• HardwarePhone

  • Yellowish display colors and contrast (iPhone 8 Vs. SE)

  • [deleted]

  • Post #4
  • Edited

Hi, I'm coming from iphone 8 to iphone 11 and experienced the same thing you describe with your new iphone SE. There is a whole thread on iphone XR eye strain in Macrumors forum so you can visit it to read for more information (they also discuss other iphone models including your SE):

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/eye-strain-on-iphonexr.2150554/page-21

In short, we suspect that after iphone 8/8 Plus, the XR and 11 start to use a different kind of display technology that is very fatiguing on the eyes (maybe they use dithering technology to reproduce colors?). The white color on the screen always have that pinky/yellowish/rainbow effect; it is not a solid and "static" white color like iphone 8. It has a "blinding" effect and very hard for our eyes to focus on, and there are no ways to fix that by any setting. If you are sensitive to that, just return it and find another phone.

Thanks for the additional details!
It's crazy how difficult buying a new device has become 🙁

I have returned it, it was too annoying for my eyes.

  • [deleted]

  • Post #6

Yep. I do not know what iPhone to buy now because that old LCD display is only available on iphone 8/8 Plus. All newer screens are fatiguing so maybe we’ll have to wait until the next generation (micro LED) and see, though it may not be so different from current OLED.

4 months later

I am in the same boat. I had the XS and that gave me a headache. Went onto the XR but there was something odd about the screen which I couldn’t quite put my finger on. Switch the 11 pro. It was better but still had the odd headache. Switched the SE 2020. Good screen but nowhere near as the comfortable as the 2016 SE which is my spare phone.

Contemplating switching the 2016 SE.

Was planning to get an iPhone 8 as I found a good deal. But before I pulled the trigger I decided to do a reset all settings on the SE2. It has somehow made a difference. Will see how it goes.

    Quad43

    After resetting the settings I turned off True Tone, auto brightness and turned on reduce motion. These are the normal settings I have prior to the reset.

    Interestingly I have a WireGuard vpn on the phone which connects to my home network. Struggled with trying to figure out why my latency to a device at home was ~200ms. After the reset all settings it dropped to 24ms which is about right over a 4G connection.

    I can only assume that resetting settings clears out old bum settings. Maybe it has helped with the screen. Will try and get some side by side screen shots of the iPhone SE and SE2020 for comparison later.

      13 days later

      Not been able to get the photo side by side as I wasn’t able to find my tripod.

      I have found a way to that may reduce dithering however you will end up with quite saturated colours though.

      in Accessibility settings turn on the Blue/Yellow filter and increase the intensity to around 70-75%.

      You can check how much dithering has been be reduced by jumping to the following site

      https://appleinsider.com/articles/16/09/09/apples-wide-color-screen-on-the-iphone-7-will-lead-to-more-faithful-color-reproduction

      I am not able to see the logo in the red box on my original SE. On the new SE it is clearly visible. However my enabling the colour filter on the new SE the logo disappears. Not sure if this reduces dithering but maybe be worth a try even on the OLED iPhones.

      • annv replied to this.

        m1ngw

        Thank you, that's a very interesting info! It might be useful when trying new devices.

        I've quickly checked the square on some of my devices:

        iPhone SE 1st gen - no logo

        iPad 2018 (6th gen) - no logo

        Windows desktop (HD 2500) - no logo on either display

        iMac 27 2017 - most color profiles show the logo, but many others don't. For example, "iMac" profile (default) shows the logo. HD-709 that gave me the least eyestrain doesn't show the logo.

        I'd like to add that the test square is very unpleasant to look at on any screen. Apple are doing something very wrong with their graphics. No new Apple devices for me, definitely!

        UPD: iMac is the device that gives me the most eyestrain (nervous strain) and that I cannot use with any settings.

            Hi all,

            I have been going through with this for a long while and concluded that apart from the PWM issue there is one more problem that should be addressed. New types of screen panels which are used in both IPS or OLED screens are more yellowish and silky. IOS or Android, doesn't matter. Even if the device doesn't use PWM these types of panels cause strong discomfort. The issue is not related to white balance, blue light, eye health settings etc. I may just guess the light emitted by these new types of panels are somewhat different. Contrast is bad compared to old tech as well.

              s_u_

              It may be the KSF enhanced phosphors used to create wide color gamut screens. They have a strong spectral peak at 632 nm.

              LG NanoIPS uses it and people complain about it causing eyestrain in those monitors, but I found an industry news article which claims it is in use in many modern smartphone and tablets in increasing numbers to create wide gamut displays. It entered production in 2014.

              The Qauntum Dot solution to creating wide color gamut screens has a much more balanced spectrum.

              Pcmonitors has a great write up on the enhanced phosphors and their spectrum

              The Industry news I mentioned

                5 days later

                annv

                Maybe the dithering so reducing the colour space may make things easier. Am trying to get hold of an iPhone 6s to test.

                  15 days later

                  What is interesting is that on the SE 2016 the square is orange which seems to be correct. On the SE 2020 it’s intense red. Not tried on the 8

                    This is the SE2020 compared with the SE 2016. True Tone is turned off, brightness levels are at the same level. The SE 2016 screen looks clearer to me.

                    8 months later

                    m1ngw This has nothing to do with dithering or pwm, it just shows wider color range of P3 screens. Dithering is used to smooth gradients between colors, not to increase color gamut.

                      5 months later

                      Yeah, the big problem with P3 is that windows for example, and web browsers are not suited to display higher than 100% srgb content. The result is colors appear off.

                      That's why I don't understand this nonsense of companies making full P3 gamut displays while it's not supported by widely used applications.

                      I personally dislike oled because of this (other than pwm of course), the colors just appear cartoonish and digitalized, it's very unpleasing. A screen is supposed to display what things would look in real life, this doesn't do it at all.

                      Plasma is still to this day the best looking display in my opinion, unfortunately it had other drawbacks.

                      As for the yellowish/pinkish/greenish displays nowadays, I agree with that. Something I noticed is white doesn't look white anymore in ALL modern displays be it on phones, monitors, and TV's. While If i remember, before white just looked white on screens. I guess it's due to the different phosphors used (red and green while before it was a yellow phosphor with high blue component). The blue was what made the white look whiter, I guess.

                      dev