Usable laptop- MacBook Pro M1

JonnyT

I’ve been using MacBook Pro 14 inch M1 2021 model now for 3-4 months. After trying about 8 different laptops over the past few years, this is the most usable for me. I can use it for hours each day with very little nausea/eye strain. I have to turn pro motion off - I have it on 59hz or 49hz- (btw with my camera test that is the stillest- with less pixel movement than 60 or 50). I also have to use the Gamma Control App and reduce white point to 30 -40, which acts similarly as reduce white point on the iPhone. I turn keyboard backlight off and try to he. It on lowest brightness required. These changes make it usable and much more so than any other laptops I’ve tried with high refresh rates/different graphics/oled/pwm free etc.
I am extremely sensitive by the way. Also have started medication for vestibular migraine and vestibular physiotherapy which may be helping- but my other Lenovo laptop is still not usable so I do think it’s the MacBook. I’d suggest it worth trying.
In terms of phones, I tried iPhone 12, 12 pro, 13 and 13 pro - all are unusable for me. I’m back to my XS which was always usable and paid £350 for new screen and battery- they thought I was crazy but no1 rule- keep what’s working.

I recommend buying the MacBook 14 inch and trying on my settings above on amazon and if you need to send it back you can.

ryans

JonnyT Interesting and glad to see you found a usable device 🙂!

If you're willing to share, what vestibular migraine medication are you on and how well are you tolerating it?

JonasJB

JonnyT for me macbook 14” was unusable even connected with external monitor

Neuromancer

JonnyT Funny thing - I have no troubles with any other laptop (didn't try oled) but with the m1 macbook. It gives me a headache.

JonnyT

ryans amitryptaline 15mg trying to increase to 20mg - makes me v tired but trying to get used to it.

ryans

JonnyT Gotcha. Before the MacBook 14 inch M1, what was your "usable" device?

JonnyT

ryans I haven’t had one for years!

ryans

JonnyT So glad you found one. Are you running the latest macOS?

Any clues why it's usable?

JonnyT

ryans no idea. I just felt it easier than the other ones I had tried. It doesn’t go blurry at all for me.( It can make me nauseous if the room lighting isn’t quite right. I wish I had a lamp or uploghter I could use in any setting). The other MacBooks seem to go blurry. I did a video I must upload at some point showing the moving pixels in the different refresh rates- 59 and 47 were significantly more still than anything else. I think it’s something to do with that as changing the refresh rate has the biggest impact on feeling of nausea…the lower the better it seems which is strange I know- and goes against the accepted thinking…it’s definately related to stillness of pixels…and ability to reduce brightness to a low level but still be able to read the text very clearly. For example on my iPhone XS I have reduce white point at 95% but the phone is extremely easy to read and visible even on low brightness at this setting, whereas on the newer 12 and 13 models, with reduce white point that high, which is what I need to not trigger headaches- the screen is too dim and not easily readable and the blacks are too black.

Clokwork

I am curious to try your settings, but I am jealous. I am unable to use any M1 device.

MBP212

Clokwork Have you tried the MBP M1 13”? I’m considering buying it because I really need to upgrade.

Clokwork

MBP212 I gave it a shot in store, and it is possible I was anxious, but it made me feel the same way the current iPhones and iPads did. For me, that's a bit of brain fog and feeling I can't focus on the screen that well.

daniel_mate

@JonnyT Besides Gamma Control, have you tried QuickShade?
It's a fee app that adds transparent overlay, super simple app to use to lower brightness a lot.
I have not tried Gamma Control, so was wondering if the result is similar, just for free.

JonnyT

daniel_mate yes none of those work as well for me.

KarenP

I just got this same MacBook Pro 14 inch M1 2021 (after using a 2015 MacBook and 2017 MacBook Air before now, neither of which I ever had any problems with), and started having all the same issues as others here: immediately cannot focus, feel nauseous, quickly get a headache. I was getting ready to return it and despair over what to do next when I saw your post. JohnyT, I'd be so grateful if you could share any other adjustments you have made or other details about your process to make it useable. I've followed all your instructions above so far and crossing my fingers they might help me too!

ryans

Hi @KarenP,

Welcome!

Forum member @martin has a great blog, he has a post here about some apps that help, as well as other posts about his struggle with our "condition".

Other things I can suggest looking into:

Changing the color profile of the Mac to sRGB
Calling Apple Accessibility. I'm not sure they'll actually help, but we have to get them to take this seriously so newer models will not have these issues. This is a serious accessibility issue. They don't take it seriously because we aren't making enough noise. They spend a TON of time making their products usable for blind people, which are a minority, and they really care about accessibility. Please do call or write to them!!
Getting checked for binocular vision dysfunction by a competent optometrist. A regular optometrist, even ones claiming to do "comprehensive" exams, will have no clue. I've got another post on this here. That's not to say the Mac isn't at fault -- it is...but something is different that we aren't able to use these devices, but others are. It's worth getting checked out for.

