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  • "100% sRGB" Color Gamut cause eye strain? headache? is it even possible?

Hello, I create this post trying to pinpoint or at least narrow down the cause of my eye strain.

A little bit of background, I'm wearing prescription glasses for 10+ years now and with cylindric (I think it's called Astigmatism here). I've been using exclusively TN panel for my home PC back in 2011 with Samsung Syncmaster SA300 and in 2014 using Asus X450J, and this May 2024 I decided to upgrade to a new laptop, local brand, Clevo chassis rebrand, Axioo Pongo 760, for its price it gives more than any other competitor:
-Intel i7 12650H
-RTX 4060-16GB RAM
-IPS 100% sRGB 144HZ FHD Antiglare (BOE NV156FHM-N4K), it was Innolux before, but I forgot the serial number

Now, the problem starts when I'm using it for the first week, I already get used to occasional headache, migraine due to my work require a lot of screen time. But this is different, the second night when I use the laptop, my head feels warm, but my eyes are fine at first but soon dry eye from lack of blinking occur (which is weird since I always unconsciously blinking when using my old screens, never happen on my 2 old screens). If I keep using it my head will eventually become hot, and headache start to show.

After some checking and testing, I found that there is flickering lines of almost identical color on black to white gradient when I test it on TestMyScreen website and also a very obvious color banding, thought this is a defect, so I consult with the store. Since it's still not 7 days after purchase yet, I'm allowed to replace it with different unit same product, did this twice in the store on the same day, heck i even turn on all 3 laptops in the store and experiment with the technician there until the shop almost close. None work, all of the screens still hurt my head, going home bringing the "safest" unit.

Then I stumble on this forum, tried all i can do, ditherig, downgrading driver, thinking if it's the antiglare coating problem, panel brand problem, etc. Also, none work. Replace the screen twice from the official service center, none work. It's weird since my work laptop, Lenovo Thinkpad L13 Gen 3 is using IPS antiglare panel and my eyes is fine, my friend Asus laptop is fine too with IPS antiglare panel.

So, I give up and bought and external monitor, a month after I bought the laptop, Samsung S33A, TN 60hz, not 100% sRGB, 768P resolution, same spec as my 2 old safe screens, it's still hurt at first but it's getting more comfortable day by day, probably residue from all the experiment for a whole month with the bad screen. Before I bought the laptop, I tried to stare at every laptop and monitor showcase in the store, IPS, OLED, miniLED(?) 120hz, 144hz, 240hz, etc. And all of them still give me problem.

And then one day someone bring a Lenovo Ideapad Slim 5i (?) I think? I forgot the exact model, to the office. a minute after I look at it, my symptoms appear, my head getting warm. Looking up what I believe the model on the net, its IPS 60Hz touchscreen 100% sRGB glossy panel.

looking back at it, none of my screen is 100% sRGB before the Axioo laptop, my work Lenovo laptop and my friend Asus laptop also not 100% sRGB. for my phone, I'm using Realme 9 pro 5G and still comfortable, IPS panel set to vivid color and constant 60Hz, I don't know if vivid is different or not from 100% sRGB.

I keep narrowing every possible cause but ignoring this 100% sRGB stuff, is it even possible? is it the tech that used to produce such color is the problem? is it the tech used to produce 144hz? Another funny thing is, the panel that installed right now (after replacing it in the official service center) is the "safest" one, no horizontal flickering, very minimal color banding, BUT there is Ghosting, tried to replace it again to a "normal" one but it's worse so I ask the technician to change it back again. turns out the "normal" one is problematic, but this "broken" one with ghosting is more friendly, but not entirely gone, to my symptoms. So, is it the tech that used for reducing ghosting that give me problem? I really want to use this one as a "Laptop" not a workstation that need external monitor.

If this is indeed the problem, I probably going to try to ask if they could assemble me one with the non "100% sRGB" one, still 144hz (their pongo 725 use it, cheaper one, but the spec not worth the price), they probably won't though, even if I'm willing to dig my wallet for it :/

One thing that I haven't tried so far is eye patching, but I fear this one will affect my work, also I read that someone tried to do that and their vision getting worse so I kind of not optimistic about it.

Apologize in advance if I make a mistake about the post, I rarely post something online.

Kanatarium changed the title to "100% sRGB" Color Gamut cause eye strain? headache? is it even possible? .

All of the screens you used, are they all incapable of displaying anything past sRGB? That’s one thing I always look for in a monitor. The cheaper monitors are almost always the best. I would try entry-level Dell monitor.

    Clokwork none of my screen capable to display past sRGB i think, even the Axioo is technically 98-99 sRGB. I'm currently using cheap Samsung TN and its comfortable so far, but since in the near future I would travel from place to place due to work, I rather not bring another 19-inch monitor with me everywhere I go.
    That being said, I'm actually curious if color gamut affecting eye strain and headache is only just me, or is there someone out there having similar problems, because I still didn't find similar case everywhere

    Hello friend, first before I start my participation let me tell you that this is not my native language so there may be errors in the translation I am doing from another language.

