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I am kind of surprised that we are nearly a week out from these getting out into the wild- and even longer than that since reviewers got theirs- and we have not seen anything measuring the PWM frequency.

I’m not that surprised.

Most of the “reviewer’s” have simply turned into PR shills for everything Apple....At least the ones that seem to get early access.
 
Well Zollotech reviewed 12 mini and showed that it also flicks like a beast :(

Well, my decision to stick with my first generation SE and replace the screen is looking better all the time.

Not sure what it is but as I have gotten older I have become much more sensitive to garbage displays and flicker and all of that kind of stuff.

To be clear I am in no way saying these oleds are garbage… But the flicker… Ouch
 
Well, my decision to stick with my first generation SE and replace the screen is looking better all the time.

Not sure what it is but as I have gotten older I have become much more sensitive to garbage displays and flicker and all of that kind of stuff.

To be clear I am in no way saying these oleds are garbage… But the flicker… Ouch
Well I’m exactly in the same spot as you. Screens seem to harm my eyes and my old SE is such a lovely device to use one handed and delivers a nice experience.
I wanted to swap to a new 12 model but this week I discovered that OLED screens flicker is really nasty on my eyes
 
Well I’m exactly in the same spot as you. Screens seem to harm my eyes and my old SE is such a lovely device to use one handed and delivers a nice experience.
I wanted to swap to a new 12 model but this week I discovered that OLED screens flicker is really nasty on my eyes

If you need a new screen for your SE1, I got a totally pristine refurb legit/OEM screen from MobileSentrix and I was absolutely thrilled with the quality.

It even seemed to have a new oleophobic coating perhaps (that "new screen feeling").

Super impressed, especially for $17 shipped
 
If you need a new screen for your SE1, I got a totally pristine refurb legit/OEM screen from MobileSentrix and I was absolutely thrilled with the quality.

It even seemed to have a new oleophobic coating perhaps (that "new screen feeling").

Super impressed, especially for $17 shipped
Mine is still in good condition, and battery health is about 87%
SE 2020 doesn’t seduce me and 11 is just too big. I’m sticking with old SE for the moment :(
 
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There’s confirmation both flicker. Whether the 12 vs 12 pro flicker iat different rates/frequencies is another story and we likely won’t know until notebookcheck releases the Hz.
I looked at notebookcheck link provided and they list the 12 Pro at 278 hz, and the 12 at 226 hz. So apparently there is a difference. Hard to believe it would matter for those sensitive.

iPhone Mini arriving tomorrow. Wish I hadn't found out about this from this thread. Hoping I'm not sensitive but there might be health consequences no matter. For example, I'm very sensitive to environmental noise and my mood drops. Others may not be bothered by noise consciously but I'd bet there are mental health issues anyway from constant noise (for example traffic noise).
 
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Any updates on this?
I had to return regular 12 since it raped my eyes.
Im not confident that mini 12 will be different on this topic, but maybe we are lucky to get different OLED screens with no flicker?
When u say raped what do you mean o siffer from pwm but all i get is like a weird strain and some
Focus issues?
 
12 Pro flickers like mad. It doesn't cause headaches for me but I don't like how it looks. I went back to my old 7 Plus and the screen is so stable and comfortable to watch in comparison. My OLED tv don't flicker so can these phone OLED's be improved to remove this flicker?
Do u suffer from pwm
 
When u say raped what do you mean o siffer from pwm but all i get is like a weird strain and some
Focus issues?
I used regular 12 for about 2/3 hours, setting it up, downloading apps, watching a couple of videos, browsing etc.

Eye strain ramped up until it felt like I had sand in the back of my eyes, a mild headache and a burning sensation in general in all the eyeball area.
First night couldn’t sleep properly.

This lasted for 3/4 days, with higher sensitivity to other light sources (I’m already a bit photosensitive but this got increased due to irritation, I guess)
 
I used regular 12 for about 2/3 hours, setting it up, downloading apps, watching a couple of videos, browsing etc.

