JTL I believe the vast majority of past Samsung AMOLED mobile displays used around a ~240Hz PWM frequency, and what could be different between them is the "duty cycle" of the waveform, often expressed as flicker coefficient by some light meters.
Yes, I think you are right. The flickering looks exactly like my Dad's S21 FE which Notebookcheck.net says flickers at around 240Hz.
@JTL @Vividblu99 can you tell anything about the frequency and duty cycle of the device from the footage captured from the screen?
Because notebookcheck.net says that the Galaxy a80's display "uses PWM and flickers at about 240 Hz over the whole brightness range of the display" but when I capture the screen of my mom galaxy A80, above around 30% the lines that are moving across the screen stay the exact same but below 30% they become bigger and bigger as you reduce the brightness.
If this has to do with the frequency, then this literally means that the same device could have a completely different screen tech from another one of the same. This makes everything so damn complicated.
bz12 I ordered and tried a Realme 9 Pro and it's up there with the worst devices I've tried. It feels similar to symptoms dithering gives me which is not just eye strain. Not sure why it's so bad for me, but it's going back.
This is really crazy. Just like how I felt with the Realme 7 5G. Could it really be that the same device could be produced with a different screen in different places of the world?
I think We need to buy a microscope and start testing devices ourselves. I don't dare to buy a new phone anymore.
Leachim38 yes, i agree.
There is one thing on our hand; problems with screen is now widely acknowledged. Having said this,3 years ago my eyes were hurting…now days it is mainly a nausea/dizzyness/headache issue. It could be the manufacturers "repaired" the eye strain, and this headache thing is a byproduct.
Sometimes I think this platform should not be used, instead we all should move to apple or Samsung forums. In these days the mantra is: problems are only problems if they are present online (&trending). And if they are mentioned in a "talkshow", than it is a real "problem". I would say all manufacturers are sensitive to their online branding. Just a thought as an alternative solutions for testing a lot of phones (as I do…)…
Greetz.
Yes! We absolutely need to do this. There are enough of us here now experiencing these issues to know that we are not crazy. And these companies know themselves what kinda new crap they are introducing into their display's so if we get their attention enough they will have to speak out and end are maddening confusion.
Wayfarer86 some people tried Oled Saver or PWMfree (outdated), someone use reducing blue light and protonomaly.
me and some people complain about the "Flashlight in the Eyes" effect, after which photosensitivity appears, it is also difficult to read text on some screens, it is difficult to focus, nausea appears, we think it is due to pixel shaking (dithering).
Those apps are useless. Most devices, especially Samsung, flicker even at 100% brightness. This, I suppose, is done to reduce heat and increase battery efficiency.
Vividblu99 I didn't use my phone as much as I do now.
I really doubt it is overuse. You can not believe, how many hours back to back I would spend playing games on my Galaxy Note 5. It would get to the point where one of my eyes hurt so bad that I would have to tie it up with something and play with one eye open. But that was only after days and days of none stop playing.
Last night, though, I used my Galaxy Note 5 for barely 15 minutes. I could not sleep all night from massive eyestrain and headache till 7 am. It's been nearly a week now, and the eye and neck strain and headache have still not fully healed.
I think it's more the case of companies thinking, "Well, barely anyone is getting eyestrain from these techs, why not push it further? Why not reduce PWM frequency to get an increase in battery efficiency, and why not just slam a shitty 6bit panel into a phone and make it look as good with dithering and then sell it at the same price as a 10bit panel?"
Vividblu99 Keep in mind, the vast majority of manufacturers all use displays that are produced and designed by the same companies, in the same factories, and are slightly tweaked in terms of specs & display optimization.
This unfortunately is true, though. And sadly Samsung has most of the screen building market, and they are probably the biggest PWM/Dithering abusers.
We really need to get our voices out or the situation will just get worse and worse. Yesterday I looked carefully at my Galaxy Grand 2 and I feel I am seeing 2 brighter spots on the screen. I suppose the screen is degrading. If something happens to this phone or if it breaks, I am literally phoneless lol
bz12 I've tried OnePlus 9 (pwm, but other users here have said it didn't bother them), Poco X4 GT, OnePlus Nord CE 2 Lite, iPhone 11 and iPhone 8 Plus (iOS 16) in the past couple months and none of them resonate well with me. I'm still without a comfortable device to use.
Oh boy, this is so sad! Are you sure The Poco X4 GT strained you!!?? Notebook check has actual video footage on YouTube showing that this device does not dither at all and the PWM frequency is crazy high! 50k! That's like 20x most devices that run at 240Hz!! What could possibly be the source of strain here !!?
This phone was my last hope :"(