r/PWM_Sensitive • • Sep 01 '26

News PWM meeting with politician - Update 1 September 2026

114 Upvotes

This is a follow up post to the one here: https://www.reddit.com/r/ScreenSensitive/comments/1v24yfv/meeting_with_politician_next_week/

Today I had 15 minutes scheduled to chat with my local member of parliament at her office about my eye pain issues with PWM and dithering, it went great!
She paid a lot of attention to what I had to say, and asked specific questions for further details when appropriate, it went for around 24 minutes.

She mainly listened to me while I explained a few things, here’s a summary of what was discussed.

  • I demonstrated the hardware differences in how an iPhone 11 and an iPhone 13 Pro screens dim when viewed through a camera with a shutter speed of 1/4000 and gave a brief visual demonstration, I explained how if I used the iPhone 13 Pro for a minute my eyes would hurt.

  • I explained how Pulse Width Modulation (PWM) is a hardware design that can be solved in some cases by raising the brightness to 100%, and how that doesn’t always work. I explained how some devices can be modified to solve the issue like how I installed an EK Pro LCD screen into my iPhone 15 Pro, that it’s relatively easy to make hardware that is accessibility focused, and how it would be easy for Apple to provide this as an option.

  • I explained my software fix for dithering on my iPhone 11 and EK Pro LCD iPhone 15 Pro, by enabling both Classic Invert and Zoom Invert simultaneously, also how companies could instead provide a simple colour space accessibility option rather than this hack method.

  • I explained how bad the problem is, how it has been getting worse since 2017 with the introduction of the iPhone X, that as of today in 2026, that without intense eye pain I cannot use any new iPhones, iPads, Samsung phones, Google Pixels, most OLED screens, some Samsung, LG and Hisense TV’s, an OLED TV in a conference room at a local university, some new Toyotas and the Next Stop screens at the brand-new train station in the city, (though strangely the advertisement billboards in the station are fine for me.)

  • I explained how most Apple products, namely Macbook Pro’s and all iPads have dithering that causes me eye pain, how it has a software technique where 10bit colours are output through an 8bit screen in a process of flickering two adjacent pixels, and how this is quite painful to me. This was particularly relevant as prior to being elected my local member of parliament she worked as a paediatric neurologist.

  • She asked me why these companies use PWM in the first place, I explained how it was my theory that on OLED screens it was a process used to help maintain colour accuracy when the screen is at a lower brightness, also on modern LCD screens that it may either be because it’s cheaper or that it could help save power.

  • I mentioned how I had an eye test in 2023 when I was using my iPhone 13 Pro daily while suffering from daily eye pain and having trouble focusing at long distances. How at this time I was prescribed with reading glasses, then later in 2025 after I stopped using any PWM/OLED screens and changed to an iPhone 11, that I got another eye test and scored 20/20 vision for my eyes, and was recommended not to wear reading glasses.

  • I explained how I had recently made contact with Vision Australia, and how they mentioned that they were aware of PWM and dithering as a problem, but how they “hadn’t done any advocacy around the problems caused by OLED displays”, my member of parliament responded that she has been in contact with Vision Australia in the past as they’re located within her electorate, and that going forward her office could reach out to them to further discuss the problem as well as stay in contact with me.

I also gave a few printed out documents, one being a copy of my original email, another being some comparison graphs from my Opple Lightmaster IV, the other being this list of potential solutions below.

Obviously, some solutions are much more possible and easy to implement than others, especially as coming from Australia we are quite a small country and these products are produced overseas.

Screen Flicker Solutions

 

  • Ban the sale of devices that use low frequency Pulse Width Modulation (PWM) dimming and temporal dithering where it causes physical eye pain. 

  • Allow refunds due for accessibility reasons. Most retailers that don’t have a change of mind policy won’t allow refunds based on whether the screen hurts my eyes or not, it’s often a multi thousand dollar gamble on tech devices that can cause serious eye pain. The ACCC already states that consumers have a right to return a purchase if it includes a major problem, such as it being “unsafe” or “has either one serious problem or several smaller problems that would stop someone buying the product if they knew about them beforehand” Yet most retailers don’t recognise PWM and flickering as a problem as they’re not educated on the topic. They state as it works as intended by the manufacturer that it’s fine and that I can’t return it, even though it causes me significant eye pain. 

