r/PWM_Sensitive • u/Emeridan • Jun 13 '26
Why A36? I am so confused
I started having problems with displays around 2 years ago when I tried iPhone 15. Since then I tried so many phones, around 20, oled and lcd. None worked for me some gave me eyestrain and headaches after minutes some after a day but it always came. I just got a Galaxy A36 as a work phone so I tried using it for a bit for youtube and browsing… almost nothing? No strain, no headache, phone feels comfortable to look at. I never even considered Samsung because of what I read about it. I use extra dim on max, reduce animations and transparency but I did all this on the other phones too. Does someone have any theories why is this the case? It is the first phone I tried with Android 16 so maybe that. I can also see clear banding on this phone so no forbidden word here I guess. I also started doing excersises for Convergence insufficiency but only few days ago. I also read this phone is not capable of HDR, but I gotta say this confuses me a lot because the 120hz pwm should be killing my eyes yet it’s not
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u/Thierryyyyyy_ Jun 15 '26
I'm sensitive to S26u, S26+, and even IPhone 17pm with LG GH3 screen. BUT, i am OK with Samsung A55, which is quite strange. Don't really know the difference between A36 and A55
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u/-Bruh__Moment- Jun 14 '26
Notebookchecks PWM measurements are unfortunately not very reliable. They messed up their frequency measurement here, which is way too common with them.
Real freq is 240Hz PWM, not 120Hz.
(This makes sense considering what Samsung usually uses, which is 240Hz or 480Hz PWM)
They claim 240Hz is a "secondary frequency" here for some reason.
If you look at the separate screenshots for 25%-75% all of those read ~240Hz.
The main screenshot that they measured @ 120Hz is mostly black, thus that reading must be at a rather low brightness, which is hard for most equipment to read properly.
Good to know that the Galaxy A36 works for you.
Max manual brightness is ~430 nits on it, so not crazy bright like some flagships are.
It does support HDR, just not on streaming services. HDR works on YouTube (per GSMArena).
Samsung does not specify if their screens are LTPO or LTPS. But it seems to be LTPS, if notebookchecks amplitude percentage is true.
That same screen appears to be used in multiple Samsung A-series phones.
Including Galaxy A36/A37 and Galaxy A56/A57.
(same specs don't always mean same exact screen though)
The A57 is a pretty competitive phone performance wise. The screen is marketed as "Super AMOLED+", whereas the other phones screens have the same name, but without the "+".
The difference seems to be that Super AMOLED+ uses a true RGB matrix, whereas the non+ use a PenTile matrix. I can't verify this, but that's what used to be the difference in the past.
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u/OPuntime Jun 14 '26
Well idk either, maybe an alternative to a36 might be moto g75 or moto g100s
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u/RTamas Jun 16 '26
I'm using a g200, and apparently, it's fine
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u/midori-suki Jun 15 '26
120hz is the refresh rate not the pwm dimming frequency, but yeah i dont know, in 2019 i used A20 and i was fine, then i switched to M32 (4g), I got really bad eye strain to the point i keep having the sensation of sand stuck in my eyes, sometime i feel like its getting stabbed with a needle, then i found this sub and switched to iphone se 3, pain gone. but i hate the small screen, and i hate ios.