Has anyone tried Amazon Fire HD 8?
Usable Smartphones?
There was a spambot posting phone advertisements in several threads, their posts have been removed.
KM I recently bought iPhone 8, after trying the 6 and 6s of my mother's ans sisters (it was good, not sure what version of iOs), just to find out that it is unusable. The pain is so bad, similar to what I have experienced with Macbook Pro. I will sell the phone, but I need a new one because my Lumia is almost dead... Do you think buying Oneplus 3T is a great idea? How about 5T or 5? Do you think it is worth trying + installing the Paranoid?
Are you a sufferer of PWM? PWM does not affect me, because I can use my old acer which has a lot of flicker.
randomboolean I have no idea about the OnePlus 5 or 5T. The 3T should have the same display as the 3. But the only thing I can say is the 3 still works for me. I suffer from PWM and must stay out of the PWM range. If you don't have any problems with PWM: even better, so you can use the phone at low brightness and save more battery. I'd install Paranoid Android (currently 7.3.1) because it fixes a serious WiFi vulnerability (called KRACK) that the last good version of OxygenOS (4.0.3) still has. Actually probably all of us who use old Android versions that got no updates recently have that vulnerability.
KM I just called one of local carriers. They have a very good 14 days return policy (no one else has). If you order the phone (it is not applicable for iphones), do not damage the packing, do not insert the SIM and do not login to Google account, you can return during 14-days period. But you had to order the phone via eshop and mark "curier" as delivery option, because this way you could not possibly had a chance to look at the phone and you have to be able to return it if you didn't like the design for example. I am going to try this phone out and let you know what is the outcome. It comes with android 6 preinstalled and as I understand it was ok for your eyes? Also I am not allowed to enter the phone and login to google, so I guess I will have to stare at the "HELLO screen" and I am not sure if the HELLO screen has the same rendering options as the other OS screens like desktop, etc. I hope it does.
So guys if you want to test the phones out without breaking the bank, call your carriers or shops and ask about return policy, maybe they will offer something similar.
randomboolean Android 6 on the OP 3 was good, but the setup screen has auto brightness enabled. So low environment brightness means 240 Hz PWM. I'm not sure anymore, but I think you could skip any Google setup and leave the setup screen. It should be possible to reset anything to factory defaults later. They probably would never know. Just don't login to Google ever. It might leave some data on the internal memory (/sdcard) which makes the setup ask for the previous Google account's password. Although I think this behavior was introduced in Android 7.0, better take care.
KM Ok, I am currently ordering the phone. I called the carrier once again and asked the other person for the same info. I made aware of my problem and they were totally ok for me to test the phone. They said that it is possible to skip Google login or HELLO screen and it is OK to turn on WIFI, So I will be testing out the phone in the comming days and will report here my findings. 
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My M8 has been giving me some trouble lately, has any one tried the Huawei P10?
the display is: IPS-NEO LCD, not sure about the pmw though
After testing Oneplus 3t for 2 days I could say it is unusable for me. I tried all of the settings suggested by KM, but they didn't help. It is much much better than iPhone, but still gives me blurry vision. Going to return it and find another one. The next one to check - Samsung S8. We do have those "lounges" where you can sit, chill and try out samsung phones, VR glasses, etc. So perfect for me, I can sit there as much as I want.
By the way my work phone is MEIZU M1 metal. Well it's android 5 and almost perfect for my eyes. But the phone itself is very poor. It does not have Google play store out of the box and you cannot uninstall all that chinese bloatware. Even thiugh everything is turned off - I constantly get random chinese notifications, especially during the night. Also it is very very slow, non-responsive, when someone calls it does not show the caller name, etc. So it is not a phone for long-term using, but will be good enough while I found a fast modern phone which is also good for the eyes.
19 days later
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randomboolean There's the Samsung S9 coming out too, I'm going to try it! Do you think your problem is with newer versions of Android? I haven't been able to use past Android 6, but I don't know if that's a coincidence. Really would love a new phone, mine takes seconds to respond to taps.
I ended up getting a newer HTC One M8. It's only a stopgap measure, and I have to reinstall it on the regular as just the weight of my normal daily driver software kills it slowly.
As I am in urgent need for a new phone (my old lumia 930 barelly last 2-3 hours) I have been testing loads of phones during the last month. So far I can tell that I am affected by both screen and software. LTPS IPS screens are the best for me and if I use it with Android 5 - no eye strain. Android 6, 7 makes my eye strain but on LTPS IPS screens gives less strain and my eyes heals very fast 1-2 days afterwards. In comparison other non-LPS screens makes my eyes strain a lot and the healing period is 3-4 days. So I assume I have eliminated "bad screen" factor with LTPS IPS screens, thus leaving the only factor - Android. Though if the Android 5 is used, I can look at any screen.
My last test was with BQ AQUARIS X5 PLUS as suggested by one of the forum users. It came used and with Android 7 preinstalled. I unlocked and rooted the phone, installed Android 6.0.1 and installed cf.lumen. Even though the app makes difference, my eyes are still strained.
This is the list of the phone which I tested:
- LUMIA 930 (Windows phone 8 and 10) - My current phone for ~4 years. Absoluitely no eye strain, very good screen. Unfortunately the battery is almost dead, the screen is shattered and it started to feel very sdlow, thus I need to change;
- MEIZU M1 METAL - (Android 5) My ex-work phone with LTPS IPS screen. Gives no eye strain, but unfortunately the micrphone stopped working and I had
- iPhone 8 (iOs 10 and 11) - absolutely worst phone ever for my eyes. I healed for 1-2 weeks, it gives me headaches, eye strain, blurry eyes, nausea, dizzynes, I could not work for a couple of days.