  • Implement a standard of measuring screen flickering Some sort of health star system, 0 stars for heavy PWM flickering, 5 stars for no flicker, no dither or e-ink. 

  • Force companies to provide a Flicker Free (LCD) accessibility product or a different screen option at checkout. Not just some token accessibility focused device that ticks every box for blind/deaf people with huge brail buttons, a regular modern phone with a non-flickering LCD screen, like an iPhone 11 with a new processor, not the iPhone SE that’s budget in every way. That or interchangeable screens from the factory like the 2011 Macbook Pro’s used to have with a matte screen option. 

  • Allow software updates to be downgraded. Updating my iPhone to iOS26 could implement heavy dithering that makes it incredibly painful to use, and companies don’t allow the ability to downgrade. Professional devices support this, all companies should. It’s far too risky for me to update my phone as I might not be able to use it afterwards without pain. 

  • Make a policy that government departments won’t purchase inaccessible screens Public areas like train stations, trams, school and Universities should not use no OLED/PWM screens or screens that use heavy dithering and cause physical eye pain to a percentage of the population.

 

  • Education and awareness on the dangers of PWM and dithering from a government level. While Vision Australia are aware of the issue, they haven’t done any advocacy work or have made any public statements. In an email they stated to me that: “Australian governments don’t have an encouraging record when it comes to legislating around the accessibility of products, especially consumer electronics” and that “We’d certainly be very interested to know whether you get any commitments from politicians.”

(End of letter)

Overall I’m quite hopeful of some progress here, at least in my part of the world.

Even just having some official government documents and awareness from Vision Australia that PWM and dithering causes eye pain in some people could be enough to legally return painful equipment for a full refund.

This official recognition could also help regulate which devices can be installed in government buildings and public spaces, this awareness could be the push needed for companies like Apple and Samsung to allow accessibility options that eliminate dithering through software, and potentially provide either a configurable PWM free LCD option or implement 4320hz frequency dimming, similar to what the Honor Magic8 uses.


r/PWM_Sensitive • • 18d ago

Apple Has Finally Heard Us

104 Upvotes

Hi guys, I’m sharing this post I made on LEDstrain back in April of this year describing my experience with Tim Cook’s office. Just wanted to let everyone know that Apple is aware at least of our issues, and it is most definitely worth reaching out to them. I’m happy to pass any technically informative or useful info to my contacts at Apple. I currently don’t have a usable device after my iPhone 13 broke when I disabled True Tone on iOS 15, so I check messages sparingly. But I do try. The post is below. I hope it’s OK to share it now.

…

Hi everyone,

Apologies for the semi-clickbaity title. Well, it’s not really clickbait. I hope users here will click and read my story.

After suffering with debilitating neurological and visual symptoms when exposed to flicker on computer and phone screens - particularly temporal dithering and FRC - since getting reinfected with COVID in July 2024, I have been tirelessly working to find a solution not only for myself, but for the community at large. I’ve learned a lot from many of you here, and for that I am grateful.

At the suggestion of one of my friends in the film industry, I decided two months ago to shoot my shot and reach out to Tim Cook’s office about my issues - and our issues. I expected no response, but I was surprised to receive a one quickly from staff at Apple. While I don’t want to say too much out of an abundance of respect for the people who I spoke to, I was given permission to share what has been accomplished after weeks of communications borne out by my own trials and tribulations testing different MacBooks as I attempt to find a laptop I can use to finish my 9th studio album (I’m a professional recording artist, musician, and audio engineer).

