Hi everyone, i read some older posts but no one seems to be active. I bought a new MBA with M1, switching from a ‘19 15 MBP. I am getting eye strain after few minutes of use. It gives me headache. This has never happened with the previous machine. My eyes are ok, i had a medical consultant two weeks ago. At work I use a windows machine without any effort for hours. Is this a display issue? Something related to Big Sur? Anyone experimenting the same problem?

mattiadebiaggi Not much you can tweak with the new M1's at the moment. Some users of this forum have bought, tested, and returned. You may be best to return it and go back to your old MacBook unfortunately.

I am not going to be much of help, but sometimes in February or March this year I tested in a shop a couple of MACs with M1. The MacBook Air - can't recall the details but it was the cheapest of the series - looked okay after 15-20 minutes, whereas the MacBook Pro gave me instantaneous eye strain and neck pain. I am not qualified to tell you what the reason for the difference could be, though. Have you tried a MacBook Air?

AGI It was the air, see title of post. I would suggest op stocks up on old mac's that work for them. At least have one backup device to fallback on. Or a long shot, maybe try a warranty return. Play dumb and mention there's a flicker in the screen. You maybe sent a new one that could be ok, if it's related purely to the display hardware.

I looked at the same M1 one in the store and could not stand it. Immediate eye strain in just a few minutes. I don't think there are much to tweak, your best shot is to return it, use the one you're comfortable with and wait for the next model.

thorpee My bad, sorry. Anyhow, I must now use a Mac Mini at work. As soon as I looked at the display last Friday, I got immediate eyestrain and neck tension. Horrible experience for the moment. I will see if symptoms diminish with time, but I am not very positive.

I bought a Macbook air M1 and the first day or so had a strain, but now i dont have a problem. Ive been looking at the new iMac and instore that seems fine to me. I cant use Windows 10 because of the eye strain/headaches so this may well be my replacement for my 7 years old Windows 8.1 machine.

The more I read about dithering for color, the more I feel this is a very overlooked issue. Check this page out regarding temporal dithering and look at the very slowed down image and see if it makes you feel weird. Please also read their data. It is my belief that dithering is used for HDR. I'm still trying to verify this. If so, this explains why all of the current TVs are out of my reach.

Clokwork It is my belief that dithering is used for HDR. I'm still trying to verify this. If so, this explains why all of the current TVs are out of my reach. I think the HDR "certifications" only "mandate" that displays are native 8-bit, all else is kind of "ad-hoc", but I could be wrong. 😐

JTL Thanks for that. I will need to see what the full requirements are and what manufacturers do to meet them.

Clokwork For starters https://displayhdr.org/performance-criteria-cts1-1/

MacBook Air and eye strain

Clokwork

I've had the hypothesis that display resolution could matter too. What baffles me a little is that my TV is "2k". It accepts 4k signals. I did have to dumb down my projector from 4k to 1080p, but 1080p is its' native form. It basically shakes the pixels really fast to simulate 4K. My current monitor is 1080p and the one I am eyeing is 2k.

thorpee

Higher resolutions mean the UI needs to be scaled up. Which could lead to fancy upscaling that causes us issues.

This calculator is a good tool. https://www.calculatorsoup.com/calculators/technology/ppi-calculator.php

Anything over 100ppi I struggle to read.

AGI

thorpee Higher resolutions mean the UI needs to be scaled up. Which could lead to fancy upscaling that causes us issues.

Donux Now the problem is not eye strain, but motivating to do work rather than spend on social networks

😆 Good on you!

I asked that question, because historically I have always benefited from lowering the display resolution. In some cases that has transformed an unusable system into a perfectly usable one and for as many hours per day as I wanted. A change from day to night. I never found an explanation for the "trick", though, especially while most folks were going for the opposite, higher and higher resolutions.

thorpee Higher resolutions mean the UI needs to be scaled up. Which could lead to fancy upscaling that causes us issues.

Interesting. Are you referring to the native resolution / density of the pixels or to image re-scaling? Sorry, I am not very knowledgeable.

thorpee

AGI

When we started getting higher resolutions of 2k or 4k they had to quickly find ways to make the buttons, menus and text bigger. That's when they probably started playing with dithering more at the OS level to smooth out any pixel based items that did not scale well. Apple probably established it all with the retina display. Thanks Apple.

I feel like we are better to stick with lower resolutions so we can leave scaling at 100%. Like a 24inch 1080p or 27inch 1080p monitor.

Tom81

Hi guys,

I'm thinking about getting Macbook Air M1 since this hardware is great for my work. I'm very worried about eye strain since I already have a problem with it.

I have glasses with blue light filter but they don't help much.

Can you suggest good monitor to use with? I've seen Asus Eye Care monitors, are they any good? Is it just marketing?

I've read about curved monitors being good. Anyone with experience on this?

Any other recommendations on 27' monitor to pair with M1?

Thank you

ryans

thorpee Apple probably established it all with the retina display.

This is anecdotal, but I had no issues with any device, until Apple Retina came out. That started it for me.

AGI

thorpee Apple probably established it all with the retina display. Thanks Apple.

The first Retina display that came out, though, looked so easy on my eyes. I remember looking at it in Apple stores back in 2013 and wishing I could switch my business Windows laptop to Apple. Now, instead I can tolerate only the new MacBook Air.

