I am still using an iPhone 4. Out of five iPhone 4/4s I bought only two are usable. The three other ones triggered eye strain in just a few seconds. However, the iPhone is getting slower, and the screen size is not really what you use nowadays. Do you have a Smartphone with current technology that is perfectly usable throughout the day?

I use a Note 3 SM-N900W8 (purchased Oct 24th 2013, was having issues with PWM then, got a migraine from being in the store too long :() I never bothered to check for PWM as it was less of an issue in phone displays back then but I never had problems with the display. Recently checked with Canon T5i and it shows up as higher frequency than usual >300hz which is a safe zone normally. And I cannot detect PWM using pen test (insert S-Pen joke here) However Samsung phones made in 2014 and after have terrible PWM worse than this. Friend got a headache from trying the S5 in store, think later batches of the Galaxy S4 may be affected, etc.

I am iPhone 4s with iOS 7.1.2, and it's smooth enough because I don't usually use apps on it. (I surf the web on computer) I think iOS 6 is better on iPhone 4. :>

@"JTL"#p236 I hate Samsung mostly because of the screen. The same feeling as yours.

I've got a LG LGL34C for about a year now and haven't had any issues with it. Dunno if it's fast or not but it's usable... so that's good enough for me!

@"Slacor"#p251 Heh. I had a LG-C55 about four years ago running Android 2.2. Think was laggy as crap but it didn't use PWM, took 10 seconds to open the dialer, etc.

Did anyone try the BlackBerry Leap?

I use an iPhone 4s and I hate it :( It gives me instant eye strain + headaches. Its original OS (I don't remember which one it was) seemed a lot better than the new updated ones. I wish I could revert it back to how it was.. but oh well.

Yes, that is true. I had to downgrade my iPhone 4 to iOS 6 because on iOS 7.1.2 I got severe eye strain and headaches. I switched back and forth several times to be sure. I think there is a newer hack tool that allows you to downgrade iPad 2 and iPhone 4s to iOS 6.1.3. I read about it in reddit's jailbreak section. I believe it is called something like Odysseus. But I can not guarantee that it is safe to use and free of malware. I think iOS 5 was the original OS.

Also I might be able to go to a phone store soon with my fast shutter speed DSLR to test for flickering in newer smartphones. Also people on my family also own, alongside the Samsung's I mentioned. - LG Nexus 5 - iPhone 6s (I don't like iPhone's :P) will test those later.

I tried the BlackBerry Leap now. It is not the worst LED device I ever used, but it still starts to hurt a little after 1-2 minutes. At night the minimum brightness is a little too bright for me.

Usable Smartphones?

ensete

it think it's not about the hardware (smartphone) but it's software (Android OS)

It can be either or a combination of both

hansennn

ensete I think it's about software for me because if i playing a game (nds and psp emulator) on the smartphone i don't feel headache but if i am browsing,chatting,checking email,watching video on the same smartphone with same setting,i feel headache.Maybe because GPU,If only there is a option to always activate gpu.Have you try to playing a game on your defect smartphone ?If you haven't,i hope you can try it for 5-10 minute because it's click with your symptom,i have read your past post about you using a same monitor on PC but using different software (driver) make you eyestrain.And maybe everyone in here can try to playing a game too on the smartphone,If everyone have the same symptom with me than we can find what cause of this problem and can make a software or application on android that can eliminate this problem.

ensete

hansennn If everyone have the same symptom with me than we can find what cause of this problem and can make a software or application on android that can eliminate this problem.

Honestly I think that's a fools errand. It could be any number of issues and each thing could effect any individual differently.

My strategy has always been try devices until I find one that works, when I do buy 3 of them, and never ever upgrade.

degen

I can't tolerate my iPhone 6s anymore. I have made good progress in my eye health by avoiding problematic screens, and the iPhone 6s is the worst screen I own, giving strain within a few seconds. Now I only use it to answer phone calls. No texts or emails. It's a big problem. Is the OnePlus 3 my best bet ATM? I know there is no sure answer but what should I try next? I'm pretty desperate and willing to sink some cash in to resolve this issue. It's insane not being able to use a phone when I'm trying to conduct business. Thanks.

MagnuM

degen Have your eyes been really strained recently, like through over-reading? I know that even your garden-variety eye strain will often come with a bit more photophobia than usual. I wonder if you're more sensitive to the backlight after.

Have you tried NightShift on your 6S+, keeping it on all the time, and brightness at 0%? It's helped me with my iPhone 6S+

diop

degen Have you tried adjusting the white point and reducing motion? It made a difference for me (not game-changing but more comfortable than default).

degen

I am using the lowest brightness and Nightshift at warmest setting. Still hurts bad. This phone doesn't trigger garden-variety eye strain like my good screens do. It's awful and has been there since I got the phone, although I tried to deny it because it's the best phone I've ever owned otherwise. I came from an HTC One m8 which was comfy to use and I seriously regret trading it in. With this condition I've learned that if you have a good working setup, don't change anything unless you absolutely have to!

