PWM (Pulse-Width Modulation) on MacBooks compared to iPhones and iPads

[blinkie]

Hey,

I was wondering if anyone has any informations about PWM (Pulse-Width Modulation) and how it compares across devices. I have an iPhone 12 and an iPad Pro (m1). They don't have any adverse effects on me. Now I have a MacBook pro 14 and find the screen tiring. I'd thought the MacBook pro 14 screen and the iPad Pro screen were pretty much the same. But maybe I was wrong.

Thanks in advance,

B

 

[Sheepish-Lord]

Check out the Notebookcheck website as they post PWM numbers

 

[blinkie]

Check out the Notebookcheck website as they post PWM numbers

Thank you. They note that the PWM frequency of the MacBook 14 is unlikely to cause problems.

 

[neo_cs193p]

I have a 16" M1 Pro that I find tiring. Much more than the M1 Air (which is supposed to have worse PWM) & much much more than the M2 Air (which is supposed to have no PWM).

 

[blinkie]

I have a 16" M1 Pro that I find tiring. Much more than the M1 Air (which is supposed to have worse PWM) & much much more than the M2 Air (which is supposed to have no PWM).

do you suffer at all with the M2Air?

 

[neo_cs193p]

do you suffer at all with the M2Air?

No. It is unexpectedly great, better than any Mac screen I've used the past decade. It has a soothing feel to it, I can't explain it.

Which is also a bit of a bummer, because technically it is far from being Apple's best display. Even if we leave aside the great features of the MBP screens, the grayish blacks are not uniform on the IPS panel (backlight bleed more visible in some corners of the screen than others, and it becomes visible when using it in the dark, as does the notch).

But at the end of the day, it's awesome that I can use it for multiple hours without eye fatigue, and that is more important to me than all of the better features of the MBP.

 

[blinkie]

No. It is unexpectedly great, better than any Mac screen I've used the past decade. It has a soothing feel to it, I can't explain it.

Which is also a bit of a bummer, because technically it is far from being Apple's best display. Even if we leave aside the great features of the MBP screens, the grayish blacks are not uniform on the IPS panel (backlight bleed more visible in some corners of the screen than others, and it becomes visible when using it in the dark, as does the notch).

But at the end of the day, it's awesome that I can use it for multiple hours without eye fatigue, and that is more important to me than all of the better features of the MBP.

thank you

 

[blinkie]

I wasn't expecting this issue at all. It's come as a bit of a surprise. Weird the be thinking about downgrading to an m2 air.

 

[stwentyplus]

Do you think there will be any change in this regard with the upcoming M2 Pro's?

 

[yitwail]

I have a 16" M1 Pro that I find tiring. Much more than the M1 Air (which is supposed to have worse PWM) & much much more than the M2 Air (which is supposed to have no PWM).

fwiw, I think you're mistaken about M1 Air; notebook check said "Apple uses PWM at a very high frequency of 117 kHz for brightness up to about 50% (about 160 cd/m2). Above that, we measure some slight flickering at 60 Hz, but this only shows some very small brightness variations (with or without the charger). Neither should lead to any difficulties for more than very few users."
Apple MacBook Air 2020 M1 Entry Review: Apple M1 CPU humbles Intel and AMD - NotebookCheck.net Reviews

 

[neo_cs193p]

fwiw, I think you're mistaken about M1 Air; notebook check said "Apple uses PWM at a very high frequency of 117 kHz for brightness up to about 50% (about 160 cd/m2). Above that, we measure some slight flickering at 60 Hz, but this only shows some very small brightness variations (with or without the charger). Neither should lead to any difficulties for more than very few users."
Apple MacBook Air 2020 M1 Entry Review: Apple M1 CPU humbles Intel and AMD - NotebookCheck.net Reviews

You're right, MBA M1 118kHz should be better than MBP 16" M1Pro 14.8KHz. That makes more sense to me, because I get less fatigue on the M1 Air. Thanks for clearing that up.