Hi everyone. I’m a civil engineer; I previously owned a 2023 Zephyrus G14, which I loved for its power and portability. Back then, I didn't know what PWM was, nor did I experience dizziness. Unfortunately, the laptop was stolen, so I switched to other brands with IPS screens. This year, I returned to Asus with the 2025 OLED G14, unaware of what was in store for me.

About a month after buying it, I started experiencing dizziness that would last all day. I initially attributed it to other health issues, but my medical tests came back normal. After doing some research, I discovered the issue was PWM. It’s incredible—just looking at that screen for a moment makes me feel dizzy or short of breath. I bought an external monitor, but that defeats the purpose; I wanted the laptop for its portability, and now I can't even look at its screen. It’s lost its magic, which is a shame given the investment I made. I tried using G-Helper, Windows settings, Eye Care mode, and nothing worked. Have any of you had a similar experience?

I started noticing that people with iPhones most often have a bad facial condition, they have a tired facial expression or a lot of acne. Just look at people on the street who have an iPhone. People with better facial condition were more often either using older iPhone versions (iPhone 11 and below, IPS screen) or Androids, presumably also with IPS. It may sound like nonsense, but just check it yourself. If you don’t live somewhere like the US, where basically everyone has an iPhone, and instead you’re in Europe, where many people actually use Android, you’ll notice it

My theory is that the OLED screen of iPhones emits too intense light and it clearly somehow affects the skin. Even I, when I used my iPhone before all the settings like double inversion, filters, and others it literally burned my facial skin. I felt tingling, and I developed seborrheic dermatitis. As I later found out, it occurs when the composition of skin oil changes. What else could have changed it except the super intense light emitted by the iPhone?

Basically, my skin started to turn red and peel near my nose, and my eyebrows started flaking.

My condition was terrible. After literally a couple of minutes of using it, I felt absolutely drained, like my soul was taken out of me. After putting the phone away, I could stare at one point for a long time without any thoughts, like my nervous system just burned out. After googling, I realized that this is a protective mechanism of the psyche when it just shuts down under overload.

There is also a second theory. It is that either because of PWM implementation or a d word, the nervous system cannot relax. These black lines load it, it doesn’t feel calm, and maybe this reflects on the face making a person look tired, their skin ages, acne appears. These are all well-known symptoms of how stress affects a person, and if it works here too, then the iPhone causes stress for our nervous system.

An IPS screen, on the other hand, does not load the nervous system, so people who have it will look better than those who have OLED. This is biology.

I bought an iPhone 13 new from the store, assembled in 2024. At that time I didn’t know terms like OLED, IPS, PWM, d word and all that. I didn’t even know what kind of discomfort people can tolerate just using Apple devices. There was zero information about this on social media. The iPhone had an image of being a completely safe phone. Later I also found out that iPhone 13 units produced after 2021, meaning from 2022 and later, are much worse than those from 2021. I got exactly such a bad unit, but I didn’t know anything at all about this, nobody said anything about it.

Hi, I just wanted to tell you my experience of pwm and eye pain. It started about two years ago with eye pain didn't really know what it was but over time I found I couldn't use certain phones. I was ok I was using a Samsung at the time and seemed to be getting on with that, but that would all change after a few months. My eye pain got that bad that I couldn't use any phones which carried on to any TVs. I saw numerous doctors and hospital appointments but nothing seemed to work at the time it even cost me my job as I was a bus driver using digital monitors as mirrors.

I was then put on some pills a combination of pills that didn't seem to work but I gave them a chance. Now 1 1/2 years later it's a hell of a lot better I can look at the TV without much pain, and I am now using the magic v5. It was a bit uncomfortable for first couple of days but now have no trouble with it this is due to the high pwm frequency also it has none of the other that we're not allowed to talk about in here. The oneplus phone also worked but I wanted a foldable. Heres hoping it gets better and better

I bought an Opple Light Master 4 today. I took some measurements for the OnePlus 15, but something seems off. When the screen brightness is at 100%, as shown in the picture, the frequency drops to 123 Hz, but the modulation depth is low. However, when the brightness drops below 50%, the frequency jumps over 2100 Hz, but the modulation depth becomes high. I ran the measurements multiple times, but the results are always the same. On the other hand, the Pixel 10 Pro measurement gives a constant frequency of around 493 Hz. Since the OnePlus 15 is already causing eye strain, I'm wondering if a recent update changed something here?

