madmozg how is the 15'' M3 for you? Are you sensitive to dithering too or only PWM
Macbook air M3 Feedback request
I used the Fauser LiFli flicker meter to measure a 13" Macbook Air M3 in a store. I couldn't test it for long, because there was a store guy behind me all the time and he wasn't a fan of doing this at all. Surprisingly, there was backlight flicker detected even at 100% brightness. Around 6-10% [(a - b) / a]. And now the weird part: there was a specific area of the screen where the flicker went even higher. Of course this doesn't replace a thorough test at home (I'm not doing it), but I think for now it's safe to say there is indeed measurable flicker. The frequency could be anything from 50 Hz to 400 kHz and higher.
Pretty sure, but of course with all those store lights and perhaps reflections and whatnot there is room for error.
The flickering in one of the Apple store I visited was very bad, its was so dim.
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Ruoma The flicker you could reveal with cameras is most likely only both strong and low frequency flicker. For example low frequency PWM, scan lines (OLED), or larger low frequency ripple. But for small ripple and/or high frequencies (both which are suspected to cause symptoms, too), you need something that is sensitive and has a very high sampling rate. There is a rule of thumb that for a given flicker frequency you need at least twice the sample rate.
6 days later
The LED in apple store especial Houston Galleries are pretty bad !
Flickers all day long.
20 days later
Purchased MacBook Air M3, 13", what a mistake it was. It comes with Night Shift ON from the factory, so I did not not notice any problems in the first hour or two, but then my eyes felt a bit tired because of the low brightness in the night shift as I thought, so I turned that off. Got all the symptoms instantly: eyestrain, nausea, tension in the head, like somewhere inside of the head that I never felt before I guess, at least I do not remember having such thing ever, so may be just couple times in my life. And it is almost impossible to focus and think about something while looking at the screen.
so conclusion - the worst display ever, it feels like it is burning your eyes and the head. how come the engineers had passed it through quality assurance? like display is the most essential feature of all the MacBook's, you can buy other laptops that have same performance, but they all lack such displays. now, they've ruined it.
What I found that somewhat mitigates those problems, but does not remove them completely is to install StillColor (however, not sure if does the job, I just keep it enabled). sRGB profile (sometimes Generic RGB, during the day it works better, and in the night time sRGB is what I turn on). Enable dark mode, this one seem to be the biggest contributor to the overall relief, it feels like the menu bar on mac is really the burner of the eyes, which is interesting because it is not that bright actually. I keep all the other apps in the bright mode by the way, I hate the dark theme cause it is straining eyes just as well. So it seems like when the menu bar is in dark mode at least, that for some reason helps (knock on wood).
Still, with all these updates, it is not a usable machine. I can watch a video on it, for some reason it does not affects the eyes as much as reading text. I can work for ~ 4 hours, and I feel like I my head is just can't bear it for longer.
What a waste of money. Only hope is that they will release an update, but, if they have not fixed it by now, and they have this problem since 2021? This is does not give much hope.
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M2 13" Touch Bar Pro (with Stillcolor) is sooooo much better than M2/M3 Air, see my other threads where I compared a lot of really specific differences between these screens.
I agree that M2/M3 Air screen is still very uncomfortable even with Stillcolor.
I suggest you return and try the M2 13" Touch Bar Pro (which can be bought refurbished, you can still use Apple's 14 day return policy) instead!
pavvell And it is almost impossible to focus and think about something while looking at the screen.
Yeah same I felt this too using the M2 Air. It especially became really problematic when I started using the computer "faster", like once I was trying to move windows around and click on a bunch of things in a short time, it made me feel motion sick and I couldn't think. Huge pressure in my left eye too even with Stillcolor that always consistently started right when I looked at the screen.
However, 13" M2 Touch Bar Pro has none of those symptoms for me though. I can think while looking at the screen and no sharp pressure in eyes while using that laptop! I can even use the default Color LCD profile on it!
(Edit: although it is arguably the "most usable" apple silicon Mac, since this post I've found wayyyyy better screens compared to this)
7 months later
Apple-Meta-USA True. In fact in every store the same thing, so measurement is tricky, unless you use some sort of black cover is in ancient photography 
But I guess security would think you are trying to steal it. I can not even speak about these issues with store staff, they say to me - I own macbook air m2 and with standard settings I am fine. I think this is a form of corporate gaslighting
Donux when returning a Macbook that didn't work for me the apple store staff I was talking to surprisingly actually knew about the issue and mentioned they had a friend that couldn't use any new Macs because of it
they might have been "breaking script" to say this but still interesting
DisplaysShouldNotBeTVs If this is official apple store, they might have been a bit more free to say what they think. I was talking with premium reseller store. For them probably pressure is much higher to make sure you keep coming back.
2 months later
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Wow, that's too bad that they didn't allow for disabling the blinking cursor on the M3/ after Ventura. But I found this link saying that Sequoia allows for it to be disabled again, except that certain apps aren't compatible:
https://mcmw.abilitynet.org.uk/how-to-stop-the-cursor-blinking-in-macos-15-sequoia-copy
I am brand new to this forum so I will check out your comparison thread on the M2 Macbook Pro Touch Bar. I wonder what specifically makes that one good, while the other Macbook Pros all suffer from screen, PWM, and dithering issues. My issue is that I really want a new laptop that has as much RAM as possible -- 24 GB of RAM at least, ideally, and I'm really hoping to stay in the Apple ecosystem. I ordered the M3 Air for those reasons, while I can't find any Macbook M2 Pros with Touch Bar refurbished with that much RAM anywhere online. The best I could find is one in "fair" condition with 16 GB RAM but with a too-small storage harddrive, at just 256 GB. I'm hoping that the M3 Air screen will be tolerable for me if I can figure out how to download this app someone was mentioning about creating an invisible animation to prevent flickering that's happening in addition to disabling dithering with StillColor? Do you think that would solve the "additional issues" you talk about the M2/M3 Air screens having, or is there something else that would be prohibitive for someone getting M2/M3 Airs with screen sensitivities… ?
I am running an old 13.3" Macbook Pro retina, early 2015, and have had little issues with this model causing me increased eye strain. It's definitely much better than my iPhone 16, which makes my eyes swim and gives me headaches. 
But I need a replacement for this 2015 MBP, because the battery is shot and it is on its way out… hoping for a bigger screen, too.