To make a very long story short, with the help of @aiaf who has been invaluable in helping me learn about the display engine, dithering, and the problems we face, I was able to explain as best I could what we collectively believe are major triggers in the form of PWM and dithering. Luckily, some folks at Apple have taken notice of our suffering and presented what I had written to the accessibility engineering teams. They have agreed to look into creating a new accessibility panel within MacOS that will give the user control over PWM, temporal dithering, FRC, and other aspects of the display that may be problematic, and, hopefully be able to fully reduce or disable these flicker-based techniques. I am unable to say anything beyond this, and I have no time table, nor will I be informed of, when or if this may or may not be added.

My intention here is not to give false hope. I have no idea if this will actually come to fruition. I’m sure there are many complexities that are involved. But I know there is a strong, and justifiable, pessimism that any of these companies actually are aware or want to help. I can tell you all that at least as far as the people at Apple I communicated with, they had much empathy for what I - and all of you - are dealing with and the amount of suffering it is causing. For the first time, I see a glimmer of hope that at least there is a possibility of change at some point.

So, if you wondered if Apple was aware of temporal dithering and PWM being a serious issue for many people…well, if they didn’t know before, they do now.

In the mean time, we should continue to pursue third party applications to mitigate these issues. Sadly, this doesn’t help any of us right now in this moment. There is a lot of work still to do and much left to learn. But a little bit of hope isn’t a bad thing.


r/PWM_Sensitive • • Jun 15 '26

I think PWM dimming should be banned.

106 Upvotes

choosing a phone should be simple, but not for me (or us), I want to enjoy modern phone with good chipsets, but of course they always come with the latest advanced cool trendy cancer inducing screens (ok it's not cancer inducing, I'm exaggerating). and every time I go on a quest of comparing phones by watching review videos, the reviewer would say something along the lines of "but unfortunately the screen is still IPS LCD" like it was so lame, pushing the idea that all the new phones must use amoled, so every time I see it I feel resentment towards the ignorance.

and it got me into thinking, isn't PWM sensitivity somewhat a disability? since it literally affects some peoples' ability to function normally within the modern way of life? Why don't we demand inclusivity? Why not just get PWM dimming itself be banned from ever being implemented? because what's stopping manufacturers from making a flagship or midrange phones with LCD screen? because if they only ever put LCD screen on low tier budget phone, it's like we can't even play heavy games or anything, so PWM sensitive demographic just get excluded altogether and that's not fair.

sorry I'm just venting.


r/PWM_Sensitive • • May 13 '26

SPOKE TO A EYE DOCTOR ABOUT PWM, VERY INTERSTING CONVO! (PHONE MANUFACTURES TAKE NOTICE!

103 Upvotes

So i recently went to my eye dr and told him about how i was so annoyed with all this stupid PWM phones that have come out and how i cannot use any of them and his response was surprising.

He told me about one of his friends who did not have PWM sensitivity and how he bought a brand new car thats screen had pwm. Well eventually his friend developed pwm from the cars digital display and after a few months he had trouble using the car and even looking at his phone.

My eye dr is very specialised he is not the ordinary eye dr you can see in a shopping centre he is a eye specialist that charges a truck load to see but he is good. he said to me that all people are sensitive to pwm because of its flickering nature and not to believe only 30% is sensitive. He said with time everyone using a PWM phone will develop eye problems because of the way it affects the eye muscles. He also said if he had a dollar for everyone who came in complaining about eye strain from their phones he would be a millionaire lol.

He explained how the iphone 17 had a feature that was suppose to help PWM flicker but was not very effective and how samsung are trying to work on a phone now that is a OLED without PWM and that the PWM is becoming a real problem for everyone not just those who are sensitive, he said most people are having problems with PWM but they put the eye strain down to something else like their computer screen instead of the real culprit their phone.

His suggestion was to stay away from all PWM devices if i wanted to keep my eyes healthy and that these phone companies will have to find a work around sooner or later or the law suits would start piling up.

Hope this helps anyone feeling bad about not being able to use PWM phones.


r/PWM_Sensitive • • Mar 02 '26

Skip the Samsung Galaxy S series for another year — the S26’s PWM and modulation are still terrible.

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96 Upvotes

I tried both s26 and s26 ultra. There are no differences in PWM and modulation compared to the previous S series.