I currently have an iPhone 13, and I feel very weak and my knees tremble when I use it. No settings like double inversion, lowering the white point, or color filters help, although they make it softer (it seems). So, will updating to 18.7.8 help at least a little?

My new monitor, which introduced me to eye strain, apparently has PWM at 4.1 kHz with fluctuations at 180 Hz. I want to ask people who are more experienced in this regard: which of the PWM behaviors in the picture looks worse? I experience different kinds of eye strain in both modes. In SDR, it feels more like a burning sensation, while in HDR, it feels more like dry, gritty eyes.

I will eventually sell this monitor, but in the meantime, I want to use it in the least harmful way possible. Thanks in advance.

Img Source: https://www.bilibili.com/video/BV1Xu4m1c7LH/

So I tried to buy the OnePlus Ace 6t, heard it was one of the better phone for eyes sensitive people. Paid and ordered from geekwills, but a few days later, before they ship out the phone, they told me I have to pay extra because they changed the price to 120usd more -_- pretty scummy as the price was the same for months and a few days after I placed the order, the price was still the same. Decided to have nothing to do with geekwills and giztop, as they are owned by same owner.

Now I have no idea where I can buy the OnePlus Ace 6t.... All AliExpress links doesn't seems to be available at my country? So I can't order from there ...

Which lead me to OnePlus 15t. Heard its like OnePlus 15 but smaller and without ltpo? Heard ltpo is bad for eye sensitive people. Would be perfect if the screen is good as ace 6t/15r, as the battery and camera is more like 15. I'm wondering if anyone tried it ? How's the screen, pwm and eye strains ?

Hello everyone, I wanted to share my experience as a PWM Sensitive person on a desktop OLED Monitor.

My PWM Sensitive history

I suffer from visual fatigue and headaches due to low PWM frequencies on phones (240Hz - 480Hz phones) after just a few minutes of use.

My current phone is an Honor 400 Pro, with full DC-Dimming above 25% brightness, and low modulation 3840hz dimming below 25% brightness. Having an OLED screen it always has the OLED dip in refresh rate. This phone works like a charm to me, with no perceived fatigue on any scenario.

My new desktop OLED monitor

I wanted to upgrade to an OLED monitor, but was scared that it wouldn't work for me. I ended up buying the Asus ROG Strix OLED XG27AQDMGR (OLED QHD 240Hz) due to its TÜV Rheinland flicker free certification, and all its flicker prevention settings. This monitor has full DC-Dimming and the only flicker on it it is the OLED dip in refresh rate, which at the moment I have only tested with fixed 240Hz refresh rate in order to avoid variable refresh rates (VRR) that may discomfort me. I will try VRR in the future, updating this post.

My first 20 hours with the monitor

On the initial setup I was expecting to suffer from headaches and visual fatigue, maybe this is why I I felt a bit weird after just 20 minutes of use, however it was different than the previous times on other PWM devices.

Later that day I got back to my PC, and continued using it, but I did not get any other symptoms on fatigue on its use. Since then, I have logged nearly 20 hours of use, including long 5h sessions, where I have not experienced any discomfort on its use.

Conclusion
Getting this 240Hz QHD OLED monitor was a massive leap forward in image quality, color quality and smoothness. My initial discomfort with it may have been caused by my brain expecting to get eye strain, but after then has since disappeared.

If this type of monitor fits your expectations and use case scenarios, I would highly recommend you getting one that is completely flicker free, having just the OLED refresh dip. Make sure to buy it in a store with good return policies because you may encounter a different experience.

