15” MBA — any reports on PWM, dithering, and eye or brain sensitivity?

[thejadedmonkey]

I've had my 15" for a little while now, I haven't used it much.

It's noticeably worse than my 16" MBP, but not bad enough for me to care. Honestly what helped the most was turning down the screen brightness to below 50%. After I did that, I was able to use it as an eBook reader without any trouble. For reference, the iPhone 12 mini would give me a splitting headache after about 30 seconds, and the 13 mini is damn near perfect.

 

[thejadedmonkey]

I hear you. I will likely end up returning my 15" MBA because of it (not the only reason - I can't get used to the weird acceleration curve on the trackpad either).

Surprisingly, the 14" MBP M2 doesn't show this same sharpening artefact at similar non-2x scaled resolutions, so I think it may be a limitation of the scaler in the base M2 chip used by the Air, and the M2 Pro and Max chips may have fixed the issue since the M2 was designed.

The acceleration curve for the trackpad scrolling really pisses me off. It moves faster, and has a sharper acceleration and deceleration curve. What this means is that the text scrolls faster across the screen, and shows tearing at 60hz, that you won't see on a 120hz screen. It is designed to artificially make the screen appear worse.

I have an M1 MBP, and it doesn't have that scrolling. So, even when I disable 120hz and force it into a 60hz mode, I don't get the tearing.

 

[bill-p]

Had my 15" MBA for a week or so and the display does cause me eye strain. I think it's because text looks a bit fuzzy at the default resolution. Pointing my iPhone camera at it shows there's some kind of weird scaling or sharpening artifact where text has a slight halo, almost like a cartoon outline. It goes away if you set the resolution to 1440 x 932 but you lose some of the benefit of the 15" screen real estate if you do that.

View attachment 2234256

The 14" also has this fuzziness. You just don't notice it likely because of higher ppi.

When it comes to scaled resolutions, I think all MacBooks do in fact produce fuzzier texts than native 2x scaling. In this case, the 14" just exhibits a bit less of that fuzziness due to it having higher PPI. But in reality, it doesn't escape from this fuzziness either way. I do see the 14" being sharpest possible at its native 2x scaling resolution of 1512x982.

As for higher scaled res? I think it's basically down to whether or not you notice the PPI. I personally just prefer 2x scaling either way regardless. And on the 15", 2x scaling gives me bigger texts than 14". My issue is the opposite of many others: I wanted bigger texts than what the 14" could provide at its native 2x scaling resolution, and that makes the 15" the better choice for me. Real estate be damned.

The 16" will indeed be better here, but its extra weight really kills my back.

 

[CloudsNeverDie]

The 14" also has this fuzziness. You just don't notice it likely because of higher ppi.

When it comes to scaled resolutions, I think all MacBooks do in fact produce fuzzier texts than native 2x scaling. In this case, the 14" just exhibits a bit less of that fuzziness due to it having higher PPI. But in reality, it doesn't escape from this fuzziness either way. I do see the 14" being sharpest possible at its native 2x scaling resolution of 1512x982.

Interesting! I checked this carefully with my iPhone camera, a magnifying glass, and also a microscope. What specific model of the MBP 14" do you have? I have an M2 Pro 12-core MBP 14" manufactured October 2022 here, and it doesn't show the fuzzy effect at all. Here's a close-up at non-2x 1800x1169, with no halos visible. I can't get halos like the 15" MBA at any resolution I tried on the MBP 14". So I'm thinking maybe you have an M1, or a different edition of the M2 chip, and this is something that Apple has improved on somehow in more recent chip versions...

As for higher scaled res? I think it's basically down to whether or not you notice the PPI. I personally just prefer 2x scaling either way regardless. And on the 15", 2x scaling gives me bigger texts than 14". My issue is the opposite of many others: I wanted bigger texts than what the 14" could provide at its native 2x scaling resolution, and that makes the 15" the better choice for me. Real estate be damned.

That's a good point, personally I am happy with small text as long as I have plenty of real estate, so the 14" at 2x works better for me.

 

[bill-p]

Interesting! I checked this carefully with my iPhone camera, a magnifying glass, and also a microscope. What specific model of the MBP 14" do you have?

I do have the M1. As you said, it's likely Apple did something with the screen of the M2 model to mitigate the issue. Or maybe I just have the short end of the screen lottery twice somehow. Still, 2x scaling indeed doesn't show any problem at all.

It's pretty much perfect at 2x. No ghosting or fuzziness whatsoever on both displays.

 

[CloudsNeverDie]

As you said, it's likely Apple did something with the screen of the M2 model to mitigate the issue. Or maybe I just have the short end of the screen lottery twice somehow.