Eye strain ramped up until it felt like I had sand in the back of my eyes, a mild headache and a burning sensation in general in all the eyeball area.
First night couldn’t sleep properly.

This lasted for 3/4 days, with higher sensitivity to other light sources (I’m already a bit photosensitive but this got increased due to irritation, I guess)
Oh my, sorry to hear that. I assume after 3/4 days things went back to normal for you?

And with the 12 during the time you were using it, did you try using different brightness levels to see if there was any improvement?
 
Oh my, sorry to hear that. I assume after 3/4 days things went back to normal for you?

And with the 12 during the time you were using it, did you try using different brightness levels to see if there was any improvement?
I bought it on Monday, opened it and so by the evening and used it for 3/4 hours. Today I still have some remaining irritation and sensitivity to light sources. Using my old SE the same amount of time I use to every day, it’s being a little painful those days since I’ve not fully recovered.

I tried to use True Tone on and off, disable white point, use different brightness levels with different room light intensity, and nothing helped.
The worst was when in the end of the day, maybe from accumulated damage, it felt like watching the screen was specially painful with low brightness and dark room.
Maybe my eyes were already irritated by the time I tried different combinations so it’s possible that some of those could had helped, but to be honest: I don’t think so.
 
As best I understand this, the only solution for those sensitive is to run at full brightness at all times. Then PWM isn't in play. Or switch to an LCD phone.
 
As best I understand this, the only solution for those sensitive is to run at full brightness at all times. Then PWM isn't in play. Or switch to an LCD phone.
Problem is, that there is plenty of PWM flicker measured on the 11 Pro and 12 series phones even at 100% brightness.

Turning brightness up too high has eyeball piercing brightness for many of us, causing its own version of eye strain and headaches.

Interesting thing is that on the 12 and 12 Pro anyway, the best/lowest amount of flicker was really around 50%. Maybe we can work around that?
 
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I've now read that true 100% brightness is difficult to achieve. Auto brightness must be on so max brightness will likely only occur in sunlight.
 
The issues seems to be a software issue, that is not specific to the iPhone 12. The 11 also does it, as well as the iMac 5k
 
While I haven't spent a lot of hours looking at the screen, I did watch a video and a good bit of time playing with settings. So far, so good.

By the way, everythingapplepro has done drop tests now on all the 12 models. Most recent one here just a few hours ago. Bottom line, really hard to break the front glass.
 
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DC Dimming Version iPhone 12 (Only some of demo iPhone):
1. Min brightness is not at the most left of slider (very strange)
2. Min brightness is much higher than normal
View attachment 971700

DC + PWM Version iPhone 12(All retail versions):
1. Same as iPhone 11 Pro/Max, DC at high birightness, PWM at low brightness
2. Min brightness is normal.

View attachment 971705

3. PWM trigger brightness
View attachment 971706
4.I have no device to measure the accurate frequency of the PWM flicker of iPhone 12, but I had eye strain after using several minutes at low brightness, maybe it's still 240hz pwm.

So stay with iPhone 11 or buy a LCD android device may be a better choice for those who are sensitive to PWM flicker.
It makes zero sense why they would have demo units with DC dimming and not bring it to production models.
 
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I went to the Apple store and test the PWM flicker of iPhone 12/Pro simply with camera. No flicker is detected at all brightness level on both 12 and 12 pro. But it’s very weird that the minimum brightness of 12 is much higher than 11/11 pro. It seems that Apple limited the minimum brightness of iPhone 12 above the PWM trigger brightness to avoid PWM flicker( At least on demo version). But I’m not sure same thing happens to retail version.
View attachment 971630
I don't doubt your findings, I just puzzled because I was able to put brightness all the way down to basically a black screen (like on the right in your photo) at a Apple store session I had yesterday.

what was strange is that I did have a bit of a headache when playing with phones for 45 minutes 😂 that went away after a minute after leaving the store.

had I not known about PWM, I would have thought it was due to max brightness shooting at my eyeballs and staring at screen for that long, so I'll have to test during the 14 day period and see if I can get through a long movie or YouTube video.....