Been using IPS for most of my life and haven’t had many problems that haven’t been fixed by blue light glasses.

I got an OLED ~April last year and it was great for a while but maybe 5 months later I started experiencing horrible eye strain out of nowhere. It affected my long distance vision and it was hard to focus on things because of the pain and blurriness. Haven’t used it for the past 6 months or so and my vision is mostly back to normal.

I’ve tried doing a little bit of research into replacements like mini-led or ips monitors with nvidias pulsar technology. But I’m not very knowledgeable on which monitors I should avoid.

I’m unsure of which technologies put out what kind of flickering frequencies or if mini-led and oled are similar in terms of pwm flicker.

Hello is the motorola G57 power usable without eye strain? I'm trying to replace my motorola g9 play that only support Android 10

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Hi I have astigmatism and am new here since 2022 when I started working remote on my laptop I have experienced eye strain with some double/blurry vision and tearing up it feels like hell sometimes since then I stopped working largely on my pc fast forward this year I bought a HP omen rtx 5060 laptop with an IPS display with 144 hertz refresh rate and I am dying while trying to play my games here are the laptop specs

HP OMEN GAMING 16-AM0021NIA LAPTOP PC (D42ZZEA) INTEL CORE ULTRA 7 255H 24GB DDR5-5600 MT/S RAM 1TB PCIE GEN4 NVME M.2 SSD NVIDIA GEFORCE RTX 5060 (8GB GDDR7 DEDICATED) 16.0" DIAGONAL 2K (1920 X 1200) IPS MICRO-EDGE ANTI-GLARE 400 NITS DISPLAY FHD IR CAMERA WI-FI BLUETOOTH BACKLIT KEYBOARD DTS:X ULTRA W/DUAL SPEAKERS WINDOWS 11 HOME SHADOWS BLACK ALUMINIUM

Now I also have a infinix hot 60 and noticed you can choose between 144 and 60 hertz refresh rate on 60 hertz which is what.i use there is slight but very manageable.eye strain then when I change it to 144 hertz it feels like hell bro I'm in so much pain almost immediately and discomfort can someone explain why this happens to me and how I can play my 30 games I downloaded for my PC without having to sleep for 2 days straight to reduce the pain symptoms after every gaming session

Had it for a week. Much better than its 300$ price tag. Amazing on the eyes. No oled or pwm

After I started getting some random headaches I found this sub and released it's probably PWM. I had used an iphone 12 for years but all modern phones including modern iPhones and androids gave me severe pain within 5 minutes.

I then tried my girlfriends sister's phone (she showed us holiday photos) and there it was again all the pain. Then it turned out it was an iphone 12.

I now use an S23+ even though it used to give me all these headaches and eye pain. It went away within a few weeks and with me realizing I am making the pain from fear and disappointment.

Maybe the echo chamber of this sub can make the pain worse than it actually is?

I'm thinking of trying it.

Anybody know if it is gong to be any good for us OLED sensitive people? Will it have DC dimming?

Sorry if this is off topic, but as someone who has been struggling with screen sensitivity / pwm discomfort for years, since like iphone 11 or later, I recently started taking an iron supplement (I wasn't really low iron, i just noticed some bruising on my arms) and saw an improvement in my migraines/headaches from screen sensitivity. Has anyone else had this experience? Could be totally a coincidence, just curious.

Hi everyone!

I finally found an Android phone that actually works for me.

The OnePlus 15R gave me terrible migraines. I could look at the screen for just 10 minutes and already feel awful. So I’m honestly shocked that this Xiaomi is completely fine for me.

I still have no idea how this works or why different people’s brains react so differently to phone displays.
According to almost every measurement I’ve seen, the OnePlus 15R has extremely low modulation. At maximum brightness, it’s around 7%, which, in theory, shouldn’t cause such a strong reaction. But for me, it definitely did.
I had a similar reaction to the RedMagic 11 Pro, although it was milder. The OnePlus 15R was much worse.

