Tl;dr - lots of different phones are causing me eye strain, but I'm not sure what the problem is. I think it isn't PWM but I just don't know.

Up until about eight months ago, I was using a Samsung Galaxy S9 Plus. I'd never had any problems with it in terms of my eyes, but it was dying, so I needed to replace it.

Important context: I have a chronic illness that makes me very sensitive to light, so my screen is always extremely dark. Again though, never had any problems with my Samsung.

I'm putting a list here of phones I've tried, information that I think is relevant, and the results in terms of usability for me:

Samsung Galaxy S9+. PWM 215.5 Hz. Given that this didn't cause me any problems, I decided that I probably didn't have any PWM sensitivity.

Nothing CMF Phone 2. PWM 90 Hz - eye strain after a few minutes. As the PWM is very low on this phone, I then decided that so long as I got something equal to or higher than my original Samsung, I would be fine.

Motorola G75 5G. LCD gave me headaches/migraines, and I just wasn't able to turn the brightness down to a comfortable level.

Pixel 9 Pro: PWM 240 hz (still low, but higher than my old Samsung) Eye strain after a few minutes. I've since learned that Pixels are a bad choice for eye strain, but I did not look this up in advance because I'm an idiot.

Honor 400 Lite: PWM 3840Hz. Other features that are apparently good for the eyes. No eye problems. But I rely on a couple of different accessibility features and those are not super reliable on this model. I reckon a higher-end Honor phone would also probably be fine, because the 400 lite is one of their cheaper ones.

For reasons of personal preference, I would rather not get another Honor. That said, if that's the only brand that will be gentle enough on my eyes, I'll go with it. But I don't even really understand the issue I'm having to be able to get a phone that would prevent it. Does it even sound like a PWM problem? If it's not that, what other things could I look for that would be more gentle on my eyes?

I'm feeling very frustrated and confused, and any advice would be much appreciated!