Usable Smartphones?

autobot

JTL No. I'll ask my brother for his camera tomorrow. I'm not a camera guy - how should i set it to detect pwm ?

Just set the shutter speed as low as possible and in non-automatic mode ? and take the picture with no flickering light around ?

JTL

autobot Highest shutter speed possible. I use 1/4000 shutter speed with my DSLR and a dark room (if possible)

What camera does he have out of curiosity?

autobot

JTL did use the htc-m8 with shutter speed of 1/8000 on the xiaomi redmi 3 , it seems no pwm(not running lines), but the pixels themselves do look noisy(but it's the same with the nexus 5 which also doesn't have pwm) , so i guess there's something else.

What could it be ? how should i attack it ? The display is ips lcd.

autobot

JTL

heres are the pictures of the Xiaomi redmi 3, at 50% light(which makes me a headache), at shutter speed 1/8000. Only single pictures but they don't show any scan lines which indicate pwm. The purple background is tablecloth, notice the grains , which leads me to think the grains are due to camera noise.

Screen578

Has anybody tried the Microsoft Lumia 650? At this website they did not detect PWM: http://www.notebookcheck.net/Microsoft-Lumia-650-Smartphone-Review.165363.0.html It uses an OLED panel.

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.

reaganry

laclean i've had eye success with my alienware alpha (NVidia 7xx) + Dell ultrasharp U2414H with some overclocking. Also with my 2015 macbook air as a source.

i made the mistake of picking up a cheap iphone 4s though & now i'm back in sunspot zombieland. excited to try out the htc one..

JTL

reaganry Excellent!

I myself am using a 2015 Macbook Pro with AMD graphics as my main computer right now. I also have a desktop which I'll document about but it works for me.

Sunspark

I don't know why all the love for the M8 here. I'm really not liking it much and do not recommend it. I have 3 phones here. A 4S on iOS 6, a Z30 on BB 10.3.2 and this HTC M8. The Z30 has PWM at low brightness settings but is a super amoled and not bothersome, I've been using this device awhile, only downside is less apps are available. The 4S has no PWM. The M8 does not "seem" to have PWM but it has something. There's this "shimmer", it's hard to explain. Maybe an oscilloscope would show it. The screen certainly does have narrower viewing angles and higher ppi compared to the other two devices. Anyway, this device is no good, though some panels worked for some people. I do not carry the HTC which is too bad, because it is actually my most powerful phone. I only have it because I was closing out an account at the carrier and I had to cash out a credit, so I took this device.

optix

Sunspark I'm sorry to hear HTC M8 doesn't work for you, but it does for me and several other people as well. If there's 50% chance it will work for people, I'd say let them try. It's still a solid performer and used ones are really cheap today. More than likely you can even test it somewhere before the purchase.

I can also report that the new HTC 10 is fine as well. There seem to be 2 screen suppliers this time again, SHARP and TIANMA. I have a Sharp one, haven't had a chance to test a model with Tianma screen yet.

autobot

JTL Did you test the LG nexus 5 in prolonged use ? any issues ?

KM

I don't think you can capture scanlines in single pictures. As far as I know for lines to appear you need to have a continuous shuttering.

ensete

I've had good luck with screen savers on smartphones that will trigger me in an instant iff I do not use them. Specifically TechArmor and Skinomi hve transformed completely unusable screens into screens I can stare at for hours. Give them a shot

autobot

ensete Can you expand more on the screen savers(protectors ?) ? what models ? is it matte ? etc ?

Sunspark

@Gurm I was playing with GPE firmwares again today on the M8.

You were probably using a Sense firmware, but I am pretty curious to know what the version #s are on the one you liked was. I note that on GPE, the radio is the same in both 5.1 and 6.0 and the DSP is the same in 5.01 and 5.1. You can get to the HBOOT bootloader by holding power and volume down when turning on the device.

