Hi All
This is Special request and i Desperate for help , i have a smartphone screen problem i trying to use many of smartphone from a lot type and company all of the screens that i use make me extremely eye strain I notice after about 10 - 15 mins of use, I get dizzy and my eyes hurt like they are burning ,the only phones that I can use without eye strain are “Stupid Phone” like Nokia 108/105 I visited many eye doctors over the years and none of them could explain this issue,It all started with the first iPhone in 2007 over the years Smartphones were more useful and allow us to be connected all the time, I began to realize that sooner or later I'll need to use smartphone and i started to make a research to figure out this problem i've tried to turn the brightness down all the way and instell app thet dimming the screenand Nothing of it helped,With every screen I feel diffrant pain and i triyng to understand What makes my eyes Get hurt from the screen
Maybe its type of screen or the Refresh rate or screen technology,maybe you can advise from your experience have any idea here ?

Many Thanks
BoB

Unfortunately, there are many things that can cause eye strain. Chances are, you are affected by multiple causes of eye strain, which makes it difficult to find a device/phone that does not have all the things that is causing you eye strain. I suggest you do your investigation, see the list of known causes of eye strain...try and see if one of more of these one thing at a time, identify/eliminate one thing at a time. It is a difficult and tedious process. But you have to do it, know one else, even most doctors, wont know how to solve it (at least not yet).

If you have not been able to use any smartphone without eye strain at all, that means you have quite a severe eye strain problem, which makes it harder to find a solution. But, keep trying. I have tried many different smartphones at the store to see if I get eye strain or not. Those models that are not available at the store, I bought and import from overseas, only to find I get eye strain from them and sold them again. Many times I did this until I find one that I can use without eye strain. Its hard having this kind of problem, but gotta keep looking and keep trying. Good luck.

5 days later

Sorry for the long delay, guys.

I definitely cannot use MM on my HTC one m8. Intriguingly, the problem started BEFORE installing MM, after just flashing in the MM firmwares prior to installing the OS itself. So there's definitely something that happened in the driver layer of the firmware that drives the screen differently on the MM firmware.

The firmware that works for me is the VZW firmware package that includes:

HBOOT 3.19.0.0000
RADIO 1.14.20.0930
OpenDSP v51.2.2-00593-M8974_FO.1015
OS 4.17.605.9

  • Gurm
  • KM replied to this.
  • KM likes this.

    diop there is absolutely no chance of finding a CCFL-backlit phone. To my knowledge one has never been produced, ever. LED screens are still LCD. All displays that aren't plasma or OLED or Laser... are LCD. LED screens are simply "LED lit".

        Gurm HBOOT is the firmware? I'd like to test this on my HTC One M8. Previously I installed CyanogenMod KitKat, but that probably didn't downgrade any firmware?
        Any chances the firmware is the real reason why we believe there are "good" and "bad" HTC One M8?

          No, HBOOT is only a component of the overall firmware package. Each image file inside it is responsible for a different thing. Radio is a piece, ADSP is a piece, etc.

          I came here to report something positive. This will only work if you are S-OFF. It will not work at all if you are S-ON. If you need to ask what the difference is, you are S-ON.

          The harman/kardon sound mod is the ADSP firmware blob. Happily, this blob also affects the display, so you get subjectively better sound while also getting a bit better backlight smoothness. It is noticable to me, I was always flipping HW Overlays off, but with this I haven't done it at all yet.

          My setup, sharp panel, dev edition firmware 6.12.1540.4. This firmware comes with the DSP version 51.2.2-00593-m8974_f0.1015 that @Gurm listed despite it being lollipop, so that is also promising and honestly, I liked the DSP version in MM GPE H14 better in comparison, but the HK DSP version is better than both! If you flash the sound mod in, you will end up with a DSP version # of 62.2.2.

          http://forum.xda-developers.com/htc-one-m8/development/mod-audio-hk-bs-aroma-switcher-4-1-0-t3035354

          TWRP is used to install the switcher, it is very nice. You select what you have and what you want. To be clear, select HK if you want the DSP updated. If you select Boomsound it will leave you with what you already have.

          Version 5 of this mod is for MM. For LP and KK you have to use older versions, but my testing with it is only with MM and only v5 has the DSP version of 62.x

          • Gurm replied to this.

            Sunspark I will try this and report back. My phone has been dog slow since downgrading to Lollipop from MM, with terrible battery life. I suspect that something didn't take during the downgrade and was going to completely redo it anyway and put on Revolution HD. Instead, I will try going all the way to debloated MM and install the HK mod... and see how that fares. I'll report back in a couple days after I have a chance to try it.

                Gurm Good luck! If I was you, I would just wipe the device via installing the official RUU to make sure everything is clean and lined up properly. Here is a thread link to the latest official Verizon RUU as your starting point http://forum.xda-developers.com/verizon-htc-one-m8/general/official-ruu1-55-605-2-t2883845

                When I did my experiment yesterday, I RUU'd my device, and before even booting, I immediately flashed in twrp and the hk sound mod. Then it booted for the first time. I was careful about what updates/apps I installed because I wanted to see what would happen with standby idle first so I started the install with wifi off so I could turn auto-update off in Google Play and adjusted a few setting here and there. Installed GSAM battery monitor. According to this, it says while on wifi @ home it has used 5% battery while being idle for 13 hours.

