They'd like nothing better than for every person who complains about flickering iphones to just shut up and buy an Android LCD phone
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Other Eye-strain while using iPhone X and up
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Maybe there is a bug in the first firmware and it does not work as intended? Now that the feature and hardware to support it are there maybe Apple can improve it in the future firmware?
I don’t know about that.
Just because they didn’t announce anything does not excuse them from the wording in the OS/Settings.
One has nothing to do with the other. As for now, the setting clearly reads turns off PWM.
Why give them a pass?
I feel like it's not something they would announce or bring attention to. It's been effecting their lineup for a long time now and the 17 was the first time they even attempted to do somthing about it. That and if they talk about it publicly I wonder how many people would then connect the dots and realize they are pwm sensitive and it would become a bigger issue (better for us)
A lot of people still don't know or understand about this
A lot of people still don't know or understand about this
Apple is not the only manufacturer with ineffectual PWM settings. Moto, OnePlus have them also. It's apparently a tough nut to crack. I would still encourage people to try the phone. My Razr Plus gave me mild discomfort with extended usage when I first bought it and now I use it for as long as I want without issues. PWM effects are on a spectrum I think rather than a dichotomy.
So, I have some positive news to report. My iPhone 17 Pro Max has arrived and is set up.
I'm using it with the new PWM function, and it works just as well as my iPhone 16 Plus in the Moment.
I'll monitor it for the next few days and report back.
I'm using it with the new PWM function, and it works just as well as my iPhone 16 Plus in the Moment.
I'll monitor it for the next few days and report back.
Yes, and I probably will when the extended Christmas returns are available because then I’m able to try it a few times. Oh for the pre OLED and pre temporal dithering days when when everything just worked for me straight out of the box.
I wonder if we’re going to deal with the panel lottery yet again. Probably.
From my perspective that reads as “it works as well as another unusable device” so I’m not entirely sure I’d class that as positive news 😂 presumably it’s supposed to be a significant improvement on previous iterations too.
So disappointing to hear the experiences so far.. I did saw on Reddit that the Air supposedly only has around 30-40%? I'm not sure what that number means exactly but the lower the better right? Does that mean the Air might be usable?
The iPhone 16 Plus has been working well for me for a year.
The iPhone 17 Pro Max now feels no different after over an hour on the display.
You want that percentage be low as possible. 30% is still high, but useable for some users. Below 10% would be perfect.
Has anyone another test of the 17 and the air? Sometimes they don’t measure the screens the correct way and you get incorrect results. The 17 looks very bad on one of the earlier shared tests.
Please keep us updated, I have been using the iphone 16 for a year now and it is great for my eyes. The screen is lagging and seem slow on iOS 18 and 26. I Ordered a 17 pro because of the extra zoom.
I’m seeing some Opple readings on Reddit and the modulation is 95%+ at basically every brightness level. I use an iPhone 13 and the modulation is less than 10% except for under 25% brightness.
This is absolutely ridiculous how in 3-4 years a nearly 100% modulation at all brightness levels is acceptable. If I wanted to stare at a strobe light all day I’d just go to an EDM show.
If I had to guess this is what happens when you push 3,000 nits peak brightness and cram a ton of power into small phones with poor voltage. How hard would it be to just throw hardware in the already chunky 17 Pro that enables true DC dimming? Or release a Pro Max with that hardware capability?
This is a consequence of not consulting users who are actually afflicted by PWM and dithering, especially if the engineers are not personally affected. It’s an absolute joke and an insult to everyone affected by flicker.
I think we are where we are at today because its 'impossible' to create an OLED screen that will work on a phone with acceptable image quality without using PWM flickering. All the phone manufacturers have tried and none of their implementations work very well.
All we want is a modern iphone with a nice 401ppi LCD screen - (like they used to make).
All we want is a modern iphone with a nice 401ppi LCD screen - (like they used to make).
I think they can technically create an OLED phone with true DC dimming - it’s been done on OLED televisions and computer monitors, after all. But it’s clear that brightness, color reproduction, and battery life benchmarks supersede that desire by Apple.
