New iOS eyestrain check

TemporalDithering

Immediate eyestrain. Something seems wrong with the display behaviour of iOS 17.1.2. I'll explain later but right now you may want to wait before updating.

TemporalDithering

Anyone having a problem with this version 17.1.2?

twomee

yes, i have.
also with version 17.2.
did you figured out why this is happening? i cant look at the phone

TemporalDithering

twomee you can downgrade to a previous iOS version with instructions in this link:
https://www.wikihow.com/Downgrade-iOS

However this solution requires that the older iOS version (17.1.1) is still “signed” by Apple, which means Apple still “allow” you to use that older version. If this version is not signed by Apple anymore then you’re just stuck.

Also note that this downgrade process will erase everything (all data) and make your iPhone blank. So you should backup your data somewhere else first. The best case is you already have a backup in that older iOS version (for example, 17.1.1) then after downgrade, you can just restore that backup.

twomee

TemporalDithering yea I already did it. It sucks now, I can’t upgrade my iPhone forever cause i can’t restore to 17.1.1 on the future…

I just bought iPhone 15 pro…should I move to android?

Lauda89

I received an iphone 15 last night with ios 17.1.1 and it is very bad. I have the sensation of not being able to stay focused on the text and then the usual migraine problem.
I'm currently using Iphone X with IOS 14 which is perfect but starting to get old.

Sunspark

My mom has an X which is on a 17 something version.. I grabbed it tonight to set some settings for her in the map app, I didn't notice anything uncomfortable while doing so. You can probably update if you want to, though I'd understand if you were leery of doing so without another device at hand.

Lauda89

Sunspark Thanks for the information. In reality I'm fine with IOS 14, the only app I need that can't be downloaded is the American Express one but I log in from Safari and do everything anyway.
I need a new phone and the iPhone 13 pro, 14 pro and 15 not pro all give me migraines.

I might try getting a refurbished 11 pro which should have a similar screen to the iPhone X or I might try the pixel 8.

I'm really tired of our problem, let's hope microleds bring good news but I'm convinced that our problem is 100% software not hardware.

Sunspark

Yeah, try the Pixel, it seems promising based on this article where this sensitive guy is puzzled why it doesn't affect him as expected https://www.androidcentral.com/phones/google-pixel-8-pro-display-pwm-frequency

What a headline, "Google won't tell me why the Pixel 8 Pro doesn't make me sick". Jeez.

MTNEYE

Soooooo annoying.

Been on iPhone 12 minis for 2 years as they don’t PWM at full brightness and I run the reduce white point hack. Found a good deal on a 256GB and just sold my 64GB(on iOS 16.5) before settling it up. 256GB is on 17.1. Set it up and immediately felt it, now I am so annoyed.

How/why does this dithering happen on a 10 bit OLED screen. D**mit, I do not need this false color depth I would rather have a pleasant screen. Why are no cell phones eye care certified when a lot of look at them far more often then monitors and for a larger range of the day.

I honestly think I might be done with Apple at this.

Edit: this dithering might be worse than PWM to me. Hard to focus on text even if I have the bold on. Is it potentially a OLED panel issue or 100% the upgrade to ios17? Like some of the macs, certain manufacturers panels don’t PWM/dither as much.

TemporalDithering

As mentioned a lot, people seem to have eyestrain particularly since iOS 16.5, and some even had eyestrain since iOS 15 though milder. I strongly believe that this is temporal dithering being used in a heavier way, because otherwise most modern iPhones already have PWM so PWM should not be the reason here.

For iOS 17, the first versions seem usable until the 17.1.2 where something weird appears again.

The problem is newer iPhones will be shipped in latest iOS by default, so the later you buy an iPhone, the more likely that it will cause you eyestrain and there’s nothing you can do about that.

Lauda89

TemporalDithering I start with an assumption: the only certainty I have after 8 years is that our problem is software-related. There is no good monitor and bad monitor at least for me. It always depends on the software that renders the image.

That said, a firmware update can change the PWM implementation. Just like google did with the pixel 8 pro: https://www.androidcentral.com/phones/google-pixel-8-pro-display-pwm-frequency

TemporalDithering

I also question their purpose in applying the temporal dithering on a 10-bit OLED screen. To display billions of colors that we can not even perceive? The best we can “perceive” is that the colors look a bit more saturated, but in return, the iPhone becomes useless. Isn’t the 10-bit screen good enough?

And this temporal dithering thing is not mentioned in iOS update description nor in product specifications. People only find out when they actually use it.

TemporalDithering

Yep it seems to be more on the software than the hardware. We’ve been looking at all kinds of screens with all kinds of flickers for many, many years, but only recently there’s this kind of eyestrain.

In the area of computers where they can actually swap various devices in a system to test, it’s already proven that a display monitor can be totally irrelevant of an eyestrain situation. It can look totally fine on a system (OS, gpu, gpu driver, display settings…) but horrible on another.

People are basically finding a way to disable dithering on almost every OS and gpu.

rorro98678

TemporalDithering not on iOS

BTW, i have a PC which works perfectly with one LG monitor and causes me symptoms with another monitor of the same model. So, at least in that case, it's a hardware thing.

JTL

rorro98678 BTW, i have a PC which works perfectly with one LG monitor and causes me symptoms with another monitor of the same model. So, at least in that case, it's a hardware thing.

Yes. The way I see it is both the monitor being used and certain properties of the devices output can be an issue. Sometimes both at the same time to those unfortunate enough to have to figure this out.

TemporalDithering

It’s iOS 17.4 now and basically I’m stuck at 17.1.2. Not taking any risk now.

deepflame

TemporalDithering I thought 17.1.2 gives you immediate eye strain. You think 17.4 is even worse? If 17.2.1 is so bad, why not give 17.4 a shot?

TemporalDithering

deepflame the thing is I already rolled back to 17.1.1 and I just want to stay here. If I update to 17.4, I’ll not be able to go back anymore.

twomee

TemporalDithering I have an iPad with 17.4 which I can’t use him but I can tell you for sure that the dithering still there

TemporalDithering

twomee yep, it’s very likely that once dithering is introduced in an iOS “small update” version, it will continue to stay there until there is a “big update” aka iOS 18.0 coming up. Sorry that the ipad is not usable for you now.