and my wife has always had iPhones. In July we switched to the iPhone 11 Pro max. We both began having migraines, dizziness, jittery eyes, and nausea or motion sickness. We didn't actually think it was the phones at the time, I thought it was more sinister. Doctors visits, MRI scans, etc... nothing. We thought about it and realized this started the day after getting our new iPhones. After researching on here, we thought maybe it's the OLED screen. I was skeptical because my Android had an AMOLED display, but we thought what the heck, let's try it. We switched to the regular iPhone 11 with the LCD. While much of the dizziness has resolved over the weeks, we both feel nausea (me significantly) when I'm using my phone. And it doesn't go away immediately after stopping. It lingers. The scrolling action is so nausea-inducing for me that I close my eyes to scroll. I thought it was the way the iPhone scrolled (buttery smooth, maybe too smooth?) that was making me nauseous, but then it never bothered me on my Pad pro and my older iPad, both of which I use extensively. (Granted, I don't scroll on them much). I scroll news and the stock market on my phone quite often.

I can't be 100% certain it's the phones, but I am at my wits end figuring this out, and the fact that both my wife and I have this issue, and it started right after we got our phones makes it seem to be a likely culprit. She never had a problem with her iPhone 8+ or previous iPhones, and I never had a problem with my older iPhones (I switched to android after the iPhone 4) or my samsung/pixel phones with AMOLED.

After reading a few posts up this thread, I turned off True Tone. Doubt that's the issue but I have nothing to lose by trying it.

We also turned off all the motion settings within the first few days.

 

[LoveToMacRumors]

try turning off face id, maybe it's the 50,000 dots lasered to your face

 

[Obi-WannaDraw]

Joined to address this issue. I have had android phones for the last several years and my wife has always had iPhones. In July we switched to the iPhone 11 Pro max. We both began having migraines, dizziness, jittery eyes, and nausea or motion sickness. We didn't actually think it was the phones at the time, I thought it was more sinister. Doctors visits, MRI scans, etc... nothing. We thought about it and realized this started the day after getting our new iPhones. After researching on here, we thought maybe it's the OLED screen. I was skeptical because my Android had an AMOLED display, but we thought what the heck, let's try it. We switched to the regular iPhone 11 with the LCD. While much of the dizziness has resolved over the weeks, we both feel nausea (me significantly) when I'm using my phone. And it doesn't go away immediately after stopping. It lingers. The scrolling action is so nausea-inducing for me that I close my eyes to scroll. I thought it was the way the iPhone scrolled (buttery smooth, maybe too smooth?) that was making me nauseous, but then it never bothered me on my Pad pro and my older iPad, both of which I use extensively. (Granted, I don't scroll on them much). I scroll news and the stock market on my phone quite often.

I can't be 100% certain it's the phones, but I am at my wits end figuring this out, and the fact that both my wife and I have this issue, and it started right after we got our phones makes it seem to be a likely culprit. She never had a problem with her iPhone 8+ or previous iPhones, and I never had a problem with my older iPhones (I switched to android after the iPhone 4) or my samsung/pixel phones with AMOLED.

After reading a few posts up this thread, I turned off True Tone. Doubt that's the issue but I have nothing to lose by trying it.

We also turned off all the motion settings within the first few days.

I’m an iPhone 11 owner. I’ve had migraines since I was 12 and I also take auto immune drugs that trigger headaches, so I get them all the time no matter what. But if you aren’t usually prone to headaches and noticed after you both got the devices, I would say there’s a very good chance it’s contributing.

 

[usernamepassword]

try turning off face id, maybe it's the 50,000 dots lasered on the face

I'll try that. I just turned off "require attention for Face ID" and "attention aware features".

 

[wmdunn]

Your experience was very similar to mine. My opinion is that it has something to do with face id. Sounds like the smaller iPhone 12 will have an lcd screen, and face id, of course. Will be interesting to compare to previous experience.

 

[5105973]

Your experience was very similar to mine. My opinion is that it has something to do with face id. Sounds like the smaller iPhone 12 will have an lcd screen, and face id, of course. Will be interesting to compare to previous experience.

I don’t know about that. I’ve begun to suspect I’m having problems from my SE 2020 display. I’m using the phone now very sparingly because it fits so well in my pocket but largely have gone back to using my 11 Pro and Samsung for web surfing and emails. Right now I’m on my iPad mini.

I’ve got the strangest thing going on if I’ve spent too long, like an hour or more, on my SE display. It’s like a shimmery white curtain at the sides of my vision. It started when I got my SE and definitely bothers me when I try to read an article or ebook on it. I have been a terrible pwm sufferer on previous OLED iPhones. The 11 Pro was the first OLED iPhone I could use. And I can read just fine on my 11 Pro without this shimmery thing starting up.

