Reduce White Point Making Eyes Work Harder?

K-Moss

"Yes! So many people praising it on here but it isnt as good as it seems. It does actually cause more eye strain imo too, I only use it for redditing (with an already Dark Mode) but it reality its making my eyes work harder."

First I've read this. Any thoughts?

jordan

K-Moss It might work by using dithering possibly? I know night shift does.

JTL

jordan This was some time ago but I recall f.lux may have exaggerated certain dithering artifacts with certain setups.

jordan

JTL I can believe that. I know @jen tested night shift and found it dithers worse but I wonder if she also tested reduce white point?

jen

jordan As far as I can tell, reduced whitepoint flickers more than without. I got some measurements for it on my iphone using the professional flicker meter. I would have liked to have also collected good microscope/slo-mo video data and quantified the subpixel brightness, but I unfortunately couldn’t get a good enough recording using a borrowed phone’s built-in camera app instead of the Moment app on my own phone . The borrowed phone stuttered the “240 fps” video capture and without professional camera controls to adjust exposure, the video was too dark with reduce whitepoint..

Basically, in general I found that less saturated colors tend to have more subpixel flicker. This includes green and especially blue subpixels when Nightshift is on. It also includes any colors with a lot of “gray” like pine green, navy blue, maroon, and grays. I have data showing the flicker in the dark gray color used in Apple’s Dark Mode has bad subpixel flicker - probably why it hurts me. On most of the screens I tested, absolute black has the least subpixel flicker, but even that isn’t universally true for all screens. I can’t look at the iphone screen without injury because every mode has way too much subpixel flicker. My current least harmful screen situation is using a PC with most of the screen absolute black and using a fully-saturated red [255,0,0] for text. Every time something pops up in other colors, it’s immediately more triggering of symptoms. I don’t have any safe way to view images.

The testing data is on the testing lights and screens page of flickersense.org with the reduce whitepoint data in the iPhone SE 2022 slideshow.

BTW - I don’t currently have a camera app I can use for true 240 fps slow-motion video capture. As of 2025, the Moment app has started to stutter the video capture too - collecting only ~180 fps in a 240 fps video. There are details in my iPhone SE 2022 slideshow about how this stuttering in the video capture using the iPhone camera app messes with the ability to detect flicker. However, all of the other screen data I collected in 2023 for every screen other than my own phone used true 240 fps video in conjunction with a microscope to quantify subpixel flicker. That obsolete version of the Moment app was great - allowing true 240 fps video capture along with control of exposure, etc.

DJTaurus

I also don’t understand why so many suggest black background and dark mode….. I hate it. To me it feels that everything becomes more difficult to read…..too dim and without same clarity.

K-Moss

If it makes eyes work harder, all OLED smartphones are unsuitable since they need to be run at 100% brightness then dimmed using something like Extra Dim or Reduce White Point.

Yesterday I used my friend's iPhone, and when I brought it close to my face I felt a strange dizziness that was not psychosomatic and is something I didn't experience even with the Moto Edge. I actually wasn't expecting anything because viewing that display from a distance, and outside in the bright sun, gave me no symptoms. However, in an indoors environment with the phone brought close to my face, it was obvious.

Seems like IPS LCD is the best we have right now at least for phones.

Otherwise, using an OLED phone on 100% brightness exclusively in daylight could be an option, but seems less ideal than IPS LCD with superior dimming.

Regarding programs like Night Shift, I personally experience relief when not using those programs. I use them, however, in the evening when close to bedtime because they help prevent my body from being overstimulated by the screen.

However, another solution is using tinted computer glasses. And that way maybe you can run the phone at 100% brightness and use it comfortably in less bright environments?