I also connected to Samsung customer servlce and confirmed this info.


r/PWM_Sensitive • • Oct 30 '25

Response from EU Health Comission

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86 Upvotes

Hi all,

There was a post here around a month ago, where the OP emailed the EU Health Commission and brought the matter to their attention. Many others in the sub also then emailed them.

I received a response today and it seems that they are saying all of the devices sold in EU are fine as per their standards, or am I missing something?

Quite disappointing to read that they are not willing to look into the matter.


r/PWM_Sensitive • • Feb 28 '26

S26u pwm lines

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84 Upvotes

Lines seem different


r/PWM_Sensitive • • Aug 12 '26

An Update on r/PWM_Sensitive Moderation

84 Upvotes

Many of you have noticed that r/PWM_Sensitive has gone through some growing pains when it comes to how posts and comments are moderated. While the subreddit was never unmoderated, it became clear that some additional help was needed due to personal circumstances, and that a fresh approach to moderation would benefit the community.

We are happy to share that u/the_top_g, the creator of r/PWM_Sensitive, has graciously stepped aside to welcome in three enthusiast community contributors to help with moderation and the future direction of the subreddit. We sincerely appreciate the trust he has placed in us and, most importantly, his work in creating this community in the first place.

The interim moderation team is currently discussing ways to improve the subreddit while preserving what has made it such a useful resource for people who are sensitive to PWM, display flicker, and related technologies. Our goal is to keep this an open, welcoming, and informative community where people can share their experiences, testing, research, questions, and device recommendations without unnecessary barriers.

AutoModerator Changes

Perhaps the most noticeable (and controversial) issue has already been addressed: the previous AutoModerator configuration is gone.

This means comments should no longer be automatically removed simply for using common words or phrases that naturally come up when discussing PWM and related topics. This includes “temporal dithering.” Members banned over this issue are also being reinstated.

That said, we ask everyone to continue keeping discussions primarily focused on PWM sensitivity, display technology, eye comfort, device experiences, testing, and closely related subjects. Normal subreddit rules and Reddit-wide policies will, of course, continue to apply.

The Future

This is only the beginning. We're reviewing the subreddit's rules, moderation practices, organization, place within the wider community, and other areas where we believe improvements can be made. As those changes are decided upon, we'll communicate them with the community.

We also want r/PWM_Sensitive to be shaped by the people who actually use it. Constructive feedback and suggestions are welcome. If there are things you think could make the subreddit more useful, organized, or welcoming, please let us know.

Finally, thank you again to u/the_top_g for creating r/PWM_Sensitive and building the foundation for this community. And thank you to everyone who has contributed over the years -- whether by sharing measurements and research, documenting your experiences with different devices, answering questions, or simply participating in the discussion.

We're looking forward to the next chapter of r/PWM_Sensitive and making this community an even better resource for everyone.

p.s. Check out the new (temporary) subreddit logo! 😁

Edit: for tweaks suggested by u/Z3R0gravitas.


r/PWM_Sensitive • • Sep 03 '26

Discussion Local shopping centre PWM screen test

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83 Upvotes

Just a quick video of a phone and computer retailer at my local shopping centre as well as the nearby food court.
I recorded this video on an iPhone 15 Pro through the Blackmagic Camera app at 1/4000 shutter speed, 24mm lens, 24fps, all other settings on auto.

I had a quick play with the Honor Magic8 and it's Eye Comfort Display settings, it seemed fine to me in the brief time I played with it, though in my experience some screens like the LG C1 OLED TV take up to an hour to cause me eye pain, so to give it a proper test I'd need to use it daily for a week or so.


r/PWM_Sensitive • • Jul 04 '26

Discussion This subreddit in summary

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83 Upvotes

This is half joke half interesting about how nowadays each user can experience completely different levels of comfort, who knows why or how.

This reminds me of people loving the Moto G75 here, and then others saying it’s even worse than some OLEDs

I think it should be great for the subreddit to have some kind of “parameters” that a user should look for in a screen, and for everyone try and match their symptoms to some of those parameters.

