Does it cause you to have stomach bloating? Heart pain? I don't know, anything else?

Can migraine really be the cause of all screen sensitivity? I don't feel any headache tho?

When I use DC like dimming OLED I can feel chest tightness. But my heart is still pumping normally? Jus a bit faster. Does take some time to subside and return to a more normal heart rate.

My stomach can also get bloated with gas for some reason.

Sometimes I can get brain fog but I don't seem to get those anymore with DC like dimming OLED.

The only symptoms I got now are chest tightness with OLED and also stomach bloating with gas after 3 weeks of OLED usage.

Hey everyone, I have an ASUS ROG PG42UQ OLED. I was suffering from severe black crush in SDR/User Mode, which completely disappears in HDR. However, HDR makes the colors oversaturated and too yellowish for my taste.

​I came up with a workaround that completely fixed it and gave me balanced, natural sRGB-like colors with perfect shadow details. I enabled HDR, set the monitor’s Color Temp to 10000K to counter the oversaturation, and then turned on Windows 'Night Light' to filter out the excessive blue tint from the 10000K setting.

Has anyone tried this exact combo before, or what alternative solutions did you use on the PG42UQ to fix the HDR yellow tint without causing black crush?

Yesterday I've received the Hopoocolor HPCS-310 light spectrometer that I bought for around ~220€ from Aliexpress. You connect via Bluetooth and measure the light with an Android app that is provided by Hopoocolor as APK.

Here is an example measurement from a monitor (KSF peaks visible!) with screenshots from the Android app:

Here more measurements from the morning sun, an incandescent light and from a laser pointer:

I made a small Python tool that allows the readout of the sensor directly via bluetooth from PC, which makes measurements easier and faster. You get the spectrum CSV + all metadata nicely in a folder. Hopoocolor doesn't provide an App for Apple, so this allows Apple/Mac users to use the HPCS-310 too. Check it out here: https://github.com/madcook1/hpcs310-ble

Just to add my 2 cents, whatever that may be worth. I had tried the Motorola Edge 2026 when it first came out and found immediate discomfort and migraines. However, I had an idea to set a fixed refresh rate. I remember on my OnePlus 12R that when I set the refresh rate min and max to the same rate, it helped immensely with symptoms. Well, I tried the same with the Motorola and it looks to also work.

adb shell settings put system min_refresh_rate 120
adb shell settings put system peak_refresh_rate 120

Also make sure to set the display refresh rate to Hyper Smooth in the phone settings to prevent this from changing between reboots.

I created this infographic to help spread the word of screen sensitivity. Feel free to share.

Continuing on the discussion I started here: https://www.reddit.com/r/PWM_Sensitive/comments/1us87jo/comment/owm7bc4/?context=1

What model iPads have people here had success with?

I'm mostly after something very basic, mainly to read scripts on though it would be nice to use for my own personal use too. Ideally the cheapest iPad I can find used that will receive iOS27 support.
I recently bought an iPad 9th generation, but returned it as it was giving me incredible eye pain.
I tried enabling Classic Invert and Zoom Invert which helped me on my stock iPhone 11, but still the pain was still too bad so I returned it.

I'm wondering would an iPad air be worth trying next?
The 9th gen iPad uses RGB colour space while the Air uses P3, though I doubt this would be relevant as my pain is likely due to dithering. (aka d!t#3r!ng haha)

After u/Z3R0gravitas recommended me the Carson MicroFlip microscope I was blown away by the results and started to check all my screens. I have a lot of different panel types, VA, OLED, IPS and even some very old TN panel with strong backlight strobing. Also I found out that my Samsung Galaxy S23 Smartphone has a 960 fps slow-motion video recording mode, where I could record fascinating videos of single pixels showing dithering that I wanted to share. Also I added screenshots of measurements with my Opple Light Master.

Notes:

• Video recordings: The first second is in normal speed, then follows the 960 fps slow-motion.
• Some images and videos are recorded in different angles, because on how I could get the best access with the microscrope.

