I've just installed iOS 26 beta on my 16e for testing. Wasn't getting headaches (just tired eyes) but now the headaches seem to be coming back (same settings as before - reduce white point, double invert, etc). Might have to go back to my SE 😢
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Other Eye-strain while using iPhone X and up
- Thread starter Kitkad
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This is what makes it crap for us.
We could get the new Iphone 17 pro later this year, have no headaches, splurge over a grand in new tech in our excitement and a few months later an IOS update turns it into an expensive paperweight.
The only safe way to buy an iPhone nowadays for those of us who are sensitive to these gawdaful OLED displays, is to wait until August to buy it - new from Apple. You get the 14 day free return window and the version of iOS in August is basically done. It has been updated throughout the year.
And NEVER update the OS again - because its too risky.
Recently was thinking about waiting for 17 Pro and buying it, mainly for the potentially good camera that will get 8x zoom, 8k and new design.
But then I thought again, looked at the price in Europe, looked at the price of my Macbook, looked at the price of my “potential” M3 13’ iPad Air (will probably buy that instead), and realized that the math doesn’t really add up: if I am gonna use iPhone as a main device I will have literally same eye strain as now, probably 120Hz won’t change anything since I am not sure refresh rate is related to PWM sync frequency of modern OLED displays.
Paying 1450$ for a half-a**ed device that I will use as a camera and browser? Well, I already have that device – my current ancient 11 Pro (that I still keep on iOS 17 tho, not sure it will lift 26 at all without drawbacks like overheating, poor battery performance and UI slowdowns).
Would rather invest these money (+save a little bit) into shiny new iPad Air M3 and get a 13’ version. It is the best thing I can do to my vision. The only disadvantages are that it is thin and easy to crack (I will get a case but still) and has no water resistance whatsoever (like all iPads before, right. But it really costs them nothing to add it!). And thus iPhone is still kinda of a swiss knife, which nevertheless always gives me eye strain (however disabling HDR and P3 thru battery saving mode and also using higher brightness helps a bit)
But then I thought again, looked at the price in Europe, looked at the price of my Macbook, looked at the price of my “potential” M3 13’ iPad Air (will probably buy that instead), and realized that the math doesn’t really add up: if I am gonna use iPhone as a main device I will have literally same eye strain as now, probably 120Hz won’t change anything since I am not sure refresh rate is related to PWM sync frequency of modern OLED displays.
Paying 1450$ for a half-a**ed device that I will use as a camera and browser? Well, I already have that device – my current ancient 11 Pro (that I still keep on iOS 17 tho, not sure it will lift 26 at all without drawbacks like overheating, poor battery performance and UI slowdowns).
Would rather invest these money (+save a little bit) into shiny new iPad Air M3 and get a 13’ version. It is the best thing I can do to my vision. The only disadvantages are that it is thin and easy to crack (I will get a case but still) and has no water resistance whatsoever (like all iPads before, right. But it really costs them nothing to add it!). And thus iPhone is still kinda of a swiss knife, which nevertheless always gives me eye strain (however disabling HDR and P3 thru battery saving mode and also using higher brightness helps a bit)
Not a placebo.
I was shortsighted ever since my early teens. In 2019 I had -2 on one eye and -1 on another, then got myself 11 Pro and worked hard on this phone as SMM, and in 2023 when I was shopping for a new pair of glasses one eye was already -5 and another is -3.75.
OLED is dumpster fire, evil tech disguised as good. I dunno what we would have to do to grab Apple’s attention to the problem. But if only it was just Apple! It all started with Samsung. Before 11 Pro I had Galaxy S10+ for a year, switched from 6s that got nuts in terms of battery. And I always wondered why I can no longer walk and text as I used to without getting nausea. Back then I didn’t understand yet that I am susceptible to PWM. And then all the fanboys chanted “Apple needs to make all devices OLED!!”. I hate this mob mentality.
And now all the major phone makers only offer OLED - take Pixel, Galaxy, an iPhone or any Chinese brand: they are all OLED. This is truly depressing
Yeah, high time to vote with our wallets.
