M4 MBP Quantum Dot

I went to the store yesterday, but it was just too short time to try. Usually pro models are better with exception of M3 Pro which was terrible for eye strain. But if this one is good, that is good news, as price is also now fully in line with Dell XPS 15 line, so its a no brainer. Having said that new XPS 15 devices should also have attention, as usually these also ship better components with exception of 4k screens which I recall had very bad feedback in regards to eye strain.

madmozg Thanks for the response! I'm actually trying out the M4 16" Macbook Pro (as I'm about 30-40 mins in) as a I write this message. I have disabled TrueTone and AutoBrightness, but I am currently using Pro Motion. I have enabled BetterDisplay with GPU Dithering option disabled. I also am trying out the sRGB and Apple Display P3-600 Display settings because P3-1600 is extremely bright. When I compare looking at the screen with my Mid 2014 Macbook Pro, I can tell a stark difference but I also am completely used to using that laptop so when I look at it, my eyes can rest. Right now, I still don't quite feel that level of comfort using it, but compared to the 2019 Macbook Pro, M1, M2, & M3, Macbook Pros, the screen doesn't feel like it's moving so much and I wonder if there's just a period of "adjustment" that I need get through. When I've tried over a dozen of other laptops with Windows 11, all of them gave me that dizzying feeling shortly after looking at the screen, and I felt too sick to try to "push through". The same happened with M1 Mac Mini as well as looking at any of the Apple external monitors, so who knows what that's about. I've tried Linux on my Macbook Pro Laptop and felt that same level of just "discomfort" but never pushed through long enough to see if it would get better or change.

You said by 2-3, you were able to use the laptop pretty comfortably without any eye pain or headaches or anything. The main thing I'm feeling with this M4 is almost like a "Dry Eye" sensation. Did you have similar feelings on that first day with the eyes?

And for anyone else out there reading this, Best Buy (if you're in the US) is doing their promotion where you have until January (I think either Jan 8 or 14?) to return items, instead of their typical 14 day return period.

madmozg You are like a bright light around here haha. Yeah I've been using the laptop for a few hours and I feel that kinda weird eyestrainy tiredness but not really any headaches which is a first. I notice if I watch a video or play a game and NOT have to focus on text, that feeling kinda just disappears. What's pretty cool is that if I look away from the screen, I quickly feel "normal" again, whereas with other screens, I have horrible headaches for hours or feel nauseous and off even into the next day. So I'm going to keep trying to use this thing for multiple hours every day to see if my eyes can finally adapt and relax, which sounds like is possible?

whystrainwhy sounds like you are on a correct path! Good luck

madmozg One last question: when you were adjusting, did you find you straining a bit more to read text versus viewing images/watching videos and did that resolve in that 3-4 day period?

whystrainwhy I remember this behavior when I was testing macbook airs, and maybe on a day 1 with this new macbook, but after that I didn't notice a difference between reading text or watching a video.

madmozg Thankyou so much again for your response, it really gives me a lot of hope to keep going Our brains and eyes are strange and wonderful things aren't they? haha

madmozg Yeah I've just been back to the store and it's hard to believe, but this seems to be comfortable for me..

I'll be proceeding with caution, I still feel like I'm a little spun out after looking at it.. but maybe that's the promotion. I'll likely get hold of one soon for a big test run.

Unbelievable if the end of this drama is in sight!

madmozg So good news so far. After some tinkering, I finally got the screen to stop feeling like it was "moving" by using StillColor AND BetterDisplay. This is the first time I've felt like my eyes are extremely relaxed when looking at the screen, however I do find a bit of pressure build up in parts of my head like the top and parts of the back but not any kind of headache like I've historically gotten. Not tons, but after a few minutes, it starts feeling that way. I haven't tried using it for multiple consecutive hours just yet, but I will keep trying and see if I adapt. So far, I'm very pleased. I looked at your Reddit post again, and you also had some head pressure within that first week as you were adjusting?

For anyone else wanting to try out the M4 Macbook Pro, Here are the settings I am using right now:

StillColor:

In the application, I have "Disable Dithering" and "Disable Uniformity2D" both selected.

I ensured that the dithering was turned off via StillColor and not so much with BetterDisplay by running this command and receiving three results that all say "No" for the "enableDither" flag.

➜  ~ ioreg -lw0 | grep -i enableDither
    | |   |   |   "enableDither" = No
    | |   |   |   "enableDither" = No
    | |   |   |   "enableDither" = No
➜  ~

Then of course, here are my display settings:

TrueTone is disabled

Automatically Adjust Brightness is turned off

Display Profile Preset: "BetterDisplay XDR" - (I found BetterDisplayXDR to be better than the others) so I will continue to tinker with the different options.

I'm currently trying out both ProMotion and 60hz. 60 Hz feels a bit more comfortable on my eyes.

To be honest, I don't know how this will go over the coming days, but I feel more hopeful for this laptop than I have for the 10-15+ laptops I've tried in the last 2 years (all of which were unusable for me including M1-M3 Macbook Airs and Macbook Pros). Anyway, I hope this config helps others

Sorry, but for 2k machine, I do not want any tinkering Its kind of bad news at least to me

@whystrainwhy nice progress! thanks for sharing your experience

Donux well no-one is trying to convince you to buy anything here.

madmozg Yeah of course I'll admit, I used the laptop for 2-2.5 hours today and I felt "cooked" a bit from the pressure in the head, but that's why I was curious with your journey. You said you went for 2 hours the first day. Was that because you couldn't "take it" much longer and needed a break? Or was it just circumstances of the day got in the way? I'm hoping to incrementally increase the amount of time I use the screen, but right now I'm typing this message on my 100% comfortable 2014 macbook pro because I think I needed a break from the screen from the M4 lol. Does this sound familiar?

whystrainwhy Everyone has in some way similar, but in another way different eye strain experience. To me - "feeling cooked" does not sound right. With a decent machine, I could push full day no problem, even if there would be a strain. 2 hours does not sound right at least to me. But I am wondering how it would feel with external monitor, and also with a laptop panel, how it would feel if you switch to sRGB (Web & Internet). I am assuming you are running Color LCD, which I treat as "show off mode" for the retail store front, definitely not suitable for work on this hardware.

Donux @madmozg As I've alluded to before, the best chance for a native solution is to find someone involved with engineering at Apple who is either really bored or experiences the issue themselves and having the technical evidence in hand and is amiable to discussions potential solutions. Of course getting exact empirical evidence is a challenge in itself.