    I once bought a notebook with a 45% ntsc IPS screen (which I think is 60% srgb) and it caused me the same problem you mention, when I spent a moment using it I got an unbearable headache that I had never had before, not even due to lack of sleep or stress, it seemed as if my brain hurt, and my relatives when they saw the screen for a moment began to feel the same even when wearing glasses, the pain continued for a moment after we stopped looking at the screens. Afterwards, I tried one of those "ultra modern" ASUS OLED notebooks with blue light filter and it was an amazing experience, very pleasant UNTIL you start to scare your eyes with the infinite contrast, you just can't get your eyes used to such high contrast that it's practically the same as looking at the sun in high light moments, it really seems like a technology that surpasses the resistance of the human eye. I went back to my previous notebooks with TN and little by little when I got over the adaptation to blue light (OLEDs are yellowish light) it was like being home again, despite how old this notebook is (2014) and how cheap it was (approximately $200) the screen has always been incredible in brightness of 80 and since those bad experiences I had with other technologies, I have never wanted to separate myself from TN technology.

    So, it seems to be the panel technology that is the problem and not the color capacity it has. I also have a very expensive IPS TV and the eye strain is less, but even so, the IPS brightness is quite a challenge if you are going to look at it continuously.

      After thinking about it over and over again, I'm coming to think that 60% sRGB color is enough, I've made comparisons with 100% sRGB and what happens is that no detail of the images and videos is lost, it's just compressed or turned off but the information is still there, comparing carefully I've come to the conclusion, even the clearest data of an image is still present in 60% sRGB, even the last bit of the reflection in the sea of ​​a sunset is there.

        All modern panels I tested, have aggressive vcom - technology to prevent pixel sticking

        You can download this 2 screenshots and play it in circle, to see pixel movement even in static image

        img1

        img2

        This modern feature overload my eye-nerve, increase eye-pressure, then it goes to pressure in temples, then migraine

          Many modern panels are outright unusable for me. I despise this contrast war. 4 years ago I tried updating my tv and had to return both a LG OLED and a Samsung LCD. They were both striving for HDR which is what I believe helped the downfall for many of us. Higher contrast and deeper color pallets are required for HDR. I want nothing to do with this brightness/contrast war.

          latir Hello friend, non-native English here too.

          I also think that maybe it's the technology that make my head hurt, but I also wonder why phones with IPS are good for me so far, Realme 9 Pro use IPS, previously using LG Q6 that is also IPS. After buying this laptop I also realize that my brother is using AMOLED screen but always have night filter on, if its off its hurting his eyes, my mother also using AMOLED and always need to set the brightness to the max to comfortably use it. At some point I start to believe this is genetic issue.
          I did try to stare at OLED screen on the store, my symptom still there, but the testing is so-so being tested in the store with all kinds of screen blasting every corner so it's not reliable.

          Actually, looking for gaming laptop with same spec but TN screen but it seems its nonexistent. Thinking about doing DIY replacement screen too, but still not found any compatible one. Also thinking about buying IPS 60% sRGB screen but I'm still not financially stable

          latir this too, when I bought this is I just feels like "why the hell not, why not buy the most decked out spec I could afford and use it for another 10 years" mindset is coming to me and I also never see 100% sRGB on a laptop before, so why not just buy this and also support local brand even if it's just a repacked Clevo.

          I see comparison of 100% and 60% and honestly, it's not that different too

          simplex like one of those OLED care Sofware? I think Asus have one for their OLED lineup where they shift the entire screen by a pixel every few second

            I also found out that most laptop in the range where I can afford it but still want performance is using the same or similar IPS 144hz 100% sRGB panel, which is sad

            • qb74 replied to this.

              qb74 thank you, I'll look into it. Seems like laptop is absolute gacha for most of us huh

              there is a mention of polarization in there but I think it's not the issue for me since my work ThinkPad have same polar direction as the bad screen I have, tested with polarized glasses too

              The IPS I had was also 60% srgb but it still seems to have a very high intensity in the colors, the colors to navigate there are many strong colors distracting the attention and it is exhausting to be for hours with neon colors everywhere, not even something as simple as the task bar is free from that intensity no matter how you configure it, it seemed to come out of a toy store, all without exaggeration.

              I think IPS cell phones also have the dreaded "ips brightness" but apparently because they are smaller screens they do not end up stressing the eyes, but I did notice that at maximum brightness my vision was at its limit and I needed to lower the intensity to about 20-30% to be able to look at it. I do not think it is a genetic problem, besides the fact that the eyesight is trained for one screen or another does not go through genetic factors. In my country I found $2000 gaming notebooks with TN screens, but according to the seller "the screens were very bad" and he recommended an OLED instead. How can I believe him? I've been using them all my life and with each one, no matter how different they were from one model to another, I have never had the problem that IPS has given me, nor have I had the discomfort of OLED contrast.

              If you tell me you want it for gaming, well... the OLED I tried was incredible with PS2 emulators, even better than a tube TV, but sometimes there were glares that shouldn't appear at such a high intensity, and in PC games the color intensity was already starting to be a disaster, the image ended up looking fake in some RTS menus because of the color intensity, but with TN screens it really felt natural. I think in the end what you should miss the most are the deep dark and deep shadows

                simplex ah, so it's like "hardware level tech" stuff, pretty new to this for me. All I know is the one from Asus that also prevent pixel stuck or sticking from static image

                  latir I also thought maybe pixel density is one of the causes since phone have bigger ppi, but then I realize my old safe screens is all 768p resolution. Even if I want to test it, 4K or 2.5K resolution laptop is mostly way higher than my budget

                  • qb74 replied to this.

                    I also thinking if color range is one of the causes but haven't found anyway to limit it via intel and since the laptop didn't have MUX switch or discrete only mode, I can't try out Nvidia limited color range mode. The laptop is hybrid and I believe all visual processing is always involving intel dGPU

                    Kanatarium All I know is the one from Asus

                    yep, you can find vcom tech data in panel datasheets only, I suppose

                    dev