People in the thread are totally right when they say that this is a sick culture when we “have a duty” to replace our phone just as soon as some marketing-filled feature comes out.
I have had some nostalgic memories recently. I remember when I switched from my Sony Ericsson G700 to iPhone 5, the reason to replace phone was… that my G700 no longer charged adequately, it needed port replacement and no service wanted to do that job. As well as probably I wanted to try a touchscreen phone.
And what’s now? More megapixels? Better displays (not)? Faster processors and better performance? (yeah but not really) Newer apps? (nope).
In fact, if a phone still makes a call, one should keep it. For computing there are computers - Macs, iPads, PCs etc
Unfortunately you can't make a display as vivid and sharp with LCD as you can with OLED so in the premium category it's pretty much a given. TCL is a low end phone maker that uses LCD and goes a step further with EyeSafe certification. Dynabook makes laptops with LCD EyeSafe displays. I'm not a fan of the OS on these devices but I think I will be forced to compromise. Already compromised with the laptop and I can tell there is HUGE difference. There is zero eyestrain even if I use it for hours. Can't say the same when I use my iPhone SE 2022. And all the other iPhones are completely unusable for me.
As for the sharpness/vividness I am not sure exactly if those are the traits of a smartphone that one can easily measure without relying on what brands claim (Apple, Samsung, LG in case of TVs). Every brand seems to claim they have "best display in a galaxy". In fact, I personally value truthful displays that are able to give me real image, without enhancements. So that I can easily spot the difference in codec and bitrate of a video that I am watching, the color grading that director used, as well as the proper level of brightness (not overbrightened HDR stuff that got so popular nowadays).
With that said, I cannot say that there was a single moment when I disliked the displays of my older smartphones like iPhone 5 and 6s, same with 6 Plus or 4 (not mine but I used them extensively back in the days). When I upgraded to 11 Pro display was the last thing that I noticed being somehow better, looked like same Retina display tuned by Apple. On Galaxy S10+ display was simply awful, brightness was too low to see anything in sunny weather, as well as contrast was too high to be able to focus on smth. For me a good display is a one where I can look at sRGB image, edit it and be sure it will look like that on 95% of devices across the globe. And as for OLED - not so good, sometimes images turn out warmer than what I see on my screen when I edit them.
Nowadays I suspect they offer OLED because that's what the factories produce. Samsung, LG and BOE offer that as their only tech available, so brands market it as superior to any older tech. I am still not convinced extra nits of brightness (that can only be used for a short time before device overheats and throttles down) are actually worth the added eye strain, because the tech theu use for OLED flickers like crazy
As a follow up to my previous posts. I have used cyclopentolate eye drops for an eye exam (this paralyses the muscles in eye and allows for a more accurate eye exam). No headaches with the iphone 16 plus after the drops. 2 weeks later the headaches came back. I then used atropine eye drops. The effects of the drops were worse - dilation and loss of accomodation so i couldnt focus for about 5 days. This is dangerous so don’t try it without a health professional. Next thing that i did was to try and use the iphone 16 plus for as much time as i could during the period when the drops were active. The idea was to make the muscles in my eye get accustomed to the display. I am now 1 month post treatment, drops have completely worn out and I can use the 16 plus with no problem. I think i can finally use oled devices without getting a major headache. I am hopeful that this will last forever.
I'm wondering if something similar happened in my case; not with eye drops. But, before I got the 16e (which I can still use, without changing any default settings, turning on RWP, etc.), I used the Moto Razr 60, with Flicker Reduction on. This turns on DC like dimming across the full brightness range.
So, I'm thinking that perhaps getting the eyes used to some level of flickering via DC like dimming, makes the next step progression to PWM flickering easier on sensitive eyes.
Sadly the iPad Air M3 13" clearly flickers (ignore the title and watch the video - also see comments)
Thank you! Very interesting video. Indeed, this looks like temporal dithering (which unfortunately all modern Apple devices have). Since Apple moved every device to P3 profile, they probably still don’t have true 10 bit display panels for that, thus dithering is all around. Tho I do wonder if low power mode makes things different, it seems to make eye strain somewhat easier (or maybe that’s a placebo).
