Usable Smartphones?

tustac90

Ok, here is my story (the short version). Let me introduce myself. My name is Rodimus. I have signed up especially to give notice. I am a PWM monster. I eat it for breakfast, lunch and diner. It has destroyed my eyesight, brain and body. PWM has been crippling me down for over 10 years (probably much longer). A few years ago when i became aware of this invisible monster i changed all my house lights, tv, phone etc. Inside i can tame it, outside that is another story. Like all of you ladies and gentlemen i have been searching an searching and testing and testing different phones, monitor's and tvs. I never have had a phone for longer than a few weeks ( before returning it). I gave up. A lot of Oems are lying to us. Either the phone is not fully DC dimming, or they implement PWM after an update.

I am also aware of the drivers in pc monitors, tvs and phones causing abominable eyestrain not knowing exactly what causes it, but switching or turning off the driver in developer options can get this problem solved for some phones. Also, turning off only "Animator Duration Scale" in developer options to "off" gives some relief for the sensitive among us. Don't forget to also turn off "Hardware overlay" (hardware acceleration) at every reboot. Unless you turn it off permanently via ADB or Root. The combination of disabling these two options will give relief.

Also, the trickery they use on the so called pentile 1440p screen is a hoax. It's half the pixels. The green pixels are the only ones meeting that criteria. BUT, the hole diagonal layout combined with the green pixel trickery is making what you see on the screen distorted in a subtle way, but enough for your eyes to try and focus what you see on the screen also giving eyestrain. Luckily the Xiaomi mi 11 (read further on) has the option to switch the resolution to 1080p (which in actuality is 1018p) eliminating the rest of the green pixels to light up which gives superior quality over the fake 1440p.

A while ago i became interested in Chinese phones (especially Xioami) because they where talking and promoting DC dimming a lot while letting know they are aware of the PWM phenomena and its problems. So i bought a XIAOMI MI 11 (in Holland). It offered a beautiful "Amoled" screen with a DC dimming option. Of course i turned it on immediately. After testing it with another camera "shutter speed 1/3200, ISO 6400" i noticed the PWM disappeared completely. I have used it for a few months until i gave it to my son, because he deserves the best. A few months ago i ended up with the Lenovo Legion Y90. Imported from China, (because i live in The Netherlands). A 800€ phone when released. A big mistake. It offerd DC dimming, but only partially and below 40 percent brightness. Plus it only had a fake 1080p (pentile) amoled screen wich in actuality is 764p. I ended up struggling to look at it. Also, the oled screen just wasn't crisp.

Here it comes. A few weeks ago the Redmi Note 11t pro and pro plus where promoted in China. Especially its PWM free screen at all brightness levels and the first LCD Displaymate A+ rating it got. I thought to give it one, one more try. I bought it from Giztop for 300€ and got it within a week. First impression, WAUW! I missed that quality LCD Full RGB screen. It is sooo crisp. People don't notice this, because amoled or oled is the way to go. Want premium quality go oled. What a joke. First of all, my eyes don't have to struggle because it's sooo crisp. I can see everything clearly, even within the fine details. The weren't lying about the calibration and delta_e quality. It's gorgeous to look at. Second, after testing the device it became clear it was truly DC Dimming at all brightness levels. Third, the driver itself isn't giving eyestrain or related problems. It is buttering my eyes. Fourth, it has 144hz. Using this high hertz is also (not eliminating) giving me relief to one extend over the lower 60, 90, 120hz which is also a form of (oh yeah) flickering.

At the end. I have put my 800€ Lenovo back in the box while using the 300€ Redmi Note 11T pro over it. Guys (and gals) i can highly recommend this phone for daily use. If you live outside of China and don't have a problem being it only in English and Chinese language this is the way to go. Well it's a start anyway.

