I decided to put together a quick poll to try to gauge what the consensus is on this forum over the last 3 generations of OLED phones, which generally is working best for everyone.
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Other Poll- for those who are PWM-Sensitive, which of the latest generation phones are usable for you?
- Thread starter jm31828
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Great idea on this poll.
While no OLED iPhone has been truly usable for me without severe headache symptoms that can be constant and persistent, my least bothersome experience was with iPhone 14 Pro Max followed by iPhone 13 Mini. So I’ll reluctantly put in a vote for those, even if neither was truly practical for me to use long-term.
It’s pretty obvious at this point that the lower the flicker amplitudes in conjunction with a higher frequency, the better the experience will be.
Or just stop using PWM and implement flicker that matches the refresh rate of the display, or better yet prioritize flicker-free brightness controllers again like Apple’s LCD displays for the decade-plus prior to iPhone X.
While no OLED iPhone has been truly usable for me without severe headache symptoms that can be constant and persistent, my least bothersome experience was with iPhone 14 Pro Max followed by iPhone 13 Mini. So I’ll reluctantly put in a vote for those, even if neither was truly practical for me to use long-term.
It’s pretty obvious at this point that the lower the flicker amplitudes in conjunction with a higher frequency, the better the experience will be.
Or just stop using PWM and implement flicker that matches the refresh rate of the display, or better yet prioritize flicker-free brightness controllers again like Apple’s LCD displays for the decade-plus prior to iPhone X.
I couldn't vote for 2 phones, but the 12 pro was fine for me along with the 14 plus.
Thanks for submitting! Curious question- the 14 Plus worked, did you try out the regular 14 as well? Just wondering as according to notebookcheck, their displays and associated PWM seem identical, but was curious if you noticed any difference.
Like this poll. Maybe we could use one that asks which phones have we been NOT able to use. I wonder if the curve skews left? It’d be nice to see if phones have actually been getting better for people. I feel they have for me. Still prefer LCD more than all my favorite things in the world combined—to use hyperbole to make my point. But I’m confounded at the number of people who say a previous phone (12 or 13) works, but a recent one (any 14) doesn’t. I want some data that has a pattern, only because I want engineers to use that data to make ‘better’ phones.
(Okay, quietly I just really want them to decide to go back to LCD.)
Yeah, great idea- so the thought being we just poll for which phones are bad, or were you thinking of two separate polls?
I played around with it in stores a few times. I did start feeling a bit of eyestrain after a few minutes, but that could have been b/c my eyes can't focus well on smaller screens anymore.
I don't know. Since you even know how to make a poll on here, I completely defer to you.
But to try to be helpful in answering....maybe a poll similar to this one's style with the slightly different question of "Which phones have you NOT been able to use?" and check all that apply. The 'all' seems key.
What do you think?
Hold up. We need @MICHAELSD to help out here. He's great at explaining this clearly. Yo Michael, please come share your acumen.
Quick answer until he gets here: PWM is an acronym for Pulse Width Modulation and is something that Apple started employing on their OLED iPhones since they introduced the X. Some people have had adverse physical reactions to this technology: headaches, nausea, eye-strain, dizziness, etc. The symptoms vary, as do their intensity, duration, and onset. In short, it keeps some people from even being able to use the phone. At all.
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Easiest poll for me. Answer: None.
No OLED iPhone has been usable for me without causing a negative response from my eyes and brain.
I'm talking about eye strain, eye pain, headaches, migraines, fatigue and motion sickness. Either in combination or felt individually.
The overly yellow/warm, glowing/shimmering, overly bright OLED appears to really irritate my eyes and brain. Who would have thought that starring at small screen that is constantly flashing (PWM) and dithering would be so problematic.........
The worst models have been the X and all Pro versions which have triggered terrible migraines. There is no adjustment period for me as the results are always the same.
Meanwhile, I'm fine with my 4K Samsung OLED TV. I love tech and have used the iphone since launch, not being able to use a modern phone/tablet/laptop is crushing and a challenge in the modern world (especially as a graphic designer). OLED is great for TV, films and gaming but I hate it for mobile tech and miss quality LCD with cool whites and no jelly scroll.
Mini-LED on the iPad Pro 12.9" is also an issue as it has PWM and visible shimmer.