Gurm

degen, have you tried the skinomi matte screen protector recommended by... uh... I forget who in a different thread? You and I have similar issues, and I find that the screen protectors - at least on iPhones - do help quite a bit. Not enough for me to trade in my One m8 but a bit.

ensete

Gurm That was me 🙂

I can say for iPads at least, the matte, anti fingerprint, anti glare Techarmor screen protectors completely, 100% cured the eye strain I get from them. I have only used Skinomi's on Android devices.

I would try the Techarmor protector for the iPhone

Kray

ensete

What version of iPad can you use, and which IOS version?

KM

Just wanted to add I tried LineageOS (Jan-31-17 or slightly newer) for some days on the OnePlus 3, and it is currently not usable for me. Burning eyes after prolonged usage. I tried to search for the reason and found out that the color profile is reset every reboot to a color-altering profile. Must be a bug.

This further confirms my observations about color profiles, which I mentioned in an earlier post. They introduce eye strain when they're active.

ensete

KM This further confirms my observations about color profiles, which I mentioned in an earlier post. They introduce eye strain when they're active.

This lines up with my ICC cure on my monitor. It seems color profies have a lot to do with whatever we are experiencing

tomek

I have now Oneplus 3T (Oxygen 4.0.3) since last Wednesday it's fast and great phone but I will return it.
3T is way better then any iPhone and it seems to be like LG G2 without bluelight filter, but even with my filter which work wit my LG G2 - 3T is making eye strain. Maybe in log therm it should be better but I have to send it back in 15 days.
I haven't tried CM13 or other software to not have problems with return. Changing colour temperature, night mode or sRGB is making me much bigger eye pain then default colour profile.
So for now I will stay with my old G2 with bluelight filter, this I can use whole day without strain.

KM

tomek Don't use any blue light filter apps. Like you noticed with sRGB mode and those other color settings, it seems that any app that changes colors, including "blue light filters", will cause eye strain.
By the way, did you make sure to set the brightness to at least 68/255 (to prevent PWM)?
Those two things are absolutely necessary. Not using any color apps, and making sure brightness is >= 68.
And only use Chrome as web browser.

tomek

KM yes I did it, when I set it to 68 or 70 without any filter it's way to bright for me and after one minute - pain, even on next day I've tried and max brightness for me was around 5. I know when I feel direct strain then it's almost impossible that it will better.
Filter I use with LG as I wrote and there works fine, but on 3T it's better then without but not the same as with LG. It's surly connected with color tint, but can't find this the best one even when I compere to LG, maybe some one will create this the best one and I don't think PWM is making my strain. When I saw video on youtube most of them show that OP3 or 3T have PWM but screen is way better then my iPhone 6 which have 0 PWM. When I mess in settings in iP 6 where you can change colour tint it's getting better to use but not as LG.
I had a lot of hope with this 3T, I've tried many phones and surly it is one of the best ones but not the same as my old G2. Now G2 is getting slow so when I have to I will try once again one plus maybe 4 or 5 we will se what will be next or I will try to stay once again with 3T on min brightness.

autobot

Maxx You could use your phone at 100% brightness if that doesn't give you any issues, and use a brightness filter app to control the brightness(and make sure the app doesn't play with the pwm based brightness). I do that on my xiaomi, works pretty well.

Btw , the app i use is : https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.team.sugarcane.fullscreenbrightnessfilter

KM

It seems more AMOLED devices don't use the 240 Hz PWM anymore in upper brightness levels, for example the relatively cheap Lenovo P2: http://www.notebookcheck.net/Lenovo-P2-Smartphone-Review.199744.0.html
They say no PWM above "20%" brightness.
Perhaps this is going to be the new standard for a while.

ensete

Just to add to the list, I recently got a Huwei Honor 5x, and the screen is horrid on the eyes. Even with the Skinomi screen protector, which helped a bit, it is still unusable. Shipping it back to Amazon tomorrow

KM

Now Android 7.1.1 is officially out for the OnePlus 3, and after 2 days I had to downgrade to Android 7.0 because my eyes didn't stop burning. Whatever it is, it's probably the same problem I had with LineageOS, which is on 7.1.1, too. Bad news in some way, since there won't be new security updates for older versions anymore...

ensete

KM Yes, I had to root my device to block any updates to 7. There must be significant changes to the display technology in Android between 6 and 7. You can find some folks complaining about it, of course Google is quick to handwave away the problem as nonexistent.

Gurm

ensete you're lucky you can use 6. When HTC updated my One m8 from 5 to 6 I had to force downgrade and root the OS so it wouldn't pull OTA updates. They made HUGE changes from 5 to 6, at least at the firmware level on this phone. That isn't necessarily the case with all phones, though.

Google handwaves it away probably because it's device-dependent. The OS probably hasn't changed much about the display output...

ryans

ensete Have you found any more updates about this? I haven't been able to find a device that works for me that runs Android > 6

PuffyCloud

KM I use LG Flex2. It is currently the only P-OLED that doesn't use PWM. I can go for hours without any problems/headaches etc.
In contrast I used Samsung Galaxy A3(2016) in a dark room for about 2 hours and got the mother of all headaches.

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