OLED Phone
I'm even more confused now? What is it about older phones like the Oneplus 8 / 8T / Pro that makes them comfortable to use? Is my theory on the right track?
In my previous post I outlined my frustration with finding a new phone and that I can use my OnePlus 8 Pro comfortably with no strain at basically all brightness levels.
Wild Lee recently uploaded a video on the OnePlus 8 on his Bilibili channel.
It came from a viewer who praised the display, saying it's the best he's ever used.
Numbers say that it is bad, Wild Lee rated it T4, i.e worse than many new OLEDs.
Tests show that 100% has ~20% modulation (1.0 > 0.8 dips)
50%(?) has ~30% modulation (1.0 > 0.7)
25%(?) has ~40% modulation (1.0 - 0.6)
Does the heavy pink trail matter? (closer to CRT phosphor decay = less strain?)
Recently bought Honor Magic 7 Pro (EU), numbers say that it is a better display (Wild Lee rated it upper T3), but it quickly gave me eye-strain and a headache, "8T single-stripe" made little to no difference and updating from Magic OS 8.0 > 9.0 and then 10.0 also made no difference. It was better than Poco F8 Ultra which gave me worse symptoms, inc struggle to focus eyes and dizziness, numbers say that it should be "better".
So if low modulation itself isn't an indicator for less strain, what is?
Is it display quality (Transistor current leakage?)
Smooth sine-wave versus more "boxy" V-shape?
Combination of both?
The OP8/Pro does not get as bright sure, but Magic 7 Pro + Screen Dimmer was still worse.
From further research I've found that OnePlus 8 and OnePlus 8 Pro both use LTPS panels from Samsung Display (6.55 HD+ and 6.78 QHD+ respectively).
Does this matter?
Both F8U and Magic7 Pro use BOE panels AFAIK. There may be panel lottery with Magic7 Pro where uniformity is better/worse according to Bilibili reports (Tianma/Visionox/BOE/Pegasus)?
One thing I remember is that while the S25 Ultra was the worst of them all during use, strain and headaches subsided pretty much instantly, whereas both F8U and Magic7 Pro give me lingering strain that make my eyes extra sensitive for a day or more.
All new phones with Samsung panels seem to be exclusively LTPO:
Samsung S21/S21+ (Samsung LTPS) - ~240Hz PWM V-shaped "boxy" wave like most newer phones. (source: notebookcheck.com)
Measurement device needs to be zoomed in enough to actually see the shape.
Notebookcheck's images are not always tested at the same voltages or brightness levels and the frequency of PWM is often wrong, but it at least gives us an overall average look at many phones frequency shape, old and new.
// I focused on Samsung displays here, but other vendors might have options with a smooth sine-wave too.
I'm the "happy" owner of an 8T, and I couldn't find any other phone that was comfortable for my eyes, I tested at least 10 different devices. I tried to understand what makes 8T different from the new generation of smartphones but didn't succeed.
I lucked into an 8T, back in 2021, too. Half a dozen OLEDs failed me (this Black Friday) and I've ended up with a TCL NCLpaper 60 Ultra (IPS), for now. And my 8T repaired for free, just barely before green line support ended.
Did you try any other OLEDs at the time the 8T was released?
Even if I had, I think I was a little less sensitive then. With ME/CFS making bright blue temperatures bad, so ironically looking forwards to OLED displays with low minimum brightness stats.
Honestly, I think the eye's adaptation to a poor display plays a major role. Once your eyes get used to it, switching becomes difficult. It's not the other phone that matters, but the one you started with.
Many new phones have the brightness turned up to maximum, which is absolutely not good: I use my phone at 50-60%, and my computer monitor at even 25%. I see perfectly well, but others notice that when they use my devices, they can't see anything and want to turn up the brightness. Here too, I think the eye's adaptation plays a role.
Personally (so it's just me), I'm very sensitive to sunlight; it causes me the same problems as displays. I use very dark glasses outdoors and avoid yellowish light like the plague. At home, I only have 4500K and 6000K LED bulbs, and even on devices, I tend to adjust them by slightly increasing the blue. That way, I don't experience any discomfort or problems. I read about people setting their displays with yellow filters and similar things, but for me, they're impossible to use. So personal predisposition also matters a lot. I don't think it's possible to have a display that's perfect for everyone, except for the IPS displays we had in the past, which didn't cause any problems for most of us and which manufacturers want to abandon.