My Nintendo Switch console display seems to initiate the same problem but not as fast. I can’t imagine why my SE 2020 display might be bothering me. I used an iPhone 6 Plus-8 plus display with no problems. I can’t imagine the lower dpi would be an issue. I clearly need to get to the ophthalmologist and possibly a neurologist but Covid is spiking where I live and it’s risky. I need to prioritize the dentist first.

 

[wmdunn]

I feel for you. Really crummy trying to figure out what's going on. My original SE gives me no problems, and my Samsung S10e, which is oled, works great. Hoping the new 5.4 inch iphone will be usable ...

 

[ChedNasad]

I don't personally have this issue overall but my hunch is it is face ID. I say this because the applications that use it for extended periods of time to track the face like animoji and similar use cases DO cause me to become dizzy and nauseous and quite quickly. People more sensitive to it probably are reacting to the intermittent uses like for unlocking, attention detection, notification silencing etc that use it more regularly but in shorter bursts. It will be interesting to hear if anyone turns those features off and uses passcode instead and notices a difference. It's not crazy to think that light might have some neurological and physiological effect. There is even a study where certain frequencies of light pulsed into the eye have even had such a profound impact as to reduce tau proteins in mouse models for alzheimers.

 

[5105973]

I don't personally have this issue overall but my hunch is it is face ID. I say this because the applications that use it for extended periods of time to track the face like animoji and similar use cases DO cause me to become dizzy and nauseous and quite quickly. People more sensitive to it probably are reacting to the intermittent uses like for unlocking, attention detection, notification silencing etc that use it more regularly but in shorter bursts. It will be interesting to hear if anyone turns those features off and uses passcode instead and notices a difference. It's not crazy to think that light might have some neurological and physiological effect. There is even a study where certain frequencies of light pulsed into the eye have even had such a profound impact as to reduce tau proteins in mouse models for alzheimers.

I can’t use the Face ID tech for Animoji. That’s too many dots in my eyes for too long and it makes my eyes feel gritty and dry and painful. Samsung’s iris scanner caused me and my husband a lot of cumulative eye pain so we stopped using it and I wonder if Samsung quietly processed complaints and that’s why they abruptly dropped the tech even though a lot of people still like and rave about it.

I can use the Face ID a few times a day to unlock my phone and not suffer any bad effects. But yeah, can’t use it prolonged for Memoji stuff.

 

[Expos of 1969]

I don’t know about that. I’ve begun to suspect I’m having problems from my SE 2020 display. I’m using the phone now very sparingly because it fits so well in my pocket but largely have gone back to using my 11 Pro and Samsung for web surfing and emails. Right now I’m on my iPad mini.

I’ve got the strangest thing going on if I’ve spent too long, like an hour or more, on my SE display. It’s like a shimmery white curtain at the sides of my vision. It started when I got my SE and definitely bothers me when I try to read an article or ebook on it. I have been a terrible pwm sufferer on previous OLED iPhones. The 11 Pro was the first OLED iPhone I could use. And I can read just fine on my 11 Pro without this shimmery thing starting up.

My Nintendo Switch console display seems to initiate the same problem but not as fast. I can’t imagine why my SE 2020 display might be bothering me. I used an iPhone 6 Plus-8 plus display with no problems. I can’t imagine the lower dpi would be an issue. I clearly need to get to the ophthalmologist and possibly a neurologist but Covid is spiking where I live and it’s risky. I need to prioritize the dentist first.

As I have posted previously, I had no eye strain or problems with the original iPhone SE and no problems with my current Samsung Galaxy S10e (on which I use fingerprint and not face ID). But I had to get rid of the 2020 iPhone SE after a few days as I was suffering eye strain and problens. No idea why.

 

[Roadstar]

I can’t use the Face ID tech for Animoji. That’s too many dots in my eyes for too long and it makes my eyes feel gritty and dry and painful. Samsung’s iris scanner caused me and my husband a lot of cumulative eye pain so we stopped using it and I wonder if Samsung quietly processed complaints and that’s why they abruptly dropped the tech even though a lot of people still like and rave about it.

I can use the Face ID a few times a day to unlock my phone and not suffer any bad effects. But yeah, can’t use it prolonged for Memoji stuff.

I also had my eyes feel awkward when I tried Animoji on the iPhone 11 back when I had it. At first it seemed like FaceID was OK for me even though I also experienced burning sensation in my eye with the Galaxy S8’s retina scanner. However, a couple of nights in a row of reading stuff from my phone in a darker room (which I’ve done more than what’s healthy with non-FaceID phones) and getting a headache both nights made me start getting mild headaches from using the 11 also in broad daylight.