Yeah my guess is they fixed it between the M2 and the M2 Pro, since the M2 was released first and has the issue. The good news is, that means it'll probably be fixed on the 15" MBA M3 when that comes out towards the end of 2023 / early 2024.

 

[ghanwani]

Yeah my guess is they fixed it between the M2 and the M2 Pro, since the M2 was released first and has the issue. The good news is, that means it'll probably be fixed on the 15" MBA M3 when that comes out towards the end of 2023 / early 2024.

What issue is this? Are we saying that the M2 pros currently don’t cause any eye strain for those that have had problems since the M1 MBA?

 

[arcite]

Had my 15" MBA for a week or so and the display does cause me eye strain. I think it's because text looks a bit fuzzy at the default resolution. Pointing my iPhone camera at it shows there's some kind of weird scaling or sharpening artifact where text has a slight halo, almost like a cartoon outline. It goes away if you set the resolution to 1440 x 932 but you lose some of the benefit of the 15" screen real estate if you do that.

View attachment 2234256

You should have downloaded this free app: https://www.fontsmoothingadjuster.com/

Install, turn off font smoothing. Voila.

----

Another tweak; go under Settings/Accessibility/ turn off Increase Contrast
Other options to try; turn On Reduce Transparency

These are all software tweaks Apple made In Ventura. The IPS Panel on the Macbook Air is great.

 

[arcite]

The acceleration curve for the trackpad scrolling really pisses me off. It moves faster, and has a sharper acceleration and deceleration curve. What this means is that the text scrolls faster across the screen, and shows tearing at 60hz, that you won't see on a 120hz screen. It is designed to artificially make the screen appear worse.

I have an M1 MBP, and it doesn't have that scrolling. So, even when I disable 120hz and force it into a 60hz mode, I don't get the tearing.

There is another free utility; LinearMouse - you can adjust the acceleration curve (and other tweaks).

 

[jimmy_uk]

You should have downloaded this free app: https://www.fontsmoothingadjuster.com/

Install, turn off font smoothing. Voila.

----

Another tweak; go under Settings/Accessibility/ turn off Increase Contrast
Other options to try; turn On Reduce Transparency

These are all software tweaks Apple made In Ventura. The IPS Panel on the Macbook Air is great.

Awesome share. Thank you 🙏

 

[CloudsNeverDie]

What issue is this? Are we saying that the M2 pros currently don’t cause any eye strain for those that have had problems since the M1 MBA?

The fuzzy outlines around text due to the sharpening filter applied at non-integer scaled resolutions on the older chips, specifically the M1 and the non-Pro/Max M2. This is one cause of eye strain for me, but there could be other things that cause eye strain on the M2 MBPs (though I don't get eye strain from these personally).

You should have downloaded this free app: https://www.fontsmoothingadjuster.com/

Install, turn off font smoothing. Voila.

----

Another tweak; go under Settings/Accessibility/ turn off Increase Contrast
Other options to try; turn On Reduce Transparency

Thanks for the suggestions, I tried all three but they don't fix the halo artifact from the sharpening. It seems to be a limitation of the hardware scaler in the chip.

There is another free utility; LinearMouse - you can adjust the acceleration curve (and other tweaks).

Thanks, another great suggestion, but unfortunately it doesn't work well on the 15" M2 MBA (issue) or the 14" M2 MBP (issue). You can adjust the acceleration but not the pointer speed. I find the acceleration to be too high, but if I lower it, I need to raise the pointer speed to compensate and there's no way to do that currently.

 

[ghanwani]

The fuzzy outlines around text due to the sharpening filter applied at non-integer scaled resolutions on the older chips, specifically the M1 and the non-Pro/Max M2. This is one cause of eye strain for me, but there could be other things that cause eye strain on the M2 MBPs (though I don't get eye strain from these personally).

Thanks. I should go spend some time with an M2 pro in the store. This is definitely one of the problems that was affecting me. It used to look like the edges of letters were moving.

 

[bill-p]

You should have downloaded this free app: https://www.fontsmoothingadjuster.com/

Install, turn off font smoothing. Voila.

That doesn't fix the fuzzy text. It just makes texts less bold so that the issue is less noticeable. If you take a photo the way I and @CloudsNeverDie did, you'll see that the outline is still there.

 

[blackberrycubed]

turn off font smoothing via terminal.

 

[magicMac]

Had my 15" MBA for a week or so and the display does cause me eye strain. I think it's because text looks a bit fuzzy at the default resolution. Pointing my iPhone camera at it shows there's some kind of weird scaling or sharpening artifact where text has a slight halo, almost like a cartoon outline. It goes away if you set the resolution to 1440 x 932 but you lose some of the benefit of the 15" screen real estate if you do that.

