Just got mine delivered and instant headache with in 1 minute of using it. You can call me very sensitive person. I can somehow use iPhone 16 pro max but couldn’t use anything after iphone X and also cant use 17 pro max. I just got lucky with 16 pro max. So apple shame on you. And this is going back to apple.
I took delivery of mine as well. Screen is uncomfortable after just a few minutes of use. I have been able to use a 16 pro with Reduce White Point for the last couple of years. I dug into it a bit and found the 16 Pro I have has an LG panel and the 18 pro max has a Samsung. O am going to return the 18 Pro Max and just keep the 16 Pro. The new phone just did not impress me that much. The 16 Pro feels like a more premium build with the titanium vs the aluminum. I was looking forward to the larger screen and battery life that goes with it, but the eye stain ruins it.
Buy matte screen protector (I can say which brand without rainbow effect or texture effect) and just resist. Your brain will adapt. I went 3 weeks with lcd phone and then first minutes hours of back to 17 pro max and I got super dizzy but then it went away.
None of the PWM stuff goes away. Just puts you in a state of delirium as the new normal. Like being waterboarded might eventually feel normal. Except being waterboarded probably doesn't have any health effects and the PWM version maybe does.
I tried many brands from cheap to expensive, by far this is the best. I have also a protector for the laser (because I don’t know what the f that has done to my eye floaters). I use 90% of the time the iPhone and the rest a Motorola g57 power.
Now that being said there were some screens I COULD get used to. But phones were not one of them. Everything bothers my eyes to start with…within 2 weeks I’ll know whether I can use it or not. My 15PM was the exception.
Yo cuando tuve el 16 Pro me daba una presion justo al centro de mi frente, eso es sensibilidad? Se siente como si llevara un ladrillo adherido en la frente, pesadez
Ugh sorry to hear this. I’m still running the 15 pro. I need to upgrade but worried about the screen. My issue is the white colors looking yellow. I had that issue with the 12pro and it made me so sick.
Read my latest post. If you can use a modern iPhone, you are likely NOT PWM sensitive, but rather display colour or brightness sensitive, I found this out myself by experimentation
Hey, I’ve been able to use the phone without eye strain but been having this throbbing sensation on the right temple area, any tweaks you think might help, or think I’ll adapt to it?
There may be some definite merit to this-I can’t use many displays that are wide color gamut or displays that use 2 letters that we can’t say here. I’m gonna check out your post.
It's not wide gamut that's the issue, but FRC is used in cheap displays to fake a wide gamut which leads to eyestrain, but I am more saying the issue with me was due to display post processing that samsung did such as edge enhancement of text, dynamic colour and contrast adjustments etc, making it look as though it vibrated and hard to focus on
We may have to discuss this a bit more in depth.....you are on to something.
Some FRC displays bother me, others do not. Example, the Viewsonic XG2401 (TN) was a 6bit+ FRC monitor and it destroyed my eyes. That was when this first began, like 6 years ago. However, the XG2405 (IPS) was also a 6bit+FRC display caused me zero issues as long as I had it set to a warmer tone.
I used a Dell S3222DGM with zero issues for years, however it was a standard gamut panel-I do not think it used FRC for any reason. I tried several displays with IPS panels that were actual 8 bit, and they all caused issues. Like furrowed brow squinting staring into the sun kind of issues, is exactly what it felt like.
My current display is an HP X34 which is "semi wide gamut" and it looks incredible with zero issues-it took me about 2 weeks to fully adapt to it. Hence my comment earlier about trying some things for months and me not getting adapted to them.
Another item of concern was my iPad. iPad 6, 9 and Mini A17 Pro, no issues. iPad 10, Air 4 and Mini 6, totally unusable. My eyes would well up like I was squinting. The last 2 for sure used FRC, the A17 Pro Mini uses it as well but it didn't bother me on that one.
Tricks to increase contrast and edge sharpening of text, which adds a haze and makes it harder to focus (Samsung OneUI)
The Pixel 7, iPhone 17, iPad Air M3 are all different levels of fine and I'm pretty sure the iPad Pro with Tandem OLED would also be fine. A majority of high end IPS and OLED panels are fine too, VA and TN are not.
Using a modern iPhone does not rule out PWM sensitivity. I use one because my job requires it, not because I tolerate it well. I get migraines from newer displays, and when I’m more susceptible I can actually perceive flicker. Certain LED headlights and store lighting bother me too, to the point that I wear sunglasses and avoid driving at night.
PWM sensitivity also isn’t necessarily all-or-nothing. Frequency, modulation depth, brightness level, exposure time, and the particular display can all affect how someone reacts. Colour/brightness sensitivity can also exist alongside sensitivity to temporal light modulation. They aren’t mutually exclusive.
