Anyone Ever Had Eyestrain With Nintendo DS?

ZenXLaika

I'm curious because i ordered one recently, it was a hard find too...I heard that it's an LCD and I'm not sure what LCD would do to my eyes. When I tried playing a game on my amoled phone only after a few seconds i developed bad eye strain with all screens again, until my eyes got used to those screens somewhat, so playing games on my phone is lethal, so far my eyes are only used to one game that is on my PS4, other games on PS4 make my eyes burn. Its weird because if it was the screen wouldn't i have eye burning from that game too? my eyes are confusing with some screens, also some missions in this game do cause strain if i stay too long.

Zazu

I bought one for my brother who is a non LED/Dithering/Driver/insert other cause here, sufferer. He can literally watch any monitor or tv, has LED lights all over his house, uses Mac/PC/Android/iPhone all without issues. Just 1 month with the Nintendo DS he had sharp headaches from the device. He sold it the next month and he is fine now.

ZenXLaika

Zazu Was it perhaps the original one or the lite one that your brother had? my ds arrived and my eyes were surprisingly okay, I'm getting the digitizer replaced because its sometimes unresponsive, my eyes didn't strain with it that much surprisingly.

DisplaysShouldNotBeTVs

For me, completely opposite experience from Zazu.

IMO, the original 2004 Nintendo DS and 2006 DS lite LCDs are two of the most comfortable screens ever made. I have had no issues with them for my entire life. The 2004 uses a transflective LCD (!) and supports disabling the backlight entirely (for playing in direct sunlight), and the 2006 uses a standard "always-backlit" LCD.

Both the 2004 and 2006 are incredibly comfortable for me are even "healing" in a way, because I play them to help "reset" my vision after using a bad screen and it works great every time.

Edit: moved some incorrect information about the 3DS into the details box. See my reply instead.

The 2014 New 3DS (small version) is also very good and nearly no strain in 2D mode (aside from sometimes being annoyed by the blurry smoothed-out looking text at low resolution, but it's fine most of the time). Even the stereoscopic 3D mode is surprisingly still easier on the eyes than modern devices, but I prefer the 2D mode. Strangely, although it's a glossy screen just like all other DS systems, it sometimes comes across as feeling "matte-like" in some lighting conditions which I love.

The 2011 3DS (original) is alright, still a good screen that is playable for me and not anywhere near as bad as modern devices, but the New 3DS (small) has much less glare and less "metallic"-feeling viewing angle distortion so I strongly prefer it over the original 3DS.

The main factor that causes the 3DS series to feel "less crisp" than the original DS and DS lite is the use of non-square pixels (the horizontal resolution is doubled to allow for the 3D mode, which creates the effect of black horizontal "scanlines" because horizontal and vertical pixel gaps aren't equal). However, this is something that I totally got used to and doesn't necessarily cause "strain" per se — it just causes the screen to lack the satisfying "crispiness" that the classic 2000s-era systems had.

In addition, the 2013 "2DS" (which I haven't tried) lacks the horizontal pixel-doubling and would be good to try if you don't like the horizontal lines.

The only DS I've tried that did give me eye strain is the 2008 DSi, which even back at launch felt like it had a harsh-feeling backlight (probably has stronger PWM). I remember feeling somewhat dizzy after playing it sometimes. However, it's still better than modern screens and never was really "dangerous" for me, but it definitely gives me eye strain — I would not recommend the DSi because all the other DS systems I've tried are much more comfortable.

Except for the DSi, the majority of DS systems have been incredible for me and are actually my reference point for a perfectly usable display, as no matter how bad my eyes might feel at times my DS systems always remain comfortable for me.

(I have not tried 3DS XL, new 3DS XL, 2DS, or new 2DS XL. BTW, new 3DS XL has an infamous panel lottery between TN and IPS panels, but all prior DS models only use TN.)

ZenXLaika

DisplaysShouldNotBeTVs Same, my ds arrived and it surprisingly didn't strain my eyes that much, only mild strain is noticeable if I stare too long playing a game, my eyes are getting strained more by my hd tv (PMW was very visible and it's a matte screen) and my Lenovo all in one pc, which also has PMW and maybe because I used it for hours lol which I'm not supposed to do, only getting a good nights sleep for days refreshes my eyes completely, otherwise I'm unable to look at other screens for the day.

I am somewhat mostly used to my phone, but gaming on my phone is dangerous, its the reason my eyestrain issues reverted and I had only stared at the game for a few seconds, now my eyes are in a constant state of slight strain, gets worse with the pc or with the hd TV if I stare more than 20 minutes.

DisplaysShouldNotBeTVs

Update:

Sorry, the 3DS comparison was backwards, I just tried both my original 3DS and new 3DS again yesterday and the original (2011) is much better.

The 2014 new 3DS top screen feels washed out and the brightness level always feels too low or too high. On the other hand, despite some extra glare, the contrast ratio on the 2011 3DS top screen is "just right" — bright but not harsh — it feels less blurry and it's much easier to tell what's happening in the game. The horizontal lines are also less visible on the 2011.

The 2014 technically has more comfortable stereoscopic 3D, but the 2011 wins by a large margin when just used as a plain 2D screen.

Trying a 2DS is also a good idea since it doesn't have the horizontal lines, but I've never tried one myself so I can't directly reccomend it.

(Side note: the bottom screen is actually great on both models, but that's less important because the top screen is where you're playing the game.)

Outside of the 3DS series, the original DS and DS lite are still the most uniquely comfortable devices I've ever used due to their extremely crisp pixels + lo-fi graphics with essentially zero post-processing.

BTW, if you are intending to play both original DS and 3DS games: the backwards compatibility feature on the 3DS looks terrible, since the resolutions don't match up. You only get the choice between extremely blurry scaling or squinting at a tiny box.

I personally don't use the 3DS backwards compatibility at all and heavily reccomend just buying both generations of systems.

TLDR

Original systems:

2004 and 2006 are perfect. Zero strain.

If you had to stop playing games due to strain, these systems might be a breath of fresh air!!

Get the 2004 if you want a transflective LCD and the option to disable the backlight entirely when outdoors.

2008 DSi screen feels harsh — don't buy that one.

3DS systems:

2011 is very good. Looks sharp enough and totally playable for me with minimal strain.

2014 (small version): not terrible, but feels washed out, too low contrast, and something feels off about the backlight. Sometimes causes dry eyes afterwards.

Playing original DS games on a 3DS is uncomfortable, in that case just buy an original system instead.

Zazu

ZenXLaika If I remember correctly is was not the lite one