Anybody getting eye strain on M1 MacBook Air?

[Shitzz]

According to what I read online, Lenovo sells diff Laptop configs in diff countries (like samsung puts Snapdragon in us/Canada but Exynos in Asia/Europe) so maybe the config here was inferior. I recently found out about PWM and problems associated with it.
Is it so that some people(like me) are affected by very low freq and will be fine using very high freq(like macbook with 117kHz)
Thanks once again!

 

[JoshuaA]

Being someone that goes through many devices (and displays) a year, and also having aging eyes, I've noticed the following factors affect eye strain:

• Brightness
• Color balance/profile
• Resolution/scaling/font size

Try lowering your brightness to a comfortable level (but not straining to see). I know many people really crank up that brightness without realizing that it can strain their eyes (and waste battery). If that doesn't help, try increasing the effective size of everything slightly. Quite often, the default scaling level on macOS can be something I don't agree with. But moving the scaling slider around (and trying it out at that level for a couple hours) can determine if it'll help your eye strain issue.

I know when I first bought my 40" 4K display, using native 1:1 3840x2160 out-of-the-box settings really killed my eyes, and was on the verge of returning it. Using QuickRes to scale to effectively 2560x1440 HiDPI, along with calibrating my colors really changed the way it felt, and haven't had problems with it since. I've had a couple MacBooks with a similar effect on my eyes, but just changing the scaling alone has generally been enough to alleviate my symptoms.

Hope this helps someone.

 

[Shitzz]

Being someone that goes through many devices (and displays) a year, and also having aging eyes, I've noticed the following factors affect eye strain:

• Brightness
• Color balance/profile
• Resolution/scaling/font size

Try lowering your brightness to a comfortable level (but not straining to see). I know many people really crank up that brightness without realizing that it can strain their eyes (and waste battery). If that doesn't help, try increasing the effective size of everything slightly. Quite often, the default scaling level on macOS can be something I don't agree with. But moving the scaling slider around (and trying it out at that level for a couple hours) can determine if it'll help your eye strain issue.

I know when I first bought my 40" 4K display, using native 1:1 3840x2160 out-of-the-box settings really killed my eyes, and was on the verge of returning it. Using QuickRes to scale to effectively 2560x1440 HiDPI, along with calibrating my colors really changed the way it felt, and haven't had problems with it since. I've had a couple MacBooks with a similar effect on my eyes, but just changing the scaling alone has generally been enough to alleviate my symptoms.

Hope this helps someone.

Yes sure, that might help. I'll try it out when my macbook arrives.
Thanks!

 

[ascender]

I was about to ask a similar question, but with a different source of concern... yes I am getting eyestrain using my M1 MacBook Air, but it got worse for me when I attached it to a 4k external monitor. Everything is so bleeding sharp and flat, I am starting to think its not a hardware issue, but UI issue.. i.e. today is the first day I started using Big Sur. How about anyone else, does Big Sur cause you eyestrain? I have held back putting it on any of my intel Macs, I guess that's the way to test the theory.

Strangely I'm finding it much more comfortable on my eyes on an external monitor - a 4K ultra fine at a scaled resolution. I'm starting to think on the Air itself its dark mode which is giving my eyes grief so I've switched it off for the time being to see if that helps.

 

[Aleksid1]

Apple MacBook Air 2020 M1 Entry Review: Apple M1 CPU humbles Intel and AMD

The M1 based entry-level Macbook in our extensive technical test.

www.notebookcheck.net

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.

So it seems that we have to wait for future Micro LED displays.

 

[ghanwani]

So it seems that we have to wait for future Micro LED displays.

I think this level of PWM has been the same even with previous MBAs.

 

[prism]

I think this level of PWM has been the same even with previous MBAs.

I dont think so, the early 2020 MBA pwm kicks in at <75%

 

[ghanwani]

I dont think so, the early 2020 MBA pwm kicks in at <75%

So the M1 is better in this regard? Can you post links with specific references to the numbers? Will be helpful to understand.

 

[lambertjohn]

Just got mine today and so far no eye strain. But I do notice that characters on the screen seem a tad bit fuzzy, or like there' some kind of shadow behind them. Probably just my tired eyes; I'll know more in the morning after I get a good night's sleep.

 

[ghanwani]

I played around with one in the store and it seemed fine to me.

 

[Jeepguy01]

Just got mine today and so far no eye strain. But I do notice that characters on the screen seem a tad bit fuzzy, or like there' some kind of shadow behind them. Probably just my tired eyes; I'll know more in the morning after I get a good night's sleep.

No, I think you're right about this. The Big Sur fonts seem different. It's stopped bothering my eyes, though. No strain since the first few days.

 

[Fowl]

FWIW, I started getting eyestrain when I switched from to a Retina MacBook from a non-Retina one. I keep my eyes pretty close to te screen in both cases. What computer were you using before?