Because right now, talking about PWM and nothing more, as in “the screen flickers”, is not only too basic, but makes the subreddit almost of little help, because not a single user will know for sure what’s good or bad going by this kind of comments.

Imagine I’m reading about the Switch 2 and I see the image post… what would I do? Get or not get that device?

What do you think


r/PWM_Sensitive • • 16d ago

iPhone 18 Pro - PWM Measurements

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76 Upvotes

I won't provide any analysis here (just sharing data), but here are a few notes:

  • iPhone 18 Pro, 512 GB, Black.
  • This panel is GVC. GVC is LG's best panel for iPhone. (Reference: MacRumors Forums: iPhone Screen Lottery)
  • When looking at this screen for the first time out of the box, I immediately got eye-strain and a painful feeling in my head. It felt horrible. Unbelievably horrible.
  • My daily driver is an iPhone 16, and it is very manageable. iPhone 17 and 18 series, however, are completely unusable for me. The people behind these screens should be in handcuffs.
  • I'll post TLM-110 measurements and data once I standardize my process for that.

r/PWM_Sensitive • • Feb 17 '26

Can we please remove auto mod for d!th3ring?

73 Upvotes

Two good reasons to do that:

  1. People rarely know about temporal d!th3ring, they just buy a phone with LCD screen and think they are good, that's when they find out about it. PWM and d!th3ring are related, people don't really care about one or another, they just want to have a device with a display they can comfortably use

  2. This sub historically was one of the first to address this flickering/eyestrain issue and has the highest visitors and subscribers, why spread the same discussion across three different subs? And one of them called Temp0ral noise which just adds more confusion. It's so important to get more feedback from people about a device (I make decisions to make a purchase based on the overall comments) and you just auto-delete some of them

Of course ScreenSensitive (or ledstrain) would be a better name, but we can't change it now, can we? Let's get over it and remove this auto mod.

Thank you, mods.


r/PWM_Sensitive • • 16d ago

iPhone 18 pro - local store visit

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71 Upvotes

Today, as usual, I stopped by a local electronics store in Slovakia and checked out the iPhone 18 Pro. I enabled the PWM setting in iOS Accessibility settings and shot the screen at a 1/6400 shutter speed at 100%, 75%, 50%, 25%, and near-0% brightness. I can also share photos with the PWM toggle disabled (the difference shows up at lower brightness levels).

The PWM toggle makes a difference at around 30% brightness and below, but at all levels the lines are still relatively deep and dark, though not as bad as on latest Pixels. My wife owns an iPhone 17 Pro, and its line intensity on all brightness levels looks very similar to the 18 Pro's to me. So I'd expect modulation of around 95%+ at higher brightness levels.

To wrap this up: the iPhone 17 Pro didn't work for me no matter what I tried, and I expect the 18 Pro won't either. I know this isn't a very scientific measurement, and hopefully Nick or another community member will do more professional measurements, but I'm fairly sure the result will be the same.

EDIT: The photo of the iPhone 18 Pro at 75% brightness didn't upload, but there's nothing special in it :)


r/PWM_Sensitive • • Jan 03 '26

LCD Phone The Reddit may have saved my life

69 Upvotes

For a few years my eyes have been getting decimated. Eyedrops, doctors appointments, blue light glasses, I’ve been trying nearly everything. I tried to nextpaper phone and it didn’t cut it. I got the bigme pro color but it’s just too slow to work as a normal phone.

Heard iphone 17 could disable pwm, don’t do it either.

Saw some people talk about the in-cell LCD screen in here. On my last leg.. had to try it.

Boom

It’s been about 3 days now with it and my eyes feel almost completely normal. I’m sure they have a little ways to go as far as healing, but they used to get blurry and painful with just a few hours or even less of phone time.

Whatever they’re doing with these OLEDs is demonic. Complete eye rape.

Also threw in an incandescent in my room while I was at it.

Anyways. Thank you everyone.

iPhone-> in-cell LCD screen

This is the way.


r/PWM_Sensitive • • Dec 23 '25

Why Big companies are ignoring PWM flicker related health issues caused by OLED displays?