                  6 days later

                  hi,

                  i know your problems. i tested several phones in the last weeks. but none can get the picture like my beloved sony z3 compact which i sold last month 🙁 because i wanted a bigger screen.

                  huawei p9 lite
                  motorola g4
                  xiaomi redmi 3s
                  htc m9
                  sony xperia x

                  the sony xperia x seems to be the best one at the moment. i have ordered a bq x5 plus. my last attempt. one of these have to stay. i will report later.

                  cu,
                  Riktor

                  AMOLED testing

                  I used the free iPhone app I discovered a few days ago to measure my OnePlus 3 flicker. It confirms that the frequency is ~60 Hz at a low difference in amplitudes.

                  At Android brightness 100/255:
                  image https://i.imgur.com/tgwYeQg.png

                  For comparison, my bathroom's incandescent bulb:
                  image https://i.imgur.com/GLagHDM.png

                  The app's website, including its App Store link: http://www.visosystems.com/products/flicker-tester/
                  I believe the app is especially useful to test AMOLED PWM because those frequencies are low. It might not detect high LCD backlight frequencies.
                  I could not test the bad PWM flicker that appears below brightness 68/255 (too dark for the app). But if you observe an AMOLED device through a video camera (mode) and fine-regulate the brightness from 255 downwards, you'll see at which point the running stripes suddenly multiply and get darker. That's where the flicker percentage increases. Maybe not frequencies really matter that much, but rather the difference beetween high and low amplitude...

                  Hey Gurm,

                  Remember this post of yours on the Apple thread:

                  "- Lensing/Glass effect: In some phones, such as the LG G4, Samsung S6 Edge, or Sony XPeria Z3, as well as the HTC Desire 612 and the iPhone 6... the screen is "lensed" in order to make it "pop". This lensing effect induces IMMEDIATE eyestrain for me regardless of settings, filters, etc."

                  I wish I understood more about it. This effect is very plain to see when you compare an iPhone 6/s/7 to a 5s or earlier, yet I don't have the vocabulary to describe it properly. As far as I can tell it is the major differentiating factor between my unusable 6s and my iPad Air which is ok for short usage.

                    degen They warp the glass to make the icons "float". It's basically like putting one of your grandpa's big ol' magnifying glasses on top of a piece of paper.

                        HTC M8 under Sense has dynamic contrast turned on as do many laptops. I can observe it happening with a switch from bright to dark content. This is not the same as auto-brightness. I will be exploring later if it is possible to obtain a kernel or aosp or something else that does not toggle this function on. I don't think dynamic contrast by itself is inherently bad, but it's kind of dependent on the reliability of the sensor readings it receives and the implementation. My preference of course would be for it to be off, I can't even imagine doing photo editing on a screen with that on.

                        • KM replied to this.

                          Sunspark I saw the same "dynamic contrast" effect on my BlackBerry Z10 after upgrading it to the problematic firmwares. It may be part of the eye strain issue. Not sure why manufacturers don't include options to turn this off.

                            JTL Yes, you're very clever. A "phone which can run a modern OS", then. Nobody has built CCFL into a phone since... like the year 2005. Since smartphones became a thing.

                            • JTL likes this.
                              7 days later

                              i can recommend the bq aquarius x5 plus.
                              the best screen i have ever seen. no headache or eye burn. check it out.
                              its designed in spain and build in china. you can get it from amazon.co.uk for example.

                              11 days later

                              Gurm
                              Hi Gurm, but you are mistaken. There are at least a few older CCFL backlit phones. I've been using a Huawei Ascend Y300 for years without issues. I've researched it and confirmed it's CCFL backlit. I'm sure Huawei has other models with CCFL, maybe some newer. There should actually be a thread here posting known CCFL smartphones.

                              • Gurm replied to this.

                                  Select Yes, I also had several CCFL lit phones. I'm sure older Blackberries probably were. But once weight and compute power started being an issue... just like you can't find a CCFL backlit laptop.

                                    24 days later

                                    So as promised I'm writing back.

                                    I upgraded my m8 to Marshmallow, then flashed in the ADSP for Harman/Kardon audio.

                                    The screen is now... better than stock Marshmallow, but not as good as stock Lollipop. Toggling the overlay option helped a little, too. It's now... if it were my only option, it would be usable.

                                    But it's not my only option, so... I will likely be dropping back to Lollipop.

                                    • KM likes this.
                                    8 days later

                                    I'm currently working on pwm free custom kernel for the S7 Edge, details can be found on XDA: http://forum.xda-developers.com/s7-edge/development/amoled-pwm-s7-edge-t3517739

                                    The most noticeable issue is a little screen deterioration on very low brightness (desaturation and visible grey "freckles" ).
                                    Although this isn't as problematic as seen on earlier revision amoled panels.

                                      dev