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Stig722

macrumors member
Original poster
Dec 12, 2013
66
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I got an iPhone X on launch day and suffered from really bad PWM symptoms, headaches, dizziness and eye strain. Swapped the iPhone X to the 8 Plus and felt fantastic. Just got the regular iPhone 11 two days ago hopping that all would be good with the non OLED screen but I'm not feeling great. Nowhere near the affects the iPhone X had, but my eyes seem to get dry and tired after short periods of time with the iPhone 11. Also, I'm getting very light headaches. On paper, the iPhone 11 should be the same as the 8 Plus. Is anyone else experiencing this?
 
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True tone is on by default.
True tone was not on default on my new iPhone 11 that I just received yesterday. I have not had this phone long enough but I don’t see much of a difference between the screens of the 8+ and the 11. I did have to adjust the brightness level though.
 
I copied over the 8 plus to the 11 so maybe that's the reason True Tone was on. Anyway, still feel a bit bummed out as I thought the iPhone 11 with the lcd screen would work perfectly
 
I copied over the 8 plus to the 11 so maybe that's the reason True Tone was on. Anyway, still feel a bit bummed out as I thought the iPhone 11 with the lcd screen would work perfectly
That could be the case because I copied over and did not have True Tone on with my 8+. Also, it is worth noting that I have been using my 11 all morning and it has gotten a bit warm on the back, noticeably on the right side by the camera. I am not sure if that is really a concern or not. It has not been so hot to where I’ve had to put it down.
 
I've returned my 11 because I didn't like the lower resolution compared to my 7 plus. I do most of my surfing and emailing on the iphone so reading text was tiring my eyes because the font is smaller and softer. I could literally see the light grey pixel edge on black text. Text also looked lighter. This was at 100% scale. I couldn't increase don't size as text looked even softer.

This is what I put tired eyes down to but I did feel there was some difference in the LCD. Like the screen was too bright/shimmery and I had blink and adjust my eyes more. No where near as much of an issue as the OLED iphone presents (eye strain, migraine etc) as this is down to the PWM irritating my eyes and brain, but something was off.

It's a damn shame as I was becoming accustomed to face ID, better speakers and battery life etc. So September 2020 cant come soon enough, unless Apple goes all OLED. Then I'm screwed.
 
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Pretty strange the way the iPhone 11 screen is so harsh on the eyes.
 
It's the ppi. You're used to the razor sharp 401 ppi resolution of the 8 Plus and going to the 11 you've dropped down to 326 ppi. It's blurrier just enough to cause the eye to constantly search for focus where none exists.
Yeah, yeah, people say the eye can't resolve resolutions beyond 326 ppi but my eyes sure can and I definitely don't have razor sharp vision.

I have a 6 Plus & regular 7 and I can tell "something isn't right" with the 7 screen's rendering (brand new screen). It's the lower resolution.
If you magnify the screen you'll see all the blurry outlines in text.
 
I am in the same boat. Went back to iPhone 8 Plus.
It was so bad that I gave the iPhone 11 to my son. Bought a new iPhone 8 Plus, as I had given away my old one.
That was a lot of money for me.
I used the iPhone 11 past the return date as I could not figure out what was going on, just using the phone less and less.
I agree, it was a shame, as there were so many things that I really liked about the iPhone 11.
And as most future iPhones will probably be OLED, I really wanted to keep the 11.
 
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I am in the same boat. Went back to iPhone 8 Plus.
It was so bad that I gave the iPhone 11 to my son. Bought a new iPhone 8 Plus, as I had given away my old one.
That was a lot of money for me.
I used the iPhone 11 past the return date as I could not figure out what was going on, just using the phone less and less.
I agree, it was a shame, as there were so many things that I really liked about the iPhone 11.
And as most future iPhones will probably be OLED, I really wanted to keep the 11.
I don't relish the idea of spending £630 on an 8 plus + £50 for case to protect the dumb glass back as it won't feel like an upgrade on my 7 plus like the 11 series would. But it looks like it's the only real option for me and clearly others this year.