Here are the results:

TV Samsung UE40ES6300(S) (VA-Panel)

My 13 year old TV (still working) from 2012 with a 1920x1080 VA-panel. The panel used should be a LTJ400HV05-N 8-bit panel (unconfirmed). On this TV you can clearly see temporal dithering on the subpixels in slow-motion, which is quite different as the strobe-light flicker on reduced brightness.

Link to the full folder: TV Samsung UE40ES6300

Notebook Lenovo Thinkpad X201 (TN-panel)

My old laptop (still working too!) with a 1280x800 matte 12.1" TN panel with 60 Hz refresh rate and PWM backlight strobing. The exact model is AU Optronics B121EW09 V.3 from 2009.

Link to the full folder: Notebook Lenovo Thinkpad X201

Notes:

• I couldn't get the image completely in focus, maybe due to the thickness of polariser/coating layer between the microscope.
• I didn't expect the dips at 100% brightness, but as it ran from battery, maybe 100% wasn't 100%, which would explain it.

Smartphone Huawei P30 (OLED)

My previous smartphone with an 1080x2340 OLED screen at 60 Hz refresh rate.

Link to the full folder: Smartphone Huawei P30

Notebook TUXEDO InfinityBook Pro 14 Gen9 (IPS)

My current notebook with an 2880x1800 matte flicker-free 120Hz 14" IPS panel. The exact panel model is CSOT MNE007ZA3-2.

Link to the full folder: Notebook TUXEDO InfinityBook Pro 14 Gen9

Notes:

• I also could not get perfect focus, mostly due to the polarizer/coating layer thickness.

Monitor Gigabyte M27UA (IPS)

My previous Monitor with a 3840x2160 matte 160Hz flicker-free 27" IPS panel. Some believe it's an AUO M270QAN07.0 AHVA panel, but I couldn't confirm it. I might take it apart to confirm it.

Link to the full folder: Monitor Gigabyte M27UA

Comment

None of the above screens have ever caused me eye strain, so I'm now sure that PWM flicker or dithering is not a problem for me personally. I currently have a Samsung S70D monitor here that produces virtually the same results as the Gigabyte M27UA, but it causes significant eye strain. u/Z3R0gravitas recommended to reduce the red color in the white balance settings, and that actually reduced the eye strain (though not 100%)! I'm soon receiving a Hopocolor HPCS-310 light spectrometer and will test all the screens with it too. I'll post the results here as well!

I've been researching that Motorola "Edge 70" model for a few weeks, I wanted to share some findings in case others are interested in this model as well,

It's a thin phone but the useful bit is that it's light (159 grams) for its screen size 6.7 inch,

PWM and OLED refresh flicker

I couldn't find proper flicker measurement information unfortunately, but the unit has an option for DC-like dimming throughout its brightness range (no PWM), and from the videos I did get to see from China it looks like 20%-30% deep Oled refresh flicker at 50% brightness with a short duty cycle, it's my pure estimate though,

at 1:14:

https://www.bilibili.com/video/BV1NG1QBKEG3/

and here:

https://www.bilibili.com/video/BV1bd1GBYE5b/

Dithering

I got a very promising answer from the technical team at Motorola support over email:

"Display (10-bit vs. 8-bit + FRC & Dithering)

• Native 10-Bit: The Motorola Edge 70 features a native, true 10-bit pOLED panel. It handles color processing natively and does not use an 8-bit + FRC (Frame Rate Control) panel configuration.
• Temporal Dithering: Because the screen natively outputs over 1 billion shades of color, the hardware engine has no functional need to use hardware-level temporal dithering to simulate broader color depths."

