Tried another phone, the Moto G4 (not the Plus)

Out of the box it was actually pretty good. Surprisingly so. I comes preloaded with Android 6. there is a system update for upgrading to Android 7. Breaking my mantra of never changing anything, I updated, and the screen get REALLY painful to use. And of course you can't downgrade. And of course Amazon is now sold out of them so I need to wait for them to get back in stock before I can buy another one and NOT do the upgrade.

Also be aware that manufacturers change hardware vendors over time and this can have an impact. I have a Blu R1 HD that I can use with a Skinomi screen protector. I cracked the screen, and ordered a replacement, the screen was wildly different, like marketably different color and a different DPI and was completely unusuable.

So dont assume if you find a pone that works you can just order that phone again.

  • KM likes this.

You all are still searching so much, but I think some more of you should try to get a reasonably priced OnePlus 3 with Android 7.0 stock. I'm having most of our problems: PWM, graphics drivers, graphics cards, different video modes, changes in gamma, even monitor's light intensity can hurt my eyes. The only thing I'm not sure about is temporal dithering. But this device and setup works for me for over a year now, 6-8 hours of usage a day, and I refuse to believe it won't help anybody else here. I'm gonna update my first post soon where I'll elaborate so it won't be overlooked in this very long thread.

Kray At brightness 68/255 and above there's no PWM anymore (a little different from notebookcheck's review).
And yes, I can look at it for hours. Usually I have a lot of trouble with brightnesses greater than 0 on any LED device, but not in this case.

If you set up the device in a bright environment you may not have to look at PWM during the setup process.

    Given that iPhones change every generation and iOS release in their acceptability to our eyes (panel, graphics driver, effects introduced through iOS, GPU, etc. etc.) I recommend specifically trying the iPhone 7 Plus on iOS 10, then add in Night Shift to always on, reduce white point to 50%, put the brightness to around 30%. This is the first smarphone since Galaxy S2 that I can use comfortably. Obviously my experience might =/ yours so make sure you can return it easily given the obscene pricing. Still not as good as the M7 that I traded in for no good reason other than I wanted a faster phone (but ended not being able to use it at all. I could only use the 6s for literally seconds in the end).

    Weird.. I suffer from eyestrain , but one phone I could use with no strain is samsung s6. And iphone 4s is fine also. I remember when iphone 5 came out, I got heavy strain. I guess we suffer from different kind of factors.

      Plsnostrain what OS were you running on the S6? Are you still using it? Was it the edge or the standard version?

      I ask because I'd love to give it a spin - I can get one very cheaply. But I have had to keep my HTC m8 locked to Lollipop (Android 5.0.1) since moving to Marshmallow (6.x) or Nougat (7.x) makes it hurt to look at very much. Like you, the iPhone 4s was my favorite phone ever, and the 5 gave me strain. Not heavy, but definite.

        Right now, if this battery transplant for my HTC m8 doesn't go well, the plan is to try something else... at present, that "something else" will likely be the iPhone 7+ running iOS 10 (if I can get one) and similar settings to degen. With a matte skinomi protector. I'd prefer not to abandon the Android ecosystem, but since new devices aren't shipping with (nor do they support) Lollipop, and the newer Android OS'es are problematic...

        Nokia 6 is a 720p PWM-free IPS display on Nougat. Don't know anyone with one, but worth considering.

          Sunspark

          Nokia 6 gave me eye strain after 30 mins of use. I found Nokia 5 much more pleasing to my eyes, but i had not been able to use it more than 15 mins.

          Also for the forum, i tested Sony Xperia X for a couple of days. The eye strain and headache was so intense that i could not sleep well at night. The screen seemed to me very harsh at any brightness grade, although no PWM is detected according to https://www.notebookcheck.net/Sony-Xperia-X-Smartphone-Review.170397.0.html

          I am also in search for a new smartphone. My 3 year Vodafone device which is very easy on my eyes (TLC was the manufacturer) has become very very slow even though i have uninstalled half of the apps.

              4 days later

              Can confirm the Moto G 4 and Moto G 4 plus are better, but still ultimately product eye strain after extended use.

              Guys what do you think it is about Android software that can cause eyestrain? Never considered OS on phone could be a reason for eyestrain.

              Is nougat 7.1 safe?

              • Kray replied to this.

                Does anyone know if the LG G6 uses temporal dithering on Android 7.0 or higher? From what I know its pwm free.

                Well I don't know how, at the size it is, you'd be able to tell without a REALLY good camera, but my son's G6 is... better than most but still unpleasant for me to look at.

                • Link replied to this.

                  Gurm Hey Gurm, I know you are comfortable with the HTC one x... Do you know if that's Pwm free? Notebookcheck confirmed the LG G6 being free of Pwm.
                  Also the HTC one x I hear since it is a superlcd2 is a TN panel with 6-bit plus frc.

                    Link

                    I've seen people report that Nougat 7.1 gives them severe eye strain. I have an HTC U Ultra that comes with Nougat 7.0, and it is the absolute worse eye strain I have ever got. But I do not know for sure if that is caused (or solely caused) by Nougat 7.0. The only way to know for sure if you have a phone that you can use absolutely without eye strain, then you upgrade the OS to Nougat and suddenly you get eye strain. And if you downgrade the OS back, your eye strain disappear. That is the only way to know for sure if Nougat (or anything) is the cause of your eye strain.

                    LG G6 has PWM in the range of 2,400Hz, which is not detectable if you use smartphone camera (which can only detect around 240Hz PWM). A PWM of 2,400Hz can be detected using oscilloscope. Just google LG G6 PWM and you can see the result.

                      Maybe we should ask the question the other way round, is there anyone here who can use ANY smartphones with Android Nougat at all, either 7.0 or 7.1, without any eye strain?

                      If yes, please share what phone make and model it is.

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