Just bought a Thunderbolt display - it hurts my eyes.. is it the monitor or my eyes?

circa7 · Jan 23, 2013

Unfortunately I dont have the luxury to go try out a bunch of monitors in my personal workspace. I've seen these displays at the apple store and they look fantastic in the super bright room. My room obviously is not that bright, however I would say that the room lighting is "normal" compared to most other offices I have seen. I have an overhead light, desk lamp, and some window lighting. The thing is... it strains the hell out of my eyes! I dont know if an anti glare monitor like a Dell Ultrasharp will be any better but I dont have the financial luxury to purchase one to compare. I've read about bias lighting but I have a desk lamp behind my monitor and it doesnt do much to help.

Also, I am not completely dim-witted. I have calibrated my monitor and adjust the brightness when necessary, however my work requires full brightness due to color accuracy necessity.

Luis2004 · Jan 23, 2013

circa7 said:
Unfortunately I dont have the luxury to go try out a bunch of monitors in my personal workspace. I've seen these displays at the apple store and they look fantastic in the super bright room. My room obviously is not that bright, however I would say that the room lighting is "normal" compared to most other offices I have seen. I have an overhead light, desk lamp, and some window lighting. The thing is... it strains the hell out of my eyes! I dont know if an anti glare monitor like a Dell Ultrasharp will be any better but I dont have the financial luxury to purchase one to compare. I've read about bias lighting but I have a desk lamp behind my monitor and it doesnt do much to help.

Also, I am not completely dim-witted. I have calibrated my monitor and adjust the brightness when necessary, however my work requires full brightness due to color accuracy necessity.

It's not you, it's the monitor. I tried a TB display for a few days as well, and had to return it. I'm now using a much less expensive HP 2311xi anti-glare monitor, and my eyes are great. The TB display was giving me a headache.

I know they supposedly reduced the glare on those things, but apparently not enough.

-jc · Jan 23, 2013

From my experience as a designer, most modern displays on full brightness are way too bright for our eyes to cope with. However, plenty of people do use them on full brightness.

I'd say that what you're experiencing is normal, I find the display on my MacBook Pro to be too bright at 100% as well. I think with every Mac, they make the displays brighter.

Also, I know your display isn't retina, but people using retina displays have complained about similar issues:

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1434174/

circa7 · Jan 23, 2013

-jc said:
From my experience as a designer, most modern displays on full brightness are way too bright for our eyes to cope with. However, plenty of people do use them on full brightness.

I'd say that what you're experiencing is normal, I find the display on my MacBook Pro to be too bright at 100% as well. I think with every Mac, they make the displays brighter.

Also, I know your display isn't retina, but people using retina displays have complained about similar issues:

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1434174/

Do you use a Thunderbolt display for work, or something a little easier on the eyes?

-jc · Jan 23, 2013

I don't have the budget for a Thunderbolt display, so I opted for a less 'professional' monitor that probably doesn't have the best color accuracy, but it's close enough for my needs (I'm a web designer so my need for color accuracy may be less than someone who deals with print). I use a Dell U2312HM.

I should note though, it's still ridiculously bright at 100% brightness, I work with it at 50%, and then move my work over to my MBP display to double check color/brightness etc.

Mr. Retrofire · Jan 23, 2013

Luis2004 said:
I know they supposedly reduced the glare on those things, but apparently not enough.

That is the display of the (new) Ivy Bridge iMac, not the Thunderbolt display. A new Thunderbolt display with the AG-option should appear in Q2/2013 or Q3/2013, including support for up to four USB 3.0 ports and support for a new Display Port version.

Many manufacturers, such as Dell use now a better AG-coating, which is less visible (similar to the AG-option on cMBPs).

circa7 · Jan 23, 2013

Mr. Retrofire said:
That is the display of the (new) Ivy Bridge iMac, not the Thunderbolt display. A new Thunderbolt display with the AG-option should appear in Q2/2013 or Q3/2013, including support for up to four USB 3.0 ports and support for a new Display Port version.

Many manufacturers, such as Dell use now a better AG-coating, which is less visible (similar to the AG-option on cMBPs).

When did Dell start using better coating? I had a u2412m from August of 2012 that had terrible coating; way too sparkly. Have they done a refresh since then?

Luis2004 · Jan 23, 2013

circa7 said:
When did Dell start using better coating? I had a u2412m from August of 2012 that had terrible coating; way too sparkly. Have they done a refresh since then?

This is my first experience with a Dell, and I find it excellent. Not sure how it compares to their older models.

Mr. Retrofire · Jan 23, 2013

circa7 said:
When did Dell start using better coating?

Q3/2012 or Q4/2012.

tftcentral.co.uk said:
From:
http://www.tftcentral.co.uk/reviews/dell_u2713hm.htm
(Simon Baker, 22 August 2012 (updated 7 November 2012))

The screen coating on the U2713HM is a normal anti-glare (AG) offering. This is contrary to a lot of other screens using variants of the LM270WQ1 panel which offer a glossy screen coating. Readers will be pleased to hear though that the AG coating is actually nice and light and is not the usual grainy and aggressive solution you would normally find on an IPS panel. In fact in practice it is almost what you might call a semi-gloss coating being quite similar to AU Optronics AMVA offerings. Dell seem to have toned down the AG coating which is great news. It retains its anti-glare properties to avoid unwanted reflections, but does not produce an overly grainy or dirty image that some AG coatings can.

Your U2412M is one of the 2011 models:
http://www.tftcentral.co.uk/reviews/dell_u2412m.htm

tftcentral.co.uk said:
The panel coating is a standard matte anti-glare (AG) coating. Some users complain about modern IPS panels having an overly aggressive coating. Personally I do not find the coating on this screen to be too bad but it can of course be subjective.

RMo · Jan 23, 2013

I don't have a TB display, but is it just the brightness? And if so, can't you adjust it? (I actually don't know, but I assume Apple's software-based brightness control, probably including the "function" keys, would work unless they decided to factory-determine what setting would be best for everyone in all situations ever.)

Personally, I find the display on my four-year-old MacBook to be too bright at 100%. I have an external display (Dell, a couple years old) that's probably turned down close to 50%, as well. I don't think it's matte vs. gloss issue, either.

circa7 · Jan 23, 2013

Mr. Retrofire said:
Q3/2012 or Q4/2012.

Your U2412M is one of the 2011 models:
http://www.tftcentral.co.uk/reviews/dell_u2412m.htm

Hm.... Maybe I should send back my Thunderbolt and buy a Dell. I guess if I didn't like it I could return it and by another TBD? Man.. I hate to be THAT GUY. But if I'm spending $1000 on a freaking monitor I want to be satisfied.

Or I can just buy a pair of $200 polarized Oakleys to wear while I'm at the computer

MCAsan · Jan 23, 2013

ATDs rule at our house.

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Just bought a Thunderbolt display - it hurts my eyes.. is it the monitor or my eyes?

circa7

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