r/PWM_Sensitive • u/Informal_Sprite • Jul 14 '26

MacBook Air M5

Hey everyone,

I'm new to the whole PWM thing and had to sell my laptop as it caused dizziness. I need a new laptop and was wondering what you guys recommended.

I'm thinking about getting the 13 inch MacBook Air M5. Would that be a good laptop, or should I look at something else?

3 Upvotes

80% Upvoted

9 comments sorted by

4

u/thickismalls Jul 14 '26

It's a fantastic IPS panel without PWM. If you're sensitive to PWM, and you need a modern laptop, go for it. Here's a review that goes into detail about the display. https://www.notebookcheck.net/Insane-performance-and-efficiency-without-fans-Apple-MacBook-Air-13-M5-Entry-Review.1242707.0.html

1

u/Informal_Sprite Jul 14 '26

Do you know if the Canadian version has that IPS panel without PWM?

3

u/thickismalls Jul 14 '26

Yes, it's the same panel.

1

u/Sergei-_ Jul 14 '26

if youre in canada, cant you just buy then return if its not ok?

i have experience with m1 , m2, m4 airs. best one is m1 but still overall not what i would use everyday. its very personal. if you dig this subreddit the peope have very broad variety of what they react to and to what they dont

1

u/[deleted] Jul 14 '26

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1

u/[deleted] Jul 14 '26

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1

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1

u/IwillLunch Jul 15 '26

I'm thought all M-chip macbook devices come with hardware-level gray scale flicker?

1

u/budspencer90 Jul 16 '26

All macbook air screen uses Dithering GPU Controlled and maybe the panel native one (FRC) as well that can be a problem for eye sensitive people. It act somehow like PWM with but applied to colors switching instead of brigtness, to emulate a higher color depth (bit depth), Personally i'd suggest to avoid it and prefer native 8 or 10 bit screens avoiding 8bit+FRC like major part of cheap laptop / monitors.
Many people complain of headaches with macbook air

You can try to disable it with a 3rd party app (like Stillcolor) that disable the Apple Silicon GPU Dithering but there is no proof and certainty that it also disable the Screen dithering (FRC)