Took my old iPad Air 2 from the shelf, while lots of websites open broken I am surprised I can still browse the web more or less, MR works very good for example, Reddit from app works good as well. Thus while device is more than 11 years old it still stays connected to the network and can be pretty much useful for most tasks I planned to use a new iPad anyway.
After all, new iPads still don’t come up to my expectation of how those must work in order for me to buy a new one. They have thousands of new connectors for peripherals like pencils and keyboards yet no wireless charging whatsoever. I don’t think it is too hard to implement at least some sort of wireless or magnetic charger to iPad. Also no dust resistance/water protection, though none of the iPads feature 3.5mm out for direct audio. Also they still break and bend like, similar to my Air 2 which I bent one day (and had to unbend with use of towel method from youtube🤣) I am very afraid if I buy one I will crack it in a week
Wait what? I've been experimenting with atropine as well after noticing I could look at OLED iPhones after an eye exam where I had my eyes dilated. Are you saying you just kept taking atropine for a month and that allowed you to "train" yourself to use the phone?
This would be huge if it's a solution.
No. Atropine effects can stay in the eyes for up to 4 weeks. I just used it once. For the first few days the dilation and Accomodation was difficult. Once that returned - no headaches with OLED and it feels like it’s got even better. I’m sure the drops have worn off completely and I can use the 16 plus for hours on end without much discomfort. In the past, oled displays would make me sick in 5 minutes - severe headache and nausea. I’m getting nothing now. I think the eye muscles spasm when looking at oled due to flicker. The atropine accustoms your eye to the flicker and then stops the spasm.
Should be noted:
- Atropine isn’t without risk: it can dangerously raise intraocular pressure in people predisposed to glaucoma, cause photophobia, and interfere with reading/driving.
- There’s zero published clinical data showing atropine “trains” the eyes for screen flicker tolerance. Your experience might be a placebo effect, a real muscular adaptation, or even just your brain adapting to OLED during the downtime.
- Long-term atropine use outside of medical supervision is not safe — especially for an experimental reason like “OLED adaptation.”
yes you are absolutely correct. Atropine is not over the counter anyway. Needs a prescription.
Atropine is dangerous and should only be used by a doctor.
Photophobia occurs in the first few days - pupil dilation - very dangerous to drive or do any activities that require bright light. It is very uncomfortable. Blurred vision up close also persists for several hours to days.
The idea here is that with the drops in the eye - the eye muscles are paralyzed. It allows one to use the phone because there is no spasm of the muscle and therefore no headache. With the eyes in their natural state - the oled induces spasm which induces headache.
The aim of this exercise is to determine whether the brain can adjust during the downtime (neuroplasticity) and then stop the muscles from going into spasm when the atropine effects wear off. This is similar to how one can get accustomed to a new pair of glasses.
Long term use is not safe at all and not recommended. The interesting research here is to determine why some of our eye muscles go into spasm and others dont (99 percent of the population). Is there a genetic reason? Is the eye muscle abnormal in some way? I'm certain that most of us on here also suffer with motion sickness while reading in a car. Hypotonicity. Spinal issues. etc.
I wanted to share this post with all of you. For anyone who believes dithering is not a source of symptoms, here you go:
I tested a 2015 15” MacBook Pro Intel graphics laptop on MacOS Catalina recording under Carson Microflip microscope with an iPhone 240 fps slow motion footage. Below you can find 3 videos. The first two are on the “New tab” gray gradient in Safari. The third is of the light gray wallpaper in the Apple settings.
Safari gradient #1
Safari gradient #2
Light gray wallpaper
My analysis:
Overall I’m quite pleased with this very basic testing. It confirms that dithering is indeed occurring on this device and matches symptoms I have personally had, and I know symptoms many of you also had on this once believed “safe” device.
I tested a 2015 15” MacBook Pro Intel graphics laptop on MacOS Catalina recording under Carson Microflip microscope with an iPhone 240 fps slow motion footage. Below you can find 3 videos. The first two are on the “New tab” gray gradient in Safari. The third is of the light gray wallpaper in the Apple settings.