- Oneplus 3t (Android 6) - Better than iPhone, but still bad for the eyes. Eye strain, irritation, headaches;
- XPERIA XZ (Android 6) - Better than the first ones, but still gives eye strain after 10-20 minutes, which get worse if the phone is used for longer periods;
- HUAWEI MATE 10 LITE (Android 7) - Comparable to XPERIA XZ, i tested for the whole day;
- SAMSUNG GALAXY S4 (not sure which android, I think 5) - I had this phone for 2 weeks and it gave no eye strain. It was my work phone. The screen was shattered and the phone lagged a lot, so they changed to Meizu.
- BQ AQUARIS X5 PLUS - (Android 6.0.1 and 7) the screen is so much better than any other phones which I tested, but it still gives eye strain after using it for 20-30 minutes. The phone was rooted and I tried cf.lumen.
- HUAWEI P10 LITE (Android 7) - It has LTPS IPS screen. I had a chance to test it for 40 minutes and I can say it gives similar eye strain to BQ AQUARIS, better than any other phone, but still considerable strain;
- Samsung galaxy note 8 - (not sure if android 7 or 8) the phopne gives me eye strain but I could compare the strain with LTPS IPS screens. They also have a very good return policy - you can buy galaxy note, even remove the covers, use it for 2 weeks and return if you didn't like it.
As I am desperate I think I will settle down with some 2015's flagman with Android 5 (maybe will buy 2 of the phones) and will continue search for a modern phone. What I am going to try next is LG G4 (unfortunately has no fingerprint scanner) and if that does not work Huawei Honor 7 is the next one. As for the Samsung Galaxy s9 - I'm not sure if going to test it. Maybe I will wait for galaxy note 9...
Even though this "fight" takes a lot of time, I remain positive and look at the birght side. I found out a lot of good dealers in my country who allows returning phones during 14 days period. I also shipped phones from UK and Germany with 30 days "no questions asked" return policies. So at least I can test numerous devices without paying anything or just few Euros for the shipping. Also as I am so close to choosing the right phone I started looking at older laptops.
Back to late 2014 and early 2015 I worked at the bank and they gave me Lenovo T440s laptop with TN screen. Even though everyone says the screen is bad, it was very very good for my eyes. Back then I did not know I have the problem, but if the screen was bad it would have caused me the eye. So I found a barelly used X1 carbon gen 3 from year 2015 with TN screen. It comes with Windows 10. Also Lenovo laptops tend to be very long lasting so a 3 year old laptop should not be a problem. I think Windows 10 does not cause me eye strain as I had three older laptops (Acer 5650g, Samsung ativ book 9) with windows 10 anniversary edition and "good screens" and I had absolutely no eye strain. I checked the intel driver on one of them - it was from year 2016. I will let you know my findings about this phone in other post.
Sorry to hear you guys aren't tolerating the iPhone 7+. Maybe I lucked out with a really good panel or something, as I usually match Gurm and KM in response to devices.
I never really gave it a long try because it was far easier for me to port my image to a newer HTC. But when this one dies I'm still hunting. And the iPhone 7+ is up there.
@degen @Gurm @KM @Kray @ryans @shimmyzv @Wrightpt1 @JTL @PuffyCloud @Harrison (sorry if I forgot to include someone) Guys, earlier today I have searched for other types of alternatives not discussed in this topic e.g. alterative OS'es to iOS/Android, builds, phones etc. and found something interesting, which be a cure for all of us if we participate enough in the development process.
- Librem 5 – A Security and Privacy Focused Phone running PureOS (will support Android apps sometime after release). More info: https://puri.sm/shop/librem-5/;
- EELO OS - Security focused OS for phones forked from LineageOS. The eelo project will provide an alternative mobile operating system and associated web-services, including email, cloud storage, and online office tools. eelo is an open source, non-profit project, in the public interest.
1 - The ideas is simple - privacy oriented Debian based OS for phones which has all the important phone functionalities. Excerpt: "Librem 5, the phone that focuses on security by design and privacy protection by default. Running Free/Libre and Open Source software and a GNU+Linux Operating System designed to create an open development utopia, rather than the walled gardens from all other phone providers." . There have been many trials to create other OS than Android and iOS and all of them failed due to lack of apps and popularity. This one is interesting as the team behind Libre are creating both phone hardware and software and they understand that Android apps are a must for their OS, otherwise it will not be popular and die. As the development of the phone is in early stages I was thinking that we might impact the development of hardware software on this phone if "our voice is loud enough". I think that such small team might be easier to reach in comparison to Android devs (which is impossible to reach and have an impact to).
So far they have raised $2,328,946 for phone development so the phones will definitely ship. But I am not sure if they are going to be good for our eyes. Maybe if many of us participated in the development process we could guide the developers to find the cure for all of us?
2 - EELO - is more straight-forward - it is a fork of LineageOS (which many of you Guys tried), but mostly privacy oriented. It will lack Google apps and instead will use open-source app stores, apps, etc. I like the idea behind the OS, but not sure about the eye strain as many of you guys reported that LineageOS still causes strain for you. But the development is in very early stages, we might participate as "trivial trials" and report to the dev team if the OS causes strain or not. Then they might be interested in changing the OS Of course with the devices, which screen's does not give any eye strain. Also I would suggest to make the developers aware of our problems by writing a letter with explanations of our problems and "our informal organization".
Guys, what do you think about these options? I think for now we all have some temporary solutions by using android 5, screen protectors, etc. etc. But after 2-3 yars the android 5 will be obsolete and we will be left without any solution. Yes, there are new screen technologies comming, but we are not 100% sure if they will help us.
randomboolean I like the Librem project. Shame of Google close sourcing many of the Android OS components.