Usable Smartphones?
Sometimes they only give you pwm for 0% and 100% brightness which is useless. Sometimes, like you found , they post the pwm test result/picture of another device.
So it does decrease their reliability somewhat , but i hope we can use their reliable looking test results, because without them , relatively little test data available. But it is just hope.
"This is so horrible:
I recently bought a BlackBerry Z10, it was perfectly usable, no eye strain at all for hours. Then I upgraded the OS to the latest version, and right after the initial boot I got burning eyes and very strong eye strain. I looked if I can downgrade the OS - no, it's not possible. It was possible for years, but not anymore with this latest version. This is just horrible. Such a luck at first, and now it's all gone."
Unfortunately, PWM is not the only source of eye strain. Some graphics driver (even in smartphones) can cause eye strain too, as you have found out. I also get eye strain from graphics driver too (in laptop and smartphone). So not only we have to watch out for PWM, but also for software/graphics driver that might cause eye strain. Did you manage to solve your problem? What phone are you using now?
I can also vouch for the "Super LCD" or "Super LCD 3" displays. Although I think that they, like all others, suffer from some temporal dithering due to the snapdragon chipset driving them, they are the least problematic of all displays.
At least with Android 5.x, my HTC One M8 is quite usable for long periods and no eyestrain. It took a slight adjustment period coming from the iPhone 4s (early model, yellow screen) but once adjusted I was fine with it. One strange issue is that the Windows version of this phone is less comfortable for me, by a large margin. I think that the Windows drivers for the snapdragon use some kind of dithering and/or harsher dimming (Windows only has 3 brightness gradients on a mobile device).
I tried Android Marshmallow, but experienced eyestrain. I'm not sure if it was the particular ROM used, since there is no official Marshmallow for the HTC One M8 on Verizon at this time. When the official ROM drops, I'll evaluate it then. In the meantime I'm using the official 5.02 with the latest patches, stripped down, and it's serving me well.
Intriguingly, the BEST Android phone in the last 4 years for me has been the HTC One X - which used the same Super LCD screen... and drove it with an nVidia chipset! I'm hopeful that more phones will be released using newer nVidia chipsets, since they don't use temporal dithering.
The One M9 is acceptable to me, as is the One Remix (M8 mini 2). However, the HTC phones with glossier screens (many of the desire series) don't work well at all for me.
Kray I could not solve the problem. I purchased two other Z10 at eBay and made sure to ask the sellers about the OS version before my bids. But both sellers silently decided to upgrade the OS anyway before shipping. I'm not trying it a 4th time, so I'm still using my old iPhone 4 @ iOS 6.0, which works for whatever reason.
I use a Samsung Galaxy S2. I have no issues with it. Although I keep it at full brightness and use a dimmer to turn the brightness down. I play games on it and watch movies and use the internet with no issues. I wanted to buy a phone that Laptopmedia had reviewed but now you guys have me worried their reviews can't be trusted. It was a Meizu M2 Note that according to them doesn't use PWM at all.
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jasonpicard Hi Jason
I've been trying to get in contact with you before. We have lot's of information to share with you. I have a Macbook Pro 2015 (flicker free laptop) for example 
jasonpicard Also you made those "LED/LCD flicker can cause migraine" videos a few years back. Good times.
JTL Yeah I kind of stopped using the computer so much because I was having so much trouble. I still don't have a good setup for using computers. I find my phone isn't powerful enough to do a lot of Internet use. I have 3 netbooks that I can't use
They are all LED but I hook one up to my plasma TV it's just not ideal. I am running a program right now called PWM adjuster. I am trying it out on my Acer Aspire One netbook. I set it to run my PWM at 7350 HZ. It seems better but I can tell it is still bothering me. It's possible even though it's telling me the PWM is being changed nothing is actually happening. The program is supposed to work with Intel graphics cards. This computer is a GMA 3150 graphics card.
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jasonpicard That is certainly possible. Intel drivers are quite buggy.
Try and build a desktop with nice AMD/nVidia graphics and external BenQ monitor?
Hi Jason.
With regards to display, why not connect the netbook/laptop to a "flicker free" display from benq or viewsonic ? i think they say they verified that in a german lab(TUV).
As for a phone, maybe you can find something to your liking in www.notebookcheck.net .They are German ,so maybe there's more chance that they don't mis-advertise, altough in the end we don't have a lot of choice , nobody does pwm reviews) They also said that the xiaomi redmi 3 doesn't use pwm, we have some post in our forums.
Hi all,
I'm searching for solutions for our LED / PWM / Blue light / Dithering / etc. problems that are causing eye strain, motion sickness, nausea and/or other discomfort ever since I've bought my first Macbook that had LED display in 2008.
During the years I somewhat managed to find products I can use without any issues, so here's my "setup":
- Smartphones
What works for me:
I'm currently using HTC One M8 (the "correct" version!) and I can look at the screen for hours without any eye strain, motion sickness, nausea or general discomfort. I said "the correct version" as there seem to be two component suppliers HTC uses and while I can use my M8 normally, I can't look at my girlfriends' M8 for more than 5 minutes without discomfort. I can confirm the same for HTC One M9 - you just have to get a right version that doesn't cause problems. More details at XDA: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2705983
Among OLED/AMOLED smartphones, Samsung Galaxy S2 is safe to use for me, as is Samsung Galaxy Nexus (similar to S2 spec-wise, but with better, 720p display resolution). I can use both for hours w/o problems, the same goes for Samsung Note 2.
What doesn't:
I've essentially owned or extensively tested these smartphones that all caused either eye strain, motion sickness, nausea and/or general discomfort (some in less than 5 minutes, others in less than 30 minutes of use):
LED: all LG manufactured Nexuses, Nexus 6, Nexus 5x, Nexus 6p, LG G4, all iPhones since 5, Motorola G 2nd gen., LG V10 (played with it for 15 minutes, caused discomfort, but not nearly as bad as with other, older LED based LG smartphones).
AMOLED/OLED: Samsung Galaxy S3, S4, S5, S6 (incl. Edge), Note 3, Note 4. I also have here LG G Flex 2, which apparently doesn't use PWM and I can use it for about 15 minutes, but then discomfort begins. Getting Moto X 2014 for a test soon, as I've seen reports it doesn't cause problems.
- Computers, monitors
I'm using Dell U3011, U2711 and U2410. All three are excellent monitors with CCFL backlight. I use them for at least 8-10 hours each day without any problems whatsoever. Haven't found LED-based monitor that I could use for more than 10 minutes without issues, though I haven't yet tried latest Benq "low blue light / eyes friendly" models.
That's about it for now, I will send updates once there's anything new to report.
Maybe flicker free
ever since I've bought my first Macbook that had LED display in 2008.
That model did use aggressive PWM <250hz. Maybe try one of the safe Macbooks, 2010 or later, maybe AMD or nVidia graphics.