Help with 13” MacBook Pro

AshX

Well, here goes another try.

After 18 months of hell since I got COVID again, I found a new 13” M2 MacBook Pro Touchbar that was the least awful out of the 4 I tested. This one is on MacOS Ventura 13.2.1 and unlike the other 3 I tested (all new on the same OS version) that were all immediately painful within seconds, this one had a warmer hue/color temperature and was the least bad. Here’s what I’ve done so far:

Generic RGB color profile. The other M2’s I had did not have this. They only had sRGB 2.1. You can see immediate color changes with this. This has been the biggest positive. When I change color profiles to Color LCD, Adobe RGB, sRGB, etc. I immediately get symptoms of eye focusing problems, pressure in forehead, tachycardia.

Disabling “dim display on battery.” I kept wondering why it kept lowering the brightness to 50% when I closed the lid and reopened it. This is why.

Keeping display at 100% brightness. Still have to test this, but I can tell for sure that PWM kicks in at 50% and lower. Not sure if it’s also present at 70%.

Stillcolor. BetterDisplay is really weird on this device. I don’t like how unclear the settings are (can’t tell if it’s on or off).

Disabling Touchbar and keyboard brightness at 0%. The Touchbar has PWM and is strobing under slow motion video.

I’m convinced the color profiles are controlling the TCON. The fact that the other 13” M2 Touchbars only had sRGB 2.1 makes me think that it is entirely panel dependent. I tested 3 others that were painful immediately and this was the least awful (all testing on sRGB 2.1 side by side) but Generic RGB shows noticeable effects. I’m convinced the color profile is telling the TCON to apply FRC or not.

I’m not sure whether I should return this. It’s maxed out 24 GB RAM/1 TB SSD and seems the least awful of all the Macs I’ve tested - and I’ve tested every MacBook Air M1-M4, MBP M3-M4 all sizes, MBP 14” M5, Mac mini, iMac M4, iPad Air, iPad Pro. I could tolerate things until I got reinfected with COVID July 2024. My screen issues only started when I got COVID and long COVID in July 2022. Prior to that I could use an M1 MBP 14” on Monterey, a 2019 iMac 21.5” 4K Retina, and an iPad Pro 12.9”. Post COVID reinfection I couldn’t use the iMac anymore. No idea about the other two as I do not own them anymore.

I haven’t used any screen other than my iPhone 13 on iOS 15 for 18 months since I’ve been sick. I have 0 problems with this device. I suspect light sensitivity is playing a big role and I wonder if the fact that OLED doesn’t have a backlight and the smaller size of the iPhone 13 is playing a role. Maybe flux will work? Night shift has helped somewhat but True Tone seems to make things worse. What about a screen cover? Monitors are a serious problem because of scaling and text clarity on non-Apple monitors since Big Sur. I also have a hunch 27” is just way too much light output. It’s been a long struggle and honestly I’m getting tired.

macsforme

I understand the desire for group validation of your purchase decision, but in my view this decision is specific to each individual and their situation. However, I will share my own reasoning. I owned one of these MacBooks and it was better than some Apple screens, but the KSF phosphor LED backlight was still irritating. I also found certain brightness levels to trigger eye strain, as you mentioned. I believe one user here also found that over time, the screen on this model developed a flickering which was not present at first. The general build quality and feel of the device also reminded me of Apple's design philosophy now versus 10+ years ago, where instead of well-built tools that can take a beating, you instead have more sophisticated/elegant devices but with extremely tight clearances and manufacturing processes which IMHO reduce durability and limit service options.

AshX I found a new 13” M2 MacBook Pro Touchbar that was the least awful out of the 4 I tested.

I think this is they key point, whether to choose to own a device that is "tolerable" or the "least bad," but not "comfortable." Ultimately, I chose to sell my 2020 MacBook Pro for the reasons stated above and to avoid supporting a company selling products at a premium price which are at best only "tolerable." If I was in a situation where I needed such a laptop for work, school, or otherwise, those factors may have led me to a different conclusion.

AshX

Just wanted to add, I went to Best Buy and tested the following devices:

iPhone 17
iPhone 17 Pro
iPhone Air
iPad Pro M5
iPhone 15 Pro
MacBook Air M4
MacBook Pro 16” M4
MacBook Pro 14” M5
iMac M4
Studio Display
Lenovo Yoga Slim 9i OLED

All on the latest version of iOS 26.1 and MacOS 26.

Most comfortable in order:

iPhone 17
iPhone Air
iPhone 17 Pro
iPad Pro M5

Every other device was awful. A strange experience as I tested earlier iOS versions of the iPhone 17 series at the Apple store and t-mobile and it was literal hell. The iPhone 15 Pro which started this whole journey for me in 2023 was still bad. Confused as to what’s going on.

I wad trying to confirm a few things:

What impact is dithering and PWM playing?
What impact is KSF phosphor playing?
Is OLED natively more comfortable to me because of a lack of a global backlight like in LCD?

The only other way I can think to rule out the latter two is to find a laptop that doesn’t dither or have PWM, which is near impossible in 2025.

AshX

macsforme

Thanks. Today I have eye pain on my right eye and a headache. To say I’m disappointed is an understatement, but I am not surprised.

I think I’m at the point where because of my various health issues (long COVID, POTS, autoimmune MCTD) I don’t really know what I should be looking for. I have 10+ years of Pro Tools sessions formatted for Mac filling up a dozen hard drives. To say I’m tied to the ecosystem is an understatement. My iPhone 13 on iOS 15 is my only usable screen. But when I test computers, I get such severe symptoms like im having now, that it’s traumatic and frankly makes me not want to keep trying. But I have to because this is my career.

It’s not like many here who do get symptoms but it takes a while. I didn’t even look at the MBP Touchbar for more than 30 minutes total spaced over several intervals. Just enough to try to do settings tweaks. And the results were this severe. It didn’t help I went to Best Buy later (I was there looking at Dyson air filters to help filter mold out of my living environment), and quickly looked at all the devices. I don’t understand why I’m having such severe reactions to flicker.

The new Macs seem worse. Windows 11 is confirmed to have system wide dithering you can’t disable. So I don’t know what choices are left. Either I keep this device because at least it’s on Ventura instead of Sequoia or Tahoe, has maxed out specs, and try to find an external display. Or I leave the Mac ecosystem. But to where? Windows hasn’t been much better in my experience.

I don’t want validation…I want solutions. I’ve been without a computer for 18 months, and actively looking for 10 months. I need to work but I can’t and frankly it’s debilitating trying to even test, especially when I can’t isolate problems. I’m willing to do what I need to do, even if that means it’s just a desktop setup with this in clamshell mode, if that will work. Some people say you can acclimate…I can’t imagine acclimating to something like this. But I can use my iPhone, so that means I can use screens.

Sorry for the rant…I’m just desperate.

markdotpeters5

AshX unfortunately I think an external display on an older version of MacOS is the only solution that might work.

MacOS also appears to have system wide dithering that can't be disabled since Sequoia, so doesn't matter what display you use.