Usable Smartphones?

Lowresaddict

randomboolean I also got problem with Nokia. Just bought nokia 8, everything seems fine for first few days, but it gradually getting worst. I just realise the screen way too bluish bright than other phone. It hurts my eyes even when dimmed. I use blue light filter apk, but it doesn't help. I think I have to avoid all adreno and snapdragon's phones, they all give me headache. Plan to downgrade to Samsung J3 pro 2017. It uses pls TFT screen, Exynos chipset and mali gpu, hope they suit me.

randomboolean

AGI It has been only dispatched ~4 hours ago, so haven't tried it yet. It should arrive next week, I will update you guys whenever I have tried it out. Not sure about 3310, it might be good, but I am tired of trying...

Lowresaddict I would order it with good return policy, as me and some other guys tried it and it wasn't comfortable for our eyes 🙂

Plsnostrain

I earlier told I use my new iphone 8 plus without strain. Using it a lot more now I realised its not so good after all. The best phone for me its still samsung s6 and iphone 4s which I still own.

Lowresaddict

randomboolean Thanks for the info. I decided to keep the Nokia 8 and installed anti spy/ privacy screen guard. It acts as dimmer to the screen and makes the screen more comfortable to my eyes, I can use the phone longer than before, so it is enough for now

ryans

Gurm Cool, what about Essential Phone?

randomboolean

Lowresaddict Could you please share a name or link of the privacy screen guard? It is interesting that it helps and I would like to try it on some problematic phones which I haven't sold yet. 🙂

Gurm

It's interesting, I would love to be able to get my hands on a phone that uses Exynos and Mali... or even Tegra... but even phones like the Samsung J3 use Snapdragon in the USA. It's very frustrating, I think that something about the newer Android versions and Adreno drivers are just... a bad combo. Whether it's compositing, or pixel rendering, or color profiles... who knows?

KM

Screen578 I just found that review, 2 years later, and am surprised. An OLED screen without PWM. There is some fluctuation in their screenshots but they say there is no PWM. The website also lists the Wiko Wim as OLED phone without PWM.

A big question is if Microsoft did the same changes that make Windows 10 unusable for some of us to Windows 10 Mobile, too. It may be worth a try.

Seanicus

Soreeyes Thanks for the info. By any Nokia Lumia phone, does that mean any phone running windows? I'm tempted to try the Lumia 950. Perhaps Windows is free of the whatever it is that people seem to report on newer android versions.

KM I thought the Galaxy S2 had an OLED without PWM? Problem with that phone is the minimum brightness was stupidly bright.

Also I just realised you can reply to multiple posts at once. This should put an end to my spamming!

degen

I never thought there was anything to it but I removed my crappy no name screen protector (supplied by Best Buy, I don’t even know which brand), which was installed the day I got the phone, and my comfortable iP7+ is no longer as comfortable. I noticed the change immediately and even a month later it still causes more strain (felt as muscles contracting around the eye and referring to my temples and the side of my head).

This screen protector was very noticable (not really translucent at all). I don’t know why it helps but like I believe I’ve seen mentioned here it does provide something for your eyes to focus on.

martin

degen It does, read my post in the treatments thread

Sunspark

The LG G7 ThinQ looks very promising. It just came out, and I had the opportunity to look at a demo model at a kiosk for a minute or so. Screen looked good. Good colour, and backlight seemed 'smooth'. The demo model had a backlight bleed spot between the home button and the recent apps button, apparently most if not all demo models have it, but not all the production models do, so caveat emptor.

I say go check it out.

Gurm

Sunspark REALLY. I love the G6, it wasn't perfect. How does the G7's screen compare to the G6?

Sunspark

Gurm I didn't like the G6. It wasn't horrible but it still felt off to me. The resolution between the G6 and G7 is not the same, however the PPI is the same. Curious to see what you thought.

Gurm

I just checked the specs on the G7 (which is JUST NOW available from Verizon) and it has Oreo. I am starting to wonder if there's just something about Oreo that makes it better for our eyes?

I'm going to go to my local Verizon store later on and check it out, this makes me VERY excited.

