I just found this website:
http://www.phonearena.com/phones/benchmarks

It lists the minimum brightness of a lot of phone models. A value of around 5 nits (nit = cd/m²) is very good for reading at night without ambient lighting, which I know from my usable monitor, iPhone, and iPad.
Probably not everyone needs a very low minimum brightness (in addition to other factors), but if you do, this list might prevent bad buys.

Please let me know if you get a chance to test the iPhone 6s. It would be much appreciated!

I have the HTC One M8 and it on the lowest brightness level + the brightness lowered further with the max lowering settings on the "Twilight" app. It is very easy on the eyes this way. I do not know if it is PWM free, but someone on the Apple thread said it was. I will try and dig up the post.

  • JTL replied to this.

    degen Do you have an adequate camera with adjustable shutter speed to check?

    I do, but I don't know what to look for.

    • JTL replied to this.

      Nexus5 PWM test is in

      It passes 😃

      Filmed at 1/4000 shutter speed until 00:40 and iSO6400

      https://youtu.be/PH8bMS5RUzI

        This is so horrible:
        I recently bought a BlackBerry Z10, it was perfectly usable, no eye strain at all for hours. Then I upgraded the OS to the latest version, and right after the initial boot I got burning eyes and very strong eye strain. I looked if I can downgrade the OS - no, it's not possible. It was possible for years, but not anymore with this latest version. This is just horrible. Such a luck at first, and now it's all gone.

          KM Really? Not even through unbrick firmware flash?

          Not sure what that means. Over at BlackBerry and CrackBerry forums they all say after you upgraded to OS 10.3.2.*, you can't go back. I tried old Autoloaders, but they didn't work (as they said).
          It's history repeating - we had the same trouble with some versions of iOS 7.

          • JTL replied to this.

            KM Alright, did some research and looks like not much you can do. Something about a OS BlackList with possibly "write-once memory"

            🙁

            Try and return/sell device if possible.

            5 days later

            The iPhone 6s PWM Test is in

            *Personally I don't like iPhones due to the lack of customizability vs Android. I'm sure @Slacor get's it 😉

            https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kQZHdVQyC18

              JTL Are you still in contact with the Apple employee, and can you ask him what PWM frequency iPhones use nowadays? iPhone 6 and 6s. I am also very curious about what was up with those eyestrain issues in some versions of iOS 7. I have not upgrade my devices since, because the risk is too high. It would be so great if we have more facts. I also wonder why some iDevices of the same type are usable while others are not. There must be a technical explanation, and he probably knows it.

              • JTL replied to this.

                KM Are you still in contact with the Apple employee,

                No sorry. Was a one off thing for rMBP PWM frequency.

                KM I am also very curious about what was up with those eyestrain issues in some versions of iOS 7

                Maybe this? http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2013/sep/27/ios-7-motion-sickness-nausea

                I actually own a Arduino 8-segment display with controller backlight (that has upgradable firmware) Maybe some time I'll experiment with the PWM frequency to find the max PWM frequency my camera can detect.

                Some guy named RMania did a test of an unknown iPhone model running pre iOS 7 and detected no PWM with oscilloscope equipment. Maybe sometime I'll get a proper oscilloscope

                https://youtu.be/RUnn9yuAJ_I
                3 months later

                The Russian website ixbt.com has reviews on phone's and other equipment and tests for PWM. They focus on more mainstream phones (Galaxy S series, HTC, Moto, etc.)

                I also may be getting oscilloscope+photodiode soon (see other thread)

                5 days later

                I posted this in another thread, but I thought of sharing it here too.

                I have tried many different phones like Samsung, LG, Huawei, Lenovo and all of them give me eye strain. I have purchased phones, only to get eye strain, and had to sell it again.

                So far, the only phones that I can use without eye strain are phones that uses the Super LCD3 display (i.e. HTC One M7, One Max, HTC One M8, M9 and M9+). These are the phones that I can use and look at the screen for hours (e.g. watching youtube or movies on my phone) without any eye strain whatsoever.

                Other display technology like SuperAmoled (Samsung phones), IPS (LG, Huawei, Lenovo etc) all give me eye strain. My wife is using Samsung Note 5, and I cant look at her phone for more than 2 minutes. The PWM in Samsung phones are quite bad. Her previous Samsung phones (S4) also cause me eye strain. Some newer HTC phones are starting to use IPS like the HTC Desire Eye, HTC E9+ etc, these also cause me eye strain, so not all HTC phones are okay, only their flagship series (M8, M9, M9+).

                Right now I am using HTC One M9+ Supreme Camera edition, which I had to import from Hong Kong. This is the "best" phone that I can use right now. "Best" as in a phone with the largest screen that I can use without causing me eye strain. It is 5.2 inch, which is slightly smaller than I would like, but at least the camera is much better than my old phone (HTC One Max).

                I also tried LG V10 for a couple of weeks. Great phone, does not seem to have PWM (at least based on simple my video camera test), but I do get eye strain using it from time to time. It is not like immediate eye strain as soon as I look at it, which is typical for a PWM-related eye strain), but this is more like a discomfort on the eyes, you feel something that is causing discomfort on your eyes (not sure how to describe it exactly)....and after looking it the screen for some time, it gets painful. So I am going to sell my LG V10 soon.

                  laptopmedia.com/tag/pwm/ has some reviews on pwm free phones, the site has also other reviews including pwm , which can reached via google. But some times the site seem to lie about pwm.

                  But they do say moto-g and some huawei phones are pwm free.

                  There's also http://www.notebookcheck.net , which tests for pwm.

                  • JTL replied to this.
                    dev