It was as a joy to hear that M2 MBA display has no PWM at all brightness levels (refer notebookcheck review) it is excellent news for people who are sensitive to PWM. For them them the only option is to reduce white point and keeping brightness high.

But there is another concern with M2 Macbook air, to achieve the 10bit MBA M2 uses (8bit + FRC aka temporal dithering) which generates flicker and is another major reason for eye strain.

Is there any way we can fallback to 8bit and disable dithering by changing color profile or something to sRGB IEC 61966-2 or any other suggestions?

I just need confirmation that switching to sRGB IEC61966-2.1 actually turns 8 + 2 frc aka dithering off. Turning the display to an 8bit one without temporal dithering.Do you know a reliable way for me to check and confirm that it actually disables dithering. I do not want placebo benefits

The only way I know if is getting a capture card and trying to analyze a diff between the frames of an image that should be static.

Though knowing that providers like Amulet needed to turn it off, I'm wondering if there's lossless screen capture software that would do the same. Curious to see if the community knows anything else here.

I just bought a M2 MBA and can confirm the eye strain is still pretty significant. Any luck in disabling the dithering? I'll likely have to return it and once again go back to by trusted 2015 MBP, last laptop with no eye strain. There has to be a solution!

    MAS-76 ARM Macs are an entirely different can of worms from older systems. so don't think I can help.

      MAS-76 Worth installing Asahi Linux and see how it is as the driver for it currently has zero hardware acceleration.

      JTL, I have a 2019 Intel MBP with AMD Radeon Pro 5500M / Intel UHD Graphics 630. Is there any way to disable dithering on that? I'd love to use that machine. It would be a life-saver.

        MAS-76 Did you face similar issue for M1 Macbook Air as well. And also why changing to sRGB would not help? Wouldn’t that make the display 8bit without dithering atleast for Macbook Air M2

        I had the same issue with the M1 MacBook Air. Changing to sRGB did not work. Nor did SwitchResX on the older 2019 Intel machine (setting to millions of colors). Nothing has worked so far for any machine post 2015

          4 days later

          The latest review on notebookcheck confirms that there are no temporal dithering on M2 air

            Just picked one of these up today, I'll definitely post again with impressions on eye strain.

            Really interesting that there's no sign of dithering or PWM, I wonder if Apple is noticing more users complaining about these problems.

            the123blackjack bookcheck confirms that there are no temporal dithering on M2 air

            From this Notebookcheck link:

            So, we examined the IPS panel of the Air M2 with a microscope and created a slow-motion recording with 240 images per second. While we were able to detect temporal dithering, for example, in the current MacBook Pro 16 with the Mini-LED panel in some particular gray color tones, this was neither the case in the old MacBook Air M1 nor in the new MacBook Air M2

            Looks like they couldn't detect dithering in M1 either?

            Found this thread on MacRumors.

              ryans Yeah i am also the OP of that thread 😊.. So the test done by notebookcheck conclusive or flawed?

              with the looks of it M2 air is the best eye care macbook that we can buy

              1. No PWM
              2. No Temporal Dithering

                ryans hey Ryans, I’ve read your comments on some posts and I’m having the same issue with my Macbook Air M1. I’m just wondering if there’s a fix for it.

                  MAS-76 There is an option to disable dithering, at least, for the integrated card. I already did it for my laptop and it really disables dithering. The PWM effect still remains. But it is, of course, much better than having the PWM + dithering screen.

                  I will share how to disable dithering on the Intel card soon.

                    MAS-76 That's weird that you still feel eye strain. According to notebookcheck, MBA M2 doesn't have dithering but I tend to believe that human eye feels dithering better than their tests.

                    Probably, they used 240 FPS camera to detect dithering but it can only be caught by 3000 FPS camera.

                    How can it not have dithering? Is it a 10 bit panel? I kind of doubt it? But maybe?

                    ryans You won't believe what's happening with me, I use windows laptop for work that is connected to two external monitors and I use an iPad Pro 11" all day too with no issues. When I connect my MBA m1 to my monitors after 30mins my eyes get really red and itchy, I can't focus on the screen when looking at text.

                      @Moe3224 I have the same. I dont use Mac, but I have 2 windows computers that are OK, but have tried several which, when I connect to the same monitor, are not fine and my eyes go bloodshot in few hours. It is not the same as with PWM, a bit slower irritation, but if I use several days, my eyes are totally bloodshot and colleagues ask if I have been crying or have a hangover.

                        dev