Gurm Just be extremely careful with those flat ribbon circuits. I managed to rip one of them off easily on my only good iPhone 4 while trying to replace the home button. They are very fragile, one wouldn't think how easily they break.

2 months later

Now that I have used my iphone 5s with techarmor matte anti glare screen for over three months, I want to provide some feedback. The phone seemed good for the first month or so. I could use it for 10-20 mins with minimum problems. But then gradually, it becomes worse and worse. Now, it gives me headaches in seconds. I remember the OS got updated at some point, not sure if that is the problem. Other explanations could be that there is a cumulative exposure effect, or some newly installed app cause the headaches. It is really strange. I think I will have to stop using it. My next phone to try will be iphone 7 plus.

  • Gurm replied to this.

    Jerry Unfortunately, Apple does screw with the output on a regular basis. Some versions of iOS are easier to handle than others, at least for me. Always have been.

      So far my experience - I've been using HTC Desire Z (SLCD 1) and Moto G (IPS) 1st gen (model produced by Google) with great success. Been able to read for hours and even write documents on them without problems.

      So I agree with SLCD and some IPS panels.
      I've had to return iPhone 5s that was completely unusable.

      Currently have S7 which has terrible PWM, so I keep it on 100% brightness, thus eliminating the benefits of good battery life. The good thing about it is if you are using a lot of black, those pixels are not turned on. So you get great contrast. In contrary I can't read for long on it, it becomes very uncomfortable because of AMOLED.
      S4 was also terrible. Pentile displays seems blurry to me and AMOLED is striking at my eyes. I've picked S7 because of pixel density - it was the only display I've been able to read on without magnifying the text. Also, it has super-high brightness so I can read maps on the go while outside.

      I plan to sell S7 soon and pick Google Pixel 2 (if it's SLCD), as that is rumored to be produced by HTC. Also Google captured HTC so keep an eye on their Pixel series.

        I will order iP 8 Plus and we will see, has any one tried this true tone display mode?

        Gurm it is so frustrating to find a usable phone.

        I have used Samsung Galaxy C5 so far and my head was hurt. now I have HTS М 7 - do you think you deserve it? Is there a flicker on the display? What brightness should I use? 70%? 80%? To be comfortable for the eyes and not have a flicker.

        HTC M7 is the easiest display ever. Well, almost. The HTC One X was the easiest, but it's quite old now.

        Sony Xperia XZ Premium. PWM under 31% of brightness. Battery life still good, if brightness under 31% is not used.

        • diop replied to this.

          The M7 is a great phone. can it diminish its brightness? is it a good phone from M8, M9. I have the opportunity to take M8 and M9 new.

          The older M8's are better than the M7 (much more powerful) but the M7 has better battery life and arguably a nicer camera (M8/M9 camera was junk). However, if you can tolerate an M9 that's the best of the 3. Better camera, more reliable, improved battery life. The real problem for me is that I have to stay with Lollipop, and getting an M9 back to Lollipop would be painful/difficult.

          Ok, so no change with iPhone, 8+ 64GB still eye strain just received today I will see in two or three days and then return it. If it give me direct strain it will not change. I was hoping true tone but I have to turn off it directly because it's getting worst with it.

          Edit: I've send back today. No way to use this 8+ it's worst than my iP6, stil stay with my LG G2 as whole day driver and iP6 for phone, sms and email 🙁

          Has anyone used the latest Google Pixel?

          I have played with it for about 30 mins and it seemed very comfortable in the eyes. I used the model with Android 7.0 Nougat, Amoled 5", Full HD, 4GB.

          I can confirm the lastest batch of phones so far ALL cause varying degrees of eye strain

          Le Eco Le S3 - Terrible
          Asus Zenfone 3 Max - Horrible
          Alcatel A50 - Awful

          I'm currently testing the Nexbit Robin, it's display is bad, BUT I haven't tried a Skinomi screen protector yet, it's still in the mail. I also am trying an Alcatel Pop 4 Plus, it's not awful. Not great, but not awful.

          I have 2 other phones in the mail on the way to me. Thank god for amazons return policies.

          Maxx So the Xperia XZ Premium is good over 31%? No additional PWM/FRC/Dithering going on?

          For the last few months I have been delving myself in android root and custom ROM scene, from learning the basics to tinkering with kernels settings to find a solution or a combination of software/ROM/driver/kernel that would allow me to use a new smartphone without eye strain.

          I get eye strain from PWM flickering, and I also get eye strain from graphics driver. So to find a usable smartphone, I need to eliminate these 2 source of eye strain.

          I have always been able to use HTC phones with SuperLCD3 display without any eye strain whatsoever (on Lollipop). So my first try is the HTC U Ultra.


          HTC U Ultra

          This phone is using SuperLCD5 display panel, and has no PWM, as confirmed by notebookcheck.net. So this is good. But unfortunately, despite having no PWM, this phone gave me the absolute worse eye strain I ever had compared to all other smartphones I have tried before, and I have tried quite a lot of phones Samsung Note 5, LG V10, Mate 7 etc. When using the HTC U Ultra, my eyes feels like it is burning, and I get the eye strain very fast too, and it lingers much longer after I stopped looking at the phone. This phone is running Android 7.0.

