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Anybody getting eye strain on M1 MacBook Air?
- Thread starter flowave
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Pun intended? lol.. yeah probably but who will be the first to jump and report back to the community that's the minority.. just wish one of the major tech reporters had the issue and wrote about it..
^ In addition to PWM (which exists on earlier MBAs as well), notebookcheck mentions an additional 60Hz brightness flicker which is not mentioned for Intel MBAs.
https://www.notebookcheck.net/Apple...le-M1-CPU-humbles-Intel-and-AMD.508057.0.html
To save energy, 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.
https://www.notebookcheck.net/Apple...le-M1-CPU-humbles-Intel-and-AMD.508057.0.html
To save energy, 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 generally now all types of flicker in play, backlight flicker + tempral dithering (LED color flicker - very fast) + screen refresh flicker. It seams like to be, LCD manufacturing industry is full of sh*t, because the process of manufacturing these panels is expensive, so everyone is trying to lower the cost including apple. I would be really interested to know, if anyone, regardless of their GPU, dithering gaming screen with 120 hz refresh rate? As for using macs, this is a device were you expect things to be all sorted for your best experience. There is no other option, you can not change settings, its all closed out from the user. So far for me the formula for success is - non intel / non nvidia GPU since these have temporal dithering always on without ability to turn off (some say nvidia is possible, but nvidia is know to be very closed proprietor, so doubt it will be possible, only option then is Radeon), matte screen without PWM, and high refresh rate. So this is obviously somewhat mid range gaming laptop, hopefully with good color accuracy, since most of them of really bad in this department.
I can’t use anything apple from the last couple of years. I’m steering from getting a m1 MacBook. I have returned a currrnet year iPad Pro 11 due to dizziness and fatigue. I fear these new MacBooks may do the same. I’m also a guy that can’t watch these new OLED TVs either.
I currently hav e a 2017 MacBook Pro with no issues. My daily driver is an iPad Pro 10.5. I will be super sad when it’s not supported anymore. I don't know if the issue is dithering, or PWM, or something else. I wish is knew.
That said, I’m curious to see what kind of display they have for the larger MacBooks coming out soon. I don’t have high hopes of their usability though. There is a forum called ledstrain dot org that is a good place for all of us.
I currently hav e a 2017 MacBook Pro with no issues. My daily driver is an iPad Pro 10.5. I will be super sad when it’s not supported anymore. I don't know if the issue is dithering, or PWM, or something else. I wish is knew.
That said, I’m curious to see what kind of display they have for the larger MacBooks coming out soon. I don’t have high hopes of their usability though. There is a forum called ledstrain dot org that is a good place for all of us.
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I’d like to know this as well. When the larger MacBooks come out, I’m hoping it’s temporary.
I tend to always get very bad eye strain from most computers etc I use. If anything I appear to have much less when using my M1 Air.
Any updated thoughts on if the new MBP's due to be announced next week will solve or just continue to be an issue for us?? he latest rumours about it https://www.macrumors.com/2021/10/12/macbook-pro-upgraded-webcams-new-power-brick/
My guess is that the eyestrain/headache issues probably don't even make the list of things for Apple to worry about. And judging by the displays of newer devices, I have no reason to be hopeful when it comes to the new MBPs.
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As soon as they said these newer MacBook pros would have even more colors, I just pictured dithering in my head and that made me very pessimistic about any of these new MacBook Pro’s working for me. I couldn’t used the latest iPad pros, so I don’t know how this would be any better.
My wife is ordering some for her school (base model 16") and I'll be trying it out at home for a couple days and will report back here.
I’m going to try the entry level 14” model, I’ll share my experience here after I’ve used it for a few days. I’m hoping that between the better graphics chip, ProMotion, miniLED screen, and macOS Monterey, there will be *some* level of improvement in terms of flicker 🤨
Thank you for this. Their overuse of temporal dithering literally makes me sick 🤕. I hope micro LED will not require so many tricks for color whenever it shows up.
Been using the Pro 14" for a few days now, I think it's better than the M1 flicker-wise. I still get tired and gritty eyes after using it for a little while, but I don't seem to have that pulsing headache that usually comes with flickering screens. I'll definitely give an update after a few more days and see if this continues. I'd recommend testing it at the store or trying it at home if you had issues with the M1's last year.
Found this thread after searching for this problem on the internet. My M1 MacBook Air built-in screen looks just fine to me, but the subtle flickering does cause eye strain. It is kinda like using an old CRT monitor at 50hz. Changing color profiles or lowering the brightness on the monitors do help, but it really isn't a desirable fix.
I am also using two different models of external displays and I get this eye strain issue on both. One is a dell S417DG and the other is a U2412M.
EDIT: nvm, the flickering is present when hooked up to the windows machine as well. Just that hooking up my Mac allowed me to notice it again for some reason.
I am also using two different models of external displays and I get this eye strain issue on both. One is a dell S417DG and the other is a U2412M.
EDIT: nvm, the flickering is present when hooked up to the windows machine as well. Just that hooking up my Mac allowed me to notice it again for some reason.
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