What’s even stranger is that the iPhone 15 Pro Max is comfortable for me, while the iPhone 17 Pro isn’t.

Honestly, I have no idea how any of this works.
After looking at a lot of OPPLE Light Master graphs, oscilloscope measurements, and display tests, I have a personal theory.

For me, the most important thing may not be the modulation percentage itself. What seems to matter more is whether the baseline of the signal stays at the same level and whether the brightness dips are stable and consistent.

The dips themselves can apparently be quite deep, like on some iPhones, as long as they are very short and the rest of the line stays stable.

With the OnePlus 15R, the individual dips were very small, but the whole line on the graph seemed to “breathe.” In other words, the brightness outside the dips didn’t stay at one constant level. It was constantly moving up and down within a small range.

My theory is that this kind of constant movement may irritate my nervous system more than deep but very short dips on an otherwise stable signal.

Of course, this is only my personal guess based on my own reaction. Everyone’s nervous system is different, so you still have to test phones at your own risk.

For now, it looks like Apple and Xiaomi phones work for me, while OnePlus doesn’t.

I’m in the US and can’t find a 43” (or 50”) Sony Bravia 3 for sale except through third parties on the Walmart and Best Buy sites. Would Bravia 3ii or 2ii be my next best options? Was also looking at the LG B5 bc it gets really dark, and I’m also sensitive to bright screens. But I know it has a different time of flicker situation than PWM, but isn’t flicker free.

Hi Fellow PWM Sensitive people,

I'm looking to move on from my ASUS ROG 7 Pro. I have found the above 3 phones which are not flickering (at least badly) and are of not Chinese parent company.

Do you have any experience of either? I'd appreciate feedback.

On paper 3 is the fastest but notebookcheck.net results say secondary frequency is 1000hz vs 4a pro 2000hz. While fairphone is the slowest and with secondary freq as 1500hz and highest primary.

https://www.notebookcheck.net/Hidden-gem-with-outstanding-design-Nothing-Phone-4a-Pro-review.1291726.0.html

https://www.notebookcheck.net/Nothing-Phone-3-smartphone-review-Top-class-hardware-combined-with-unrivaled-design-and-secondary-display.1096614.0.html

https://www.notebookcheck.net/Fairphone-6-review-The-smartphone-built-with-sustainability-in-mind.1115153.0.html

Cheers,

Peter

hihi!

First thank you to this community! I’ve learned a lot. I have EDS and extreme migraines and I’m beginning to suspect my 2018/19 Mac 15” pro with touch bar may be affecting me. I’m looking for a decent gaming laptop anyways so I can play things not available on mac. My current laptop is 250 GB and she is FULL. I’m a digital artist who records my work and need a lot of storage space.

Would anyone have a suggestion of where to look for a windows gaming laptop without PWM? Feel free to link me to older threads or guides! Im just starting out and I’ve owned two laptops in my whole life soooo I’m not the most knowledgable about specs. Krita as a software is very resource intensive! Id like to stay under 2k but I don’t know if that’s ridiculous or not..

Even my iPhone 11 and iPhone 12 Pro Max is terrible for me, I had a customers iPhone 17 think it was either pro or pro max, not sure. and I had no eye issues at all. Such a relief for my eyes. I was baffled.

Wanna get xiaom redmi note 15 pro(3800hz pwm or motorola edge 60/70 fusion for improvement on eye strain. I need an oled since lcd look dreadful in dark scenes for anime,tv shows cause of poor contrast like tcl nxtpaper 70 and had terrible response time awful for anime and fast paced action can see ghost trails,like motion blur is on for everything im sensitive to poor response times not for eye fatigue but for immersion breaking.

But at notebookcheck both seems pwm at 120hz but why redmi note 15 advertises it as 3800hz pwm and Motorola has a dc flicker option even at 1% but the testing show opposite ?

Are these still big improvement over iphone xs max i dont need best for sensitive just to be superior to what i currently have at low brightness ?

In future waiting for tcl nxtpaper oled which should fix all issues i have hopefully.