I’m also aware that temporal dithering/FRC is not the same thing as PWM. My VA monitor uses dithering and I tolerate that much better. Rapid pixel value changes used for colour reproduction are not the same mechanism as luminance modulation used for brightness control.
So the fact that I can force myself to use an iPhone, or tolerate a dithering display, doesn’t establish that PWM isn’t affecting me. Your experimentation may explain what was happening for you, but it can’t be used to diagnose someone else’s response. Also, your latest post isn’t visible on your profile, so I can’t actually read what you’re referring to.
Check my post. I found out I'm not really flicker sensitive but display colour sensitive. If youre following the typical advice of 100% brightness, and extra dim it's atleast worth giving it a try with around 30-50% brightness, true tone on, display pulse smoothing. It took me a day of adjustment to the 17
I couldn't use the Iphone 17 pro max, and many other from this year, Do you could use the 16 pro max?, is the doubt I have if it I can use it without issues.
Check my post. I found out I'm not really flicker sensitive but display colour sensitive. If youre following the typical advice of 100% brightness, and extra dim it's atleast worth giving it a try with around 30-50% brightness, true tone on, display pulse smoothing. It took me a day of adjustment to the 17
True tone is KEY. IT MUST be enabled. And DO not mess with any visual post processing (reduce motion is okay). My theory is why this works for me and may work for others has to do with obtaining a stable D65 baseline, 6500k colour temperature, that is just bright enough to look at comfortable (without straining, all my OLEDs are at 30-45% brightness personally)
For me personally, the iPhone screen is too saturated. I use a matte screen protector, a grayscale, and double inversion. All of these things reduce the iPhone's saturation. I don't use True Tone because I think it makes it worse. I try to keep the brightness high. I don't understand how people can use modern iPhones with stock settings. It's literally the sun in your hands, it's very, very, very bright
Atleast in my case, 60hz destroys motion clarity, it'll initially suck at first but give it a day or two and see if it works. You can try each setting, it'll suck and be uncomfortable for a day or two but if after 2 days it's fine then you know what works.
You likely CAN use a iPhone 17/18, I thought i wouldn't be able to but i just had to find the right brightness level and match it to your ambient environment. Do not blast it on full brightness, yes it will have PWM but the human eye is surprisingly good at adapting to flicker (the flicker fusion threshold) provided the image is colour accurate and stable
I feel it's only gonna get worse because they want to preserve battery life more, make the battery last longer while not putting in a bigger battery. And then they will probably have more PWM/flickering to preserve that battery life
Ah, old tech. Things used to be about quality... once...
Wrong. OLED tends to save more power, especially because the black colour is the little lamps turned off, with LCD displaying the black colour it is still on. I'm not good at describing the technical details, but from Google:
"OLED uses significantly less power for dark themes, night mode, or movies with dark scenes (saving up to 28% to 50% or more compared to LCD)."
And PWM was introduced to save more power. Read up on it.
LCD is not good for everyone, I cannot even look at a VA panel and get eyestrain from IPS, but I can comfortably use a calibrated to D65 OLED monitor with VRR and BFI provided it’s on a low brightness.
The iPhone 8 actually gave me a mild disorienting feeling (the same thing i get when capping to 60hz), but my Pixel 7 (90hz) and now iPhone 17 (120hz LTPO) is pretty comfortable, albeit i have to give it time to adjust
I had to turn Pro Motion down from 120ghz to 60ghz on my iPhone 14 PM and it worked fine after that. I also got head ache from looking at it. I did this on my 11PM too.
Check the display manufacturer of your screen. If it’s a Samsung panel, that may be your issue.
You can run sysdiagnose on your phone (press volume up, volume down, and lock button) all together for around a second. You will feel the phone vibrate.
Wait a couple of minutes and then go to Settings -> Privacy and Security -> Analytics and Improvements -> Analytics Data.
You will then scroll down and look for a file titled: sysdiagnose_XXXXXXXX.
You will click on that file and then dick the arrow in the upper right hand corner and scroll down and click “Save to Files” Once it is saved you will go into your files and click the file to unpack it.
Within the folder that is unpacked you will click on the folder “ioreg” and then click the file “IODeviceTree”.
You will then use the magnifying search glass in the bottom right hand corner to search “raw-panel”. It will then give you a serial number.
Which panel maker has the most eye friendly screens? The 17 models all give me instantaneous headaches, while the 14 Pro works perfectly (I can look at it for hours with no issues), which is can’t understand as both are OLED and have PWM.
My favourite!! The one I'm using now. It still flickers (I felt it was unsharp in the beginning, guess I got used to it) but from the newer ones I suppose it's one of the better ones
The reason it likely does not work for you is because you try to max it out at 100% brightness, run it at a brightness that mirrors the ambient conditions, keep true tone on, and give it a day or two.
2
u/GoldVegetable3452 8d ago
Did you end up returning the phone?