It's looking like I'm pooling alllllll my gift money from last year, and item sales from around the house, with this years gift budget to get a mini. I'm not particularly pumped about the cost.... but once the money is gone it will feel like money well spent.

provided the PWM doesn't give me headache! In that case I may have to go for an 11. NOT a fan of the LED though since I can tell how LED's darken around the edges. It was on the Apple store display phone too. (SE isn't an option since the battery is small like my 7, and I can't stand these thin round edges when holding the phone for a long time... it cleaving my bone joints.)
 
I have the mini as of yesterday. It does flicker. I can sense it sometimes. I am not suffering as badly with watering eyes and eye strain as I did on the 12 Pro and 12. I still have the 12 here in the house and can definitely feel a difference looking from one screen to the other. I have trouble focusing on the 12 screen. I can focus on the mini. I can run True Tone on the mini and it’s not yellow or pink. My 12 Pro was awful with True Tone. I couldn’t use it on that phone and it bothered my eyes.

I think I’ll be able to keep the mini and use it regularly. I think the trick is to find the display that flickers at a rate that affects you the least. And for all of us that is unfortunately dependent on the individual.
 
I have the mini as of yesterday. It does flicker. I can sense it sometimes. I am not suffering as badly with watering eyes and eye strain as I did on the 12 Pro and 12. I still have the 12 here in the house and can definitely feel a difference looking from one screen to the other. I have trouble focusing on the 12 screen. I can focus on the mini. I can run True Tone on the mini and it’s not yellow or pink. My 12 Pro was awful with True Tone. I couldn’t use it on that phone and it bothered my eyes.

I think I’ll be able to keep the mini and use it regularly. I think the trick is to find the display that flickers at a rate that affects you the least. And for all of us that is unfortunately dependent on the individual.
Glad to hear the mini is working a bit better for you!

I noticed, too, that even with TrueTone on, my Mini display is not too yellow at all- it is great.

I took slow mo video of my mini with my old phone (11), at different brightness levels- and wow it flickers like CRAZY. Not surprising as we had read that the flicker frequency is not really any different than past OLED phones. But for me, like you, it is not having major impacts on me yet- but my eyes do feel warm and dry when I look at the display for a few minutes.
Not sure what that's all about- but will see how it goes for a week or two before deciding to return or keep.
 
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As it seems with Chinese manufacturers, such as OnePlus and Xiaomi, DC Dimming has been added through software updates in the past for those who have issues with PWM flickering. These companies have been transparent that flickering still occurs and that display quality does take a hit if the feature is enabled. I have it on my 7T and the differences in display quality are negligible.

That being said - OnePlus has removed this out of their most recent device, the OnePlus 8T, due to the fact the frequency being used for PWM (458.7 Hz) eliminates the need for DC Dimming.

More than likely, the hardware is already in play for DC Dimming to occur in the 12 line-up if demo devices in Apple Stores are capable of completing such a task. It's up to Apple to allow users to be able to enable the feature. Knowing how stubborn Apple is, its most likely never to happen.
I thought you meant a software issue in IOS.
My mistake.
 
That being said - OnePlus has removed this out of their most recent device, the OnePlus 8T, due to the fact the frequency being used for PWM (458.7 Hz) eliminates the need for DC Dimming.

The experimental software DC Dimming option is gone indeed, and it seems like it could have just become redundant. Like you mentioned, there’s the high frequency that does its part, but I ran into this as well: https://www.phonearena.com/reviews/OnePlus-8T-vs-Samsung-Galaxy-S20-FE_id4880

This is the interesting part:
DC Dimming 2.0 – Reduces eye strain and visual sensitivities that can occur at low brightness on AMOLED screens. To dim the screen, the Pixelworks solution dynamically adjusts the display’s current to mitigate the screen flickering associated with conventional Pulse Width Modulation (PWM) dimming.

So no need for the old DC Dimming option if a 2nd gen version is built in to the display controller.
 
Anyone having no issues with the 12 pro and issues with the 12 ?
Knowing the 12 PRO had PWM at 270 HZ and the normal 12 220 HZ ?
 
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