Usable Smartphones?

George1989 If you want to keep trying the One M8, it is almost 100% certainly possible to downgrade to Lollipop (Android 5). There are many walkthroughs on https://www.xda-developers.com/ and/or a couple of us here are pretty capable when it comes to that sort of thing. But it can be hard to return it to a state where the vendor will take it back, so be warned on that front.

Ok, I may need to take the plunge here - I have to travel out of country in May, and even my replacement HTC One M8 is just not going to cut it for long plane rides, and full days of traveling. At this point, the best option for me seems to be an iPhone 6+/7+/8+, but what are we thinking? I know that a few people have tried this. I can use my girlfriend's 7+ for short periods of time, and she has a tempered glass screen protector not a matte one... I'm thinking of getting a 7+, and ordering the Skinomi Techarmor Matte (is that the right model?) for it... Verizon has a pretty good return policy if I just absolutely hate it.

Gurm I hope it works out for you. It seems the consensus on this thread is the plus models are generally better for some sensitive folks, for some unknown reason. FYI a portable battery back might make your HTC One M8 last longer.

ryans Yeah I know. I could keep reformatting it, keep it slim and trim, replace the battery... there are tricks and tricks. But the reality is I need to find a solution for the next 3 years, not the next 3 months.

I just checked, and Verizon has the 6+, 7+, and 8+ all within a few bucks of each other monthly. So I guess the question is... consensus... which is better for our eyes? Is there anyone on this thread who has used one and had no luck (or limited luck) but then used the other and had it be great?

I have used both a 6+ and 7+ for short periods of time without trouble (troubleshooting for a friend, taking/cropping photos, checking e-mail, playing one level of a game), so I think that with tweaking I could make either one workable for light use... I just need to figure out which one has more happy customers here. And I know "more" might mean "one".

After reading about the J3 doing ok, I have had a great time with the Samsung J7 Max, which had a Mali GPU, Mediatek CPU, PLS screen NOT Amoled (all other J7 models have amoled). No issues at all on low brightness.

Frustrating that the J3 and J7 here use low-end Snapdragons and have lousy cameras, they're basically super-low-end versions of the same phones. Grr.

Devotee Are you in India? GSMArena indicates the J7 Max is only for Indian markets?

Scrolling up I see that JTL uses an LG V20. Sadly, Verizon Wireless doesn't offer it any more this year, they offer the V30 and G6. The G6 is a fine phone - my son has one - but not awesome in this regard. The V30 is AMOLED (spits). I wish they kept phones in stock a little longer on the Android side.

randomboolean I am sorry for the late reply, my Sony Xperia Z3 has android 4.4.4 which is quite old version. however, my previous Z3 and Z3+ which are eye friendly had newer version, as I remember was marshmallows for Z3 and lollipop for Z3+. The Xperia zx had the latest android as i remember bcos i did updated it. You can find Xperia z3 in ebay, search for D6633.

Gurm Do we know for a fact that Android phones use temporal dithering to create 8-bit color?

ryans I have a Yotaphone 2. I can use both sides no issues. E Ink one side OLED on the other side. I find the EINK sucks in artificial light. I only use it in the sun. I use the OLED indoors. I think companies like Onyx may have fixed the E Ink contrast thing with there new tablet monitor. The contrast on the Eink side of this phone is just terrible unless in daylight.

ryans Not for a fact, no. I suspect they use some kind of color profile fuckery.

martin

I also tried P10 and P9 a day with each with no success.

The latest news from me is that I tried for a day as my main phone Samsung J3 (2017) and it is not usable for me.

I have been "tricked" many times with phones that seem usable when I play for an hour or two but when I use for a longer time they cause me eye strain and headaches. For me the benchmark is to try for at least 24 hours.

Great ! Earlier I wrote about the Samsung Galaxy J3 (2017) which didn't heart my eyes. After the Android April security patch the eye strain returned. How is this even possible ? Hopefully i can find a way to downgrade.

Phone software details (without eye strain)

phone software details (with eye strain, after update)

I guarantee you that as part of the "security update" (which is really just an important-sounding name for a x.x.# revision) they screwed with the color profiles. Seems that this was introduced in Android 6 and REALLY screws with people. Versions of ROMs that don't contain color profile setting seem to be much easier on people's eyes. For HTC, this means staying with Android 5. For other phones it was 6 or even 7, clearly with the J3 it's ... the March revision of 7.1

Gurm This can probably be resolved by flashing the device with ROM like Lineage OS?

Probably. Or just unlocking it and flashing back to the older official Samsung ROM. XDA Developers forum is a great place to start, but lots of reading to get up to speed.