KarenP

Thank you so much ryans! I do have a divergence insufficiency so I am definitely in the binocular vision dysfunction gang—and of course for most of my life that was not diagnosed despite having glasses since I was 13 and always having issues with depth perception. It makes perfect sense to me that whatever is going on is triggering this for me. I just spent an hour on the phone with Apple support trying to explain all this to them (and changing every possible monitor setting they could think of), so hopefully that will make its way into the information flow over there. Though, less encouragingly, I also talked to a person in sales to ask if they had suggestions about another model that might work for me and he told me there was obviously something wrong with me and not the computer and then hung up on me. Super grateful to have found this forum—I was losing my mind! Hoping I can figure out something that helps but so far no luck with any of these suggestions or apps. Though I just tried sRGB and that is the first thing that has actually felt like it's helping (thank you!!!), so I will try that setting for a while and keep my fingers crossed…

ryans

KarenP Hope the sRGB works for you, let us know how it goes. Very interesting to hear you have a BVD, it supports a theory we have on here, that it is a factor for some of us.

Just wondering if you wear prism glasses or did vision therapy to help with the divergence insufficiency?

As far as contacting Apple, I recommend specifically talking to Apple Accessibility department. They typically deal with people who are blind or have visual impairments, which is closest thing to our "issue". If you let them know about your BVD diagnosis, they might take note of it and hopefully future models will be more usable.

@martin writes here about some possible tech causes of this issue and how it worsens his BVD. In the case of using sRGB profile, it seems it may shut off temporal dithering.

KarenP

sRGB has been the only thing that helped—definitely reduced my nausea—but still struggling. Was basically dreading having to look at the computer at all, making work impossible. Tonight I went back to my old early 2015 MacBook Pro (which needs to be replaced and no longer holds a charge, but is at least working for now, thankfully) and it's hard to describe the RELIEF. I can focus again! Thinking I will probably return the new one and get a refurbished 2015 MacBook and just live in the past for as long as I can. I will definitely reach out to the Accessibility department and tell them my story—thank you so much for the link.

I don't wear prism glasses and when I finally got diagnosed with divergence insufficiency, the eye doctor said she did not think vision therapy would be much help for me since I have been compensating through mono vision for my whole life (I'm in my 40s). So honestly I haven't tried much in the few years since then beyond doing a few exercises which, much like looking at the new MacBook, made me feeling like I was going to throw up and cry all at the same time. Though it was such a relief to just have the diagnosis since my vision issues have impacted my life in some really big ways ever since childhood because I have almost no depth perception. It's amazing that I have been going to the eye doctor for decades and no one had ever bothered to test me for this. I had to push for it myself!

Clokwork

KarenP I’m using my 2016 MacBook until the parts are no longer available. I also have a 2009 15” mbp for which I just bought a new battery. The good old days when most parts were easily user replaceable. Threw a SSD and more RAM in there for the heck of it. It’s long been unsupported for updates 😆

daniel_mate

@"KarenP"
Also try disabling font anti aliasing.
After each major os update, I make sure this is disabled (last two releases did not honor my setting and had reversed it)

# check current val
defaults -currentHost read -g AppleFontSmoothing

# if it's not 0, then set it to it and reboot
defaults -currentHost write -g AppleFontSmoothing -int 0

"0" disables font smoothing
"1" enables light font smoothing
"2" enables default medium smoothing
"3" enables strong smoothing.

PS: if the write command fails, add "sudo" in front

KarenP

Thank you so much, @daniel_mate, alas no luck for me with disabling the font anti aliasing. And @Clokwork, that cheers me up! I'm returning the new Macbook (luckily I am in time to get a full refund), and just ordered a refurbished version of my 2015 MacBook instead. And I am just going to pray that we can keep scavenging parts from the old days for as long as possible! It's incredible how depressed I quickly became trying to make the new Macbook work. I am a writer and a writing coach, and I realize now how much I took it for granted that I would be able to write and read on my computer. Usually I look forward to getting down to work, but within just one day, I had begun to dread it and felt so miserable just glancing at the screen. Feeling so grateful for finding this community and for all your hard-won knowledge and compassion!

JonnyT

KarenP returning for what has worked previously is a great idea. I tried all the new iPhones and ended up back with my iPhone XS with a refurb screen - I don’t regret it for a second.

With the MacBook Pro 14, if you still have it- my settings that work for me are: 59 or 47 hz - nothing else works…the gamma app to reduce white point to 30-40…True Tone off…no more than 50%-60% brightness…colour profile to the second one down not the xdr. This makes it usable. I also recommend looking into vestibular physiotherapy which is what I’m doing now.

KarenP

JonnyT I did bring it down to 47hz and I definitely felt that helped a bit too. Adjusting the brightness and white point didn't seem to do much for me. Going to sRGB remained the one thing that made a significant dent in my symptoms—my nausea calmed down. But even then, I still couldn't really read or write, I still had a headache and above all it was just this overpowering sense of confusion like my eyes just did not know what to do. Sending the new MacBook back to Apple today and feels like I am sadly waving goodbye to being included in the future of technology!