View attachment 2234256

yeh the MacBook air's do have an imperfect scaled display resolution by default, it all started around the 2016 TouchBar MacBook Pros. Newer MacBook pros fixed this but the Airs are still riddled with the rubbish scaling. It went something like this:

MacBook Pro 13.3" ~2010/2011:
1280x800 display
(non-retina, no scaling required)

MacBook Pro 13.3" Retina ~2014/2015:
2560x1600 display
(default desktop like 1280x800, 2x scaling)

MacBook Pro 13.3" Touchbar 2016on:
2560x1600 display
(default desktop like 1440x900, not 2x scaled - 2x scaling of desktop would be 2880x1800 but display is actually just 2560x1600)

MacBook Pro 14.2" M1 Pro 2021on:
3024 x 1964 display
(default desktop like 1512x982, 2x scaling)

MacBook Air 13.6" M2 2022on:
2560x1664 display
(default desktop like 1440x932, not 2x scaled - 2x scaling of desktop would be 2880x1864 but display is actually just 2560x1664)

I really hope they fix this on the M3 air tbh, it needs a 2880x1864 display on the 13.6". Similar story on the 15"

 

[arnolds1]

Returning my 15" MBA for this reason - shame because I like everything about it except the display feeling less legible than a MBP.

 

[gpat]

yeh the MacBook air's do have an imperfect scaled display resolution by default, it all started around the 2016 TouchBar MacBook Pros. Newer MacBook pros fixed this but the Airs are still riddled with the rubbish scaling. It went something like this:

This rubbish started with the rubbish godfather itself, the 2015 12" Macbook.
But still with the 15" MBA you have the option to resize to exact 2x scaling and have the same amount of screen estate you would get on a 13" old retina (or even 13" old non-retina).
The default setting was only chosen by Apple because they thought that most people would prefer screen estate over sharpness.

 

[CloudsNeverDie]

turn off font smoothing via terminal.

That does the same thing as using Font Smoothing Adjuster, so it won't work either.

 

[CloudsNeverDie]

I really hope they fix this on the M3 air tbh, it needs a 2880x1864 display on the 13.6". Similar story on the 15"

Interesting to see the history, thanks for sharing. Let's hope so. I think Apple goofed by releasing a laptop with non-2x default scaling while there was an issue in the scaling and sharpening in the M1/M2 chips.

That said, non-2x scaling does work just fine with no artifacts on the 14" MBP with the M2 Pro chip (even though the default is 2x), so I'd be happy either with an Air that uses that newer version of the hardware scaler, or one with a higher res screen that defaults to 2x.

 

[magicMac]

Interesting to see the history, thanks for sharing. Let's hope so. I think Apple goofed by releasing a laptop with non-2x default scaling while there was an issue in the scaling and sharpening in the M1/M2 chips.

That said, non-2x scaling does work just fine with no artifacts on the 14" MBP with the M2 Pro chip (even though the default is 2x), so I'd be happy either with an Air that uses that newer version of the hardware scaler, or one with a higher res screen that defaults to 2x.

Ah thats interesting, could also be something to do with the MicroLED pixel layout on the 14“ MBP

 

[arcite]

Wow. Interesting stuff. I had no idea about the scaling/resolution issue.

 

[jimmy_uk]

That doesn't fix the fuzzy text. It just makes texts less bold so that the issue is less noticeable. If you take a photo the way I and @CloudsNeverDie did, you'll see that the outline is still there.

I've given this a try on the Mac Studio and yes, the text now appears less bold and less contrasty but I'd say the text arguably looks better, it's more a real rendering of the font and not boosted + over-enhanced. Like all things, there will be an adjustment period as the font smoothing boldness shouts at my eyes and feels punchy, now the text looks a little lighter making it seem a little less appealing at first glance - I think it's easier on my eyes with it off.

 

[arcite]

It's an apple thing to oversimplify. On windows you can do fine adjustments with their implementation cleartype right in the standard control panel.

 

[idktbh]

i have no problems with elettronic devices, only new apple devices give me problems. it's like staring at this image
I think it's how apple hardware acceleration works, nothing but eyestrain and migraines

 

[Sentiny]

i have no problems with elettronic devices, only new apple devices give me problems. it's like staring at this image
I think it's how apple hardware acceleration works, nothing but eyestrain and migraines

Good point, I have exact same feeling. MBP14 giving me severe migraines. Now I’m selling my MBP14 and thinking of to give a last try for apple. Gonna try MBA 15 and then just give up.