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Other Eye-strain while using iPhone X and up

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So I couldnt cancel my iPhone 17 order anymore. Since it was here I opended and tried it anyway. What a nice phone! It feels very good in the hand. And heavier and premium than the iPhone 16. The slightly larger screen makes also very nice impression. However.. I immediately feel that PWM is bad. When i try to take a video to capture it i see very black thick lines. I haven't played enough with it. But i will probably return it. And it is weird that when you enable the toggle "Disable Pulse Width Modulation" and "Reduce White Point" can not be active both at the same time...

Back to my old iPhone 11
 
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BigBen2493 said:
what do you mean by calmer? like colors wise or motion? I always have reduce motion on my XR on
Click to expand...
I mean when I read that the writing is so restless compared to the iPhone 16 Plus.
I am now looking forward to the Oppo Find X9 Pro, that should have several functions for eye protection.
I will definitely test it. If Apple doesn't do anything, I have to look around somewhere else. Even if
I am very satisfied with my iPhone 16 Plus, but I would like more camera functions.
 
Siylence said:
I dont know how you meant "PWM off" but keep in mind that enable the toggle "Disable Pulse Width Modulation" and "Reduce White Point" can not be active both at the same time. You will see it, if you go back to the settings and back in. "Reduce White Point" disables the toggle "Disable Pulse Width Modulation"
Click to expand...

Oh wow. I did the disable pwm. And then did reduce white point. Didn’t notice it disabled the toggle
 
Heman87 said:
So I couldnt cancel my iPhone 17 order anymore. Since it was here I opended and tried it anyway. What a nice phone! It feels very good in the hand. And heavier and premium than the iPhone 16. The slightly larger screen makes also very nice impression. However.. I immediately feel that PWM is bad. When i try to take a video to capture it i see very black thick lines. I haven't played enough with it. But i will probably return it. And it is weird that when you enable the toggle "Disable Pulse Width Modulation" and "Reduce White Point" can not be active both at the same time...

Back to my old iPhone 11
Click to expand...
Update: I played with the phone for than 15 mins and my eyes are burning now. This is the worst phone i tried so far. So i would like to suggest avoid the 17!
 
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My iPhone 17 Pro was announced for Monday and surprisingly arrived today, on Saturday here in Germany. My joy was immense, but it was short-lived. I turned on the iPhone and within seconds I was battling nausea. The built-in software switch for PWM seems to do absolutely nothing for me. I have the same Feeling on the MacBook Air M1 - M4 so maybe its not PWM, maybe Temporal Dithering is the Problem, then i have this nausea.

I also would say worst Phone ever, with iPhone X, XS, 11 Pro, 13 Pro, 15 Pro i had no problems.
 
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Those of you who tried 17 without success did any of you upgraded your previous iPhone to iOS 26 ? And if so how did it go ?
 
uacd said:
UPD: the best thing to do nowadays is just to abandon smartphones for good. Use them only for occasional texting, calling and staying connected. It means no creative tasks whatsoever, minimum writing and minimum text reading tasks
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That's the exact same conclusion I came to a few years ago. Use iPhone as little as possible. It is not a toy
 
I have the iPhone 17 Pro Max since yesterday here. And sadly the PWM toggle also nothing change for me. Same symptoms and i have slightly vertigo. It's odd because i normally get only headache from the eyestrain.

So probably my Pro Max will get back to Apple next week :(
 
iPhone needs a CA Prop 65 warning:

"This device is known by the state of California to potentially cause eye strain, severe headaches, nausea, vertigo, heart arrhythmia and seizures"

Would anyone in their right mind buy a product that had a warning like that?
Of course not - yet all those warnings are absolutely true.
 
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I’m wondering something. You notice how there are a lot of articles out right now covering the addition of the PWM toggle? Do you think there’d be any value in us collectively writing each and every author and report what we’ve found, point them to this thread, and ask them to write a follow up? I can’t imagine every journalist or blogger is bound to silence by Apple.

Just a thought. It feels different at this moment in that there’s actually a slight bit of momentum and vision on the topic. But if we do it, we DO IT. We compile a list of all articles here and then all step up and follow through.

We can spend hours talking about it in here so it’s a reasonable ask.
 
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The.Glorious.Son said:
I’m wondering something. You notice how there are a lot of articles out right now covering the addition of the PWM toggle? Do you think there’d be any value in us collectively writing each and every author and report what we’ve found, point them to this thread, and ask them to write a follow up? I can’t imagine every journalist or blogger is bound to silence by Apple.

Just a thought. It feels different at this moment in that there’s actually a slight bit of momentum and vision on the topic. But if we do it, we DO IT. We compile a list of all articles here and then all step up and follow through.