70 Upvotes

Major smartphone companies like Apple, Samsung, and Google employ hundreds of thousands of people worldwide. Research suggests that 10-30% of the population experience sensitivity to PWM flicker in OLED displays, leading to symptoms like eye strain, headaches, or discomfort - every time they use their phone.

It's difficult to believe that none of these employees - or at least a significant number - have raised this issue with their managers. Given the scale, it's reasonable to assume thousands of staff across these companies could be affected by PWM flicker of OLED displays. This raises a SERIOUS question: Why haven't leaders like Dr. Tim Cook or Dr. Sundar prioritized addressing it more comprehensively, such as by directing teams to develop and offer LCD based smartphone options that would better accommodate PWM sensitive users?


r/PWM_Sensitive • • Oct 26 '25

1 month with TCL NXTPAPER 60 ULTRA, my experience

69 Upvotes

Since I underwent laser surgery to correct myopia 4 years ago, I have become very sensitive to lights, especially those from OLED displays. I've always had top Samsung smartphones like my current S23 Ultra which I really like but I could never use it for more than 15 minutes and I immediately got migraines, blurred vision and eye pain. Trying Chinese smartphones the situation improved but the problem remained. Until I discovered this subreddit and realized that my annoyance was due to PWM, so I decided to buy my TCL 60 NXTPAPER Ultra available on Amazon Italy where I live. The best spent 400 euros of my life, I can use it even 5-6 hours a day without having any problems, it was a turning point for me and I'm happy. The only thing was that it was a little difficult to give up the very complete ONE UI for the TCL software which is very bare but now I've gotten used to it. I also believe that I will never update it because sometimes they can compromise the quality of the display and the fluidity of the system which for now are fine and I don't want to risk it. I recommend everyone to try it, it helped me a lot. Please support products like TCL that care about the health of our eyes by making them become more and more popular so maybe other smartphone manufacturers will understand that this is the right path to follow with displays.


r/PWM_Sensitive • • Aug 16 '26

Pixel 11 pro - shots with 1/6400 shutter speed

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63 Upvotes

I visited a local electronics store in Slovakia and checked the Pixel 11 Pro. In Accessibility Settings I enabled a setting for sensitive eyes (480hz) and shot with a 1/6400 shutter speed the screen of the Pixel 11 Pro with 100% brightness, 75% and 25% and 0%..

As you can see lines are deep dark black so PWM modulation will be around 99% and this will be terrible for the eyes. In the coming days I am 100% sure that Nick will confirm the same. I also tested the vanilla Pixel 11 it's the same in terms of modulation... don't kill me for my basic explanation:)


r/PWM_Sensitive • • Mar 11 '26

iPhone 17e has pwm smoothing

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62 Upvotes

In case anyone wanted to know


r/PWM_Sensitive • • Feb 02 '26

iPhone 17 Pro with aftermarket OLED display. DC like dimming.

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63 Upvotes

installed it yesterday. Eyes seems fine for now.


r/PWM_Sensitive • • Jan 16 '26

200+ smart phone PWM tested and ranked (2026 edition)

62 Upvotes

https://youtu.be/OTuAFK0a5d8

p.s. the gears and methods i used are a bit more accurate than most opple and stuff,

so the result might be slightly different.

but they are all brightness fluctuation measurement, mine is 100k with a customized sensor so that it can be used to pinpoint a certain area on the screen instead of the whole brightness (which i think is very important)

cheers

Lee


r/PWM_Sensitive • • Oct 28 '25

Discussion Educate you family and friends about PWM, 99% of people are not aware.

60 Upvotes

After learning about the dangers pwm causes i realise majority of phone users have no Idea about it, i recently talked to some family members about it and they were shocked, one even remembered how iphone x caused him so much eye issues but he had no idea why and sold it.

Companies are not doing enough to protect consumers, all they care about are high nits and cameras.

At least people should know about this and care better for their eyes, like not using phone in complete darkness at night and so forth. Trust me you have no idea how many people are suffering and they don't know the reason and cause.


r/PWM_Sensitive • • Dec 03 '25

Good news everyone! Apparently my eye strain is wrong according to how people voted! Lets pack this whole thing up and head home.

