On 15, what was normally a white background seemed fuzzier, more grey, and not static.
Is anyone having issues with iOS 15?
Clokwork
I do understand that and I would love to help, but so far that was the only complaint about upgrade among the people who discuss eyestrain problems with me, so I can't propose them to join to A/B test. There's not enough tech for that.
Theoretically all the big changes in dimming algorithms should be visible on camera.
I feel like I spam this on a lot of these posts, but is everyone affecting making use of 'reduce white point' on their IOS devices?
I have an Iphone 8 and an Ipad 6 (? 2018 model I think) and I cannot use either unless I have reduce white point set to its first setting, 25% as it makes everything just slightly dimmer. (this has been on all Ios versions) - the SE2 I couldnt use at all and the XR I also couldnt use at all even with reduce white point.
Just reducing the brightness alone does not help me and without the reduce white point I'll get a 'migraine' (I dont think its a migraine but my doctors tell me this is a migraine) with symptoms starting with difficulty focussing on the screen, pain in my eyes that moves to the centre of my head (inside) and then pain, this takes a day or more to go away if I persist in use, I'll feel odd for a while even after a few seconds exposure without it set (I've just done it, my eyes feel weird and I can feel a slight pain in the middle of my head inisde) but with reduce white point I can use the devices all day on 14.8 and 13. something.
I;ve got an 8+ I'm going to test on ios 15 shortly once I've backed it up.
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HAL9000 'reduce white point'
This trick should help with my type of problem (it is connected to some sort of light quality) but not with any FRC/dithering related problems.
I doubt that they simply increased contrast or white brightness in iOS 15.
Reducing white point does not simply makes screen dimmer, it also decreases contrast.
Still worth trying, anyway, at least as some sort of test.
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Edit: I am one of the few that is affected by certain screens and certain devices flicker in whatever way they do it be it PWM or dithering or unknown, others are likely different but reduce white point helps me.
Yes, it likely wont affect any dithering etc but if you're affected by 'both' it can help as the brightness is quite bright, its hard for me to describe I perceive it as the colors are too bright even on the dimmest setting, however reduce white point makes the colors less intensive and easier on my eyes.
Personally I believe the CPU/GPU on the Iphone 8 / 8+ and older do not do any dithering / as much dithering but iphones from the XR onwards DO. (I say dithering but whatever it is doing that also casuses the migraine)
(but then again who's to say the screens are not different as well)
However the iphone SE2 is essentially an Iphone 8 with the insides of an Iphone 11 and it is not usable by myself as I believe the A13 chip is doing dithering / SOMETHING that causes me migraine when using, even on lowest brightness setting with reduce white point and other acessibility options it is not usable by myself.
Another thought I had, say dithering is essentially flickering /flashing a pixel color to simulate / trick the eyes/brain into seeing a different color, if this was very bright flashing would it be worse than if it was much dimmer but still flashing?
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HAL9000 its hard for me to describe I perceive it as the colors are too bright even on the dimmest setting, however reduce white point makes the colors less intensive and easier on my eyes.
Yep, the same for me. But it doesn't help completely and it seems that results of reducing white point differ from device to device. The same with reducing contrast.
I do not know if dithering have any influence on you, but I covered my Samsung S20 FE with 7 layers of screen protectors and I still see a white veil above it. Not even a brightness, or a piercing white, but a literal white veil. Doesn't seem to be connected to dithering, I also tried to look through the 2 and 10 centimeters of oil. The pressure is still there. (While the screen is hardly visible through the oil).
I do not know enough about dithering to tell if reducing white point can affect it. I doubt, but as I said, still worth a try.
I am one of the people here that stopped using my iphone 8 after i got severe eystrain and headache after updating to 14.8 or something. Now after about 6months of not using an iphone i updated my 8 to 15.2 and have a feeling that something changed and made it somehow better to look at?
In the mean time i did try the 12, 13, 13pro with no success, but the 8 seems somehow better now, curious if i am the only one or more people noticed this?
If you are on 14.6 i would not recommend you to update without saving your blobs for future downgrade :-)
It's incredibly interesting how different we all are. I cannot and will not use my iPad on iOS 15. At this point, there's no harm in updating it to 15.2 to see if it fixes anything.
I have been testing around the 8 on 15.2 together with the 13mini (gave me terrible headache after 20 min of use) so the 13 mini going to get back to apple, and i am also not sure if it is a relief with 15.2 with the iphone 8 or it was just a feeling that i had in that moment.
HAL9000 I’m the same. I have an iPhone XS and have reduce white point set at 95% then use it at full brightness outdoors, and on lowest in the dark. I’ve tried iPhone 12,13 and 13 pro but the reduce brightness there seems to work differently- it makes everything too dark and I still feel nauseous so I’m back to iPhone XS having just paid £350 for a new screen and battery which they laughed at me for- where I could get a new iPhone 13 for free upgrade! I’ve found iOS 15 + fatiguing and nauseous - for me differentiate without colour- seems to do something that takes away the nausea- I have no idea what!
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JonnyT I think you and I are very similar symptom wise. My hypothesis is it hast to deal with one or several forms of flicker which is baked into the software. I plan on buying an ultra high speed camera and a flicker meter within the next 4-5 months. Reason why so long? They are quite expensive for me. The camera has to have a high FPS capability and the flicker meter has to read at extreme frequencies to catch everything.
I would like to briefly describe my experience. I have been able to use my IPhone 11 for about a year completely without any problems. Pretty much at the same time as I upgraded to iOS 15.2, my eye strain problems started again. I have not noticed this with 15.0 or 15.1.
Currently, I consciously and subconsciously avoid long periods of use of my iPhone.
I used my iPad on 15.2 for a few hours yesterday, I unfortunately didn't notice any specific reduction in symptoms. Hope you guys have better luck with it though 
21 days later
One more.
Translation:
Updated one of my iPads (iPad 10.2 2020) to iOS 15.3 and it was terrible.
They screwed up something with dithering. Even on a black background, it became difficult to concentrate and read the text. I am not even mentioning a white background. Judging by the fact that many people did not like dithering on the first versions of iOS 15, but everything was ok for me, I conclude that they update the dithering algorithms one by one for different devices, and not for all devices at once. In general, it's good that I could still roll back to 15.2.1
degen moved a post to Is advocacy worthwhile / Does Apple care about us?.
My wife upgraded from her iPhone 8 on an older iOS to a new 13 pro. I can't look at it for more than 10 seconds or so. It's on iOS 15.3.
degen moved a post to Is advocacy worthwhile / Does Apple care about us?.