Usable Smartphones?

JTL

deepflame Pixel 3 and 3a are both OLED.

Enjoy the new phone 😃

Kind of wish I had one.

deepflame

JTL Thanks! Yeah, but the Pixel 3 seemed worse for some reason. Not sure why. Maybe because it ran Android 9 (?).

The Pixel 3a is also way cheaper, so really happy with it so far.

Sunspark

deepflame The Pixel 3 uses LG screens. With the 3a it is Samsung only and for the 3a XL it is both Samsung and LG I believe. I had the 3a XL briefly and I agree with you it's a decent device. The only reason I sent it back was because the XL's screen wasn't evenly shaded. Android 10 for my device probably won't arrive till next year, enjoy. 🙂

Gurm

deepflame if Android 10 fixes whatever subpixel fuckery was present in Android 6->9, I'll be a happy camper. Like, I'll go pay actual cash money for a Pixel 3a. I wonder if Sunspark or one of the other people who has my type of eyestrain can try one and comment?

Sunspark

Gurm I'll check it out. If the Costco kiosk with their devices showing screen burn is still on 9, then I'll check them out at the Google booth at Best Buy after the weekend.

It's too bad OLED screens wear out causing colour shifts and image burn-in. LCD lasts forever but their backlight does not.

Incidentally I noticed today using the display tester app "banding, contrast, saturation" (swipe to adjust brightness, hold down to fullscreen) that my M8 is not presenting 24 bit colour properly. The gradient has defined circular edges and on the "real world photos" test for the dark image the M8 displays macroblocks on the water. On the A70 the gradient is a smooth blur and photo also blurs away the macroblocks. Interesting.

Sunspark

Took a look at the 3a XL, it was on Android 10.

Seemed usable, not worse than what I have which is good. I didn't spend too much time with it as the store was going to be closing soon but seemed ok. Kiosk did not have the non-XL. I recommend changing colour profile on that one to boosted and bumping up the text size a notch.

Gurm, if you decide to give it a shot, if you order it from Google's store you will have 2 weeks to return it should you decide to. You can also take a look at it at Best Buy. Remember you are not used to OLED today and you will need more than a few minutes to get used to it before deciding nah.

Gurm

I may give it a shot. Seriously, if they fixed this in Android 10, we should mount a campaign to figure out - it's open source, after all - what changed... and then push to backport it into Windows, XBox, PS4, etc.

JTL

Gurm The only problem with that is the amount of changes in Android versions are so large that the only person who could possibly know either a) works or has worked at Google or b) works for Samsung, LG, Huawei, etc. and undoubtedly they would probably both be busy. Not saying not to try, just keep that in mind.

diop

Gurm Seriously, if they fixed this in Android 10, we should mount a campaign to figure out - it's open source, after all - what changed... and then push to backport it into Windows, XBox, PS4, etc.

I agree. The issue is obviously that of control and access to the inner-workings of the software. This is why I am so surprised it hasn't been resolved on Linux as it truly is open, community-driven software. Nouveau is open source.

I believe that PA is open-source too (as well as many Android ROMs) so given how many years these problems have been in place it's funny that nobody at xda forums or similar could help.

What we can largely agree on is these issues are now ubiquitous on essentially all modern devices (TV's/Smartphones/PC's/Games Consoles). Are manufacturers using worse panels than in 2010? I doubt it, as we're being told year-on-year they're getting better all the time. Is dithering a necessity given the resolution and clarity of graphics nowadays? Even when using a bad phone or PC, tbh the picture isn't that much different to old tech in terms of clarity and colour (At least with my modest budget IMO). Also VGA could practically output HD resolutions over a decade ago.

Gurm

JTL Yeah, I'm painfully aware of how hard it is, but it's not unheard of. Certainly we could try to get someone at AOSP to look over the display stack, and if a culprit can be identified we can reverse engineer it and figure out a way (driver? dongle?) to compensate/fix it.

Gurm

Tried out a friend's Pixel 3 at lunch. It was... ok? Might be able to make it work for me. Definitely 100x better than most phones. Probably on par with an iPhone 7+/8+ for me.

