That’s simply not true. Because of the way that LEDs work, they will appear at different brightnesses at the same voltage level. However, the differences between different LEDs brightness is significantly less at higher voltages. This means always using a higher voltage, but then keeping the display on for less time, allows full color accuracy while also allowing display dimming. If you use DC dimming, you will always lose color accuracy unless you have separate power lines for red, blue, and green LED sub-pixels, accounting for the brightness differences for each LED type. This might be possible in a large device such as a TV (though extremely expensive and would take a massive amount of engineering to make work), but that’s simply not possible in a phone. Additionally, a capacitive touch screen makes separate power lines significantly more likely to have interference. So engineers did what engineers always do, they made a design that hit the spec, a dimmable display with color accuracy that looks identical to the vast majority of the population.
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iPhone 17 Models Include Toggle to Disable Screen Flickering (PWM)
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Here is an RGB(0,0,0) to RGB(31,31,31) gradient on my LG CX OLED TV set to maximum OLED Light (brightness) in SDR mode with my DSLR camera set to 3.2 second exposure time:
Here is the same gradient, but with the TV set to minimum brightness, but with the camera set to a 15 second exposure:
The image quality is significantly worse at the lowest brightness setting.
There is about a 5x difference in light output between the brightest and darkest settings.
On my Pixel 8 Pro, there is about a 500x difference between the brightest and darkest settings when manually setting brightness. And it's nearly a 1000x difference if you include auto brightness when using the display under bright light.
The performance demands on a smartphone display are enormously higher. It's not about cost savings.
Presumably if that were the case it would be enabled by default on these displays and not an option
Fair point. Although I already do this sometimes on my iPhone, with a custom shortcut for reduced white-point, combined with a high (at least 50% or higher) brightness setting it truly helps for me sometimes with eyestrain/headaches in low-light situations.
But yes, let's hope it's a true hardware solution so it could potentially completely fix the problem.
Dear friends,
I am really excited about the upcoming iPhone 17. I am looking forward to it and I am constantly checking the news about it. Could you please write me more messages about why you think this new feature will be great?
I really hope that it will work perfectly and I would appreciate any encouragement you can offer. Thank you for your support.
I am really excited about the upcoming iPhone 17. I am looking forward to it and I am constantly checking the news about it. Could you please write me more messages about why you think this new feature will be great?
I really hope that it will work perfectly and I would appreciate any encouragement you can offer. Thank you for your support.
Technical name for a practical feature that’s as important as auto-brightness.
It has already been confirmed that is is in all Iphone 17 models, assume that also means the Air
That was exactly my situation as well. But after a long time my eyes got used to it. I did apply the classic measures though. Brightness set to full and then reduced the white point to at least 90% under the accessability settings. What is wierd to me is the fact that Apple to this day hasn't offered anything like it on the mac. I've really struggled with the new MBPs with OLED. That's why I returned one and got a MBA. However, I did find two great apps that address this issue very well. Black Light and Gamma Control are the names of those two. Highly recommend it. In the end I've also discovered that what bothers my eyes the most is the glare of the glossy displays. That's why I always put a matte screen protector on my iPhone/iPad.
Hope this gives you some new information.
Cheers!
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I think the issue with the iPads maybe had something to do with the tandem OLED setup. I never have had issues with any of Apple's screens but had to return the OLED iPad because it was so bad. It's possible the implementation of the PWM was radically different too tho. 100% agree however they need to make all their displays have options for people with issues. You don't realize how bad it is until you experience it first hand. Now that I have I really feel for anyone that is more sensitive than I am.
Maybe, but I don't think so. Apple being Apple might be quite aware they can boost the sales a bit more with this feature exclusive to iPhone 17. Or it's just available on the latest models because of an updated display controller. Nevertheless none of those cases indicates that this feature will be rolled out on older phones.
They wrote on Reddit that there is no PWM switch on the 16 Pro Max, which is great! This gives hope that the switch is tied to a more powerful "technical" component rather than a software-based one.
First chinese reviews are out.. and WHAT A SURPRISE it's a total lie. It basically reduces modulation but doesn't remove PWM at all.
Not sure why I expected anything better from Apple tbh - cancelling my pre-order
Not sure why I expected anything better from Apple tbh - cancelling my pre-order
Yes, the topic can be closed. Friends, at least Apple has started moving in this direction! See you in a few years.
Modulation is a huge deal as well though so don’t completely discredit it.First chinese reviews are out.. and WHAT A SURPRISE it's a total lie. It basically reduces modulation but doesn't remove PWM at all.
Not sure why I expected anything better from Apple tbh - cancelling my pre-order
it is.. but a result of 50% modulation is still very bad, and is not 'disabling PWM' in any shape or form.
You’re not wrong but that’s assuming what you’re looking at is accurate. Additionally, traditional there’s been differences in every model so time will tell.
My question is, do the black bars get wider at a lower brightness? If not, this should still significantly improve comfort at lower brightness levels for most people. Perhaps the hardware can't be pushed beyond ~90% pulse width.
I suppose if the pulse width is consistent across brightness levels, they can truthfully say they don't modulate the pulse width to adjust brightness.
at 3:45 we can see PWM is still happening. I guess apple is technically correct by saying the toggle is "a different way"
The wider the bars get the worse it is typically. What I’m hoping we’re seeing, and everyone is jumping the gun on, is something similar to oled tvs. All oled tvs are technically not flicker free with a slight dip that corresponds to the refresh rate but even folks extremely sensitive to pwm barely notice. This shows up as black bars on your tv as well.
Additionally, I believe oled monitors do this as well which is why they are often certified as flicker free by 3rd party companies.