Clokwork

I disagree with the software assessment. My iPad, usable for almost 4 years became unusable around the time iPad OS release version 15. My eyes have the same symptoms that the newer iDevices cause. At first I thought it was hardware only, but now I think it can be both.

eyestrainsolutions

AGI

The macbook air m1 is also the most confortable laptop for my eyes, the air m2 isn’t confortable. Did try other laptops or smartphones that are confortable for you?

elililisa

I have experienced eye strain and blurred vision from using my new MacBook Air this past week for work. I can't focus properly on text, the letters go blurry and it stays with me for a while after using the laptop. I have had no issues like these with my (very) old 2010 MacBook Pro.

What I've done so far, going off what I read here and other places, is lowering the resolution (I could literally feel my eyes relaxing, but it could also be that I'm used to my old MBPs resolution), unchecking the "true tone" option in screen settings and also reduce transparency plus increase contrast. And obviously do all the right things that I do anyway (taking breaks etc).

Will give it some time to see if it helps things.

Moe3224

elililisa Any updates?

I have the MacBook Air M1 and I'm having the same problem, I might return it for this reason. great performance and eye killer.

Tom81

I had problems with eye strain for years, with different computers. It all started 12 years ago when I was working nights on CRT monitor. Later, smartphone screens also bothered me.

I recently got Macbook Air M1 and I have to say, I'm getting much better. Like advised here on forum, I keep brightness under 50%, turn off true tone and keep room light warm and minimum brightness.

I feel so much better and I can easily work 8 hours with a few breaks. It saved my life.

SDonatas

Tom81 Is this on Big Sur or you have already updated?

MBP212

AGI Hi, sorry for replying to an old thread, did your symptoms ease with time?

AGI

MBP212 Hey. Not really. Hanging in there…

SDonatas

AGI Wow, your response is a game charger. I'm investigating this issue now for couple of years and it seams like there is enough evidence to support temporal dithering, NOT display issue. Although this would also imply, I'd issue would be solved, your display will not be colour accurate. General rule in of thumb - there are no cheap color accurate screens. If you see someone is offering one (like apple), note it's at the expense of your eyes due to led flickering technique they employ.

AGI

eyestrainsolutions Did try other laptops or smartphones that are confortable for you?

Hey, sorry, I read only now. I am using a HP ZBook Firefly 15 G7. I recently reinstalled Windows 10 from scratch and upgraded to version 21H2 / OS Build 19044.1889, and it is better than it used to be. I can handle it fine. Earlier I had had Windows updates blocked for 1.5 years but the laptop became problematic when HP customized software sneakily passed through a BIOS upgrade.

I only tried the MacBook Air M1 in a shop. It looked okay, as the most recent iPhones did. I did not make a move and buy anything. I never tested an M2!

Anyhow, personal opinion, we all have "different" eyes/brain, so what bothers me may not bother you and vice versa. I do not think there is any device that stands up as problem-free.

Deepdeep

Came across this and thought it might be useful in this convesation:

https://ledstrain.org/d/1186-found-a-fix-for-pwm-flickering-headaches-on-macbook-air-m1

eyestrainsolutions

AGI thank you for the reply. I believe a hight number of us can have a solution with current tecnology, but we need a big company to support an expensive study with people that have problems with screens, that will increase chance of sucess for a solution.

Donux

Hi Folks,

just want to update on some of the statements made before and actual technical tests that I found in notebook check sources.

It seams like temporal dithering is not used by apple on new macbooks. The only cause is - PWM backlight flicker. So on macbook air m1 or m2, on lower brightness you will get very high HZ, on higher brightness very low HZ, chose which type of eye strain you prefer 🙂 Generally, there will be no solution. Only real solution - get monitor without CCFL (pwm). I think decent monitors these days do not use it anymore, but please correct me if I'm wrong. (Good means DELL line for example ~300 usd)

Sources:

On PWM:

Apple uses PWM at a very high frequency of 117 kHz for brightness up to about 50% (about 160 cd/m2). Above that, we measure some slight flickering at 60 Hz, but this only shows some very small brightness variations (with or without the charger). Neither should lead to any difficulties for more than very few users.

Tested Model:

Macbook air M1

Source:

https://www.notebookcheck.net/Apple-MacBook-Air-2020-M1-Entry-Review-Apple-M1-CPU-humbles-Intel-and-AMD.508057.0.html

AND

Display - An IPS panel without temporal dithering

We refer you to our review of the basic version for information on the display. In the comments section, we were asked about temporal dithering (it is used to create the illusion of more color depth). So, we examined the IPS panel of the Air M2 with a microscope and created a slow-motion recording with 240 images per second. While we were able to detect temporal dithering, for example, in the current MacBook Pro 16 with the Mini-LED panel in some particular gray color tones, this was neither the case in the old MacBook Air M1 nor in the new MacBook Air M2.

Temporal Dithering Tested on Macbook air M1, M2

Source:

https://www.notebookcheck.net/Apple-MacBook-Air-M2-review-The-faster-10-core-GPU-isn-t-worth-it.640427.0.html

mirza

Donux

Well I don't know how that is possible, since I use monitor which is PWM free, and I still get eye strain and everything else that follows. I use it with windows PC machine without any issue.

« Previous Page