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Does Apple Watch Series 3 utilize PWM?

Jodiuh

Jodiuh

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Sep 15, 2009
312
113
anyone know?

I sent a note to notebookcheck, they do a great job with that on phones....hoping to hear from them.

I’ve not been able to find anything about this.

I. Asking because most or maybe all small screen phones seem to have PWM and I had a bit of eye fatigue after using it for little no periods.
 
OP may be referring to pulse width modulation, which can be used to adjust the amplitude of a signal by varying the rate at which a constant voltage is turned on and off. It can be used to control screen brightness.
 
if it's what i think they're talking about....
PWM -- pulse wave modulation
it's how to make LEDs look dim, seeing as they don't dim. They just strobe really fast, and vary the on and off time.

In the specs there would be a refresh rate (similar, but not the same as the refresh rate in TV specs.)
the cycles are pretty fast, typically in the 1000-1500 Hz range
so for example each cycle is 1/1000 of a second.
so for 40% dim, they would be on 40% of each cycle, and off 60%.

it's why if you look at a dim LED, and move your head fast, the LED tends to turn into dots instead of a solid line
too low of a refresh rate can lead to strobing that's visible to your eyes

I'm pretty sure all OLED use PWM.
LED screens depends on the backlight being used. (OLED have not backlight)

for the apple watch, you won't be staring at the screen for long times, it's typically 10-15 second interactions at most.
 
I don't think the LG tv's use PWM, but all smartphone OLEDS I've seen use a 240hz PWM and burn my eyes like lasers.

The watch may not be too much of an issue after getting it setup since I only look @ it for a few seconds at a time.
 
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I pay attention to this for flashlights, but hadn't thought about it for the watch. Not sure if I know how to test for this, but in the dark in front of a mirror, moving as fast as I possible can, I don't see any strobing effect. But that probably doesn't tell us anything. Not sure if this is an answer, but this is a video of the watch at 240 fps, which it seems like that should show some effect too.

https://www.reddit.com/r/AppleWatch/comments/6cpxyd/i_compared_my_apple_watch_with_a_gps_reference/
 
michaelb5000 said:
I pay attention to this for flashlights, but hadn't thought about it for the watch. Not sure if I know how to test for this, but in the dark in front of a mirror, moving as fast as I possible can, I don't see any strobing effect. But that probably doesn't tell us anything. Not sure if this is an answer, but this is a video of the watch at 240 fps, which it seems like that should show some effect too.

https://www.reddit.com/r/AppleWatch/comments/6cpxyd/i_compared_my_apple_watch_with_a_gps_reference/
Click to expand...
The best test for me is to be concious of eye fatigue. For the watch, I did feel a little irritated when using it A LOT, but not so much after getting it all setup.

For the iPhone X or Samsun galaxies, I notice it almost right away. For Samsung TV’s, it’s instadeath in minutes.
 
tcellguy said:
It does. You can see it if you film with the iPhone slow motion setting. I'm not sure why but it doesn't cause me any eye strain while the iPhone X does.
Click to expand...

I assume that one of the reasons is that we just don't spend as much time looking at the display. I mean, did you EVER watch a movie on your watch??? :)
 
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Most likely you are correct. I only filmed the watch prior to the release of iPhone X to get a sense of whether or not Apple might use PWM.
 
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