 

[Jeepguy01]

FWIW, I started getting eyestrain when I switched from to a Retina MacBook from a non-Retina one. I keep my eyes pretty close to te screen in both cases. What computer were you using before?

For me, 2020 intel MBA to M1 MBA. The only differences between the screens were Big Sur and the more vivid display on the M1.

 

[bsmr]

Also coming from a rMBP 2013 - now MBA M1. Getting some kind of Eyestrain. Something is curious about the display. Also Notebookcheck is writing about it - also the 60Hz issue.

 

[petestein1]

Agreed that after a few days of using the new M1 Air my eyes are really unhappy. Not to mention how horrible the Mac Mail client is in Big Sur (they broke everything!) and that I'm not getting good battery life. Grrrr.

 

[ghanwani]

Agreed that after a few days of using the new M1 Air my eyes are really unhappy. Not to mention how horrible the Mac Mail client is in Big Sur (they broke everything!) and that I'm not getting good battery life. Grrrr.

What did you have before?
Do you have True Tone and auto brightness enabled?

 

[ghanwani]

Just got mine today and so far no eye strain. But I do notice that characters on the screen seem a tad bit fuzzy, or like there' some kind of shadow behind them. Probably just my tired eyes; I'll know more in the morning after I get a good night's sleep.

Do you have any update?

 

[petestein1]

What did you have before?
Do you have True Tone and auto brightness enabled?

Before I was mostly on an 3 year old Macbook Air -- no Trutone. Yes, auto-brightness on. Spent the last fewweeks on a pre-M1, post-butterfly keyboard 13" Macbook Pro. After posting yesterday I turned the brightness down to ~75% and it seems much better. (I still HATE Big Sur though.)

 

[Zen_Arcade]

Before I was mostly on an 3 year old Macbook Air -- no Trutone. Yes, auto-brightness on. Spent the last fewweeks on a pre-M1, post-butterfly keyboard 13" Macbook Pro. After posting yesterday I turned the brightness down to ~75% and it seems much better. (I still HATE Big Sur though.)

I can't say I "hate" Big Sur, but it really does look like Apple let an elementary student loose with crayons. It looks . . . cartoonish.

 

[bsmr]

I can't say I "hate" Big Sur, but it really does look like Apple let an elementary student loose with crayons. It looks . . . cartoonish.

It's on it's way to iOS and touch.... So away from pro and going to consumer version.

 

[Aleksid1]

I have Air M1 several days. On first glance, it's screen is OK for my sensitive eyes.

I enabled scaled screen resolution with large fonts, I adjusted display profile in Preferences > Display and set 5700K (instead of 6500K) color temperature to make it more warm. Also I kept True Tone option. So with warm white color, screen really good and pleasant for my eyes.
By default, Air M1 has more cold white color than my old Macbook 12.

The only problem which bothers me - a silent ultra-sonic coil whine when I set brightness to 4 strips or below. Probably I will replace this one within 14 days.

 

[TDDM]

Hey all,

I've been part of a few eye strain threads for the past few years regarding the iPhone X/11 Pro/12 and XR/11 due to some kind of flickering. We've noticed that there's a small subset of people who are having issues with newer Apple devices, such as the iPhone X, iPad Pro 3/4, various MacBooks, etc (Seems to vary between person, but it looks likely that something has changed recently with either the displays or graphics settings). For example, I personally have issues with every iPhone past 2018, every iPad past 2017 except the iPad 6th/7th gen, and every MacBook I've tried past 2015 (The 16" Pro, Mac mini 2018, Macbook Air M1, etc).

Anyway, I created a survey to help us catalog our issues and potentially identify some kind of pattern or solution. If you have the time, it'd be really helpful if you guys could fill it out. As soon as we have a good amount of responses, I can share the data with everyone on here.

I've also cross-posted this in a few other eye strain threads to see if there's some kind of common link. If we get enough data, perhaps we could share it with Apple directly?

Apple Eye Strain Survey

This form is designed for Apple users who have specific eye strain issues with iPhones, iPads, and Macs. Some potential causes for this eye strain may be PWM, Temporal Dithering, LCD Inversion, or some other unknown issue. The goal of this survey is to gather data on these issues and potentially...

forms.gle

 

[petestein1]

I was one of the early commenters complaining of eye strain. It turns out I just had the M1 Macbook Air screen turned up much too bright (I was at max brightness, or 1 click down). I now operate 4 clicks down from max (so, 75% brightness) and my eyes are just fine.

 

[Ghostrider72]

I've read this post with great concern since in last seven years I have been using a Samsung laptop whose resolution is 1366x768 and, as you can imagine, causes lots of eye fatigue. Do you belive the actual m1 2020 mba will be a great improvement or shall I wait for the upcoming (when) mini led display? Any suggestions will be greatly appreciated.
Thanks

 

[petestein1]

Your eyes will be absolutely fine. There are 10s of millions of people using retina macs out there and we're the 12 people complaining. And I'm not complaining any more -- I just turned the brightness down from max. Doh!