Hi everyone,
first of all I want to say how grateful I am to have found this forum. Secondly, apologies for this long post.
Up until mid-March this year, I had never experienced the symptoms I'm having now with most laptops. I had been using a Macbook Air 2018 with no problems but wanted to upgrade to the newest MBP. I'm prone to getting migraines here and there but had never associated it with a laptop. When I started using my new MBP I noticed getting an "aura" but thought it was just another migraine on its way. This basically happened every time I used the new MBP even for just a few minutes. After googling I finally ended up finding this forum. Since then I've had several culprits in mind (PWM, blue light emission, glossy displays, different resolutions, backlit displays(?)…).
Worth noticing is that I have an iPad Pro 2018 11" and an iPhone 12 which both don't bother me at all. My work laptop is a Lenovo Thinkpad x280 (with the touchscreen and the 1920x1080 resolution) and no problems with it either. Since then I have tried the following laptops and they have all failed me:
Since I wasn't able to get my original MB Air back from Apple (I traded it in for the newer MBP 14"), I thought I'd order another MB Air from 2018 again. But sure enough, same issues again. Luckily no more auras so far but I instantly got the feeling that my brain is on fire and sometimes ended up with a headache (or even migraine) and a woozy feeling even throughout the following day. Then I thought to myself why not switch to a laptop with Windows since my work laptop doesn't give me any issues (btw, I also tried hooking up every laptop I tried so far to my monitor and still had symptoms). So here's a list of laptops/2-in-1s I tried:
Surface Pro X (Win 10)
Samsung Galaxy Book Flex 2 (Win 11)
Lenovo Thinkpad x280 (there's several models: this one didn't have a touchscreen and a lower resolution, plus the screen felt off right away when I turned it on and my brain instantly felt like it was on fire again - Win 10)
Lenovo Thinkpad x12 (Win 10)
Lenovo Thinkpad x390 (Win 11)
I tried several suggestions (mostly found on here, including but not limited to glasses that filter blue light, matt screens for laptops, night shift/ light settings, the program "ditherig", anti-glare displays [mostly the Lenovo laptops], different resolutions….) and nothing really seems to work.
The weird part about it is that about a week after buying the MBP 14" I tested positive for Covid-19 (and was wondering if this would even be the right forum to express my issues). However I still wonder why this would only affect certain laptops/ screens. At this point I'm just so annoyed and frustrated (as most of us on here I'm assuming) and don't want to keep ordering laptops until I find one that works. With the program "ditherig" I've had somewhat success with the Lenovo Thinkpad x390 but still not bearable for a longer period of time. I've had an eye exam and my prescription has gotten slightly worse so I will have to see if that changes things once I get my new glasses (I doubt it at this point…).
Unfortunately work restricts our laptops too much in order for me to use it as a personal device. Once again, apologies for such a long post, I just wanted to make sure I cover most everything I've tried and/ or what's been bothering me and was hoping that someone had any other ideas, or suggestions for a laptop, that I haven't found in this forum yet. Oh and one last thing: I hadn't used my Kindle Paperwhite in a while but lo and behold, issues with that device as well - however only when the background light is turned on. When the light is turned off I can use it w/o any issues.