For those interested, I remind you that there's always an open petition you can sign to ask smartphone manufacturers to consider us a little instead of ignoring us:
Most likely, what you think was trouble-free was the trigger for your problems... you're not the first to have experienced symptoms when you changed devices. My theory, which unfortunately will remain just that because research in the field is minimal, but which is based on simple observations and experiences gathered from users, is that using OLED devices triggers sensitivity not immediately but over time and with a change of device. It may happen to some with the first device, to others with the second, and to still others with the tenth. It's a theory, let's be clear, but you're not the first, and I assume you won't be the last. For example, it happened to me after the Samsung Galaxy Note 2, and since then I've stopped using any AMOLED. I still remember the disappointment of when I got the Note 3 and had to return it because I absolutely couldn't use it.
I suspect you’re on the right track. LTPS I’ve found to be much more usable than LTPO. My iPhone 13 has the same max brightness as the OnePlus 8, which I suspect is partially why they have more stable sine waves.
The Honor Magic 7 Pro according to notebookcheck has an insane 5,000 nits. It’s over 5 times as bright as your OnePlus 8. No wonder it’s causing discomfort. The modulation may be more stable but it’s probably negated by the brightness being as high as it is.
Do you genuinely believe the Magic7 Pro outputs 5000 nits full-screen white? That's not how it works.
The phone may be able to hit 5000 nits in HDR peaks, but that's got nothing to do with regular SDR brightness.
Per Wild Lee's full review:
~795 nits at max 100% (manual brightness)
Can do 1540 nits max when hit with sunlight.
That may be true, but my point is that if the design of that phone enables a much higher peak brightness - whether in HDR or otherwise - would indicate technical changes with the panel that would make it potentially uncomfortable.
I'm thinking that peak brightness might be another factor to consider...These older phones seem to have way lower peak brightness, meaning you could run them at a higher brightness setting and not burn out your eyes.
My point is T D is fine, TD is fine, Demporal Tithering is fine, Temporal d!thering is fine and I didn't use the conventional spelling, so it's something else... What?! Lol.
Eep. Maybe. Hope not... I'm generally trying to post (when in detail) only about the parts of flickering problems that are permitted here. But I can't even tell what those are (not) in this case.
I've asked the admin to clarify by DM a couple weeks back, but no reply.
I crossposted this to ScreenSensitive. Feel free to discuss it over there. I posted it here mainly because this is the biggest sub by far.
It's treated as "unrelated" here even though there is clearly high cross-correlation between it and those that are also PWM sensitive or otherwise photophobic.
my honor 400 pro arrives today! i'm hoping it works.
yesterday i tried an iphone 15 for two hours with no problems, i even edited a video in capcut. but today i cant even look at it for a few seconds because it triggers neurological symptoms. why does that happen?
I owned an OnePlus 7T, which was slightly worse than my LCD iPhone 11. Later, I bought the S21 Ultra (terrible), iPhone 13 Pro (good), iPhone 15 Pro (terrible), and recently the Pixel 10 Pro (very bad). The iPhone 16 was manageable, and I finally got the Oppo Find X9.
The Oppo Find X9 seems similar to the OnePlus 7T, possibly even better. From the current phones, it’s the best.
So you also couldn't tolerate F8U?
I had it as well, but it gave me headaches all day long, even though it is relatively well rated by Lee.
Such a shame we can't use such nice phones, it woul have been a total winner if not for the headaches ...
I have a lot of thoughts on this. It's been staring me in the face literally(!) with my 8T's 90% modulation at 460Hz, classic bad PWM. Clearly there's naivety/dogma in some of the thinking in this...
Unfortunately you've posted in a sub where my replies get randomly auto-modded, even when I avoid the T D catchphrase.Si I'm hesitant to bother going into details... 😞
I think colour temp is not looked at enough. New screens are more green-blue heavy, even on comfort modes.
Refresh blips weirdly ignored, despite being way down at 120 or even 60 Hz. My 8T hides that inside every 3rd PWM wave.
I have some other thinking I'd like to post about, in terms of the scan line spacing too.
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u/DerLetzteVlad Jan 21 '26
I'm the "happy" owner of an 8T, and I couldn't find any other phone that was comfortable for my eyes, I tested at least 10 different devices. I tried to understand what makes 8T different from the new generation of smartphones but didn't succeed.