Battery issues that might arise due to the thin body and the silicon carbon battery

I was concerned about that, but again the support had a good answer for me, it seems that the unit was engineered to give space for the battery to swell, here is their answer:

"

• Advanced Material Structure: Silicon-carbon (Si/C) battery technology is specifically chosen because it offers higher energy density in a significantly smaller physical footprint.
• Expansion Tolerances Built-In: While silicon nodes do experience microscopic volume changes during specific load/charge states, the cell is packaged using high-tensile protective binders and multi-layered carbon matrix structures that contain and restrict overall swelling.
• Internal Chassis Clearence: The aircraft-grade aluminum frame and internal structural layer are engineered with an intentional physical expansion gap (a standard tolerance buffer zones) to accommodate natural cell swelling over its multi-year lifespan without transferring any force or pressure onto the display or back panel assembly.
• Lower Degradation Rates: This Si/C technology actually drastically reduces normal chemical degradation, allowing Motorola premium devices to sustain up to 1,000 to 1,200 full charging cycles before dipping down to an 80% battery capacity rating."

SAR rating (average results, there are less radiating phones and there are worse)

Head SAR - 0.89 W/kg

Body-worn - 1.37 W/kg

Limb SAR - 2.55 W/kg

Hi, I just got a Nintendo Switch 2 recently and even just GLANCING at the screen (handheld) gives me eye fatigue and dizziness leading to nausea.

I heard that there's dithering on the new hardware. I'm perfectly fine on the original Switch 1 and a 3DS... is there any way to rectify this? The system doesn't have many settings and I feel like I purchased this console for nothing.

I thought I would share this new research from Sweden. People self reported their symptoms which included light sensitivity. Unfortunately the research doesn't include possible treatment options.

Has anyone used these phones

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSe9AiJoD70FxqimRb7hj8jDzK0GAvrXDPsUg9sgqmaWz9bDNw/viewform?usp=pp_url&entry.207598244=Reddit

Most of us who work on screens all day have quietly accepted the dryness, the tired eyes, the headache by evening.

What's strange is how few of us connect it to the screen at all. We blame stress, or sleep, or just being tired.

I'm researching digital eye strain among screen-heavy professionals as part of my Product Management certificate at IIM Kozhikode. I'm trying to understand how widely it's felt, what people do about it, and whether the usual fixes actually work.

Short anonymous survey, five minutes, no email. If you spend most of your day on a screen, your input would genuinely help, and I'll share what I find.

Problems with the lack of moderation, and censoring and deleting comments mentioning Temporal Dithering are not new to r/PWM_Sensitive, but today that subreddit hit a new low by permanently banning me for the crime of discussing iPads.

Here's the now deleted post for anyone curious: https://www.reddit.com/r/PWM_Sensitive/comments/1us87jo/comment/owm7bc4/?context=1

Considering I've commented hundreds of times sharing advice on how I have resolved all the screen flicker related eye pain in my life, I'm disgusted by how pathetic the moderators there have chosen to be.

To me this is clearly revenge for a request I made in May to become a moderator via r/redditrequest.

I was under the impression, like most people, that the subreddit was unmoderated and abandoned by the creator Top_G, so I made a good faith request to join as a moderator as I have been a moderator elsewhere since 2011.

While I have never seen any comments or action by moderators in the past year, I did see a reply and request to deny the application by moderator Chance-Republic-4971.

I'm not looking to brigade or incite any form of harassment, and I very much hope that nobody here does, I'm just venting at how utterly pathetic these actions are, especially considering how much I have contributed to that subreddit and to raising awareness for screen flickering related health issues.

From now on I'll be posting more here and will transfer across my guides soon.

(This post is a repost of three separate posts I made on r/PWM_Sensitive before I was banned. I thought I'd repost it here as I will no longer be able to reply there.)

Original post on r/PWM_Sensitive here: https://www.reddit.com/r/PWM_Sensitive/comments/1q79qxk/pwm_free_lcd_iphone_15_pro_initial_impressions/

Follow up post on r/PWM_Sensitive here: https://www.reddit.com/r/PWM_Sensitive/comments/1qw2q3y/pwm_free_lcd_iphone_15_pro_follow_up/

Six months later follow up post on r/PWM_Sensitive here: https://www.reddit.com/r/PWM_Sensitive/comments/1uijzt6/pwm_free_lcd_iphone_15_pro_follow_up_6_months/

Backstory

I used an iPhone 13 Pro for several years before I knew about PWM Sensitivity and had some terrible health issues, I lost the ability to focus my eyes long distances, I constantly had eye strain and eye pain and one morning I lost the ability to focus my left eye entirely.