Safari gradient #1
Safari gradient #2
Light gray wallpaper
My analysis:
- Blue pixels are consistently chipped. I received this laptop for free and it isn’t in great condition. No idea what caused this
- Gray dithering very apparent. Looks identical to the iPhone 5 dithering on gray
- I noticed “lightning strike” style flashes on portions of the video on gray. I have to go back and do a new edit to see if I can catch it. Not sure what that could be. It was visible to my eyes while recording (transistor leakage?)
- On Safari new tab page certain colors are pulsating, or appear to be to my eyes. This is similar to what I saw on the 13” M2. My working theory is this is FRC or another type of panel driven dithering, and requires 960 fps slow motion to detect it more clearly
- I believe the dithering on the gray wallpaper is GPU based, but again this is just an assumption based on iPhone 5 comparison. Someone would have to test the iPhone 5 on earlier software (not iOS 9) to determine whether this is panel based or was rolled out via an iOS update, and therefore conceivably GPU based
- Or the gray dithering is panel based and connected to the gray color flicker. This is hard to isolate without better tools and a flicker free Mac screen, which does not seem to exist
Overall I’m quite pleased with this very basic testing. It confirms that dithering is indeed occurring on this device and matches symptoms I have personally had, and I know symptoms many of you also had on this once believed “safe” device.
I’m curious, does MacOS report the display on this 15 inch MBP as 8 bit or 10 bit?
I’ll have to check what Catalina is outputting, but I would imagine it is 10-bit. The display on the MacBook as per SwitchResX is only capable of “millions of colors” - so 8-bit color. It would have launched on El Capitan or Yosemite originally.
The debate with this model is actually whether it is 6-bit+FRC or true 8-bit. You bring up an interesting point as to whether downgrading it to its original OS would eliminate some dithering.
About this Mac > System Report > Graphics/Displays
If it’s 8 bit it will report 24 bit argb 888 or something like that. The 10 bit displays (or displays capable of producing 10 bit) will show 30 bit 101010 or something like that.
Wether that model is true 8 bit or not idk. The displays reporting 10 bit almost all are not.
I can tell you from a symptom perspective my 2017 13 inch reports 8 bit and is pretty comfortable. Unless I explicitly load a P3 image which then I think maybe causes it to use FRC. But most of the graphics must be sRGB because most other apps etc are fine.
Edit: saw the info about switcresX.
If it’s 8 bit it will report 24 bit argb 888 or something like that. The 10 bit displays (or displays capable of producing 10 bit) will show 30 bit 101010 or something like that.
Wether that model is true 8 bit or not idk. The displays reporting 10 bit almost all are not.
I can tell you from a symptom perspective my 2017 13 inch reports 8 bit and is pretty comfortable. Unless I explicitly load a P3 image which then I think maybe causes it to use FRC. But most of the graphics must be sRGB because most other apps etc are fine.
Edit: saw the info about switcresX.
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Between 15 pro max v 15 plus, which phone will be easy on eyes for my uncle who is 40 now.
As of now he is using 11 pro max , he sometimes (especially after prolonged usage of mobile) complain of a slight blurry vision when reading content on phone.
i know 120hz is good on eyes for fluency on screen but does it have any effect on blurry vision ? Please help me in advising him.
As of now he is using 11 pro max , he sometimes (especially after prolonged usage of mobile) complain of a slight blurry vision when reading content on phone.
i know 120hz is good on eyes for fluency on screen but does it have any effect on blurry vision ? Please help me in advising him.
Thank you, any specific reason why he shouldn't go with 120 hz (i.e 15 pro max) for his requirement.
120 HZ no value add with respect to blurry vision ?
He doesn't mind paying slightly extra money if 120 HZ can give more clear vision for reading
Since i am using 12 pro max i dont have real world usage experience with a 120 HZ phones,
I compared 120 v 60 hz phones at few apple stores, 120 HZ seems to be more fluent when scrolling but for reading i didnt see any difference in the few min demo at stores. wanted to check with people who used them
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How fluent it is has nothing to do with PWM symptoms. Statistically more pros are worse for users. To me and for many users 16 plus was the most tolerable.