Nausea dizziness

There really is nothing for Apple or any other company to look into or change. It is a long know fact that a small percentage of people clearly experience these issues with OLED displays. It is inherent in the OLED technology that if you’re susceptible to it any OLED display can be an issue for you.

As you know yourself, you did not have the issue with LED/LCD displays, so that is always an option to bear in mind when shopping for any electronic item with a color display. Although some people experience similar symptoms with LED/LCD displays too.

But these issue are not new or novel as they have been around forever with these technologies. Until or unless someone finds a better alternative to OLED or a completely new display technology, they will always be there.

Interesting. I will have to keep my new found sensitivity in mind for future purchases. I am just thankful that my teenage son was aware of the issue since he came across information about it when he was researching his own 12 Pro purchase. I feel sorry for the people who haven't made the connection and/or figured out how they may be able to mitigate it - either by changing the settings or returning the phone. If there are no alternative technologies available to manufacturers such as Apple (or, if the number of people impacted is really small- but how do they even know what the number is?) then I think it would be great customer service to do some sort of a PSA alerting people and medical professionals that this is a "thing". I believe that Apple has a 7 day return window and, if I had not been able to figure this out on my own, I would be bummed to have wasted my money on a $1,000 phone that gave me headaches!

Apple is reportedly looking into using mini-LEDs for displays on some of its products although I don’t know if that includes iPhones. That is a very new technology so maybe it will be better for people with sensitivity to other display types? We won’t know until a substantial number actually make it into real world use.

There is also a new technology called micro-LED but apparently it is extremely expensive to manufacture for now.

BTW, the same sort of phenomena also affected some people using CRT displays in the past. The only technology I don’t think I’ve ever heard anyone having any issues with is paper white displays.

As Michael said this issue has been around for a long time and also comes up with 3D glasses and even certain art pieces. Physicians are quite aware of the phenomena and it can impact other parts of life. I am surprised that when you went to your doctor didn't explain this to you during your visit.

The only evaluation process that needs to start is for Apple to evaulate why their products are adversly affecting some consumers. Though not enough consumers to affect their bottom line, so that is not likely to happen unless these issues are the beginning of an upward trend.

Returning my new MacBookPro Retina 2019 and going back to my ancient MacBookPro that doesn't give me any issues. I have been in front of a Mac screen as a full-time job for 20 years. I was on the older Pro today for 7 hours just fine. Then 10 minutes in front of the new Retina 2019 and burning face, dizziness and nausea. I'm sure any doctor worth his salt would deduce where the the real issue lies.

You are the one that said any Doctor could find this issue. But actually the issue with OLED for a small minority of people is known, the same group is also affected by 3D movies in theaters.

I don’t know why you are posting here about your MacBook Pro, that has nothing to do with this thread.

as well, triple posting is not recommended - it becomes too confusing. And, your issues go beyond the scope of these user to user technical questions and answers forums.

You should be contacting Apple.

Me too, maiko77. Big Sur also, but on MacBook Pro 2019. Same thing—after about 10 minutes, the symptoms. thanks for sharing your experiences. We all are encouraged by knowing others are having similar issues.

I was trying the new iPhone pro 12 and very quickly I got motion sick.

I’m a person that gets motion sick riding in cars, boats etc.

Forget about reading or looking at my phone. The last time I read in the car was with second generation iPad. Still have it but no good now.

I recently got an iPad Pro 12.9 2021. It has a very high refresh rate of 120 Hz. I'm beginning to think it is causing me dizziness and nausea.

Im going to try the reduce motion settings in Accessibility and see if it makes a difference.

Thanks Mmiller0384 for the suggestion.

Indeed, it very well may be. I experienced iphone nausea myself, and as a tech journalist did some research, here's what I found out: https://spectrum.ieee.org/view-from-the-valley/consumer-electronics/audiovideo/the-iphone-12-mini-makes-me-sick-literally

At this point I'm just staying away from OLED screens (like the iphone 12 pro). I don't know much about the macbook/ipad situation, since they are LCD screens, but from what I've read the flicker there seems to be a bug, rather than a feature, if its happening. I did notice that the iphone 12 caused a halo effect for me that made it hard to use any screen at all for a while, that problem went away after I traded the 12 in for an SE. Good luck, it's not fun.

Great article, thank you. In case you do the test you described in your article, consider including the non-OLED displays too. My issue started when pixel density and smoothness got upgrades around 2014. (The 12 is bad for me but so is the 11. I'll paste my comment from above here as well for context.) I've worked with both Apple's tech team and a few neurologists to see what it might be -- the neurologists think it is migraines in my ears and sinuses but we aren't clear on what component is triggering them. I'd love to know what you find as you keep working on this.

"Hi [OP], I've been having this same issue since about 2014 so not only tied to OLED. I noticed it first when Macbook got retina screens. I spent time with developers and the tech support team at Apple as I returned some very expensive machines and they were curious why. They put a few on the call because they were excited that I was 'one of those users'. I'm one of the users that can't watch first person video games or AR tools or watch real estate 3D home tours too fast without getting sick. I'm using the last of the non-Retina Macairs from 2015 while keeping a 2011 and 2012 Macbook alive!

The phone issue is getting more urgent for me though. I've been keeping a 5S alive but it will soon not work on the network anymore. I did a lot of research and thought the iPhone 11 might work for me -- I tried today and no luck. I was quite sick with in 5 minutes of using it. It is the carsickness others describe but it might also be a sinus/ear migraine.

Anyway, I just wanted to reassure that it isn't just you, it isn't in your head, and it isn't just Apple's products. I'll keep hunting for the answer for me!"

Yes, I have. A few. And a few neurologists. Everything looks good from a Western Medical point of view. There is general acknowledgement that this response to video games is known and maybe 20% of the population has it. [Search: first person video games motion sickness] That logically translates to AR and real estate 3D tours. The phone bit is more confusing to the doctors but they nod and agree I need to find one that works.

Recently I spoke with 2 neurologists on another topic and this came up. They both, separately, theorized that it was a migraine reaction using the newer definition of migraines as 'a brainstem storm' (vs. headache) - with sensation in my ears and sinuses. Not just from phone screens but maybe high tech screens in general (so a lot of my day).

As I was considering this I spoke with a women who has the type of migraines that paralyze one side of her body for days and her trigger is fluorescent lights. Awful but also that made me open to the idea that sure, ok, this might be triggering migraine responses. But I haven't yet figured out 'what' is triggering it in order to find a new phone.

full on brightness is better than dim, theoretically higher refresh rates could help, but it's not really related to the refresh rate direction. And turn off all motion effects (zooming icons in and out, that kind of thing).