No OLED iPhone has been usable for me without causing a negative response from my eyes and brain.
I'm talking about eye strain, eye pain, headaches, migraines, fatigue and motion sickness. Either in combination or felt individually.
The overly yellow/warm, glowing/shimmering, overly bright OLED appears to really irritate my eyes and brain. Who would have thought that starring at small screen that is constantly flashing (PWM) and dithering would be so problematic.........
The worst models have been the X and all Pro versions which have triggered terrible migraines. There is no adjustment period for me as the results are always the same.
Meanwhile, I'm fine with my 4K Samsung OLED TV. I love tech and have used the iphone since launch, not being able to use a modern phone/tablet/laptop is crushing and a challenge in the modern world (especially as a graphic designer). OLED is great for TV, films and gaming but I hate it for mobile tech and miss quality LCD with cool whites and no jelly scroll.
Mini-LED on the iPad Pro 12.9" is also an issue as it has PWM and visible shimmer.
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I find oled to be much better for me lcds screens would always start to hurt my eyes after a few hours of use
PWM has been the bane of my modern-day Apple experience for the past five years.
As @happy orchard astutely pointed out, PWM stands for pulse-width modulation. It’s a method of modulating display brightness by constantly flickering the display on and off at frequencies and amplitudes that can vary widely by device.
For sensitive users this flickering, which can be seen on slo-mo video, can cause a whole host of issues including severe tension headaches and migraines. For me these can be constant during device use, and even persistent afterwards. iPhone X, the first iPhone with an OLED display, caused 24/7 headaches for me.
Simply, our nervous systems are picking up on the flickering that isn’t supposed to be perceptible and responding in turn.
Apple has been making headway at solving this, but in minimal steps. Truth be told there are no OLED iPhones that I can use without getting tension headaches and migraines—some have simply been better than others. My only realistic option is to use a LCD iPhone like iPhone SE as the display is flicker-free.
Worse yet, new Apple devices including the MacBook Pro and iPad Pro, have been incorporating PWM recently causing similar headaches even at higher frequencies.
So, sensitive users have to entirely avoid Apple products with PWM flickering or optimistically hope that the minimal improvements on each generation will be enough to make for a usable experience.
See @Mark Stone, told you he was good at this explaining stuff. For your sake, I hope you've never noticed any of this awful stuff that many of us have. If you have, we have a club, still deciding on jackets.
Thanks @MICHAELSD 🤙🏻
Thank you @MICHAELSD for your well-written response. My iPad is an LCD, so no problems there, however my 13 is an OLED. Fortunately, it hasn’t been a problem yet. Again, thanks 😊
Maybe this should be fed back to Apple if they don't want to lose market share. I understand we're a small minority though. But looks like it's only getting worse. I suspect it might be a 5G issue also, but the issue was there even when turning 5G off. Looks like I'll have to hang onto my nearly 7-year old iPhone 8 for some time to come (or move away from Apple). I tried SE3 and it was horrendous, I returned it and told the shop assistant about my issue, she said they haven't had issues with this model (clearly she doesn't know, or she's gaslighting).
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Eye-strain while using iPhone X and up
Hello all, I thought I'd post here about an issue I've been having and see if anyone else is experiencing the same thing. When I'm using the phone my eyes feel strained, like, they're trying to focus on the screen. Also, I've noticed that when I look away from my phone at something else, my...
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Eye-strain while using iPhone X and up
Hello all, I thought I'd post here about an issue I've been having and see if anyone else is experiencing the same thing. When I'm using the phone my eyes feel strained, like, they're trying to focus on the screen. Also, I've noticed that when I look away from my phone at something else, my...
The SE3 has an LCD display, like every iPhone before the X, including your iPhone 8. So if it's affecting you as well, that's not a PWM issue.
Interesting. I thought I saw somewhere it was OLED also but can't find it now, they seem to name it HD vs XDR display (which could mean the same as LCD / OLED). I initially thought it was maybe the 5G, but I switched off the 5G connection and still had the same issue. But perhaps there's technology in a 5G compatible phone I'm sensitive to, who knows. However, I am flicker sensitive anyway (even police cars etc.) so likely PWM sensitive too, haha!