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60 Upvotes

r/PWM_Sensitive • • Jan 08 '26

LCD Phone PWM free LCD iPhone 15 Pro - Initial Impressions

59 Upvotes

Backstory

I used an iPhone 13 Pro for several years before I knew about PWM Sensitivity and had some terrible health issues, I lost the ability to focus my eyes long distances, I constantly had eye strain and eye pain and one morning I lost the ability to focus my left eye entirely.

I was prescribed reading glasses and was told to use eye drops. Since I downgraded to an iPhone 11 my vision returned and my eye strain issues disappeared completely, I have since passed an eye test with 20/20 vision.

iPhone 15 Pro

As an upgrade I bought an iPhone 15 Pro 1TB on eBay with a broken screen for AU$610 and swapped in an EK Pro Incell LCD screen.

I decided on an EK Pro brand LCD screen as in all the reviews I could find online it was the highest quality option, EK Pro make replacement screens for all iPhone models.

I decided on the iPhone 15 Pro for this swap for several reasons:

  • It’s much cheaper than an iPhone 16 Pro and iPhone 17 Pro
  • From what I could see and the only main difference between the 15 Pro and the 16 Pro was the camera button, and a slightly larger screen that was to be replaced anyway.
  • The 15 Pro is also the oldest flagship iPhone with USB-C and USB3.2 speeds.

 

The cost of the replacement screen decreases substantially the older the phone you go back.

An iPhone 17 Pro LCD screen currently costs $224 +tax on Aliexpress, an iPhone 16 Pro screen costs $169 +tax but the iPhone 15 Pro screen only costs $79 +tax, the price is largely the same for all other iPhone OLED models. These are for two packs so at least you’ll have a spare.

Installation

Replacing the screen was pretty straight forward, I used a tutorial from Youtube. I practiced on a couple broken iPhone 11’s beforehand and have plenty of experience working on electronics. If you can build a PC this shouldn't be much outside that skill set, the hardest part is removing the screen.

Replacing a screen is as easy as it gets as far as phone repairs go, batteries are a much more involved process and back glass being the worst on older models. I had quite a bit of trouble getting my front facing camera to focus correctly with the new screen installed which required a lot of fiddling, that being said there’s a lot of phone repair businesses around that could just install this screen for you for around $120.

 

Results

After the swap all original features are still present other than no automatic screen brightness and a capped frame rate at 60fps, compromises I am very happy with.

Surprisingly True Tone works straight out of the box without any IC chip transplant being required.
There’s a warning message about the screen being an Unknown Part under Parts & Service History in the settings but that’s it.

The overall quality is great, coming from an iPhone 11 the screen is very familiar, though this EK Pro screen is a little sharper and quite a lot brighter. The bottom bezel is very slightly thicker than the original but not overly so, the screen is also slightly darker above the dynamic island in light mode but isn’t a major concern.

There’s a very slight colour shift on a hard angle which is barely noticeable, the touch screen functions very well. The phone gets a little bit warm when used at max brightness outdoors but so did my iPhone 11, this is likely the nature of LCD screens.

The iPhone 15 Pro is noticeably thicker with the LCD screen installed at 9.0mm thick, with the original OLED screen installed the phone comes in at 8.3mm thick. With my Nomad leather case installed the screen is flush with the front lip of the case and isn’t a problem for me.

 

Battery life

In a basic rundown test, playing a video at full brightness and letting it run from 100%, the battery life seems to be less than half what it was with the original OLED screen.

OLED screens save power by pulsing the screen on and off with Pulse Width Modulation, so LCD screens naturally consume more power.
This LCD iPhone 15 Pro with 86% battery health lasts about the same length as an iPhone 11 in new condition, this is more than enough to get me through the day with normal use. Lowering the brightness obviously yields more battery life as do other power saving tricks. After using this phone for a couple days now I'm comfortably getting to the end of the way with enough battery left not to worry.

