I have reams of documentation around my eye strain issue, so happy to share to this thread over time. To date I have not found any explanation for display eye strain that fits all of my observed outcomes. While incredibly frustrating, it is worth adding

For example, smartphones and credit card terminal screens are notorious for causing me severe, immediate eye strain. However, some screen protectors 100% eliminate this issue. To date I have identified 2 types (Skinomi and TechArmor matte anti glare) that work. There have been other models but silly me forgot to keep track. There are several models that do not help at all.

So seeing as how there is a screen that does cure the eye strain, that would point to something being emitted from the display that the screen protector is blocking. This does not fit in with the temporal dithering, PWM, or other internal graphics properties hypothesis of cause.

I have also used various blue blocking lenses and never had any success with them.

    ensete I'm going to give those matte screen protectors a try, although for me there can be a HUGE difference between revisions of operating systems on a given device. My HTC One m8 is flawless for me under Lollipop. The instant I put Marshmallow on it, and reboot, it becomes instantly and harshly painful. The same can be said for PC's. Regardless of the hardware involved, updating Windows 10 to the Anniversary Edition (August 2016 build) renders it unusable.

        Gurm Same thing here, I had a Moto G on Lollipop, no issues, the Marshmellow update came down, and I got severe eye strain. Something in the OS altered the way the video hardware is driving the screen. I have not moved any of my PC's off Windows 7 so I cant speak to 10

        Just another FYI, I would suggest trying those specific brands (TechArmor or Skinomi). I keep a running list and most screen protectors do not help at all. I have emailed both companies trying to determine what makes their protectors different, or find out what exactly they filter out, but cannot get an answer from them.

          ensete, can you provide the exact (maybe an Amazon link) model of the screen protectors that work? I want to upgrade my smartphone and frankly a $10 solution is well worth it.

          Did these screen protectors help with your Moto after you upgraded to Marshmallow?

            Now that I know it's the matte protector you prefer, I am able to determine more information.

            It's PET film, Polyethylene terephthalate aka polyester aka plastic recycling symbol #1.

            This means that it has to do with light polarization. A common problem with smartphones and photography for general people is that when they are wearing polarized sunglasses and turn their phones from portrait to landscape it goes black and they can't see the screen anymore. The solution in these cases is to introduce a film to change the polarization, or to get non-polarized sunglasses.

            This video clip demonstrates the effect of introducing a polyester film (overhead slide projector sheet) when filming through polarized sunglasses.

            https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fd_UhC5aHMM

            Pilots know about this issue because many windscreens and cockpit instruments are polarized, so they need to use non-polarized sunglasses.

            https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0t5GHR6opfI

            around the 2:30 mark of this video you can see them demonstrating the effect on the cockpit instruments.

            So polarization can cause or prevent eye strain? What might be the reasons?

              KM I had stumbled across the PET film polarization before. I can't say it's NOT helping, but I have tried several other PET screen protectors that have not helped with eye strain at all.

              Also, the Skinomi is not a PET screen, it's a kinda of rubbery material.

                  ensete ensete what is your phone type that use skinomi that doesnt make eyestrain ?do you feel headache or migraine after eyestrain if you don't use skinomi ? i have follow your posts for a while and your sympthomp and cause of headache are almost same with me except i don't have any eyestrain,no tired eyes,no teary eyes and no red eyes but only headache and if i using device too long i got migraine at behind my left side head for a day.what is your brightness setting on your phone with skinomi or is any brigthness level doesnt matter ?and are you disable dithering on your phone with skinomi ?if yes,how to disable dithering ?i have search skinomi on my local shops but all of them dont sell it and fortunately i found skinomi in my local online shop but they just sell skinomi for s7 edge,and i have asus zenphone 2 but i dont care,i still order it and must wait 1-2 day for the skinomi arrive.can you tell me,If there are some setting on your phone with skinomi that make you can use it 100% ?,i think this my last resort for try to using smartphone if this is fail too i will give up and just using stupidphone

                        hansennn Replied to other thread, but I got the Skinomi for both my Moto G and the Blu R1 HD. Both were cut to fit and for sale on Amazon. There was no setting on the phone I had to change, I just apply the screen protector and never got eye strain from the device again

                          2 months later

                          After three months of testing the dell xps8910 desktop with nvidia geforce gt 730 graphics card and BenQ GW2760HS monitor. Now I think I can safely report that this setting works for me. It is still not perfect, but MUCH MUCH better than my yoga pro laptop with Dell ST2310 lcd monitor. It is not easy to reach this conclusion because many factors had to be controlled and ruled out. I think the discrete nvidia graphics card is a game changer for me. The monitor is directly connected to the graphics card, not the motherboard. The integrated graphics card is disabled. I have a similar set up at home with nvidia GeForce GTX 750 Ti card and BenQ EW2440L monitor. It works fine too. OS is windows 8.1 at work and windows 7 at home. Tried linux on the computer at home for a few days, but did not feel any noticeable improvement over windows. I may go back to test linux for a longer period of time. I also tried my old Dell ST2310 lcd monitor at 100% brightness, not as good as the BenQ monitors, so I guess I am sensitive to dithering since the dell monitor use FRC.

                            Jerry Awesome news

                            As a point if data gathering, can you check what (if any ICC profile you have installed?

                                ensete I think I am using the manufacture color profile. Below is what I have for my office computer. I will double check it for my home computer later tonight.

                                image iccoffice-png

                                  ensete Here is the ICC profile for my home computer. It is from BenQ too.

                                  image icchome-png

                                    That is the correct ICC profile. Mind doing a test for me? Remove the ICC profile and see if your symptoms return. You can easily add it back

                                      ensete Test it for about an hour, there is definitely a noticeable difference. After removing the ICC profile, my head does not feel good.

                                        ensete Would you please let me know how to add the correct ICC profile back? Thanks.

                                            So using the manufacturer's icc profile helps to reduce eye strain. This is god to know. But it does not get rid 100% of the eye strain, right? That means there must be something else that is (still) causing us eye strain.

                                            Can u try one more thing? For Monitor driver, try using Generic PnP driver instead of the manufacturer's one. See if that helps. Here's how to do it:

                                            Control Panel -> Device Manager -> Monitor -> select monitor and right click -> Update Driver Software -> Browse my computer for driver software -> Let me pick from a list of device drivers from my computer -> Generic PnP Monitor -> click Next.

                                            When I use the Generic PnP monitor driver on my laptop, I do noticed a very noticeable relief in eye strain. It's like the eye strain is significantly reduced. When I switch the monitor driver back to the Lenovo's driver, I definitely feel the eye strain more. When I switch back to the Generic PnP monitor driver, noticeably less eye strain. Can you give it a try and see if it has any effect on your eye strain or not?

                                              dev