Edit: I've had the opportunity to test the Redmi note 11T for quite some time now. Here is my honest answer. It is by far one the best phones i have owned. But still something is off. I don't have a clue what it is. I can't honestly tell that it is trully 100 percent PWM free (i know sony and other brands claim a screen is flicker free, but in reality they call it infinite PWM). "Very high frequency, but still a flicker barrage". Actually, calibrating a screen with DC dimming brings costs so high, the greedy OEMS will never do it. What i can confirm is, is that it takes a while before the strain (wich is very light) begins. Don't forget, i am extremely sensitive to flicker. But when i reach my threshold, it is there. No headache, but a bit of eyestrain and a bit of brainfog. Maybe from the hertz, because a screen does not stand still. It updates 30, 60, 120 or 144 times per second causing screen refresh rate flickering. I really can't say for sure. This quest for answers and usable technology is exhausting me. Maybe i should give up and accept the reality.

Take care everyone

Kind regards,

Rodimus

I confirm the opinion of mag01. The Poco X4 GT display has a very annoying Temporal Dithering, which is very tiring for the eyes and a headache (at least for me). I personally tested this phone and, on average, with a wide range of display settings, I could not find a setting that would turn off Temporary Dithering.

Note: X4 GT does not have PWM.

hoss11-1 It's a way of cheating I'd say. It's a technique that tricks your vision into believing that it sees a color that the display isn't technically capable of showing.

In such cases the display quickly "flickers" (switches) between the nearby colors that it can actually show and your brain will think that you see just 1 color that's somewhere in-between those shown. This flickering, though not directly visible, may cause an eye strain. As with the PWM in the case of OLED displays - it may or may not affect you, so the best thing is to test it yourself. Or avoid such devices altogether which is the best option (though it becomes increacingly difficult).

Fenkins Yes you're right. But nowadays there are less and less viable options so you're likely to be forced into making some compromises.

I'm in quite difficult situation myself as I want a smaller & lighter phone (size around iPhone mini, with something like the regular iPhone, Pixel 6a, Xperia 10, Zenfone 8 being the very maximum) with a decent SW support and there are already very few options. if I rule out all the PWM controlled crap etc (including those with the temporal dithering) I'm left with nothing.

mag01 sorry bad english (and sorry if this is an stupid question) there is an "easy" way to check if X phone uses temporal dithering? Or some website to check (like notebookcheck list for pwm)

Or the only way is to buy phones and wait to eye strain to appear?

On the other hand, i would avoid xiaomi / poco phones even with good screens, i have friends and family with dead xiaomi phones that stopped working without reason...and then there is MIUI (another disaster) i perfer wait more (and spend more $) for an good flicker free phone from another brand.

I have the Poco X4 GT since two days and could also not detect PWM with 1/4000 Shutter on another smartphone. But the LCD display is still not easy for my eyes and i get some eye strain With natural colors and read mode it still don`t get better. It´s frustrating because i had the Mi 10T Pro for over a year and not such problems. And this devices has PWM. This temporal dithering could also be for me a problem

Maybe it´s better to try the Galaxy XCover 6 Pro with 120 Hz LCD Display or the upcoming Galaxy A23 5G that should have the S695 inside.

Apple used to make incredibly great phones. And incredibly great laptops. There was a reason everyone wanted to have an iPhone and a Mac cause their products were just so much ahead the competition. Now they've fallen like everyone to the oled bs. They used to make their own screens. Now they buy them from Samsung. I think their last great phones are the 8 and the 8+. I don't think Steve Jobs would have ever accepted the iPhones to have Samsung screens. There was a difference between Apple and the rest of the market be it on phones and computers. Now there is 0 difference between buying an iPhone or a Samsung or a Huawei or whatever else. It's only advertising. And the innovation that made Apple the biggest company in the world is long dead.

Apple has never been a display panel manufacturer. They have always purchased parts from manufacturers. Sure, some were custom made to their specifications, but they didn't actually make them themselves.

People used to return Apple laptops to get a Samsung screen instead of an LG one. Silly, but it is what happened.

I agree with Job's death and Ive's departure, Apple is basically transitioning into becoming Sony.