We can spend hours talking about it in here so it’s a reasonable ask.
Click to expand...
Yes I agree 100%, the more attention that we can bring to this the better. Apple (and others) need to understand that this is something they have to start taking seriously.
 
uacd said:
Overall 17 Pro doesn’t seem like it will be any different than what I currently have. Thus I’m voting with my wallet again. Thinking of abandoning smartphones for most tasks I’ve gotten used to and already eyeing a decent 16’ laptop like ASUS Vivobook as they seem to have better OLED tech + they are TUV certified + flicker-free mode that will use PWM only at super low brightness levels (such as 10%).
Click to expand...
Same here. I use my laptop for most tasks now. I hate Windows, but I'm left with no choice as I couldn't handle MacBook Air/Pro displays. Currently using a Dynabook Portege which is EyeSafe certified by TUV and is only 2.3 lb. The colors aren't as vivid, but there is zero eyestrain even after hours of use. Can't say the same even with my SE 2022. If I use that for even 30 min, I feel my distance vision loses some focus and takes some time to get it back.
 
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I changed back to reduce white point option which is barely usable for me. The pwm off toggle doesnt work for me. Maybe they could update it as the hardware is probably there.
 
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ghanwani said:
When did you buy it? I want to buy one with 128GB/unlocked if still available.
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Oh, it was a while😄 I guess in 2023, I also bought Galaxy M33 alongside it (due to TFT display). Galaxy unfortunately died - it was too large size and I dropped it into water, and it was not water-resistant model. What’s fun, it didn’t die actually - but power button stopped working, made using phone impossible since it doesn’t have home button as all modern phones.

As for SE I used it mainly because my 11 Pro display died and due to how much I hated this OLED display I decided to “move on”, and didn’t want to get new pro model due to said display.

In fact, I started to dislike other things in my SE like poor camera and very bad battery life (5 hours SOT max! My iPad Air 2 from 2014 isn’t too far - 3 hours 40 minutes). My grandma’s 6s died and I also decided to fix 11 Pro that lied flat for 2 years, so I gave SE3 to grandma because it is basically the same phone as 6s but faster.

Updated it to iOS 18 first and it was already awful. And iOS 26 was very bad - I felt all PWM symptoms after just glancing at it
 
uacd said:
Oh, it was a while😄 I guess in 2023, I also bought Galaxy M33 alongside it (due to TFT display). Galaxy unfortunately died - it was too large size and I dropped it into water, and it was not water-resistant model. What’s fun, it didn’t die actually - but power button stopped working, made using phone impossible since it doesn’t have home button as all modern phones.

As for SE I used it mainly because my 11 Pro display died and due to how much I hated this OLED display I decided to “move on”, and didn’t want to get new pro model due to said display.

In fact, I started to dislike other things in my SE like poor camera and very bad battery life (5 hours SOT max! My iPad Air 2 from 2014 isn’t too far - 3 hours 40 minutes). My grandma’s 6s died and I also decided to fix 11 Pro that lied flat for 2 years, so I gave SE3 to grandma because it is basically the same phone as 6s but faster.

Updated it to iOS 18 first and it was already awful. And iOS 26 was very bad - I felt all PWM symptoms after just glancing at it
Click to expand...
Maybe we should get a TCL 60 ultra nxtpaper. I am so fed up with current situation.


 
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I set up my iPhone 17 Pro Max again. Yesterday, the weather was very bad here,and I wasn't sure
if the headaches were really caused by the iPhone. I didn't want to give up so quickly, so I set it up
again today. PWM and 120 Hz are off. So far, everything's fine, and I haven't had any problems in the
last few hours. So I still have a bit of hope and will see how it goes over the next few days.
 
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DJTaurus said:
Maybe we should get a TCL 60 ultra nxtpaper. I am so fed up with current situation.
Click to expand...
Last I checked it's very hard to get one in the US. Only sold by regional carriers and the phone is locked to the carrier. Also the phones are value oriented which means they don't perform as well. Finally, it runs Android. The only thing I was able to find by a carrier that is local to me is the NXTPAPER 50 but that is already outdated.

Edit: Looks like the NXTPAPER 60 is now available unlocked on Amazon.
 
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Just noticed my 17 Pro won't rest on my belkin wireless charger due to the large camera bump 😩

Seeing all the scratches in videos and images on the Pro models, I'm very tempted to return for a 17 to get a glass back. This might be my craziest choice because the 17 Pro appears to be working for me so far - so should I really swap it out. I always use my phone naked, I hate cases - but if the blue paint can scratch so easily, I will never feel comfortable owning this colour/finish.


Also what is going on this site and using Microsoft SwiftKey or Grammarly keyboard? The text I write is very light and obscured as there appears to be a white shade over the text box?


IMG_4599.png
 
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PwmMen said:
I set up my iPhone 17 Pro Max again. Yesterday, the weather was very bad here,and I wasn't sure
if the headaches were really caused by the iPhone. I didn't want to give up so quickly, so I set it up
again today. PWM and 120 Hz are off. So far, everything's fine, and I haven't had any problems in the
last few hours. So I still have a bit of hope and will see how it goes over the next few days.
Click to expand...
How did you have your 16 plus set up again? Reduce White Point percentage, True Tone etc.
 
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