MacBook Air and eye strain

mattiadebiaggi

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?

thorpee

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.

AGI

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?

thorpee

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.

AGI

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.

nt2211

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.

MBP212

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

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.

clivers

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.

Clokwork

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.

JTL

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. 😐

degen

Clokwork

Their example with the GTX 1650 further confirms our finding here that newer Nvidia GPU always dither, even when dithering is turned off in Nvidia settings on Linux. They say it’s likely due to a driver bug. I’m pretty sure this communities suspicion that it’s set to always dither in the vbios is more correct.

Clokwork

JTL

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

JTL

Clokwork For starters

https://displayhdr.org/performance-criteria-cts1-1/

Clokwork

Off the top, the color gamut could be where dithering is used as a trick? I’m firing in the dark here.

Clokwork

I was reading (here possibly) that AMD cards may have more direct ways to disable dithering. If I find this to be true, I will be building a full AMD PC here soon. I’ve wanted a good excuse to upgrade, but this would be a very good reason to do so.

JTL

Clokwork Just a heads up. I've only confirmed that's the case with the Radeon Pro W55500 under Linux.

I haven't completed my testing, but I have reason to believe other Radeon cards may not be okay for dithering.

reaganry

Clokwork I have a LOT more options with my AMD card (and displayport) than with nvidia.

ensete

I'm noticing big issues in OS versions on Mac devices. It has nothing at all to do with dithering

Donux

I got eye strain for sure and now I've got myself HP Elitebook 845 G8 (Ryzen) which will be used as linux machine. Just waiting for it to be delivered. It has very decent and color accurate matte screen, without paying for premium brands, packaging etc as it is the case with Dell XPS. Unfortunately, its not an option for me to get a monitor, since I'm always on a move and like to work in public spaces. When it comes to apple, M1 mac has more issues actually, since apple will always use dithering, will always use PWM, will always ship adaptors without grounding, and so much more. It is all to make device cheap, but still achieve those key "marketable" metrics so that device feels premium (at least at the store, or for non pro users)

Donux

Donux Just an update, use both machines air M1 and HP. FHD HP elitebook very smooth on the eyes, its like black and white difference. Sandly I like macbooks, so use them interchangeably. Its really sad that apple does not want to ship good screen specifically for low eye strain, meaning lower pixel density, and other stuff

Clokwork

Apple deciding to use temporal dithering from here on out 100% excludes me from their lineup. Somehow my iPhone X works for me. Seems it will be my last i device unfortunately.

Lauda89

Clokwork Mee too! The Iphone X is one of the best device i've ever had. Zero eye strain..
Honestly i've never tried other recent iphone, but next year i will try to change it.

bkdo

Clokwork

Lauda89

It's odd that the X works for you guys, I wonder what makes it different than the later OLED iPhones. The X was extremely harsh on my eyes, just like the 11, 12, and 13.

Do either of you have issues with any of the modern iPads or Macs?

Clokwork

bkdo

I absolutely do. All of the new products with screens that apple makes currently are unusable for me. I wish I could get apple to confirm, but I am close to 100% certain my issue is temporal dithering. This is the only common factor I have found across displays I have issues with. PWM doesn't bother me apparently according to what I use currently.