It’s the same reason since Apple Silicon they have relied on significant spatiotemporal GPU dithering and FRC on their 8-bit+FRC computers and monitors: Apple wants their displays to look a certain way and their laptops to last as long as possible and if that means utilizing poor voltage and a ton of hardware and software flickering to render MacOS, iPadOS, and iOS, well, so be it.
What’s so disappointing is there has been a hope among the community that these issues that have really intensified the past 5-7 years were just the growing pains of new technologies (OLED, Liquid Retina, MiniLED) and perhaps the next iteration would solve things.
It’s becoming clear to me that PWM and dithering are likely features and not a bug of Apple’s display pipeline, which has been unified across devices since MacOS Big Sur. Each iteration of Apple Silicon applies more and more dithering and the same goes for MacOS and iOS. Each product is brighter than the last, with worse PWM and worse modulation. Just take a look at the patents they’ve filed.
If they can’t get this right on iPhones that have a super high PPI and are probably closer to 10-bit than anything else, how are they going to solve it on the OLED iPad or a future OLED MacBook? I don’t see it happening.
I’ve never seen more posts about this topic in all these years than I have these 2 weeks. This is not a niche problem anymore. And the more Apple relies on worsening flicker on their devices, I predict there will be an increase in affected users. This is a major health and safety concern and they’re going to get sued over this eventually.
So I was always sensitive to OLED, to the point where I was using an iPhone SE3 until I bought iPhone 16, the first one I could use without pain. Every year, from the 12 to the 16, I bought the phone in september to test it. And every year until the 16, I could not use it. This year, I was excited to jump in the 120hz and PWM option bandwagon so I wanted to try the iPhone 17, which I bought it this morning. Even if the screen is beautiful, I can feel that my eyes aren't happy. And now I can't help but wonder, why would the 16 (OLED) work but the 17 (LTPO OLED) not work? Is there some logic behind that? That can't be psychosomatic and in my head.
I'm glad I didn't use the trade-in program because it seems like my iPhone 16 will stay with me for a long time. Also they don't sell 256 iPhone 16 anymore.
I'm glad I didn't use the trade-in program because it seems like my iPhone 16 will stay with me for a long time. Also they don't sell 256 iPhone 16 anymore.
If you enter "iphone 17 disable pwm" in a search engine box today, you'll doomscroll to eternity the number of websites that are talking about this. Every tech site is talking about it. I think the topic is snowballing now. Thank goodness.
This doesn’t look that much different or even close to what we needed.
I’m going to have very extensive thoughts if they released a “Disable PWM” switch after eight years that isn’t even considerate of PWM-sensitive users. Why make it a feature if it isn’t at all effective?
OLED TVs have a much smaller range of brightness adjustability than OLED phones. The brightest mode on my TV is about 5 times as bright as the darkest mode. On an iPhone, the brightest mode is more like 1000 times as bright as the darkest setting.
And OLED TVs do turn off pixels when they refresh (but for a much briefer time than on any OLED phone I've seen).
That's only because of the new setting on the iPhone 17, not because it's a more prevalent problem. That's why I'm here.
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I’m extremely disappointed looking at all of the measurements and experiences in the PWM-sensitive communities. All iterations of iPhone 17 are still high-risk on the flicker index, regardless of whether Pulse Smoothing is disabled. Meanwhile, iPhone SE, iPhone 11, and even the LG OLED TV’s pose no risk.
I’m actually in disbelief at how badly-implemented and tone-deaf this feature is. I expected maybe it would be a a significant effort that wasn’t enough to be 100% reliable, especially for the most sensitive users like myself, but the measurements are virtually identical to every past year with the setting enabled. Wow. Blasphemy.
This is what we need:
vs what we got:
I’m actually in disbelief at how badly-implemented and tone-deaf this feature is. I expected maybe it would be a a significant effort that wasn’t enough to be 100% reliable, especially for the most sensitive users like myself, but the measurements are virtually identical to every past year with the setting enabled. Wow. Blasphemy.
This is what we need:
vs what we got:
It does turn off PWM.
The Pulse Width is equal at all brightness levels when that setting is on. Thus the Pulse Width is not being Modulated. It's a fixed Pulse Width.
It does make it more consistent, but it does very little for modulation. That being said, I’ll still try an iPhone 17 with an open mind. If it doesn’t work I get by fine with the iPhone SE…