One possibility is that my pupils were way more open due to the darker environment and the ever-flashing FaceID (I had attention aware active at that time) offered a hefty dose of IR to the more sensitive part of the eyes and my eyes thought that they’ve had enough of that s**t for a while now.

So while I’d like to have a second try with a FaceID device to see if the symptoms return, I’d prefer doing that on a device where there’s also some other fallback option than passcode.

 

[Roadstar]

As I have posted previously, I had no eye strain or problems with the original iPhone SE and no problems with my current Samsung Galaxy S10e (on which I use fingerprint and not face ID). But I had to get rid of the 2020 iPhone SE after a few days as I was suffering eye strain and problens. No idea why.

A little sidetrack, but you can rather safely use the S10e face unlock as it’s just a camera-based toy that Samsung themselves also labels as a convenience feature instead of a security feature. You can unlock the phone with it, but e.g. payments require a more secure solution. FaceID uses infrared to verify that it’s looking a proper face instead of a photo, but the IR in turn seems to be irritating the eyes for some people.

 

[Expos of 1969]

A little sidetrack, but you can rather safely use the S10e face unlock as it’s just a camera-based toy that Samsung themselves also labels as a convenience feature instead of a security feature. You can unlock the phone with it, but e.g. payments require a more secure solution. FaceID uses infrared to verify that it’s looking a proper face instead of a photo, but the IR in turn seems to be irritating the eyes for some people.

Thanks for that. I have just never tried face unlock as I am not interested in it. I dont mind unlocking with the finger on the power button. Works the first time about 90% of the time.

 

[fullygruntled]

Two years ago I bought a Xr. Same screen as the 11 and had the same reaction. Eyes burned after about 10 minutes. Returned it for a Xs and problem solved. Still using the Xs. It’s a great phone.

 

[Hermit88]

Hi!
A couple of months ago I bought the iPhone 11 (not the Pro) and almost immediately my eyes started to hurt and I also got a terrible headache. After a few days, I realised that the reason why I felt so bad was because of the phone.
I have no problems whatsoever with staring at screens all day long, but this was just something else.. I felt like I couldn't even properly focus on the screen, it's odd to even try to describe it.
I kept using the phone, the headaches disappeared but there was no change for my eyes.
I'd like to mention the fact that all this time, Face ID was switched off. So it's definitely not that... the issue is the screen itself.
I kept the phone for almost a month, I tried everything, every setting, but nothing helped. I had to get rid of it, and I still regret it. It was a fantastic phone - coming from an iPhone 6s...

 

[jm31828]

Interesting thread- I thought I was crazy, I've had the same issues! I had a 6S, then a 7, then an 8Plus with no issues. Tried an XS last year and quickly realized headaches and eye pain were being caused by PWM (or I thought it was anyway) so I returned it to get the 8Plus I had for the last year.

However now with my 11- not pro- I am feeling some minor pain in my left eye, my eyes feel warm and dry when looking at the phone for a few minutes, and when I scroll it makes me feel a bit odd. That part may be the size of the screen since I've never had a phone this big before. But not sure why the other symptoms?

I kept thinking it was improving so I didn't return during my 14 day return window with my carrier-and the symptoms aren't terrible, just annoying- and it makes me feel frustrated that I could use my 8Plus all day with no issues, but this after just a few minutes causes my eye discomfort.

I also turned off FaceID and the awareness features, that didn't help. I keep brightness way, way down (probably less than 10%) because I do definitely have eyes that are really sensitive to brightness- it's why I have to keep my TV and laptop screens way down, too.

But anyway, with all of that I haven't resolved it. The one more thing I will try is to order a privacy screen protector- some of them are also a bit shaded like sunglasses when looking straight-on, so maybe that'll help even out some of the contrast or sharpness that somehow could be bothering my eyes?

If that doesn't help.... I guess I'm kind of stuck for now because I'm well beyond the return window. I got a deal with my 11 where I was entitled to a $250 cash back via a Visa gift card 90 days after activating the phone due to joining a new carrier.... so I could keep using the phone for 90 days-if I am still having problems after I get that, I could sell the phone and probably still come out ahead due to the $250 back that I got, and I could go back to using my 8Plus that I hadn't sold yet.


I would be so disappointed to give it up as I think it's an absolutely fantastic phone and I love the advanced camera. It makes no sense why this is happening! I used my 8Plus recording a slo mo video of the screen to see if I can see flicker like I can on my wife's XS just checking to see if somehow they implemented PWM on this year's LCD screen- but there is no flicker at all, so that is definitely not it.