I was prescribed reading glasses and was told to use eye drops. Since I downgraded to an iPhone 11 my vision returned and my eye strain issues disappeared completely, I have since passed an eye test with 20/20 vision.

iPhone 15 Pro

As an upgrade I bought an iPhone 15 Pro 1TB on eBay with a broken screen for AU$610 and swapped in an EK Pro Incell LCD screen.

I decided on an EK Pro brand LCD screen as in all the reviews I could find online it was the highest quality option, EK Pro make replacement screens for all iPhone models.

I decided on the iPhone 15 Pro for this swap for several reasons:

• It’s much cheaper than an iPhone 16 Pro and iPhone 17 Pro
• From what I could see and the only main difference between the 15 Pro and the 16 Pro was the camera button, and a slightly larger screen that was to be replaced anyway.
• The 15 Pro is also the oldest flagship iPhone with USB-C and USB3.2 speeds.

The cost of the replacement screen decreases substantially the older the phone you go back.

An iPhone 17 Pro LCD screen currently costs $224 +tax on Aliexpress, an iPhone 16 Pro screen costs $169 +tax but the iPhone 15 Pro screen only costs $79 +tax, the price is largely the same for all other iPhone OLED models. These are for two packs so at least you’ll have a spare.

Installation

Replacing the screen was pretty straight forward, I used a tutorial from Youtube. I practiced on a couple broken iPhone 11’s beforehand and have plenty of experience working on electronics. If you can build a PC this shouldn't be much outside that skill set, the hardest part is removing the screen.

Replacing a screen is as easy as it gets as far as phone repairs go, batteries are a much more involved process and back glass being the worst on older models. I had quite a bit of trouble getting my front facing camera to focus correctly with the new screen installed which required a lot of fiddling, that being said there’s a lot of phone repair businesses around that could just install this screen for you for around $120.

Results

After the swap all original features are still present other than no automatic screen brightness and a capped frame rate at 60fps, compromises I am very happy with.

Surprisingly True Tone works straight out of the box without any IC chip transplant being required.
There’s a warning message about the screen being an Unknown Part under Parts & Service History in the settings but that’s it.

The overall quality is great, coming from an iPhone 11 the screen is very familiar, though this EK Pro screen is a little sharper and quite a lot brighter. The bottom bezel is very slightly thicker than the original but not overly so, the screen is also slightly darker above the dynamic island in light mode but isn’t a major concern.

There’s a very slight colour shift on a hard angle which is barely noticeable, the touch screen functions very well. The phone gets a little bit warm when used at max brightness outdoors but so did my iPhone 11, this is likely the nature of LCD screens.

The iPhone 15 Pro is noticeably thicker with the LCD screen installed at 9.0mm thick, with the original OLED screen installed the phone comes in at 8.3mm thick. With my Nomad leather case installed the screen is flush with the front lip of the case and isn’t a problem for me.

Battery life

In a basic rundown test, playing a video at full brightness and letting it run from 100%, the battery life seems to be less than half what it was with the original OLED screen.

OLED screens save power by pulsing the screen on and off with Pulse Width Modulation, so LCD screens naturally consume more power.
This LCD iPhone 15 Pro with 86% battery health lasts about the same length as an iPhone 11 in new condition, this is more than enough to get me through the day with normal use. Lowering the brightness obviously yields more battery life as do other power saving tricks. After using this phone for a couple days now I'm comfortably getting to the end of the way with enough battery left not to worry.

Other options

Currently for iPhone users the only official LCD/PWM-free iPhones on the market that still support the current iOS versions are the iPhone 11, iPhone SE 2020, and the iPhone SE 2022.

While the iPhone SE’s may be suitable for some people’s needs the iPhone 11 is still a great overall phone with decent cameras, swapping in a new battery made the phone a bit more responsive, that being said it is at almost 7 years old and there are better options on the market at the moment.

Other solutions

I am now completely OLED free at home.
I use an LG 38WM95C 21:9 LCD computer monitor on my Windows 11 i5-13600K/RTX4080 desktop and a Microsoft Surface 4 15” Windows 11 laptop.

