Usable Smartphones?

KM

Bobby87 It's still try and error. And if you have bad luck, you will test a phone on the "wrong" OS or with the wrong apps which makes you think the screen itself is bad when in fact it would work with different software.

ensete

Bobby87 I can say from personal experience I have never seen a Samsung device that did NOT cause me terrible eye strain. Apple Products and Samsung products are the two worst screens for me

Devotee

I can say with certainty that Apple has done something to address this. The new ipad 9.7" 2017 does not cause me eye strain over hours and the iphone 7 over the short time I spent did not cause me any strain as well. The best result is with my old iphone 5 but 6 & 6s cause a lot of strain. Samsung is terrible all models after galaxy s2 cause immediate strain. I hope someone tests the new sony xperia phones so we can know how they are. I prefer android but am stuck becuase only these Apple devices can be tolerated by me..

ensete

Devotee Well, I can say I have not tried the new iPads, I guess I could give it a shot

Another data point, using TechArmor matte screen protectors 100% cures any eye strain from any Apple device. My wife and my son have identical iPads, she has no screen protector and I get triggered within seconds of looking at it, my son has a TechArmor matter screen protector and I can stare at it for hours with zero issues. So whatever it is, it appears it CAN be clocked/screened out.

KM

I think one of the best approaches for now might be to look up current and new AMOLED device reviews on notebookcheck.net, and search the article for "PWM". If it says "no PWM" or "PWM below 25% brightness", I believe it's worth a shot as long as you could easily return the device within some days. Because currently AMOLED seems to be the only display type we know either flickers at 240 Hz or not at all (not considering the small amplitude 60 Hz flicker that's always there).

Bobby87

KM Yes, it'd be good if it works, but I was heaving eyestrain and headache from my Super Amoled Samsung even at 100% brightness, where it's not supposed to have pwm. Either the 60 HZ flicker is still irritating my eyes, or there's something else besides pwm which bothers me. But I think PWM is definitely a problem for me, as I felt change when reducing and increasing brightness. At low brightness the headache was heavy and I felt very dizzy, while above 80% brightness the headache was less but still uncomfortable to use after 2-3 minutes. Could Super Amoled screens also have issues with dithering and color tints?

tomek

Ok so I've checked LG G6 and Huawei P10, this phones are great but not for us - I had to return.
I had those phones for few days and no one was usable for long time like my iP 6 which i use only for few minutes.
I hoped that P10 can adjust color tint in setting, but it don't work at all or maybe a little bit.
I use LG G2 D802 with bluelight filter at 30% whole day without strain but in this phones this don't work at all.

I'm afraid that I have to stick wit G2 for long time but even with last Lineage OS it is not so fast.

Bobby87

I read that LG G6 uses pwm at 2400 Hz 🙁 and also all new LG models, as well as Moto G5...
I'm thinking of trying an HTC phone . Unfortunately M8/m9 are a bit too expensive for me now, so I am turning to Desire 610/626/630. I watched some videos of HTC 610 and it's interesting a flicker can be noticed in the screen, as here:

https://youtu.be/jY3njP42ejk?t=35

(in the upper right) .How do you think , what can it be due to? Do you think it is some kind of pwm or dithering?

Jerry

ensete Would you mind to list the Apple devices that worked for you with TechArmor matte screen protector. It sounds very exciting. I read your posts about this before, but not sure why it slipped thru my mind. I am definitely going to give a try this time. Thanks.

Devotee

ensete I am at present using a tech armor matte HD for my iphone 6, and it has helped else it was unusable. On the ipad 2017 I did not need anything. In general matte screen protectors help and I believe this is due to it making the light more diffuse and
less direct. Cfl lights were more diffuse and in general I think LEDs have a harsh more direct sort of light.

ensete

Jerry So far I have been able to use the following Apple devices with a Techarmor matte anti glare screen protector

iPad 2
iPad 3
iPhone 5s

Those are the only devices I have tried it on, but it worked on all of them

Kray

ensete

I can also use the Ipad 2 without eye strain for long hours, until i (stupidly) upgraded the IOS from IOS 7 to IOS 8. Then i start to get eye strain. But it was too late to go back by then. My ipad 2 sits useless in the drawer for quite some time already.

