LiveBeyondNow Apples introduction of a PWM setting in the iPhone 17 however is one point of suspicion that the OS may be more made for that hardware and given secondary / tertiary consideration to older hardware, thus suggesting a possible PWM link (ie poor handling of that new code on probably less or untested hardware) but this is only a very circumstantial detail.
I’ve theorized something very similar. I thought it odd that about 3 generations of OS out from the original OS an Apple device shipped on, there seems to be issues. It’s most pronounced on the LCD iPhones like the iPhone SE and iPhone 11, I assume because they were the last LCD iPhones and thus are 8-bit. It would make sense that as the iPhone lineup transitioned to OLED, iOS would be designed with that in mind.
If I’m not incorrect, I believe the iPhone 16e is the last LTPS iPhone, so who knows how this will affect other LTPS iPhones in the future now that iPhones are exclusively LTPO 120Hz ProMotion
macsforme Apple prevents the user from reverting to older system software which did not cause strain, meaning the strain that was introduced by the update is likely permanent and the device is now unusable for the affected user.
The fact that it is possible to downgrade to older versions of MacOS but for iOS and iPadOS it is impossible once Apple stops “signing” an OS is a problem.
I’ve made this argument elsewhere, but at this point smartphones and computers are a requirement for every aspect of life in modern society. I can’t even use banking apps on my iPhone 13 anymore because I refuse to update it past iOS 15. It’s the only screen I can use and I’m not going to risk losing it for the sake of companies and Apple phasing out an old OS. It’s not even enough to get security updates because users have reported the security updates causing issues!
Many on this forum have done a ton of work trying to understand the display pipeline on Apple devices, mostly for the purpose of trying to figure out cause and effect. It is such a black box that we are left to draw conclusions based on what limited data we collect using the methods at our disposal: capture card recordings, slow motion video, Microscope footage, Opple Lightmaster data, and other flicker meter data.
I’m of the mind that this is solvable. After all, all this tech was made by engineers. And many of us do have devices that work for us. Even some PWM sensitive users have found iPhone 17 models usable after buying and returning half a dozen of the same model. This indicates there’s a serious quality control issue at play as well.
As I DM’d you on Reddit, I brought home a 15” MacBook Air M4 and it gave me a seizure while setting it up. I’ve owned Macs for 15 years and this has never happened to me. And while I’m somewhat of a unique example (thanks COVID for triggering whatever flicker and light sensitivities I now have), there are plenty of new users every week that join who are suddenly having issues. It seems to tick up more and more each generation of Mac, iPhone, and iOS.
This is a health and safety issue. I’m not saying Apple has to completely scrap certain strategies or even techniques like dither or PWM (they should but they won’t without regulations), but at the very least they should add Accessibility options to disable those features, as they offer many other accessibility options. Or let us configure their devices like they do RAM, SSD, and even nano glass etching, to have DC dimming and flicker free screens. It’s like nutrition labels at a grocery store. We should be able to see what’s inside the product we’re buying, or upgrading to. It doesn’t help that Apple controls both the software and the hardware unlike Microsoft. It limits choice.