michiel Maybe it's your favorite app that causes eye strain? Like the browser. Your best bet is to change any display-related settings to default or what looks like default. And don't use third-party apps that control brightness unless you know they're safe to use. A system reset might help, if that didn't happen during the downgrade.
Usable Smartphones?
I wonder if there anyone besides @KM who can use somewhat modern phone with modern android? I went all the way down to 2014 phones and still get headaches and eye strain. My almost dead Lumia is the only "window" to this world. I was trying to find used Meizu M1 METAL, which does not cause me eye strain, but there are none for sale, it was unpopular.
Also I started to talk with people about this eye issue and what's interesting, iPhone owners say that they eyes get tired very fast in comparison to other phones. Some people (including my mom) say that she gets a blurry vision for a hour or two after using iPHone for longer periods. For me the iPHone was the worst from all other phones, so I think that it damages vision very fast for everyone, just that we are very sensitive to this and cannot look at those screens at all. Maybe it is a good thing for us...
randomboolean I have had a good experience with Samsung J7 Max (with Mediatek cpu and PLS screen). You should try this or equivalent hardware . No other phones are usable for me. However Lenovo K8 note and K8 plus which have mediatek cpus (I think the Mali gpu is the good one) wuth IPS screens are usable for short times with less strain. The brightness setting has to be low for me to use any of these phones.
Overall I think LED backlights should be discarded due to eye damage issues but cost considerations will have manufacturers ignore this.
randomboolean I would go with E Ink. Yotaphone 3 is an E ink phone and semi new. I'm not sure what version of android but at least there would be no more eye pain.
randomboolean I believe @JTL uses a modern phone.
Is the iPhone 6S+ considered modern? Hehe! I've been using it for the past 2.5 years.
I wonder if it only seems that phones are worse because the screens are smaller and they are held closer to our eyes.
Yotaphone 2 for me.
jasonpicard Do you just use the back-eInk display? It's the first I've ever learned of this phone's existence.
I wonder who it's marketed for? (Hint: not for us, as there isn't enough of us! =p)
MagnuM at first I only used the EINK side for about six months. Then I got my eyes stronger and I mostly only use the OLED side unless I'm outside the E-Ink side is way better outside. E-ink no issues ever except I find the contrast isn't the greatest unless your outside for the E-INK side. They probably fixed the contrast on yotaphone 3.
jasonpicard Does OLED side cause you issues? Is the Eink side "usable" for everyday matters - calling, sms, email reading, writing, messenger/viber/whatsapp?
Yotaphone 3 use Samsung screen for OLED part and Android 7, so I believe it will be no good for us, but still we can use only the E-ink side
randomboolean Have you tried Paranoid Android ROM?
ryans I have, on the Oneplus X. But the screen on it is no good for me so there is no difference in eye strain strength. It is bad on original, on paranoid, on lineageos, android 5/6/7. Also this phone has terrible PWM so I set birghtness to 100 and dim with cf.lumen or twilight (rooted phone). Nothing helps. I think even Oneplus One on android 5 was so much better compared to X, even though the X has the same specs, processor, graphic card, amoled screen etc as my perfect Lumia 930.
I just exchanged X with my sister to hers Samsung galaxy s4. The screen is somehwat usable, much better than xperia xz, oneplus x, but not perfect. I will try installing custom rom in it too, but 'm afraid there is no paranoid for s4. It does also have PWM and I now think that this phone testing damaged my eyes so I became sensitive to PWM too.
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randomboolean Better don't dim with brightness apps that change colors like you mentioned. I can only speak for myself, but I get heavy eye strain by using them. Feels just like Windows 10 eye strain or the eye strain of ROMs that have color profiles. What I recommend you to try out is to use the app "Brightness Manager" by Igor Tseglevskiy from the Play Store and set the brightness to 80. That doesn't mean 80% but the value 80 out of 255 possible Android brightness values (which is roughly 31%). This value should be the lowest brightness setting for the One plus X which still doesn't use PWM, if I remember correctly.
Edit: verified it's 80
randomboolean OLED side on yotaphone 2 is great. Eink side is totally usable for most things.
jasonpicard Why does it have an eInk side and not just a normal phone backing? In the promotional material, box, etc, what "features" do they pitch with that addition?