I had almost immediate motion sickness and nausea while looking at my iPhone (12 mini). It was very complicated for me to look at the screen for more than several dozen seconds. Answering a simple text message was enough to give me symptoms. Don't even try to browse the news for a few minutes, you will get sick and it will last for tens of minutes after that.
I removed the screen protector a few days ago and the symptoms are gone. As simple and stupid as that.
Clarification 1: this is one solution to one problem / sensitivity. Eye strain is very complicated and IMO this topic is not related to pure eye strain / fatigue.
Clarification 2: the screen protector was a very popular high quality tempered glass, with a lot of high ratings and a mechanism to set the screen protector perfectly with no effort. I used the screen protector from day 1, never touched the naked screen. This was supposed to be the perfect product, it may be for a lot of people, for me it isn't.
More details below.
--- TLDR
So I always had this strange feeling of being drawn into the phone screen, like the hint of vertigo that can occur at the edge of a precipice. I never had this bad feeling before upgrading my old iPhone 6S to the all new iPhone 12 Mini. It was post-covid and so much happened during this period that I was far from suspecting the smartphone as being the source of my discomfort. I thought it came from me, from my fatigue, and therefore from my lowered tolerance for screens.
I definitely have visual fatigue with the new generation of screens but this is not related to this post. I can assure you that I just couldn't spend enough time on my phone to feel any eye strain before feeling a slight vertigo or motion sickness.
So I went a few times to the ophthalmologist during the last few years in my quest to finding the source of my discomfort with screens: everything was always OK.
I started wearing blue blocker glasses a few months ago and it does reduce and delay eye strain symptoms a lot, especially when using computer or watching a bright TV.
During summer holidays I didn't take my blue blocker glasses so I tried to wear sunglasses in front of my computer, I know it may sound silly but it almost did the job to read emails and a few news articles. It didn't seem to help with the phone symptoms.
A few days ago, as I was working from home and went outside, I was looking for my sunglasses and didn't find them so I pulled out an old pair of sunglasses I had in a drawer. The difference is that they are polarized. I received a text message and it was very annoying to look at. The phone was reflecting moving pink and green streaks. I remembered being bothered a few years ago while wearing those sunglasses, but at this moment I was intrigued and went back to my desk to look at other screens.
I was surprised to see three screens using the same IPS tech that look all different: the glossy Macbook was almost as bright as if I didn't wear the polarized glasses. The matte screen of my professional windows laptop was a bit darker. And the external screen with matte coating was so dark that is was almost unreadable.
All three are IPS panels. All three behave differently (maybe due to the glossy vs matte coating). All three not producing these kind of pink and green reflections.
I looked at my professional samsung phone which is equipped with an AMOLED screen: no reflections.
I started to ask myself why only my iPhone would produce those reflections.
I then looked at my wife's iPhone SE 2 (IPS panel): a few reflections, way less than my iPhone 12 but still something visible with the polarized sunglasses.
To summary, this is probably not related to the tech of the panel (IPS / OLED incl. AMOLED), and this is probably not related to the glossy or matte coating.
Oh wait. Both iPhones have a screen protector. Both are the same brand, same high quality tempered glass. What if...
No way. Why would a screen protector make me sick?
I spent so much time in this quest that I had to try it, so I gently removed it for the first time...
Wearing the polarized sunglasses? No more reflections. None.
I removed the sunglasses and used the phone for a few minutes: no sickness.
During the last few days I've used the phone more than before. Friday I even answered messages during half an hour without feeling a single symptom. This is unprecedented.
This is my contribution for everyone who experiences these kinds of symptoms with their phone. The solution may be right under your nose, and much simpler than you think.
Cheers,