Sunspark

Talking about OLED devices here (the G7 is a traditional LCD), while I haven't seen it in person the LG V30 catches my interest as well. While obviously not PWM free, the dips are low amplitude and the line stays relatively flat.

This is in comparison to the Iphone X below where only 50% brightness is desirable here.

And of course, Samsungs are just straight up trash. Note 8 shown here.

These graphs are from a Russian review site, ixbt.com

JTL

Sunspark Have you seen the iPhone X? Lot's of people are having issues with it.

KM

Sunspark It looks like the Russian reviewer's V30 doesn't use PWM for brightness regulation but what we see is a 60 Hz refresh rate flicker almost (*) all AMOLED displays seem to have. There's a good chance such devices are usable when it comes to flicker. Keep in mind incandescent bulbs driven at 50/60 Hz AC have a bigger flicker percentage. If those measurements are accurate, that is (they seem a little noisy).
But Notebookcheck's V30 has strong flicker below 80%:
Picture: https://www.notebookcheck.net/fileadmin/Notebooks/LG/V30/PWM.png
Review: https://www.notebookcheck.net/LG-V30-Smartphone-Review.246326.0.html
Different electronics in different parts of the world?

(*) However, the Nokia 650's line seems even more flat, assuming the many small spikes are equipment noise:
https://www.notebookcheck.net/fileadmin/Notebooks/Microsoft/Lumia_650/response_pwm.jpg
And here the Wiko WIM:
https://www.notebookcheck.net/fileadmin/Notebooks/Wiko/Wim/PWM_full.png
So it seems totally flicker-free AMOLED devices exist, too. That's the only two I found so far.

Reviews:
https://www.notebookcheck.net/Microsoft-Lumia-650-Smartphone-Review.165363.0.html
https://www.notebookcheck.net/Wiko-WIM-Smartphone-Review.242720.0.html

Sunspark

JTL My mother has one. It's probably fine at 50%, but I wouldn't want it for myself.

Soreeyes

I have found all AMOLED phones on lollipop or older to be 100% comfortable.

These phones were perfect for me: Any OLED Nokia Lumia, Galaxy s4, s5, Oneplus X, LG Flex 1 and 2 (recommend a Flex 2 if you don't mind the low max brightness and sticking to lollipop, it's the newest released absolute comfort phone I have come across and you can still find them new for relatively cheap. First phone to shoot in 4k if I remember correctly too.)

The moment I update to marshmallow or newer on any phone I get eye strain instantly.

Galaxy s6 was unusable, s7 was too, tried an LG V30 and while much better than others it's still not great for me.

Any normal LED backlit phone I've come across I haven't been able to comfortably use. iPhone SE was the most pain I've ever been in from an LED backlit screen and it happened so fast every time.

valex13

Soreeyes Unfortunately, for me it is not true, as I HAVE strong eye strain on Samsung A5 (2015) with Lollipop and even with KitKat. So probably in 2015 there was a new generation of LED backlight introduced. And yes, I DON'T have any problem with Samsung Alpha (2014) both with Lollipop and Kitkat.

Soreeyes

valex13

OLED panels don't have a backlight by the way the pixels light themselves up.

I haven't tried the A5 but Samsungs newer AMOLED screens are garbage regardless I've never seen worse PWM than on Samsungs newer panels. Even if you don't have issues like ours there's no way using a screen that's essentially a flickery mess at anything other than max brightness is actually comfortable to use (or good for you)

I assume it's because they want the screens to be as BRIGHT as possible which means the moment you start lowering it they have to massively slow the on/off cycle compared to if the screen was a lower brightness from the get go

I've seen more uniformity issues with LGs OLED but I'll take a lack of uniformity (literally the only time I've been able to see the uniformity issue on an LG is on the phone's off but charging screen where it displays mostly grey and some of the grey was a little darker) over the massive PWM from Samsung.

@Sunspark confirmed what I'm saying just a few posts up (re: v30 catching your eye - having played around on one for a while I can only see visible pwm below around 30% brightness anything higher doesn't have the signature low PWM "trail" if you move the phone. the phone still wasn't ultimately comfortable for me but much better than Samsungs recent phones since the s6 and above. Also I found it to be a fantastic phone once they drop in price I am going to get one.)

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