So.... as noted my last hope is the privacy screen protector. Has anyone else tried that to see if it would help?

I know this is an old post, but I wanted to chime in and say I had similar issues when I got my 11 nearly a year ago. I got a privacy screen protector for the way it sort of shades the screen- it really did help! I have had no more issues.

 

[5105973]

I think the backlight on the newer LCD screens must be too harsh.

 

[one more]

Your experience was very similar to mine. My opinion is that it has something to do with face id. Sounds like the smaller iPhone 12 will have an lcd screen, and face id, of course. Will be interesting to compare to previous experience.

According to the rumours, the entire iPhone 12 will be OLED.

 

[one more]

I also had a serious eye soreness shortly after getting iPhone 11 and what helped me was:

- turning OFF attention aware FaceID features;
- turning the TrueTone ON;
- reducing the White Point (set it to 25%).

After doing all this my eyes went back to normal within 2-3 days. 🖐

FWIW, I moved from iPhone 7 to iPhone 11, so my theory is that a bigger brighter screen and [possibly] FaceID were the major factors contributing to my eye discomfort.

 

[5105973]

I also had a serious eye soreness shortly after getting iPhone 11 and what helped me was:

- turning OFF attention aware FaceID features;
- turning the TrueTone ON;
- reducing the White Point (set it to 25%).

After doing all this my eyes went back to normal within 2-3 days. 🖐

FWIW, I moved from iPhone 7 to iPhone 11, so my theory is that a bigger brighter screen and [possibly] FaceID were the major factors contributing to my eye discomfort.

I just checked and my white point on my SE was turned down to somewhere in the 40% area. I put it back to 25%. That is going to make it brighter on my phone but I want to see if it will make my vision stop shimmering on the sides.

Lol goodness this all sounds weird. But come to think of it, that problem got better when I turned the brightness back up a bit on my Nintendo Switch. And really none of this is what nature intended for our eyes and brains so I guess it’s understandable some of us have interesting and odd sounding problems.

 

[one more]

And really none of this is what nature intended for our eyes and brains so I guess it’s understandable some of us have interesting and odd sounding problems.

I totally agree. 😉 Also, perhaps the size of the screen we stare at has a role to play too, i.e. the bigger the screen, the harder it gets. For example, on my iPad Air 2 I have the white point reduced to 50%, else my eyes struggle to take the glare in. We all have different vision and hearing particularities and I am happy that Apple allows us to customise our devices quite a bit. 🖐

 

[TDDM]

You aren’t alone in this weird problem, there’s another thread full of us: https://forums.macrumors.com/thread...r.2150554/page-20?post=28906812#post-28906812

I‘ve mentioned it before, but I think it has something to do with Temporal Dithering/A12 chip. This may only apply to some of us here, but certain people seem to have trouble with a specific range of devices. For example, if you’re part of this group I’m talking about, you’ll get consistent eye strain from the XR, 11, SE2020, iPad Pro 2018/2020, iPad Air 3, any Mac after 2015, etc. (OLED devices seem different, I’ve seen people who have issues with these devices strangely having no problem with PWM flickering.)

Anyway, I don’t know for sure because I can’t really test the screens, but I think Apple started doing something differently around 2016 for Macs and 2018 for iOS devices. Like I said, I think it started with the A12 chip, because we’ve cleared a lot of the other potential causes:

-It’s not True Tone because older devices have it and they doesn’t cause symptoms
-It’s not Face ID because the Air 3/iPad 8th Gen don’t have it and they still cause symptoms. Not to mention I’ve tried covering the Face Sensor on XR, 11, iPP 2018, etc
-It’s not any device setting in Display, Brightness, Accessibility, etc, we’ve tried nearly everything at this point
-It doesn’t have anything to do with the antireflective coating, P3 color gamut, oleophobic coating, etc.

Every device that seems to be causing problems for some of us has an A12 or better chip, that’s the only thing I can see that links them all together. I’m thinking this because my brother let me try his new iPad 8th Gen (which is the *EXACT* same as the 7th gen barring the new A12 chip), and it gives me the same eye strain as the other A12 devices. I could use the 7th gen for hours with no issues, so it points to the A12 chip IMO.

Again, this seems to only apply to some of us. If you only have trouble with just one or two of these devices and the rest work fine, I don’t think you’d need to worry about anything I say here.

On the other hand, if you notice you’re consistently having trouble with XR, 11, SE2020, iPad Air 3, iPad Mini 5, iPad Pro, 2018/2020, any Macs after 2015, etc, I would encourage you to try any iOS device with an A12 or better chip or a Mac after 2015 and see if you have the same symptoms, I think it could be valuable in finding what the actual cause is or trying to figure out a potential solution.