I currently own and use without any issues Samsung A70 (Android 9). Interestingly yesterday i used A21s (Android 10) for the whole day without any issues and today i am totally fine. Seems like Samsung's A series may be worthwhile to check for some people.
Note that i cant use Samsung's S series at all, i get eye strain right away.
Jackeyestrained Redmi note 9T
Honor view 20
Realme x50 5g
Huawei P40 Lite 5g model (not the 4g model)
All 6.5 inches. Sigh
I dropped and cracked the screen.
So I bought a new A52 one from another vendor. Unfortunately, apparently they don't have same type of panels. Brand new one is not comfortable to use at all. There is this new type of LCD panel which is more smooth, yellowish and buttery. Those ones cause problems as well as OLEDs. I have two devices same brand same model same year production holding completely different screen panels.
New tech screens getting more frustrating and expensive for me.
I've experienced this many times. Same device, same model, same specs, and different hardware components making one usuable and another unusable even though they should be the same thing.
Manufacturers source different components for different production runs and that can result in very different experiences.
I am trying to find a suitable android device for me. The list isn't that big… Having a phone that isn't 2-3 android OS generations ago seems hard to find. It's sad to not be able to both take care of eyes and have a good camera phone.
I was wondering if any has experience with
I may just throw the towel and go for iphone 11.
I am almost 100% sure that PWM is not the only case.
List of the phones I tried to use after I had realized the issue. (Noticed initially when I first bought XS Max.)
Iphone XS Max: Absolutely unusable. Heavy eye strain, headache, dizziness.
Xperia XZ1: Feast to the eye. Even it is said to have PWM below some degree of brightness, I comfortably used for several years, never had a problem.
Xperia XZ1: (Another device bought 2 years later) Unusable, silky, smooth, yellowish completely different panel.
LG G7: Unusable. (Silky, smooth, glossy)
Oppo A52: Feast to the eye. Very comfortable to use. No PWM.
Oppo A52: Unusable, silky, smooth, yellowish completely different panel. No PWM.
Poco M3 Pro: Unusable. (Silky, smooth, yellowish) No PWM.
Xiaomi Note 8 Pro: Unusable. (Silky, smooth, glossy) No PWM.
So PWM is not the only problem here. It may be one of them or may not.
List of usual suspects to my understanding:
PWM, contrast, the silky structure of pixels in the new panels, glossy coating and glare, software, temporal dithering.
Now I have no idea of my next step. Exhausted of seeking a usable device. Although I was a power user, now I just want to use basic stuff without having problems.
Not me. I am using Iphone 7 pro plus with changed cheapest screen on the market. The original screen just kills eyes in a matter of seconds. Changed screen - if I look into it enough hours per day - I get kinda adapted and can use it normally. And by "normal" I mean normal given the situation, because it is nowhere near to "10 years ago normal" or "before illness normal", but with each year i remember less and less, thus it became the new normal. Nowadays I hardly remember what it felt to be without this issue, thus it is perfectly normal for me to be with some kind of aches, blurrynes or so, i hardly notice them anymore.
I don't have a problematic device with me right now, so could someone please test whether decreasing the saturation to a moderate level helps?
Color rendering /temporal dithering might be one of the causes, since the more advanced these OLED screens become, the more saturated the colors are, and they cover wider and wider color spaces. And they need dithering to do that.
I read that some people got rid of their issues by simply decreasing the saturation (not all the way to grayscale mode of course).
I'm not sure about iOS, but on Android there's an app called Color Calibrator, which inserts a gray layer on top. Not a perfect solution, but the other way requires root.
Simultaneously, the PWM could be eliminated via the app OLED Saver. Color Calibrator can do this as well with the lowest slider but OLED Saver has an automatic brightness slider in the notifications so it's much better to use.
If someone has the time please check if this saturation+pwm fix does anything.
I suffer from suspected PWM issues… I've tried the various apps that are supposed to remove PWM issues on a problematic (for me) device.. the Galaxy Fold 2.. it helped.. but still didn't eliminate the issue.
I'm currently using an iPhone 11 (LCD so no PWM) and a Oneplus 8 Pro. None of the iPhone 12 range are comfortable for me, the standard '12' is the worst i've tried, and the 'pro' is the best (which tallies with the reported PWM flicker rates on Notebookcheck.
anyone know if Microsoft’s surface duo Dual screen phone has bad pwm or causes any eye issues? I Haven’t seen that phone mentioned here and I’m seeing some good deals on it online but hard to find in actual retail stores to test out. If it does have pwm would any of the Android apps be able to minimize flickering on a phone like that? Thanks in advance!
Tried Samsung A32 5G. Newer version of Samsung A32, but has a (low-res) LCD instead of the AMOLED on the regular A32. I thought I’d give it a try but it’s worse than the iPhone SE 2020 (which is already not good).
Edit: After extended testing the Samsung A32 5G is not good for me.
The OLED screens are so thin and use less battery, that's all. I don't think they look great, at least for now. The iphone SE 2020's IPS screen, for example, looks certainly better than the iphone 12's OLED screen in terms of colors and contrast. Putting these 2 side by side, the iphone 12's screen looks like a joke, also it is too yellow-ish at default settings.
iPhone 11 and XR the same story. Inferior colors and contrast to iphone SE/8. Eye fatigue and headache may be a sign that some processing is being done to "boost" their screens, but still they look worse.
https://www.notebookcheck.net/Motorola-Moto-G50-smartphone-review-5G-mid-range-phone-with-90-Hz-display.549548.0.html anyone tried this? PWM HZ is really high 2366000. I can only use phones with 0 PWM. Never come across so high number. I also have problems with 60hz refresh rate. This phone have 90hz. Now i have Motorola moto G8 power lite. No PWM. Screen set to dimmest setting. Only problem is that 60hz refesh rate.
There’s a scholarly article on this issue: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/15980316.2021.1950854?needAccess=true#page7
TLDR; PWM frequency for smartphones is lower than the frequency of 1250hz recommended by IEEE, but at a distance greater than 4cm from the measuring device, the pwm frequency becomes indistinguishable from ambient noise. LCD phones have a constant frequency at all distances.
Please note that the author is a staff engineer at Samsung but a conflict of interest was not reported. What’s everyone’s thoughts on this?
Sunspark It's nonsense. Just jiggle the device while holding it. Even at arm's length you're going to see it.
Pretty much my thoughts too. Mitigating with "distance" is a red herring.
Hades7460 Please note that the author is a staff engineer at Samsung but a conflict of interest was not reported. What’s everyone’s thoughts on this?
Smoking gun that confirms Samsung's reasoning why they design the screen and "controller" the way they do? 