Gurm

Gurm Interestingly, the Pixel 3 and 3aXL have the same DPI and screen tech. The 3a has a different screen spec. I'm going to try to go to Best Buy later and check one out...

Peter

Gurm
Did you manage to test the Pixel 3a?

Giunti

Hello I've been following the forum for about 1 year. I can't use the phone except Samsung S6 Edge Plus. I had to sell my Note8 after the pie update.

SeniorTaquito

I'm able to use a samsung galaxy s8+ running android 9 but have some strain on the note 10 which is running a later build of android 9. What's most noticeable is the One UI version which is 1.0 on the s8+ is 1.5 on the note10. Not sure if this is what's causing the strain. Does anyone know if I can downgrade to the build running on my s8+?

SeniorTaquito

SeniorTaquito to give an update... after using the note 10 sporatically over a week or 2, I can now use it without issue.

Ramboo

The best phone for the eye without any problem i have so far is the huawei p30 pro but you have to enable eye comfort mode and check on reduce flicker and make the color temperature slider on the middle. Also put screen resolution to FHD+, color mode to Normal (not vivd), from accessibility disable color enhancment. The brightness on 30% but this is up to the user preference.
(You have to update to latest EMUI which is 9)
Maybe some of the settings I changed are not relevant but that's how I managed.
I was thinking like others here that the latest android could have a cause but now i am sure it is not. So i narrow it to the GPU and the blue light intensity of that device and less to the color enhancment which can be adjusted easily.
Can anyone try huawei p30 pro and confirm it.

tfouto

There seems to be a pattern. OLED phones seem better for our eyes. Pixel 3a, Huawei P30 Pro, IPhone 11.

noigmn

tfouto
Are there some flicker free OLEDs now, because Galaxy S7 and S8 made me sicker than almost anything. They induce the type of sickness that lingers and can last days.

I'll note the GPU seems very important though, at least for me. I got sick using an Intel GPU netbook with transflective screen and no backlight.

olgomar

I can add the Samsung Galaxy S10E PWM is stressful to use for me, causing sore eyes and mild headache after a few hours.
Before I give up on it, I am going to try out the PWMFree app with the S10e from xda user Wootever.
https://forum.xda-developers.com/galaxy-s9-plus/themes/utility-amoled-pwmfree-application-t3898070
I will update after I have had a chance to test it out for a while and hopefully can also test it with the oscilloscope.
In the meantime, my trusty LG v30+ (above 45%) is still working for me for the last 18 months or so.

For those who may be not wanting to trust an application from a random post on xda (This is probably wise), I also saw the OLED Saver app on the Google Play store, which I will also try out.
This app/service seems to try a similar effect to reduce PWM impact, but does not allow for as bright a screen as the xda app.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.js.oledsaver&showAllReviews=true

Both apps appear to not show as banding when running and testing with another camera.

olgomar

I tried to live with the Samsung S10e but it just didnt work out for me.
Stock standard was unusable, and with OLED Saver it still didnt feel as good as the LG,

olgomar Even with the app, it was still unusable for me unfortunately.
I waited a few days and tried another phone at a shop to confirm. After a few minutes I felt tingling across the top of my scalp, and felt disorientation shortly afterwards. Definitely a no-go for me.
Back to the trusty LG v30 (above 45% brightness) for me.

Sunspark

In Canada, Samsung is now selling the entry level A10e for $200 CAD. Also available in the US for $180 USD. This is a 720p PLS LCD with an Exynos CPU and headphone jack. Android Pie. I haven't viewed it yet.

tfouto

noigmn There are differences between Super AMOLED from Samsung and P-Oled by other companies.

P650SE

noigmn I had a ZTE Axon 7 a few years ago (which uses the exact same AMOLED display as the Galaxy S7 Edge) and it caused me chronic eyestrain and headaches that went on for months until I realised it was the phone that was causing the problem. Ever since then I've been terrified about buying another AMOLED device.

As someone who is a tech enthusiast it's extremely frustrating to have such little choice when it comes to IPS devices with flagship-level specs. There's only one decent IPS phone in existence that has the SD855 and that's the Asus ZenFone 6, which is too expensive in comparison to anything Xiaomi offers!

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