4.4.4

HBOOT 3.18.0.0000
RADIO 1.14.21331931.LA02_2G
OpenDSP v32.2.2-00542-M8974.0213
OS 2.12.1700.1

5.0.1

HBOOT 3.19.0.0000
RADIO 1.21.213311491.A04G
OpenDSP v47.2.2-00564-M8974_F0.1024
OS 3.11.1700.5

5.1

HBOOT 3.19.0.0000
RADIO 1.23.213311491.A13G
OpenDSP v47.2.2-00564-M8974_F0.1024
OS 4.04.1700.10

6.0

HBOOT 3.19.0.0000
RADIO 1.23.213311491.A13G
OpenDSP v50.2.2-00591-M8974_F0.0810
OS 5.07.1700.14

KM

Now I bought an HTC One M8, too. It shipped with Marshmallow. The screen is not too bad but could be more confortable. I also tried Cyanogenmod 12.1 and 13 and am still struggling with screen settings. Now I'd like to try stock Lollipop to know if I feel the same difference Gurm describes.. But how do I install that? I have an unlocked boot loader and TWRP recovery. I did everything from within Linux with adb and fastboot.

optix

KM I'd suggest to install Android Revolution HD v45.0, which is stock Lollipop (Android 5.0.1 + HTC Sense 6.0) with root and a couple of optimizations. So generally still basically stock. I'd suggest the same for MM version.
It can be installed the same way as Cyanogenmod roms.

http://android-revolution-hd.blogspot.com/p/android-revolution-hd-mirror-site-var.html

Sunspark

For the M8, when activating developer options by tapping 7 times on the build number in the about section of the settings, if you enter it and scroll down to "Disable HW Overlays" and turn it on, could someone comment on whether or not everything looks the same still?

KM

Sunspark Initially I wanted to try it for a few more days to be absolutely sure, but now that you ask, no I don't visibly see any differences. But the difference seems to be huge.
Yesterday I gave my OnePlus 3 one more try. The first options I set were "Force GPU rendering" and "Disable HW overlays". I could use the phone until late in the night. The next day I continued to use it. At some point I had to reboot. Some minutes later my eyes started to burn and I felt terrible. I almost gave up on the device. I lacklusterly scrolled down the Developer options, and to my surprise "Disable HW overlays" was again unchecked. I forgot to turn it on again after the reboot. After checking it, I could continue to look at the bright AMOLED screen. I went outside and could still use it (I use auto brightness wich turns all the way up outside). Felt great. I couldn't do that with my iPad without getting a headache quickly. Now I'm back home and typing this message on my OnePlus 3. The battery is dying any moment. In the morning it was at 100%.

Edit: Back and charging

About the M8: I made sure to have both developer options checked for some time without feeling relief. My eyes and my head hurt that day, because of the M8, which ruined almost a whole day. I'm going to test it more in a few days. What I did the last before putting it away was rooting it and added "persist.sys.use_dithering=0" in /system/build.prop which should disable Surface Dithering (whatever it is). Some of us mentioned it might help. I just wonder if I can still return the device, if I need to, after all that flashing and rooting.

Related: Make "Disable HW overlays" permanent
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=52627683&postcount=11

Sunspark

KM Sure you can.. easiest way is to RUU it back to stock, then relock the bootloader, etc. I can't return mine because it was a closeout of a carrier account, one of those use the credit or lose it deals. Don't change too many options at once. I think Overlays is the only one that matters and I noticed having force GPU on 2D slowed some things down. There is a tweak coming soon for the O+3, srgb color profile instead of ntsc.

autobot

KM The first options I set were "Force GPU rendering" and "Disable HW overlays".

Why do these options help ?

hansennnnn

KM sorry i want to ask where is force gpu rendering setting ?and how to input persist.sys.use_dithering=0 ?

JTL

Relevant

http://android.stackexchange.com/a/81531

Harrison

well my HTC One Mini 1 is at the end of life now. So it's pretty hard for me to buy a new smartphone, since problems with the screen are inevitable.

However I don't want to buy a new smartphone with a screen bigger than 5 inch.

Do you guys have any recommodations for me. I don't want to trial and error all the time, because I'm currently testitng different eye care monitors at work.

JTL

Harrison Unfortunately not

Slacor

Harrison Do you guys have any recommodations for me.

When there is no collection of good / bad anywhere, trial and error is all that you can do.
If you trial some though - the wiki got started up again (for good). Please post findings there and create a separate thread here for each individual device 🙂
If others do it too (and I figure out more easier ways to submit new devices, I find the current instructions too confusing 🚑 ), then we can get a list going of good / bad stuff.

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