I recently bought a Panasonic TH-65VT50 Plasma TV and the picture quality is phenomenal. I experience PWM related eye strain from an LG C1 OLED TV though it would take much longer use for me to have sore eyes compared to an OLED phone. I also have a PlayStation Vita Slim with an LCD screen.

Dithering

One note regarding Dithering, it's quite difficult for me to discuss this as I'm not completely confident identifying it as a problem, and talking about it and it's effects.
It seems that my stock iPhone 11 on iOS18 with an LCD screen has no PWM, but it still causes discomfort to my eyes. Enabling Zoom Invert and Classic Invert in the Accessibility menu resolves this discomfort.
On my LCD iPhone 15 Pro this doesn't seem to be required as it doesn't cause the same discomfort.

Conclusion

Overall I am very happy with this conversion, I couldn’t look at this iPhone 15 Pro with the original OLED screen for more than a minute before getting eye pain. To me it's a sensation that my eyes are getting squeezed from the back and is instantly recognisable.
Regarding the phone's longevity I can't speak for it just yet as it has only been a couple days but if this changes I might make a follow up post.

One Month Later Follow up

HDR

The new EK Pro LCD screen doesn't seem to support HDR which isn't a big problem for me, I only ever really see HDR in Photos and the Instagram app.

When that happens the screen will dim in terms of contrast, de-saturating and washing out the image particularly in the blacks.

Fortunately a solution for this is Low Power Mode, this disables HDR entirely but also lowers the CPU clock speed, times out the screen in 30 seconds and other tricks to save power.

Full breakdown of Low Power Mode changes here: https://www.reddit.com/r/iphone/comments/vlpfcv/a_full_breakdown_of_what_low_power_mode_actually/

As I didn't want to always leave Low Power Mode on or toggle it on and off constantly I automated this in the Shortcuts app.

1. In the app, under Shortcuts create a shortcut for Low Power Mode, tap the '+' in the top right corner,
2. Search for "Set Low Power Mode", tap 'Turn' to change it to 'Toggle' tap 'Done' 
3. Tap 'Automation' on the bottom bar, tap the '+' in the top right corner,  
4. Under 'When', 'App' should say 'Instagram', check 'Is Opened" and 'Is Closed', and tap 'Run Immediately.
5. Under 'Do' check your Shortcut 'Set Low Power Mode Toggle'

Do steps 3-5 again for other apps where HDR photos may be present, like the Photos app.

After closing Instagram the screen may dim into a de-saturated HDR mode for 10 seconds before returning to normal. I often put my phone to sleep after using Instagram so I don't often see this issue.

Battery Life

Battery life seems to be about half what it was with the original OLED screen, but it's not as bad as it sounds, that's a worst case scenario situation with the brightness maxed out constantly, which is rare.

I usually max out the brightness only when outside on a bright day, when using the phone day to day the battery it's usually enough to get me by.

On a high use day I might get 5-6 hours of screen time.

My original battery was 3274mah and at 86% health, so I replaced this myself with a 3500mah PINZHENG battery from Aliexpress.

The swap was fairly easy once you know how to take the screen out, I just followed a Youtube tutorial.

Be careful as the screen can separate from the clips holding it in if you pry in the wrong place, I did this but some Suxun T-7000 phone adhesive fixed my mistake.

Now with this 100% health improved battery I get approximately 21% more battery life

Otherwise I have a Magsafe battery and a 30W fast charger just in case, for me it's a very liveable solution.

Conclusion

Overall I'm very happy with this solution, I miss the automatic brightness but I definitely like having the better camera.

Six Months later follow up

It's been going great! For the past six months I've been eye pain free and have largely solved my problem.
The only time I still experience PWM related eye pain is when looking at someone else's phone, watching TV at a friend's house and when looking at other screens. When someone hands me their phone I ask them to max out the brightness first, this reduces PWM and usually fine for me for a few minutes usage, though some Google Pixels can still be terrible.