          Here's what I have tried:
          - rooted the phone using superSU and Magisk, installed TWRP
          - installed cf.lumen, tried all 3 root drivers (compatibility, anti-flicker, and performance), all give me eye strain.
          - installed custom ROM LeeDroid, which has its own graphics tweaks and control, hoping that this might override whatever it is in android graphics driver that is cauing the eye strain. Still no dice, the eye strain is still there. But I do noticed that using the custom ROM's advance features, if I disable the Ambient Display, I get less eye strain. If I enable Ambient Display, I get eye strain much faster.
          - tried kernel auditor, played around with kernel settings, CPU guvernors, GPU guvernors

          Result - still get severe eye strain. One time I forced myself to watch youtube on this phone for 45 minutes, hoping that my eyes will get use to the display. I get eye strain that lasted for 2 days, it was horrible. I never get eye strain that lingers for so long, even after waking up in the morning I can still feel the eye strain. I am trying to install another kernel driver, which is the KCAL driver. This is still in progress. This is my last ditch effort for this phone. If this doesnt work, then I will sell this phone.


          Samsung S7 Edge

          I bought this phone even though it has PWM, I decided to give it a try because there is a custom flicker-free kernel that will eliminate the PWM, and this phone has a lot of custom ROMs available. The phone comes with android Marshmallow.

          Here is what I have tried:
          - rooted the phone, installed TWRP
          - installed custom flicker-free kernel by wootever on stock ROM. The kernel works, no more PWM, but I still get eye strain (when using with stock android marshmallow). Had a lot of problem trying to get this custom kernel to work on marshmallow, but eventually it works.
          - upgraded to Nougat. Installed the flicker-free kernel. Still get eye strain.
          - reinstalled the stock marshmallow ROM, installed custom TGPROM, Batman ROM, eye strain.
          - installed custom TGP kernel (with PWM-free feature) on top of custom ROM, tried mTweaks, Spectrum, CPU governers, GPU governors - still eye strain.
          - reinstalled Nougat stock rom, installed Superman ROM, eye strain. Installed TGP custom kernel on top of custom ROM. Eye strain.
          - installed older and newer of custom TGP kernel (flicker free with Mali graphics driver) on Marshmallow - eye strain.
          - installed older and newer versions of custom TGP kernel (flicker free with stock graphics driver and Mali driver) on Nougat - still eye strain.

          Its very frustrating. I was hoping that certain combinations of OS, custom flicker-free kernel, and/or custom ROM might be able to give an eye strain free experience. But the eye strain is still there. With all these custom kernel and ROMs, I can use the phone, but cant look at the phone for more than 5 minutes. Which is the same if I didnt do anything to the phone at all. This is okay for quick glance at the phone for quick calls or messaging. But I wanted a phone that I use fully, like watching youtube, composing long emails, and just do productivity stuff on the phone.

          The eye strain from Samsung S7 Edge after installing the flicker free kernel is noticeably different than the HTC U Ultra eye strain.

          • Samsung S7 Edge stock - has PWM - the strain is mainly inside my eye balls
          • Samsung S7 Edge - flicker free kernel (no PWM) and various combinations of custom ROMs - eye strain is not just in eye balls, but I feel the strain in my entire head. But once I stopped looking at the phone, the strain doesnt linger very long.
          • HTC U Ultra - mainly inside my eyes and a bit, feels like there is a vertical piece of paper (or layer of something) inside my eye balls, and the strain is like fire burning this paper or this layer of something. And the strain lingers for a long time.

          Looks like the search still continues. Sigh.

          • KM likes this.

          Tried another phone, the Moto G4 (not the Plus)

          Out of the box it was actually pretty good. Surprisingly so. I comes preloaded with Android 6. there is a system update for upgrading to Android 7. Breaking my mantra of never changing anything, I updated, and the screen get REALLY painful to use. And of course you can't downgrade. And of course Amazon is now sold out of them so I need to wait for them to get back in stock before I can buy another one and NOT do the upgrade.

          Also be aware that manufacturers change hardware vendors over time and this can have an impact. I have a Blu R1 HD that I can use with a Skinomi screen protector. I cracked the screen, and ordered a replacement, the screen was wildly different, like marketably different color and a different DPI and was completely unusuable.

          So dont assume if you find a pone that works you can just order that phone again.

          • KM likes this.

          You all are still searching so much, but I think some more of you should try to get a reasonably priced OnePlus 3 with Android 7.0 stock. I'm having most of our problems: PWM, graphics drivers, graphics cards, different video modes, changes in gamma, even monitor's light intensity can hurt my eyes. The only thing I'm not sure about is temporal dithering. But this device and setup works for me for over a year now, 6-8 hours of usage a day, and I refuse to believe it won't help anybody else here. I'm gonna update my first post soon where I'll elaborate so it won't be overlooked in this very long thread.

          Kray At brightness 68/255 and above there's no PWM anymore (a little different from notebookcheck's review).
          And yes, I can look at it for hours. Usually I have a lot of trouble with brightnesses greater than 0 on any LED device, but not in this case.

          If you set up the device in a bright environment you may not have to look at PWM during the setup process.

          dev