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.

                      Wootever <3

                      Real courage, unliek what Apple does removing headphone jacks 😛

                      I would be willing to work with you.

                      I feel like crying 😃

                        Wootever That is so very great news! I almost can't believe that someone finally managed to do this. Do you think it could be ported to other AMOLED devices, too? I think currently the vast majority of AMOLED smartphone panels are made by Samsung. Maybe all of them use similiar drivers, and this is the first day of totally PWM-free devices.

                        Do you know why there still is this small 60 Hz flicker? Does it do anything important?

                            KM Do you think it could be ported to other AMOLED devices, too?

                            Probably yes, the AID (AMOLED intervall driving) dimming mechanism they are implementing is actively used since the Galaxy S3. Although the implementation itself may vary (especially Exynos vs. Qualcomm).
                            Unfortunately this is exclusively used by Samsung, other AMOLED Panel devices might use a different approach or a panel built-in solution.

                            We probably need a complete AMOLED datasheet of a recent panel to fully understand those settings.

                            KM Do you know why there still is this small 60 Hz flicker? Does it do anything important?

                            I can only guess, it might be used as a burn-in protection / panel longevity method.

                            About the low brightness deterioration:
                            What we can see on especially low brightness is called mura defects. Those are small irregularities / deviations caused by the oled production process.
                            The PWM effect is also used to mask those mura defects, apart from stabilizing the color temperature and grayscale linearity (although less noticeable then the mura defects).

                                  There is unfortunately not much feedback on XDA, i guess most people are not aware of this issue or accept it as a part of AMOLED.
                                  Is someone here with a Samsung phone willing to try a custom kernel with the PWM adjustment included?

                                    Wootever When my mother gets a new phone I'll try and port it to her Galaxy S4.

                                    I could also try getting my old Note 3 back from a family member, but I feel it damaged my vision permanently 🙁. Would be fun to try it though 😃

                                      Wootever, NOBODY knows about this issue. My coworkers literally look at me like I have 3 heads whenever I bring it up, or return a laptop because I can't use it.

                                      • JTL replied to this.
                                      • JTL likes this.
                                        8 days later

                                        I have the same problem as many of you. I've had this for 20 years. CCFLS with PWM caused some problems, but LED and AMOLEDs worse. I've thus far identified it to be only PWM. I get red eyes and in the morning my eyes feel like I have sand in my eyes, if I've used a PWM display for some hours during the previous day.

                                        I had Sony Z3+, which was completely problem free, but I got frustrated with it's bad battery, since I then to use the phone quite a bit. I got first LG G5 based on Notebookcheck review that stated it would not have PWM. Turned out that it has a high frequency PWM at lower than 35%. But for some reason, I was unable to use it even with higher brightness without problems.

                                        I got the Huawei Mate 9 also based on the Notebookcheck review. I confirmend with my DSLR that it does not have a PWM. I also tested with some high shutter speeds at a camera store like 1/8000 and 1/32000 but I was not able to see any PWM. I tried to use it for 2 weeks, but my eyes were so red and irritated constantly, that I had to return it.

                                        I got a Sony XZ again based on the Notebookcheck review and based on the fact that Z3+ or Z2 or my Sony Android TV do not give me any problems. For the 2 first days I thought it is OK, but then after the Nougat upgrade, I started noticing the same eyestrain and now after 5 days, my eyes are again very red and irritated. I checked with my DSLR and noticed that again, contrary to the Noteboockcheck review, it does have PWM at lower that about 30 % (There is no value on the slider so cannot say exactly at which % it does start). But now I've tried to use it at higher brightness but it still causes eye strain. I'm baffled, as I have not had any dithering or driver issues before, but now it seems that either the Huawei Mate 9, LG G5 and Sony ZX have some dithering or driver issue in Android Nougat, or then they actually do have some very high frequency PWM that I cannot detect with my DSLR. But clearly non usable devices.

                                          dev