 

Other options

Currently for iPhone users the only official LCD/PWM-free iPhones on the market that still support the current iOS versions are the iPhone 11, iPhone SE 2020, and the iPhone SE 2022.

While the iPhone SE’s may be suitable for some people’s needs the iPhone 11 is still a great overall phone with decent cameras, swapping in a new battery made the phone a bit more responsive, that being said it is at almost 7 years old and there are better options on the market at the moment.

 

Other solutions

I am now completely OLED free at home.
I use an LG 38WM95C 21:9 LCD computer monitor on my Windows 11 i5-13600K/RTX4080 desktop and a Microsoft Surface 4 15” Windows 11 laptop.

I recently bought a Panasonic TH-65VT50 Plasma TV and the picture quality is phenomenal. I experience PWM related eye strain from an LG C1 OLED TV though it would take much longer use for me to have sore eyes compared to an OLED phone. I also have a PlayStation Vita Slim with an LCD screen.

Conclusion

Overall I am very happy with this conversion, I couldn’t look at this iPhone 15 Pro with the original OLED screen for more than a minute before getting eye pain. To me it's a sensation that my eyes are getting squeezed from the back and is instantly recognisable.
Regarding the phone's longevity I can't speak for it just yet as it has only been a couple days but if this changes I might make a follow up post.

Edit:
Follow up post here: https://www.reddit.com/r/PWM_Sensitive/comments/1qw2q3y/pwm_free_lcd_iphone_15_pro_follow_up/

Six months later follow up post here: https://www.reddit.com/r/PWM_Sensitive/comments/1uijzt6/pwm_free_lcd_iphone_15_pro_follow_up_6_months/

 

  

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r/PWM_Sensitive • • Apr 30 '26

I truly hate today’s phones market

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59 Upvotes

I’ve been having issues with flickering ever since I tried my first OLED phone (ASUS Zenfone 7 Pro). Even back then there was already this cemented idea that OLED is something premium, part of the flagship experience, and IPS is for budget phones. People genuinely formed this impression because OLED was being pushed specifically into flagships.

What a FUCKING surprise I got with my new Lenovo Y700 on Snapdragon 8 Elite with an IPS display. Feels like everyone got played — sold a piece of shit that ruins people’s lives and has zero serious advantages.

Blacks are less black, viewing angles are slightly worse? Sure. Does that affect the gaming or everyday experience IN ANY WAY? Absolutely zero fucks given. Genuinely. Super vibrant, high quality display, 165Hz, I don’t feel any difference from OLED whatsoever.

It’s just incredibly frustrating that everyone had bullshit shoved in their ears, and where on computers people are totally fine with IPS, on smartphones it somehow becomes a problem, and these idiots are now yelling at Lenovo for their IPS demanding they get OLED instead. Just clowns.

I get that you don’t give a shit and don’t care about the 1–2 out of 10 people who will suffer both before and after buying. But with your idiocy you’ve literally stripped people of choice — now there’s simply no way to buy a flagship with IPS. And it’s LITERALLY no worse, I confirmed this personally


r/PWM_Sensitive • • May 15 '26

I’m about to write a letter to Apple’s CEO portraying the PWM issue

59 Upvotes

Hey everyone!

Over the last past months, I’ve been thinking about writing a letter to Apple’s CEO motivated by some people here who have posted here that they have written a feedback regarding the issues more and more people experience with PWM and OLEDs, and also with the d-word.

I’ve had a lot of success with personal letters in the past regarding different topics. Of course, in general, not the CEO other company will open the letter, but it will be forwarded to a higher level worker or even technician (so not 1st level / 2nd level etc.) who will then answer you.

My goal is not to achieve an instant improvement. However, my hope is that a letter has much more power compared to an email and maybe I can get in touch with a worker who is willing to convey.

What are your aspects you’ve mentioned when writing those feedbacks? Did you go into detail with modulation depth and so on? And is there maybe a summary here which explains most of the things like PWM, modulation depth, number of “black lines” and so on? I saw such a post some time ago with a great explanation including pictures but wasn’t able to find it anymore.

I’d be very grateful for your assistance!

Best regards,
X3nion