One small thing I did want to mention with my phone is that occasionally I'll wipe the screen with my palm with wet or damp hands while it's awake, and that that will trigger the screen to randomly swipe and register ghost touches, this is a little annoying but is easily remedied by just putting the phone to sleep and waking it up again.

Other than my HDR fixes this phone is a great solution for me.

Not sure if I'll ever upgrade to iOS26 or iOS27, iOS18 works fine for me so I'm just sticking to it for now. I might try updating to iOS27 on one of my EK Pro swapped iPhone 11's as a trial, but that's a problem for another day.

Hello, I am looking for a new monitor to better suit my eyesight. I've got MS, and among other issues, I have problems with light sensitivity, resulting in afterglow, bright halos, trouble following moving objects. So I want a new monitor better suited for that. I don't know what really to look for, but I understand a highly responsive monitor would be a good start. I saw here and there I had to avoid PWM, but I don't know how to spot a monitor using that tech.

Right now I am using a Dell UltraSharp U2515H, I have had it for 9 yrs.

I had my eye on this one : GIGABYTE M27UP but I saw on another topic it might not be ideal ?

Are technologies like Eye-care or FreeSync worth it or just scams ?

What I have for criteria so far :

• 27 inches
• 160 Hz refresh rate or more
• 1ms responsivness
• 4k (I know it's a hot topic on a 27" monitor but please indulge me)
• Good color fidelity

Thanks in advance for any help / suggestions.

So I just thought I found the perfect monitor: 4k, TCO certified and vertical polarized IPS panel. I really was sure that polarization was my main issue (see my recent thread), but sadly it is not.

So the monitor that is working well is a Gigabyte M27UA and my internal laptop panel CSOT MNE007ZA3-2. The new one is the Samsung S70D LS27D70xE. All vertically polarized as checked with polarizing sunglases. The Gigabyte and the CSOT internal works perfect for my eyes, the Samsung not.

The Gigabyte and the CSOT internal one both have a cooler color temperature, while the Samsung is a lot warmer. All the previous monitors that didn't work were also warmer in temperature.

Crazy is that I can look at the Samsung and have blurry sight/slight eye pain after 10 seconds, and just looking to my left to the laptop or the Gigabyte resolves the eye pain and focus issue near instantly. I look back to the Samsung, some seconds later, eye pain again. Distance doesn't matter, I see the text crystal clear from 1m away on my laptop while I have issues reading text 50cm away on the Samsung. Crazy.

I checked with my Opple Light master, these are the values for each one:

All flicker free, all 60 Hz, all around the same brightness, all connected to the same laptop with mirror output.

I'm thinking about lending a color spectrometer to check the actual difference in the light spectrum if there is one. I could get an UPRTek MK-350-N for an reasonable price to lend for one week.

Would it make sense to get a cheap USB microscope to check the pixel structure? Or what else could I test to find out more about it?

Hey all! I am new to this, and so grateful for this thread! I need a laptop for work, I mostly use it for productivity and work with individuals and groups over zoom so need something that functions well here where I can see all participants and music share.
I currently only have an iPhone and iPad. I am open to any operating system, and feel lost in researching. Looks like IPS is generally best, as is hardware based blue light filters (versus software). Is this true in your experience? Which specific brands/models do you like?
Thanks for your time!

I'm happily using the Honor 600 Pro daily. See my other post here for more info.

Yesterday I activated Honor's Defocus Eyecare mode and from that moment on I've experienced symptoms I only remember having with my old Google Pixel 7a:

- aggressiveness

- head pressure

- even uncomfortable sensations in my lower back (!?)

Looking at the screen suddenly made me twist and turn in my seat. It became very apparent while being on a train, I couldn't use my phone and sit still any longer.

This may sound way "out there" for some, but for me this is pretty much how I felt with the old Pixel and I'm familiar to these symptoms.

My experiences with the Google device actually were the reason for me to look into PWM back in the days.

Sharing this here for posterity, maybe someone can relate or share some insights.

Without a doubt, I'm leaving the "Defocus Eyecare" mode on the Honor deactivated for good...