I've already had my battery replaced once on my 7 plus which even at 90% health it tanks hard, the oleophobic coating has gone on the screen, touch ID has become really flakey despite updating my finger prints, and my speakers sound like trash. Also I regularly have to airplane mode on and off to get my wifi to work? Today the 8 plus probably meets my needs.
 
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Well. If it is any consolation, I got the 256GB, space gray. It was made in 2019. I am enjoying it as much as my old red one. I know this is weird. But, when I first got it and I thought about using the iPhone, I was happy remembering it was the 8 plus. The 11 just was not an enjoyable experience for me due to eye strain. I am nearsighted and normally see super well close up, but, something was bothering my eyes with the 11.

Please know that the iPhone 11 is a great phone. It was super fast, great camera with night mode, the speakers were such an improvement (it sounded like stereo), and yellow is my favorite color (it made me happy just to look at it). And pictures that I took with the 11 are some of the best pictures that I have ever taken.

If the 11 had worked with my eyes, I would have kept it and been super happy.

It still makes me sad that it did not work for me.

I even contemplated using the 11 and getting an iPad for most of my screen use. Then I was like, that is stupid, just get a phone that you can use.
 
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Well. If it is any consolation, I got the 256GB, space gray. It was made in 2019. I am enjoying it as much as my old red one. I know this is weird. But, when I first got it and I thought about using the iPhone, I was happy remembering it was the 8 plus. The 11 just was not an enjoyable experience for me due to eye strain. I am nearsighted and normally see super well close up, but, something was bothering my eyes with the 11.

Please know that the iPhone 11 is a great phone. It was super fast, great camera with night mode, the speakers were such an improvement (it sounded like stereo), and yellow is my favorite color (it made me happy just to look at it). And pictures that I took with the 11 are some of the best pictures that I have ever taken.

If the 11 had worked with my eyes, I would have kept it and been super happy.

It still makes me sad that it did not work for me.

I even contemplated using the 11 and getting an iPad for most of my screen use. Then I was like, that is stupid, just get a phone that you can use.

Not only have I not been able to upgrade for 3 years to Apples OLED because of the PWM but there is a change in their LCDS. This has me very much thinking I'm at the end of the road with Apple which is a little crushing because I can't see myself being happy with Android. I'm still in two minds about buying the 8+ because the cost in 2019 doesn't feel worth it because of the loss when selling it due to its age down the road. It will feel like I'm buying the exact same phone which I'm a little bored of if I'm honest.

Happy to read your back in the 8 plus and it's working for you.
 
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^^Pretty much where I'm at! Still using 8+ and figuring I'll buy another one when this one dies. My future with Apple phones is questionable at best at this point.

Although I did read somewhere that next year they are redesigning their screens so who knows!! It's amazing to me Apple seems unconcerned about this issue! I guess they're only concerned with the needs of the many!! Which as a stock holder I get that! It's just frustrating when you're one of the "few".
 
I have recently moved from iPhone 7 to 11 and also noticed more eye strain, eye dryness and some mild frontal headaches with the same use. The True Tone was on from the beginning, not much relief.

What helped me the most was enabling Reduce White Point (25%) in Accessibility section. On my iPad Air 2, I had it set at 50% for years now.

My guess is that some people are just more light sensitive and those new bigger screens are just too bright for us. You can try using your iPhone with your regular sunglasses to see if your symptoms get better. If so, perhaps try reducing White Point and/or screen brightness to your comfortable level, this should hopefully help.
 
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I think that too ..
new iphones have stronger brightness maybe

Possibly.

Also bigger screen sizes in general, so emitting more light overall. I was ok with iPhone 7 without any special adjustments, but had to reduce iPad’s White Point to 50%, else the light from white pages/apps was just way too strong for me.

I do not think it has anything to do with screen resolutions, though, as Apple Retina’s pixel density only went up a few years ago, so there would be lots of people complaining prior to that.
 
Could your eyes be sensitive to the infrared dots being cast on your eyes every few minutes?
I turned off this feature and noticed immediately a difference!
 

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