Do you get eye strain from ipad 2 when the ipad 2 was using IOS 7 (or below)? What version of IOS when you use the Techarmor matte screen protector?

Jerry

ensete Great! Just placed order for a pre-owned iphone 5s thru bestbuy and ordered the screen protector at ebay. Fingers crossed!

ensete

Kray I do not know, it is my son's iPad.

Jerry Got the iphone 5s and techarmor matte anti glare screen today.

Sorry to hear

KM

Kray The same happened to me back then with my iPad 4 when I tried the iOS 8 beta. Did you ever try iOS 9 on your iPad 2, and did it become usable again?

Gurm

I have recently spent some time with my girlfriend's iPhone 7+ (the big one) and found it quite nice. She keeps it too bright, but I turned it down a little and was able to use it without issue (this is huge!) so Apple has clearly done something.

I always found the iPhone 6+ to be better than the 6, as well.

So this could potentially be huge. I might, when my contract is up on the HTC m8, get an iPhone 7+ and put the techarmor matte on it...

Kray

Gurm

Nice. Just curious, how long did you use the iPhone? Just a few minutes or you managed to look at the screen for long period of time (i.e. more than 20 minutes) without eye strain?

ryans

Gurm Did you wind up keeping the iPhone 7+?

Gurm

I'm going to spend more time with it. I only used it for a few minutes. But in general I know right away if a phone will be usable.

KM

Because we discovered that AMOLED smartphones are potentially usable when PWM is turned off (and the OS is friendly), I looked up notebookcheck.com's AMOLED reviews that claim PWM is only used at low brightness levels. These are the results so far (I cut the list at 40%):

Acer-Liquid-Jade-Primo-Smartphone: 238.1 Hz up to 23% brightness
Google-Pixel-XL-Smartphone: 238.1 Hz up to 23% brightness
HP-Elite-x3-inkl-Lap-Dock-Phablet: 357.1 Hz up to 31% brightness
Lenovo-Moto-Z-Play-Smartphone: 243.9 Hz up to 20% brightness
Lenovo-P2-Smartphone: 240.4 Hz up to 20% brightness
OnePlus-3-Smartphone: 243.9 Hz up to 10% brightness
OnePlus-3T-Smartphone: 244 Hz up to 10% brightness
OnePlus-X-Smartphone: 237 Hz up to 25% brightness
Samsung-Galaxy-J1-2016-Smartphone: 238.1 Hz up to 30% brightness
Samsung-Galaxy-J3-2016-Duos-Smartphone: 238.1 Hz up to 38% brightness
Samsung-Galaxy-J7-2016-Smartphone: 238.1 Hz up to 40% brightness
ZTE-Axon-7-Mini-Smartphone: 238.1 Hz up to 20% brightness

If anyone wants to try AMOLED phones, those are probably our best bet at the moment. Please let me know if you know of other sites that test for AMOLED PWM.

JTL

KM I've been thinking of possibly working with someone with a Pixel XL on making a fully flicker free kernel and buying one for myself.

Jerry

@ensete Got the iphone 5s and techarmor matte anti glare screen today. Tried to watch a youtube video, it gave me heavy dizziness I have never had before from other devices. Some headaches, but not too bad. Not sure if it is due to PWM. I will tested it for a few more days with 100% brightness to see if I can keep it.

degen

I traded in my iPhone 6s for the iPhone 7 Plus. Very nice phone will have to wait before I know if it's better for the eyes or not but I've been looking at it outside for most of the day and my eyes arent too strained. I can't say better because my eyes were pretty bad after I left BestBuy. You can get more done with less eye time that's for sure due to the bigger screen, it's much easier to find what you're looking for.

The bar for better-for-the-eyes will be very low as the 6s is one of the worst devices I own.

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